A lot of the smoke is coming out the front of the oven. Is there away to fix this?
Hi Len, and welcome to the BrickWood forums!
To help you, it would be good to have a little more information.
- What specific oven did you build?
- Toward what compass direction does the oven face?
- Is the oven fully “open,” or did you close off the face? If you closed it off, what are the measurements of your opening?
- Is the chimney placed as directed in the design, about four inches back from the face of the oven?
- Is the chimney opening blocked in any way?
- Do you have a damper installed on the chimney? If so, is the damper fully open?
- (And, the most important question:) Is your wood dry and well-seasoned?
The first two questions are to help us understand what kind of oven we’re dealing with. The rest of them are about things that can be addressed — some of them easy, a couple of them not so much.
Most of the time, it’s about the wood you’re burning. If your wood is not perfectly dry, you’ll end up without much of a draft because combustion is absorbed by the water in the wood. That will produce way more smoke than heat (smoke is incompletely-burned carbon), and that smoke will wander out the front of your oven rather than shooting toward the roof and then out the chimney.
Please tell us a little more about your oven so we can help. Pictures would be helpful too!
I built the oven exactly to specs. The bricks on the front of the oven are now totally black after 5 burns. Would it help to put an extension in the chimney?
Hi Len, and thanks for posting the photo. I’ve put up the “Bat Signal” so that other eyes can take a look at it. It does look like you have a good fire there. I’m also presuming you’ve checked the questions in my previous reply, especially the one about the wood you’re burning.
I don’t want you to have to spend money on a chimney extension unless it’s truly needed. @BrickWood can tell you whether that’s true.
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First glace… that chimney cap you have looks to be limiting airflow. It looks almost sealed vs. wide open. Can you send me the model / specs of that chimney cap plz?
Also - take the cap off and give her a run. I’m thinking that vent cap / chimney cap is blocking the airflow.
Len,
I payed two extra courses of fire brick in my chimney with damper and standard chimney that comes with the full grand kit. I have plenty of draw. The front of the oven still gets black. I even have an inset for the door. We make great pizza and bread, the dark color ads character.IMG_20200821_183626470|375x500
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