Increasing Gas Pizza Oven Temperature

[robis]

Approximately one month ago I accidentally came across this Pizza Oven model YD-958 (asianproducts.com/product_8/Pizza-Maker_P11885434636855849.htm.) I Bought it at “Laws Auctions” in Wetherill Park (Sydney) for bargain price of AU $ 60.00 - they had 10 left on shelf.  This oven is not so bad and could reach 350oC, but have only one element (top) and you could not achieve any charring on your dough.    The other downfall is that once the temperature hit the maximum, automatically turns off and you have to wait for 4 minutes to restart.  
 After some researching, yesterday I went and bought Gasmate  P0-100 gas pizza cooker (pivotstove.com.au/index.php/products/id/516) from Bunning’s for $386, 00 (I took advantage of their policy which state they will beat competitors price for 10%.  “Stratco” has the same oven on sale for $429,00).  Before I made purchase I contacted manufacturer to hear that the maximum this oven could operate is 340oC.  As you all know this is around 90oC lower than recommended temperature for making authentic pizza Napoletana.  As this oven has double wall I am thinking to remove the outer wall and fit the ceramic wool insulation blanket or K-woll blanket between the walls.  Does anyone has any experience with insulating materials and advise how much temperature could be gained by doing this? I am also not sure if operating this oven at higher temperatures will damage its internals.  I believe Inside walls are coated with vitreous enamel (Same like your standard home oven)
Thanks for any input.

[robis]

I did few modifications over 6 month period (couple years ago now) and settled on :
1.   Install 50mm ceramic wool blanket in the oven double wall to avoid heat loss.
2.   Manufactured cover and installed 50mm ceramic wool blanket on the oven back wall.
3.   Installed 15mm ceramic blanket under the pizza stone to prevent burning the dough. 
4.   Manufactured and installed  stainless steel  "canopy" for cooking stone .
After above modifications I am able to achieve 380oC on the stone and above 400oC on the canopy.  62% hydrated pizza is cooked in just over 90 seconds turning once. See pictures below.

[dellavecchia]

Beautiful pizza coming from that little oven. Great job on the mods!

John

[robis]

Thanks John, yeah the pizzas coming out are quite good, the only problem is when loading, turning and removing pizza from the oven there is significant temperature loss.  I perfected those moves, so it takes me only few seconds to do them now.  Still I was not happy with temperature loss so when I found this BBQ on sale in my local Bunnings store I bought it immediately.  I manufactured and installed another SS burner and double wall insulated canopy.  Pizza baking stone is high quality kiln shelf. There is another smaller stone in the ceiling to trap and hold in the temperature The cooking temperature (over 400oC ) is achieved in 20 minutes.  Now I do not need to worry with temperature loss and can see better in the oven and turn pizza more often.  I got the idea I from "Kalamazoo" Artisan Pizza Oven only it cost me fraction of their price as I could get materials most of materials free of cost in my workplace.  There is only one problem - the oven is not as deep as woodfired oven so the temperature of the oven roof is lower than desired - it takes 2 and half minutes to cook the pizza which in return not as puffy and crispy as from my other oven. I am considering to make a removable door as you could find on some woodfired ovens to rectify this problem.

[dellavecchia]

robis - You are quite the metal worker. It might help to get the roof hotter by actually lowering it a bit. Your oven depth looks perfect, but the top stone could be closer to the bottom to allow for quicker cooking - almost like a 2stone.

Either way, the pizzas emerging look fantastic.

John

[Jet_deck]

You have great craftmanship skills and the pizza looks good too.  It looks like the areas directly above the rear flame and side flame are not encompassed by the top stone.   So heat fills the roof and begins pouring out the front opening, heating up the top stone.  By lowering the roof and encompassing the direct flames, you would see a ton more of top heat.

Just my .02

>>  I should have typed," by lowering the top stone and encompassing the direct flames....."

[robis]

Thanks for your advice John and Jet. You are sport on- by lowering the roof I will get more temperature on top of pizza.  To lower the roof I need to shorten all sides and reassemble the box. This is almost same as starting from beginning.  Before I do that I will try to close down couple inches on the opening and lower top stone for same distance.  It may be enough to raise the temperature sufficiently.
Romeo

[creaton]

Robis-

I'm getting ready to start planning an outdoor gas pizza oven build and am really admiring the work you've done converting that gas grill!  Would you be able to elaborate on your gas grill conversion project to help answer some questions I'm having:

-What is the manufacturer/model number of the gas grill that you started with?
-How many burners and total BTU's do you have on the bottom?  Are they traditional gas burners, or infrared gas burners? What is the distance from your bottom burners to the bottom stone?
-How many BTU's is the top SS burner that you've added?
-Should the top SS burner flames directly hit the top stone, or not?

Thanks!

[Tampa]

Very nice, Robis.

I agree with the suggestions to lower the lid.  Your workmanship is superb.  I'd suggest you test a temporary insert-type installation before making the full mod.  The top of the pie is probably being cooked more by hot convection air rather than radiation from the stone so a little sheet metal insert should give you a good idea what to expect before going stainless.

Dave