Modified Bestron Alfredo DLD9070

[MaximusTG]

Recently I bought a used Bestron Alfredo DLD9070, which is sort of a budgetbrand version of the Ferrari line of home tabletop ovens.

It is quite popular among pizza enthusiasts in the Netherlands and Germany. A discontinued model used to be able of reaching temperatures up to 450/500 degrees Celsius. The model I bought however is capped at about 350 degrees Celsius due to new European laws.

In Germany, a webshop sells the DLD9070 model along with a 'tuning kit'. This kit consists basically of a 40x40x10 mm computer fan,12 V, hooked up to a 9 V power supply. This is placed above the ventilation holes on top of the oven, to cool the thermostat, tricking it into thinking the max temperature has not been reached.
Because shipping their kit to the Netherlands was very expensive, and because it really isn't very difficult to build on your own, I ordered a fan and a DC plug to hook it up to an old 9V power supply of an old WiFi router.

In the pictures you see the fan hooked up to the oven, using some M8 nuts as distanceholders, and fixating it with some steel wire. I then let it heat for half an hour, with upper and lower heating on. After that half hour, I set the oven to upper heat only, waited 5 minutes, put the pizza on. It needed 5 minutes to bake. It was a test pizza, with just tomato sauce, salt, pepper, oregano.

[dellavecchia]

This goes to show it is the pizza maker, not the oven, that succeeds. I love the crumb. What was the final temperature?

John

[MaximusTG]

Thanks! Tasted great too. I however have no idea what the temperature was; The oven only has a min-max dial, no thermometer. And I haven't got an IR thermometer.
Maybe tonight I'll bake one with toppings (bell pepper, salami, mozzarella and tomato sauce).

Oven cost me 40 Euros, fan and stuff cost me about 10 Euros. That's about 66 USD.

[MaximusTG]

So, I've had some trouble with the oven. It suddenly refused to work completely. After completely disassembling it, I found a thermal fuse, rated at 133 degrees Celsius. It was placed in a rather strange place, and probably got to close to its max temperature during several sessions. For now I just removed it, but am going to replace it with a slightly higher rated version.
Attached pictures are therefore not from this oven, but I had the dough made and all, so cooked them on my pizzastone in the conventional oven.
Still tasted great though . Topping is tomato sauce, salami, mushrooms, bell pepper, pineapple and dried buffalo mozzarella.

[Jackie Tran]

This goes to show it is the pizza maker, not the oven, that succeeds. I love the crumb. What was the final temperature?

John

I agree.  Maximus, what flour, yeast, and hydration percent did you use for the pizzas and was the crumb still soft or tough?

Chau

[MaximusTG]

I used "Soezie" flour for "French Crusty Bread", which is basically a high-gluten white flour. It's the best flour I can find here locally (Netherlands) without buying online.
I usually make 4 dough balls at once,
with 525 grams of flour, 65%-68% hydration, 2.17%salt (1.5 teaspoon) and 0.57% yeast (1 teaspoon).
I use Varasano's wet kneading technique, mixing all ingredients except for 1/4 of the flour. I then knead with a hand mixer, and gradually add all the flour. I let the dough rest before kneading and after kneading. I then divide in 4 , make balls and store them in individual round containers, oiled with olive oil. I then put them in the refridgerator for min. 1 night.
The crumb was still soft yes.
I'm thinking of adding a thermometer to this oven, something of a BBQ thermometer you attach by drilling a hole and screwing a nut on the threaded end from the inside.

[MaximusTG]

Some more pictures of pizza from the Bestron oven (similar to the Ferrari G3 ovens, but cheaper). Still has some problems with the browning of the top, probably due to lack of heat capacity at the top half of the oven. If there was room I'd fit in a stone on top too. Nevertheless, it's still a learning process operating the oven. The bottom tends to get way too hot when I try to get the top as warm as possible. So I've started using a wet cloth to wipe the stone before putting the pizza on, or spraying it with water. Seems to do the trick.
Though I'd rather not, I understand adding a bit of sugar can help speed up the browning of the crust? I rather keep my pizza 'pure'.

The pizzas from this oven tend to look better on the bottom than the ones from my conventional oven (250 C, stone), but as I said, the top could use a bit of color.
I've also started using shredded mozzarella, instead of slicing balls of mozzarella myself. That mozzarella tends too give of bucketloads of water.. I did try drying it a bit first, but that adds a lot of work.

[buceriasdon]

Maximus, Very nicely done pizzas. I have to admit the do it yourselfer in me was looking at a two element hot plate stove and a small kettle style charcol grill the other day and thinking " Yea, I could make this work." Maybe not so pretty, but it could work...
Don

[MaximusTG]

Thanks! This really combines two of my favourite hobbies. Building things/modifying things and baking pizza. And I'm happy to say both skills have improved over time. Gone are the days of dry dough, rolled out with a rolling pin and baked in a microwave/oven combi (only oven mode, but only 230 degrees C). Gone are the thick heavy sauces. .
Light, fluffy dough and pizza with a nice rim and great crumb.

And my technical skills are also increasing, I took the whole thing apart and put it back together again. Modded it, and now I' m thinking of getting a round flat disc of steel and somehow fixing it over the top element. Maybe that would add the needed heat capacity..

[sub]

Hi MaximusTG,

Very nice result with the Fantasia, it's the worst of the G3Ferrari models.

If you like modifying things too, look at this topic:

Put the 550w heating element on top and add aluminium foil in the dome surely can solve your problem and reduce your cooking time
And if you adjust the thermostat you can drop the fan.


Cheers

[MaximusTG]

Way old topic, but I have finally modded my pizza oven. Though I would like to repeat that this is NOT a G3 Ferrari Oven. It is a Bestron DLD9070. Edit: Actually, browsing that topic you linked, it seems this Bestron (which is really like a budgetbrand here in the Netherlands) is a rebranded or perhaps a copy version of the G3 Ferrari Fantasia..
Even with the previous mod, the bottom part did get really hot, like, crisp charred bottom of the pizza in a minute or so. But the top.. It was my opinion that the top of the oven does not have enough heat capacity. When you open the oven and add your pizza on the stone, if the thermostat does not switch on then, the elements stay off, and the top part cools down rapidly by opening. So I have managed to insert another stone in the oven! I took a Dr.Oetker 33 cm round and 1 cm thick stone (12 euros) and used my angle grinder to cut of a 3cm edge round the entire stone. Now it fits behind the top element in the oven. I then was planning to drill holes in the stone, so the heat elements screws could go where they originally went, and fixating the stone at the same time. Unfortunately, disaster struck, and the stone cracked right down the middle with drilling hole nr 1.. However, the other two went fine, and the two halves were even easier to install. It was a bit of a tug to get some (longer) screws secured, but all in all, I am satisfied with the result.
Been testheating it for a while, runs fine now. Gave a few shortouts earlier, but that turned out to be moist from the top stone that was in it because I used the tap to get rid of the dust on it. It was being expelled by the heat and dripping inside the housing  .

The Ultimate Bestron Pizza Oven Mod:

[sub]

Nice !

How long is the baking time now ? do you have pictures of the pizzas ?

You can also do this mod  to rotate the pie without opening the oven, and use a wooden peel to slide the pizza on the baking stone it helps you to keep the warm air inside the oven.

by the way, I've got also a Bestron,

look here

 

[Ian J]

Way old topic, but I have finally modded my pizza oven. Though I would like to repeat that this is NOT a G3 Ferrari Oven. It is a Bestron DLD9070. Edit: Actually, browsing that topic you linked, it seems this Bestron (which is really like a budgetbrand here in the Netherlands) is a rebranded or perhaps a copy version of the G3 Ferrari Fantasia..
Even with the previous mod, the bottom part did get really hot, like, crisp charred bottom of the pizza in a minute or so. But the top.. It was my opinion that the top of the oven does not have enough heat capacity. When you open the oven and add your pizza on the stone, if the thermostat does not switch on then, the elements stay off, and the top part cools down rapidly by opening. So I have managed to insert another stone in the oven! I took a Dr.Oetker 33 cm round and 1 cm thick stone (12 euros) and used my angle grinder to cut of a 3cm edge round the entire stone. Now it fits behind the top element in the oven. I then was planning to drill holes in the stone, so the heat elements screws could go where they originally went, and fixating the stone at the same time. Unfortunately, disaster struck, and the stone cracked right down the middle with drilling hole nr 1.. However, the other two went fine, and the two halves were even easier to install. It was a bit of a tug to get some (longer) screws secured, but all in all, I am satisfied with the result.
Been testheating it for a while, runs fine now. Gave a few shortouts earlier, but that turned out to be moist from the top stone that was in it because I used the tap to get rid of the dust on it. It was being expelled by the heat and dripping inside the housing  .

The Ultimate Bestron Pizza Oven Mod:

I'm thinking of modding my G3 do you still use your modded Bestron oven?  Do you have any photos of the pizzas it turns out?

Many thanks

Ian