Bakers Pride 18 inch double deck 110 volt - MO2T

[barryvabeach]

I have played with a smaller Bakers Pride ( the PX 14 ) and posted those results earlier.  Due to the size of the opening, and my use of a pizza stone installed in the oven, it was tough to get much bigger than 12 inch pies.  I found a Bakers Pride MO2T locally at a good price and picked it up a few weeks ago.  It seems similar in size to the current Bakers Pride P18S, and has a similar current draw, though don't know what changes they have made, the current one seems to have Stainless sides, mine is painted metal.   The first tests were to see how hot it could get and how long that took.  Using a air temp probe in the upper chamber, and measuring the stone temp with an IR thermometer of the upper stone, the highest air temp was around 650 F and the highest stone temp was 700F.  That took about an hour and a half.  I made a few pizzas and noticed that oven didn't quite keep up, but I only took 2 to 3 minutes between pies.  They cooked in around 4 minutes.   I took out the stones to clean them and found the bottom stone was cracked ( it is 1/2" thick cordierite) .  I only use one shelf at a time, and decided to see how quick it would heat up with just one stone , the top one.  It took an hour to get to 600 with a stone temp of 650. I am guessing it saved about 15 minutes.  While baking pizzas this time, I got one with a very definite pattern - the cheese on the front half was a toasty brown and melted, the back half was still white - cook time was around 3 to 4 minutes.  I wondered if part of the upper element wasn't as good as it was in 1989 when it was made, so put the stone on the bottom and ran another test.  This time the air temp came up to 600 in an hour, but the bottom stone was only 615 - not sure why I didn't get the same spread in temps. It took another 5 minutes to get up to 625 air temp, and 650 stone, but didn't get much higher after that - guess the hot air was rising into the upper deck.  Pizza's came out pretty well, but didn't get as much browning as I had hoped.  On this stove, all 3 elements are wired together, so I will have to rewire if I want to have control over the individual elements.  Overall, I think this makes a nice home pizza oven, though for commercial use the 110 volts doesn't give enough juice to keep up with heavy demands.   

[Woodfiredovenpizzero]

I'm looking for something this size but gas powered. Any suggestions?

Edgar

[scott123]

http://www.bakerspride.com/specs/Hearthbake/HB_P18S.pdf

The 120V model is recommended for par baked products only

1800 watts is basically a hair dryer.  If you compare the wattage on this to a real deck, such as the SUPER DECK 5736 SERIES, per square inch of baking area, the 5736 has about twice the watts.

If you can fully pre-heat the bottom stone to 650 (inside and out, not just a surface spike), and, on that deck, have a broiler that browns evenly (but is a bit weak), then I think you can pull out fast, evenly baked pies by raising the stone about an inch.

The lack of separate controllers is not that big of a deal. You should be able to pre-heat the hearth to the temperature of your choosing and then crank the oven to it's highest setting during the bake so the broiling element stays on. 1/2" thick is not a lot of thermal mass, so you might have to give the oven a handful of minutes between pies (at full blast), but with some trial and error, you should be able to get an exact amount of post first bake re-heat time that will bake the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th pies perfectly.

When the oven elements are all on, does the top element glow evenly?

[barryvabeach]

Scott, I forgot to check the top element to see if it glows evenly. though from the way the pizza browned ( it wasn't gradual - it was like 1/2 under a broiler and the other 1/2 wasn't. I tried again tonight, stone started at 650, and dropped to 550 by the end of the third pie, with only a few minutes between pies.  What I did tonight was do a three minute cook on the bottom stone, then took out the pie, put it on a pan so the bottom wouldn't burn, and put it on the top rack ( which doesn't have a stone ) for another minute or two, and put a fresh pie on the bottom.  I am thinking about putting one of my thicker stones on the top - I will have a long wait to get everything up to temp., but then I might used top stone, then bottom stone, then top stone to see if it can recover in 5 minutes or so.  I agree that it isn't many watts, I assume that is the drawback of going with 110. 

[barryvabeach]

Scott,  I checked, the element never turns red, or glows in any way when it is on.  I tried putting both stones in, and adding a second stone on top of the first stone on the thought that it would retain heat better -  success was pretty limited.  I am wondering if the insulation has begun to wear out.  The top gets to about 165 when the oven is at full temp.  On the first pie, the stones were up to 700 and I got great spotting on the bottom.  The next pie was not as good as the temp had dropped some.   I think this will work for home pizzas for 1 to 3 pies, but any more than that, it would take a long time to recover if you want the stone around 700.  For home use, and the price I paid, I am still pleased. 

[scott123]

Barry, let me see if I'm hearing you correctly.  This oven has three elements- one in the ceiling, one under the top stone and one under the bottom stone.  The uppermost element (the one that's giving you uneven browning) isn't glowing, right, but the middle element, the 'baking' element for the stone above it and the broiler for stone below, that IS glowing, correct?  I'm assuming that it is, because you've mentioned that pizzas that bake in the bottom compartment are coming out okay, but not with the best browning.

Is this a correct assessment?

[chickenparm]

I just wanted to add,most Pizza places using even the larger deck ovens I ordered from,they always rotated their pies during/halfway through the bake.That said,I do not know much about them,and what makes them tick.Yet,I never had a pizza from a deck oven,that was not rotated at least once baking.

I am very curious as well,to find out if you have an potential oven problem as Scott is asking about.I want to learn more myself.I have been thinking about buying a smaller deck oven of some type for home use.

I look forward to seeing what you can do with this one!

[barryvabeach]

Scott,  I can't see the bottom element, because that deck is too close to the bottom of the oven, but neither the top nor the  middle elements glow at all.  It seems like the top one has some paint on it, but can't be sure.  The top is the one where the front half got some real browning and the rear half didn't --  it only happened to one pie- in the dozen or so I have made.   I usually set the timer to 3 1/2 minutes and check to see how it is doing.  If the bottom is getting too brown, I put it on a pan, and put it back in for a minute.

Chickparm -  if it is for home, check my posts on the Bakers Pride PX14. IMHO, the  PX16, adapted with a stone, would probably be the best configuration for home cooking using 110 volts.  If you don't mind the smaller pie, the PX14 would work with a stone, but you are probably limited to a 11 to 11 1/2 inch pie - if you use a screen you can get to 12 inches - but I don't like the crust using a screen.  You won't have as much head room to load pies as in the 18 double deck, but both use about the same amount of wattage, so the PX16 should do better on recovery than the 18 model, and the PX16 lets you control the top and bottom element.  If you get either of them, you would probably also want a digital thermometer to measure the air temp so you can decide when to load the pie - better than constantly checking to see if the light has gone out.  One benefit of the 18 is that while it is tall, the footprint is pretty compact compared to the px14 and px16 which put the controls to the side of the baking chamber.