Re: site selection question

Posted by Rado

In Reply to: site selection question posted by DarrelW

Hi Darrel, if the wind came mostly from one direction in your area (like from east beach over here) and if you were able to rotate the oven while planning its position, then logically I say sure best if entry was facing away from prevailing wind, backwards into the wind. You will be able to hide behind the oven in colder months. Also, and this has a biggish weight, surprising can be when oven happens to be hot inside and cold wind/rain hits just the oven hot face, rapid cooling of hot face causes hot face cracking.

In refractory you really don't need much for this to happen, all refractory material contains silica which when cooled down too fast right at 200°C shrinks too fast and creates cracks (just under 400°F or in baking temperature.) Firebrick ovens cope successfully with the heat differences in materials, size change is much better absorbed in structures made of small fragments.

Cracking on fast cooling is common shock for larger objects, like cast prefab dome block sections and hearth floors made of larger tiles are vulnerable to this stress creating long cracks if not looked after well during or post cooking time.