How do you winterize brick ovens?

[jduchon]

I live in Montana, can a brick oven be used during the winter?  Frequent temperatures are 0 to 15 degree's F.

Is it safe to heat up the oven during these times or will it crack and crumble?   

Fire Brick oven with mortar and insulation then stucco over the outside.

Thanks,

Jon in Montana

[breadstoneovens]

Is it safe to heat up the oven during these times or will it crack and crumble?   

Jon in Montana

Hi Jon,

Did you make the oven yourself or is it a specific brand?
If you bought the oven, I would refer you to the manufacturer. Some ovens like the Portuguese ovens are no guaranteed to be frost resistant, I guess weather is always nice in Portugal 

In most cases the oven should be fine as long as no water gets into the oven through the door nor the dome.
If is way cold outside, I would recommend making a small fire (flames that don't touch the dome) for a 1/2 hours or so the day before you use it. Then the day of you can fire it up all the way.
If you haven't used the oven in a while you should make a small currying fire for a couple of hours the day before using it.

Antoine

[Bill/SFNM]

Is it safe to heat up the oven during these times or will it crack and crumble?   

I regularly fire-up my Earthstone WFO at those temps with no problem.

[pabsey]

Hey jon, I live in Fargo ND with temps way lower then that and have had no problems in 5 years, with a handbuilt or my Forno Bravo. Quite a trick firing up when it is 0 degrees but can be done. I usually just clean it up well in the fall. In the Spring I go gentle with the first burn and after that use as usual.

[jduchon]

Thanks for the info.  This is a homemade oven.  So the takeaway is heat it up slow when really cold, and keep the moisture out. 

We will tarp it for the snow season.  Of course in Montana the whole year can be the snow season.  It snowed last Saturday.