Earthstone Won't Hold Heat

[austintjones]

I'm having an issue with my parents' Earthstone oven, the small barrel-shaped one. I am building a very hot fire in it, and brushing the coals over to clean the cooking surface, and the oven seems to lose all floor temp immediately. I go from about 750-800 on the IR gun to around 600, which is cooler than my home oven. The pizzas are taking around 3 minutes to cook and I'm needless to say, frustrated by this. Anyone have an idea of how to get it hotter or help retain more heat? I'm thinking the contractors didn't insulate at all, they just put the pieces together. My normal routine involves heating up the oven slowly over the course of 4 hours also, and I use only split oak.

[shuboyje]

It certainly sounds like an insulation issue.  It could be a lack of insulation, but it sounds a lot like wet insulation under the floor to me which can be a real pain to dry out.  Tell us about the oven enclosure, if it IS wet insulation that could be the issue.  Is this a new oven, could it still be drying out?