Not enough heat

Posted by Richard Stybak on September 14, 2004 at 01:34:07:

In Reply to: Not enough heat posted by Richard Stybak on September 14, 2004 at 01:17:33:

Since completing my wood fired brick oven 6 wks ago I still, after making 4 revisions, cannot come close to getting enough heat in the hearth to cook a pizza properly! I think that I made a major error in the construction of the dome. (inside surface). A welder by trade, I thought I would get away from curving the fire-brick for the dome, by fabricating the inner shell out of stainless sheet metal. I then covered the stainless with ceramic fibre insulation blanket, finishing with castable refractory troweled on top.

I have almost no heat loss through the dome, so is the stainless shell inner surface preventing the dome from retaining heat, thus not allowing the oven floor to get hot enough? I will greatly appreciate any help, thank you.