A PHILOSOPHY OF PIZZA NAPOLETANISMO!

[Matthew]

Kelly, there are a few hairline cracks in the floor of my oven - not that it sees anything resembling commerical use.

I've seen SF's with floors that look like they have been through a major earthquake and then run over with a jackhammer.

Ours has 2 very large cracks in it & a 3rd is beginning to develop.   A good friend of mine owns a Neapolitan Pizzeria here in Toronto, in less than 2 years, the left and right floor pieces have sunk at least 2".  Another well known pizzeria in Toronto had to have their floor completely replaced after 2 years.

Matt

[Mangia Pizza]

Ours has 2 very large cracks in it & a 3rd is beginning to develop.   A good friend of mine owns a Neapolitan Pizzeria here in Toronto, in less than 2 years, the left and right floor pieces have sunk at least 2".  Another well known pizzeria in Toronto had to have their floor completely replaced after 2 years.

Matt

Wow, that doesn't sound too cost effective........ is that normal with Neapolitan pizza ovens?

[Pizza Napoletana]

Omid, back to the oven floor discussion from a few pages back.

I'm curious....does the floor of the oven at Pizzeria Bruno have any cracks in it?

I've seen the inside of a few Stefano Ferraras that have been in service for a little while and they all show cracking on the floor (biscotti) of the refractory chamber. Some of the cracks are relatively large.

I have seen other manufacturers that do not have cracking on the floor.

At first thought the non-affixed "floating" nature of the four floor pieces came to my mind as a potential reason for the cracking, but I would think the non-affixed nature would alleviate any stress from expanding and contracting.

Thanks. --K

Kelly, there are a few hairline cracks in the floor of my oven - not that it sees anything resembling commerical use.

I've seen SF's with floors that look like they have been through a major earthquake and then run over with a jackhammer.

Dear K, yes, there is a couple of cracks, which are really insignificant. They do not mitigate the performance of the oven at Bruno. Reportedly, such cracks are fairly common. Like Craig, I have seen Neapolitan oven floors that seem to be in disrepair, yet they bake pizzas with no noticeable problems.

I can't resist sharing the picture, below, with you guys. Three days ago, I walked to Bruno with my puppy, one of her favorite activities. (She is a regular there.) When we arrived there, I decided to take her picture with my cell phone to prove to my wife that I did not neglect taking the puppy out for a walk. Right at the moment of snapping the shot, she suddenly turned around, and I ended up with the picture below. Have a great day!

[Pizza Napoletana]

Ours has 2 very large cracks in it & a 3rd is beginning to develop.   A good friend of mine owns a Neapolitan Pizzeria here in Toronto, in less than 2 years, the left and right floor pieces have sunk at least 2".  Another well known pizzeria in Toronto had to have their floor completely replaced after 2 years.

Matt

Wow, that doesn't sound too cost effective........ is that normal with Neapolitan pizza ovens?

Dear Matthew, how are you? Great to see you here! Peter (the owner of Bruno) and I often think about you.

In my opinion, while a good Neapolitan oven is a diehard, they need to be treated, as you are aware,—with care. (I am not necessarily implying that somebody abused the ovens you referred to in your post.) I have known some who aggressively keep throwing thick, heavy wood logs on the bare oven floor, harshly banging on the oven floor with turning peels, scraping the floor with hard objects, cleaning the floor with water-drenched mops, and so on. Although these ovens are built to last a very long time, they should be thoughtfully treated.

I believe that Peter once told me that a cause of the oven floor lifting is when moisture/steam builds up inside the sand under the floor. Hence, some of the biscotti appear to have sunken. Have a great day, Matthew!

[Matthew]

Dear Matthew, how are you? Great to see you here! Peter (the owner of Bruno) and I often think about you.

In my opinion, while a good Neapolitan oven is a diehard, they need to be treated, as you are aware,—with care. (I am not necessarily implying that somebody abused the ovens you referred to in your post.) I have known some who aggressively keep throwing thick, heavy wood logs on the bare oven floor, harshly banging on the oven floor with turning peels, scrapping the floor with hard objects, cleaning the floor with water-drenched mops, and so on. Although these ovens are built to last a very long time, they should be thoughtfully cared for.

I believe that Peter once told me that a cause of the oven floor lifting is when moisture somehow builds up inside the sand under the floor. Hence, some of the biscotti appear to have sunken. Have a great day, Matthew!

Hi Omid,
Doing good buddy.  How are you?  Please send Pete my high regards.  I totally agree that the damage is likely caused by abuse.  The absolute worse thing that you can do to one of these ovens is bang the turning peel on a hot floor as I've seen done many times.  The floor softens up when running at constant hot temperatures making it susceptible to damage if not treated properly.


Matt

[JConk007]

I noticed Franks floors at Vesta (2 SF ovens) seem a bit worn out for sure at least deeply pitted and a  few cracks ? I will snap a pic next week ?
JOhn

[malvanova]

hello pizza napoletana ,, was looking in on your posts about the smoke problem out of your oven ,it seems to me that your smoke outlet is to small I had the same problem ,solved it by building a tapering smoke chamber above the entrance for the smoke to accumulate and thus out the flu,it worked well, plus at initial firing I built a smoke blocker, by blocking the entrance with a piece of sturdy sheet metal shaped to fit the entrance covering it 2/3 of it and leaving 1/3 of bottom portion (propped on legs) open for air intake that solved my smoke problem,combined with a larger smoke outlet,no smoke will escape.

[pizzablogger]

Thanks for the replies Omid, Matthew, Craig (I forgot to ask you how your oven looked) and John.

Yes, I have seen some pretty cratered and uneven floors.

I've always thought when seeing people putting wet rags on their peels to wipe the floor down that is one of the fastest ways to stress the floor materials (cool temperatures and moisture).

But assuming one is not being totally abusive to the floors, a certain amount of scraping, etc. occurs during the natural course of a busy service in a commercial establishment.

For a floor to be showing cracks within 2 years of service seems to be a short-period of time. Then again, with these types of ovens being more widely used in America for only a little while and thus our overall experience with them is limited, it may be the normal shelf-life of the oven floors.

Granted, it is just one example, but perhaps Enzo could chime in here. It's now been a while since I was in Pupatella, but I do not recall seeing the larger sized cracks on his floor that I noticed in the several Ferarra ovens I have seen.

Nothing against the SF ovens, but it is interesting to note.

[shuboyje]

Here is a related question.  Anybody know how they replace the floors?  By my calculations the 4 piece floor tiles do not fit through the standard Neapolitan cast entry.  I assume they remove the casting, but that seems very dangerous to the structural integrity of the oven.

[pizzablogger]

The cast iron arch/name plate can be removed. --K

[Matthew]

Here is a related question.  Anybody know how they replace the floors?  By my calculations the 4 piece floor tiles do not fit through the standard Neapolitan cast entry.  I assume they remove the casting, but that seems very dangerous to the structural integrity of the oven.

I've seen an oven after the floor was changed.  They have to disassemble about half of the oven from the front to back & then put it back together again.

Matt

[Pizza Napoletana]

Here is a related question.  Anybody know how they replace the floors?  By my calculations the 4 piece floor tiles do not fit through the standard Neapolitan cast entry.  I assume they remove the casting, but that seems very dangerous to the structural integrity of the oven.

The cast iron arch/name plate can be removed. --K

I've seen an oven after the floor was changed.  They have to disassemble about half of the oven from the front to back & then put it back together again.

Matt

Peter and I have theorized about this along the same line. Since each tile/biscotto is too large to go through the oven door, we believe that the metal door frame needs to be removed first. In fact, Peter has identified screws around the metal door frame of the Ferrara oven at workplace. Once the metal frame is removed, there are bricks behind it that need to be skillfully removed to create enough clearance for the old tiles/biscotti to exist and the new ones enter inside the oven. We are not sure how accurate this description is. Good day all!

[Pizza Napoletana]

hello pizza napoletana ,, was looking in on your posts about the smoke problem out of your oven ,it seems to me that your smoke outlet is to small I had the same problem ,solved it by building a tapering smoke chamber above the entrance for the smoke to accumulate and thus out the flu,it worked well, plus at initial firing I built a smoke blocker, by blocking the entrance with a piece of sturdy sheet metal shaped to fit the entrance covering it 2/3 of it and leaving 1/3 of bottom portion (propped on legs) open for air intake that solved my smoke problem,combined with a larger smoke outlet,no smoke will escape.

Dear Malvanova, I sincerely thank you for your time and concern. May I ask you, if it is no trouble, to post here a picture of your oven, particularly your "tapering smoke chamber"? Have a great weekend!

[shuboyje]

That has always been my assumption, but that arch supports the dome above it.  I wonder if they insert some sort of temporary support while doing the work.  Just seems like there should be a better way...like floor tiles that fit in the door.

[wheelman]

here's how i did it... i had to break each section in two so it would fit in the door.  it's lasted well since then.  i scored the back of the pieces and broke them over a bar.  it was a dirty job but i got it all nice and flat inside.
bill

[Chicago Bob]

And never to be seen again.......
You have a beautiful oven Bill!

[Tscarborough]

Nice.

[malvanova]

Dear Malvanova, I sincerely thank you for your time and concern. May I ask you, if it is no trouble, to post here a picture of your oven, particularly your "tapering smoke chamber"? Have a great weekend!

hi there , well I don't think that a picture of my oven will show you what you need to see because it is (the chamber) inclosed, if you look at wheelman as he is replacing the floor
on the previous post you could get the general idea at the entrance above the opening of the oven the taperin of the smoke stack, not to imply you should build one like it, but to give you an idea,of a tapering smoke chamber not as high,at the entrance, for your oven that would not do, perhaps you could adapt a steel hood made to fit your oven (nice oven by the way) and tie it in the stack,when I get a chance to take a photo of mine from the interior of the entrance I''ll post it .have a good one.
 ciaoo
    Phil

[malvanova]

Dear Malvanova, I sincerely thank you for your time and concern. May I ask you, if it is no trouble, to post here a picture of your oven, particularly your "tapering smoke chamber"? Have a great weekend!

  ok here is a short movie I made while firing up oven today

      

<a href="http://youtu.be/vWeMy9p1qaQ" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://youtu.be/vWeMy9p1qaQ</a>

       and the siren you hear is not because of the smoke,,,pics from summer,my niece and fiance,,,,some garden harvest,, ciaoooo

          Phil

[pizzaneer]

Er, so which one is your fiance?