How long to fire up a wood-burning oven?

[JPY]

Marco, from your experience how long does it take to heat a small home sized oven that is cold?  For example my father likes to heat up the oven slowly so the heat absorbs into the stone.

[pizzanapoletana]

I always recommend slow warm ups from cold, even over days in certain circumstances (I don't mean to fire it continuously over days, just to warm it up over days).

The very minimum, to have the oven operational from cold, I would say to be 3.5 hours. a 120cm internal diameter takes at least 5 hours from cold. However when "off" from the previous evening baking, it takes only 30-40 minutes to go back to operational temperature

[JPY]

That's a pretty big oven for a house.  Good for 4-5 pizza at one time. 

[Pizziaola]

Pizza Napoletana,

I did not say that Earthstone was the best, I said,"one of the best". I have no monitary association with them, I've simply used many of their ovens--and the ovens of many others out in the field with excellent results.

I've had the model 90 in my home for 17 years, to say that I can play that oven like a violin would be an understatement. When I said temperatures of 1000 degrees in 11/2 hours, I was talking about the dome, not the floor. The floor would be at 800-850. When I've fired the oven to get 900-950 floor temp, it takes 30 to 45 minutes longer. roughly  less than 2-2 1/2 hours. There is more than one way to fire up an oven, some ways are better than others--just like making pizza.

[pizzanapoletana]

That's a pretty big oven for a house.  Good for 4-5 pizza at one time. 

Contrary to what some manufacturer would like people to believe, any less then 105cm diameter will not be a proper oven for pizza. Together with other factors, that is the minimum diameter to cook a pizza in a certain way and cook 3 pizza at the time in a confortable way.

[JPY]

As being a person that has been in the business for almost 20 years, you need to conform with what your customers want too.  It's not all about what you or I think is best. Of course a larger oven will work better in many aspects.  However many people who put these inside the house do not have the room.  And if they are going to use the oven to make 4 or 5 pizzas (two at one time) and maybe grill some meat, than an oven that is 80 or 90 cm should be fine.

[Pizziaola]

As being a person that has been in the business for almost 20 years, you need to conform with what your customers want too. It's not all about what you or I think is best. Of course a larger oven will work better in many aspects. However many people who put these inside the house do not have the room. And if they are going to use the oven to make 4 or 5 pizzas (two at one time) and maybe grill some meat, than an oven that is 80 or 90 cm should be fine.

Amen to that.

[bakerbill]

I have an Earthstone 90 and it takes about 2 to 1-1/2 hours to heat up from a cold start. I found that it's important not to overload the oven with too much wood at first.

BakerBill

[Dieter01]

We fired up our newly built WFO for its first bake yesterday! After about 45 min the roof directly above the fire was white and measuring about 1000 degrees, the floor about 750 (close to the fire, further away it was colder). I kept the fire going for another 45 minutes and the hot spot got a bit larger. We knew we wouldn't have time to heat soak the floor properly so the fire was placed to the side (ref picture). When it was time to bake we shuffled the coals to the other side and maintained a small fire there. We had prepared three pies that we then cooked. I didn't time them but I'm guessing maybe 3 minutes for the first one. The temp of the floor dropped about 150 degrees from first to last.

Although I know we have a long way to go this is a picture of our very first attempt. It was great!

Now, next time I need to get everything really hot! So here are a few questions...
- Should I take it easy in the beginning for any reason or do you just go at it full throttle?
- Do you all build a big fire in the center like discussed in this thread? I was thinking about making one big one to one side and a medium fire opposite. Bad idea?

Cheers!

[TXCraig1]

We fired up our newly built WFO for its first bake yesterday! After about 45 min the roof directly above the fire was white and measuring about 1000 degrees, the floor about 750 (close to the fire, further away it was colder). I kept the fire going for another 45 minutes and the hot spot got a bit larger. We knew we wouldn't have time to heat soak the floor properly so the fire was placed to the side (ref picture). When it was time to bake we shuffled the coals to the other side and maintained a small fire there. We had prepared three pies that we then cooked. I didn't time them but I'm guessing maybe 3 minutes for the first one. The temp of the floor dropped about 150 degrees from first to last.

Although I know we have a long way to go this is a picture of our very first attempt. It was great!

Now, next time I need to get everything really hot! So here are a few questions...
- Should I take it easy in the beginning for any reason or do you just go at it full throttle?
- Do you all build a big fire in the center like discussed in this thread? I was thinking about making one big one to one side and a medium fire opposite. Bad idea?

Cheers!

I heat on the side of the oven I'm going to bake on. Get that side as saturated as possible. The fire will take care of the other side once you move it. I usually take it easy for a couple hours and the hit it pretty hard before I bake. The theory being a deeper heat in the mass.

[ccgus]

We fired up our newly built WFO for its first bake yesterday!

I'm going to guess that the answer to this is yes- but just in case… you cured it already, right?  Or did it arrive cured?

[Dieter01]

I'm going to guess that the answer to this is yes- but just in case… you cured it already, right?  Or did it arrive cured?

We cured it for a good week before baking the first time, yes.