Chimneys

Posted by Rado (144.134.145.55) on September 13, 2004 at 09:38:09:

In Reply to: Chimneys posted by Mary parker on September 12, 2004 at 00:26:06:

Mary, to have a chimney or not depends on not to many factors. Oven will cook with or without chimney when you look at it that way.

First one could be where the oven is situated or how it is going to be used. The visual effect is probably most important. If you build wood fired oven into an entertaining area (or of course if inside the house etc.) you probably will need at least some length of chimney so exhaust gases and the heat will be dragged up above heads level at least. That would be ideal. If you use your oven simply for cooking/baking only somewhere in place where oven's effect is not important to you, you can build the dome simply (even on top of the hearth concrete slab placed low set right on the ground- but make a good quality dome at all times- it's worthy) without any vent in front and use it by that way.

Then there are domes with built in flue inside the dome somewhere at the back or side of the chamber. These designs need tall chimney which create draught for exhaust passage thus also need constant inlet of cold air making the oven less efficient, at times criticized for this reason.