Blodgett 90M-2 pizza oven, natural or propane what model do I have?

[ronv992]

   Hi. I acquired a blodegett model 90M-2 pizza oven for $200. This model has been dicontinued, so no info on blodgett website. I was wondering if anyone knew by the serial number what type gas oven I have? The serial number is 461N. Does the N mean natural gas? If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Ron.  The pic is an oven I found on a restaurant supply website, but I have the exact same oven.

[smrtgy123]

I actually have the same oven. Just purchased it a few months back. It is a natural gas oven. My repair guy told me it is approximately 50 years old. I live in LA so I had a gas line installed outside and have been having a great time with it. It is a really good oven.
Hope that helped
   Steve

[norma427]

I tried to look-up what kind of gas (natural or propane) your oven is for, but couldn’t find it, by looking at the number you provided.  My deck oven (used) was for natural gas when I purchased it.  My repair man knew by looking at the orifice that mine needed changed for me to run my oven on propane.

I also had other gas caramel corn kettles with jets that had to be converted (with a different orifice) to be run on propane.  We tried one time to run the burner with a different orifice and the flames really came up high and fast.

Norma

[ronv992]

  Thank you for the replies. Is it easy to check the orifices on these ovens without taking anything apart inside the oven?

[norma427]

  Thank you for the replies. Is it easy to check the orifices on these ovens without taking anything apart inside the oven?

ronv992,

I watched the repair man change the orifice in my deck oven and he only had to take a front panel off on the bottom where the gas comes into the burner.  He changed the orifice in no time.  I don't know where your orifice is though.  It should be near where you light the pilot.

Norma

[ronv992]

  Thank you very much for the info Norma. I will definitely look into that.

[norma427]

ronv992,

I don’t know if this will help you are not, but this is what my GP-61 Baker’s Pride Deck oven looks like inside at pages 12-15.  If you look, you can see there is a conversion kit from Natural to LP gas or from LP to Natural gas. http://www.bakerspride.com/specs/Instal%20ops/Counter%20Top/GP-51-61%20Inst-Op%20U4128A%201-08.pdf  I am not sure if you oven is set-up like mine.

Can you open your oven and see if it looks anything like my oven, by removing a panel?

I don’t know if this also will help you or not, but here are where Blodgett parts are for burners, pilots, orifices and deflectors.  Is your model  90M-2?  I am not sure if this page might be right or not, but here is were it tells about for series 90M and what orifices are needed for natural gas or LP.  http://www.kitchenstuff.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=PD37920&eq=&Tp=

Norma

[ronv992]

  Thank you , Norma for all the great info and links. I bought my oven from craigslist from a guy in the country with a pizza shop. His whole kitchen ran off propane. This was a secondary oven he no longer used. I have it hooked up to a outdoor grill style propane tank and it works fine, but goes through the propane quickly and leaves an oder of non burned gas. It still works well, but my intuition tells me this is a natural gas oven. I will be hooking it up to a natural gas supply soon. I will check the orifices before doing so to see if I need to swith them over. Thank you again, Ron.

[norma427]

ronv992,

If the guy you bought the oven from used propane gas in his whole kitchen I would think the oven would be for propane gas also.  Do you have an email or phone number for the guy you bought the oven from? Maybe if you do, you could ask him if the oven was for propane or natural gas.  My propane oven also uses a lot of gas because it needs to be left on all day.  It is good if you will be checking the orifices first, because when we went to light our caramel corn kettles with the wrong orifice we almost got our hair burnt off.  That thing went off like jet engine and the flames fllew up really fast.  There is a big different in using natural gas and propane gas.

Norma

[ronv992]

  Hi, Norma. Thank you for the help. I had a handyman come out to my house and hook up a gas line to my garage where the oven is placed. After paying him to install gas line we moved onto the oven. He diconnected the burner and the orifice was definitely for propane. He drilled out the propane orifices and the oven is not burning properly. I called blodgett today and they don't make parts for that oven anymore. It is dicontinued and as an above poster stated it's 50 years old. So now the service tech mentioned some orifices I could replace it with. But he can't guarantee they'll work. So I'm now hoping I can get this oven running properly on natural gas.

[norma427]

  Hi, Norma. Thank you for the help. I had a handyman come out to my house and hook up a gas line to my garage where the oven is placed. After paying him to install gas line we moved onto the oven. He diconnected the burner and the orifice was definitely for propane. He drilled out the propane orifices and the oven is not burning properly. I called blodgett today and they don't make parts for that oven anymore. It is dicontinued and as an above poster stated it's 50 years old. So now the service tech mentioned some orifices I could replace it with. But he can't guarantee they'll work. So I'm now hoping I can get this oven running properly on natural gas.

ronv992,

Best of luck in getting your orifice replaced for natural gas.  I am almost positive that the oven can be converted.  We had another popcorn popper that needed converted and a man that did work on boilers and furnaces converted that for us.  It was a old commercial popcorn popper and it needed converted too, but he found the right kind of orifice to convert it because there wasn’t any replacement orifices either.  Call around to find out who does work on gas orifices.

Norma

[ronv992]

  Thanks, Norma. I am working on that right now. I think I have it figured out. I'll post back when I get it working properly. My only problem is that the only service company that works on blodgett ovens in my area will not work on a pizza oven in a residential home. They're insurance does not cover that. I'm on a budget with this project anyway and the service man on the phone was helpful and it does not sound too hard for me to do myself.

[buceriasdon]

When you say it's not burning properly do you mean won't burn, too much yellow in the flame? Is there an air to gas mixture port that can be adjusted?
Don

[ronv992]

  The burners will light but the y won't stay lit. The propane orifices are too small for the burners. I was told propane is a mucher denser gas and burns hotter thus the smaller hole. One of the burner orifes was drilled out too large and that single burner became a flame thrower so that orifice is ruined. I am going to blodgett parts and service in my area (pittsburgh) and getting the proper camparable orifices (because they don't make parts for this oven anymore) that should work for natural gas.

[buceriasdon]

Ok, gotcha, thanks. So most likely it was setup for natural gas from the maker, then converted to propane.
Don

[ronv992]

  I hope so. If I have to buy any more parts, besides the inexpensive burner orifices, I'm going to be at a loss. I only paid $200 for the oven and it ran perfectly on the barbque propane tank I had hooked up to it. Problem was the propane was costing too much and I went through it quickly. Then that meant another trip to filling station and another 17 bucks for the propane. So hopefully after some trial and error this will work out. Thanks Don.

[norma427]

  Thanks, Norma. I am working on that right now. I think I have it figured out. I'll post back when I get it working properly. My only problem is that the only service company that works on blodgett ovens in my area will not work on a pizza oven in a residential home. They're insurance does not cover that. I'm on a budget with this project anyway and the service man on the phone was helpful and it does not sound too hard for me to do myself.

ronv992,

Good luck getting your orifice fixed.  When I get propane for my BBQ grill, I take the tanks to my local distributor of propane.  They only cost 8.00 to fill a tank of propane.  Let us know how things turn out.

Norma

[ronv992]

  Wow Norma, 8 bucks! If I could fill a tank for 8 I would have never tried to convert this oven. That is a great price. I was taking my tank to several different locations near my house ( I'm located in pittsburgh,pa) and getting it filled and it cost me 17 bucks. Also with my oven I was only getting 8 baking sessions from a full tank.

[norma427]

  Wow Norma, 8 bucks! If I could fill a tank for 8 I would have never tried to convert this oven. That is a great price. I was taking my tank to several different locations near my house ( I'm located in pittsburgh,pa) and getting it filled and it cost me 17 bucks. Also with my oven I was only getting 8 baking sessions from a full tank.

ronv992,

The tank of propane was 8.00 the last time I had them filled, but that was last year.  I am not sure what the prices are now.  Sorry if I misled you.  I will check in the next few days to see what the prices are now for propane.  We used to get 20 gallon tanks filled there, for a lot less, but I know all prices are going up.  I might be shocked this year when I check.   

Norma