Modifying Oven to Get Higher Temps

[Jackitup]

Man, I sure wish my condo association hadn't banned outdoor grills.  That 2stone pizza oven looks pretty sweet.

Did your assoc. ban all grills or just charcoal grills. Many ban only charcoal grills figuring a greater fire risk with the charcoal and as a previously stated by aba, the gas ones just need to be in storage when not using. I agree, a big pain in the beehind.
Jon

[Grog]

Unfortunately, there is a ban on all open-flame grills and propane canisters in the condo complex.  The association started cracking down on grills because the city recently adopted new fire codes that prohibit open-flame grills and propane canisters in multi-unit dwellings constructed of wood.  Next spring I'm planning to buy a house, at which point I'll either build or buy a brick oven, or get a 2stone oven.  My preference is for the brick oven, because it is more versatile with breads and roasts.

[scoobekenobi]

Thanks for the tip Grog!

I tried it today. Cooked in around 4 minutes vs the usual 9-10 minutes. Crust puffed up really quick!

[fightingirish23]

grog,

If you feel like you want to fool the oven and cook on the cleaning cycle i've been doing it for about 4 months and haven't had any problems except my pizza stone cracking. So you definately want to get a fibrament pizza stone.  AND NO MATTER WHAT ELSE YOU DO.... make sure you cover the glass of the interior with at least 2 layers of loose fitting foil.  One drop of sauce or oil and you can say bye bye to the window.  Other than that I think it's pretty safe just be a little careful when going in an out cause your arms will get a little warm.  But it's an awesome way to make a great pie.


cheers,  sean

[JRo]

grog,

If you feel like you want to fool the oven and cook on the cleaning cycle i've been doing it for about 4 months and haven't had any problems except my pizza stone cracking. So you definately want to get a fibrament pizza stone.  AND NO MATTER WHAT ELSE YOU DO.... make sure you cover the glass of the interior with at least 2 layers of loose fitting foil.  One drop of sauce or oil and you can say bye bye to the window.  Other than that I think it's pretty safe just be a little careful when going in an out cause your arms will get a little warm.  But it's an awesome way to make a great pie.


cheers,  sean

I just use red clay bricks from Home Depot.  They're about $.35/each and I've had no problems with them after a dozen or more bakes.  It's a lot of mass, so it takes my old shop oven about 1.6 hours on the cleaning cycle to get them up to about 700F.

[Tiramisu]

I have been using my oven on the cleaning cycle for about a year now with no issues.  It will get north of 800 in about 35 minutes.  I use nothing but a Fibrament stone and an infared temp gun.  Since my cleaning cycle uses the broiler I have to shut off the cycle once I put the pie in otherwise it will burn the top.  The pie cooks in 2.5 minutes then I restart the cycle which takes about 10 minutes to get back to temp.

At these temps I really recommend getting a nice peel from FGPizza.  I have tried all different types but the slotted one FGPizza sells imported from Italy is amazing.  The pie slides off like butter with virtually no flour on the peel which makes for a better crust. Before getting the FG I had to use too much peel flour and it would burn on the stone making the crust bitter.  I use a very wet dough (roughly 63%) so peel issues where always a problem for me before I got the FG. There is nothing worse then having a peel problem when your hand is in a 800 degree oven.  I had several disasters...

[scpizza]

Those are G.I. Metal peels:  http://www.gimetalusa.com/

[Pizza_Making_Dave]

I went to g.i. metals website and they seem to have quite a variety of peels and sizes.  Can anybody recommend one for the home?

Dave

[warrax]

Hello, I 've been also modifying my home oven, but it's gas oven, not electric.
The problem was, it was reaching only 230C(460F) degrees after 60 minutes of preheating.
So I've bought a cheap pizza stone (no other in our country), which helped a little, not very much.

Then I've tried a trick, that aluminium foil is reflecting warmth. I've put foils firstly only from sides, but then from all side. At the top of the oven, I've put metal sheet, with foil on its bottom. It also shrunk space the oven have, for pizza it's not needed extra space.

(http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/5347/img0058lp.th.jpg)
(http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/3157/img0001clo.th.jpg)

It helped incredibly. With last option, when I've covered even glass window with foil, I was able to reach 310C(620F) in 60 minutes. The oven was preheating very quick, it got to 250C(500F) in 20 minutes! See the differance, from original option, when it got to max temperature 230C(460F) in 60 minutes.

I have question although, can I go even higher, for example to 330C(660F) without a risk?

[warrax]

Okay, Fibrament at home, so I've modified my oven this way:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/41/img0011wou.jpg/

Also trying version with old stone, but I think, no differance.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/37/img0010gw.jpg/

Anyway, I can say, that this configuration bakes MUCH better, than that before.