gas or electric deck oven

by lily · More by this author { 2009 September 3 }

(I hope I'm not replicating a subject here).
We have come up against the dilemma of where to take our small wood fired sourdough business to next!

Wood availability as well as time taken to get it, and firing during fire ban periods, plus building a bigger Alan Scott oven to bake more loaves has led us to investigate stone hearth deck ovens. The bigger brick oven and the new deck oven would cost approx the same.

The consultant who takes commissions from Miwe strongly recommends electric to ensure an even spread of heat through the chamber. There is also a gas Miwe available, the Ideal Oven.

We have been advised that the power load from an electric oven would need another transformer ($$$) installed at our property (we do have 3-phase power) so we're back to gas.

Can anyone give me some thoughts on any drawbacks to using gas? Of course, one of the quirks of baking in the brick oven is shifting front loaves to back and losing retained heat at the front for a while in doing so, and being limited to 5 loads in a row before it needs a spell. It would be great to get some info from people who have used gas and aren't just trying to sell me something.

Cheers, Lily.

Login or register to post comments
Print
Send to friend

Gas, electric and wood...

by EricD · More by this author { 2009 September 7 } Speaking about wood fired oven, do you know that there is not only Alan Scott's ovens on the planet ? They might be good stuffs but you can find some ovens which have a more modern conception. Look for Llopis (http://www.fourllopis.com/ or http://www.jllopis.com/) ovens or Tayso (http://www.tayso.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3&Itemid=27), from Spain. These ovens, depending their size, can even be used in industrial bakeries. They are cheap to run and easier also because of their turning sole.
Whatever, if you want to change for a deck oven, personally, I suggest a gas oven. This because the heat is less biting on the sole. In an electric oven, the resistances will heat up as soon as the temperature is going down in which can result an excess of heat at the bottom of the bread. That is why, sometimes, you have to decrease the temperature of the sole after the loading.
I already worked on a Miwe gas oven and it was a very nice experience. Very consistent baking, accurate setting... Very good results on tin breads and free form breads.
For me, an electric oven is interesting because you can set each deck independently. It is interesting if you have different types of products to bake at the same time.
But, usually, electricity is more expensive than gas or wood.
Moreover, if electric cuts are usual in your place, you won't be able to run your oven with a generator. If it is a gas oven, you need much less electricity to make it working.

The best recommendation is to write a list with what you need, what are your constraints and what are the benefits of each option. Then, the choice will be easier or less difficult.

It's not very clear for me

by sally · More by this author { 2009 December 22 }

It's not very clear for me whether you've built your own oven or not. I wonder if this kind of ovens are available on the market, a deck oven is not something you see in the regular appliance stores like Kenmore parts so where do you guys get them from?

Re: gas or electric deck oven

by Optionparty · More by this author { 2010 February 9 }

I have seen a deck oven heated by "Thermoil".
The oil was heated in a small boiler fired by a stoker.
This gives many options for heating the "Thermoil".
There are now many oils that can handle the high temperatures,
and meet food health codes.
This allows individual control of each deck.

It may be worth an Internet search, if you have not yet selected an oven.

Let us know how you turn out.

Carl

Thanks for your replies Eric

by lily · More by this author { 2010 March 4 }

Thanks for your replies Eric and Carl. We are going to buy a gas deck oven as that fuel is best out here The wood oven has a new sole after just about all the original bricks busted, chipped, cracked and failed. It was the most frustrating part of a beautiful oven, with me having to line the gaping holes with teflon paper to get me through baking at Christmas until the new bricks arrived in January. These new ones are a revelation, I can't believe we didn't find our slim French backpacker sooner to enter the cool oven and do the dirty work!! More heat is retained for longer and I have to be careful of the 'biting sole' as Eric put it elsewhere ( I scuffle the floor a few times), but it is possible to still bake for 6 loads as before but starting at a lower temp. It is so much easier with better results in the bread.

Wood supply and time taken to split and transport it are still a serious issue so we will go gas. The oven choice looks like coming down to a steam tube type oven which I think will bake in a similar way to a wood oven, ie less flexbility with heat but more embodied, retained heat, no fans. We'll apply to Council to build a bakery and then make the final choice. In the meantime I'll try to visit some bakeries to see these new-fangled machines in action (love my wood oven).

Another aspect to this project has been working out how big, as in how much baking area we require. And there I was with 50 paper cut-outs the size of my loaves laid out on a folded blanket according to the specified size of deck... because I had to visualise it! I had to work out how many hours I wanted to be baking, therefore how many loads, how many loaves per load, therefore how many decks, how high up off the ground etc etc.

Cheers, Lily.