DuraVent / DuraTech Stainless Steel 6" x 6" Chimney Pipe with Built-In Damper!
Keep the HEAT in and COLD out of your wood-fired pizza oven with our DuraTech Chimney Pipe with Built-In Damper! This stainless steel beauty (which is custom-made exclusively for BrickWood Ovens) easily attaches between your DuraTech Anchor Plate and Chimney Cap. With a simple twist-of-the-wrist, your Mattone Barile, Barile Grande or Cortile Barile will be able to retain around 95% more heat than ovens without a damper!
Ovens heat-up quicker!
Ovens use less firewood!!
Ovens stay hotter much, much, much longer!!!
Installation takes about 30 seconds with DuraTech’s Twist-Lock fitting (fits between the anchor place and chimney cap).
Hi, the idea of a damper is a little confusing. If the chimney can be closed while the fire is burning (to heat up quicker as you suggest above) then why bother having a chimney at all? When is the appropriate time to close the damper? I would think only when ready to cook, but even then wouldn’t you want the chimney open to promote the air flow into the oven, over the pizza and out the chimney? Thanks!
Adding a damper is optional, but it gives you more versatility with your oven. As you suggest, you want convective air flow, high heat, and flame to bake a pizza. That’s the primary use to which many people put these ovens, and if that’s all you do, in my humble opinion you don’t really need the damper.
But for anything where you want heat retention and are looking to establish an evenly heated environment, the damper comes into its own. The walls will retain heat for hours, but with an open chimney (and yes, you DO want a chimney ) that heat will go up and out of the oven. The damper allows you to control that, down to a full stop if you plan to bake using retained heat alone. That would work, for example, with bread where you might want to have a 375°F environment for an hour or two. With a door and a damper, you can do that. Without, your oven would release its heat too quickly.
BrickWood only gets these when they have enough interest to place a bulk manufacturing order, so if you think you’d want one, it’s a good idea to jump on it. If you’d rather wait, you can always add it later.
That’s a great answer, thanks! The sales pitch for the damper was a bit heavy handed in my opinion and was confusing re: when you’d actually want to close it. Doesn’t make any sense for pizza. Totally get it for other longer time baking.
Hi. I just joined the forum, and couldn’t find an answer to my question. I just ordered the damper but am wondering if I will lose some of the benefit of heat retention by placing it on top of the 12" pipe versus below it. I would think below it is best, but that would mean grinding out my pipe that is already stuck in the stucco. Thanks.
I would imagine it will affect the performance. I cannot say how significant it will be.
The other issue is that the lever to operate the damper would be very high up.
I am tall enough to reach it no problem. Just wondering if grinding out the pipe is worth it, or if the heat loss via 12" pipe is not significant enough for the trouble.
Since your pipe is already cemented to the chimney top AND embedded with stucco, I’d advise leaving that alone and putting the damper atop. As @BrickWood says, there is absolutely no difference in performance — a damper is a damper is a damper. He points out the hazard for other users, and that also implies you will have a little heat loss, as @Newman suggests, simply because your hot gases will be allowed to venture to the top of the metal chimney. But it really won’t be enough to affect heat retention.
Your oven body is an awesomely efficient heat retaining structure, much like your house. The damper’s main role is to stop the convective flow of air out the chimney, which requires cold air to be sucked in to your oven. Any conductive loss is going to be minor.
Here’s the rub - I’ve had a few consultations now. It seems like the best bet on Smoke & Neighbors and Smokey the Neighbear is for me to extend the oven exhaust up via a stove pipe (or chimney pipe) and over at an elbow to my fireplace chimney. We’re then going to extend our fireplace up another 6 feet. In essence, the oven exhaust will come out the oven, up a little ways (2 feet or so), then elbow and travel about 7 feet, then connect into clay flue pipes, then… go go go gooooooooo (away from the neighbor’s house).
So, return to the question: how good does a damper need to be? If I use the duratech damper, it seems I’m committed to a lot of feet of DuraTech pipe $$$!!!$!$!$!). Yikes. DuraTech is rated to be near combustibles, and this will be open air. Do I really need DuraTech pipes? If I use a DuraTech damper, I can’t very well use cheaper pipes from there because of DuraTech’s clever connection system.
Cheap pipes, cheap damper - would this be a big mistake?
We recommend and sell double-wall, Stainless Steel DuraTech exhaust systems that are made by DuraVent in Vacaville, CA. They are higher quality and cost a few dollars more… But if you are running a long pipe / vent as you posted, you might want to take it down a notch.
DuraVent makes a line of painted, single-wall exhaust systems under the DuraBlack nameplate. Now, I’ve never used or installed a DuraBlack system, so I honestly can not attest to the durability of the product when used in a high temperature pizza oven. But our competitors have no problem using them…
) that heat will go up and out of the oven. The damper allows you to control that, down to a full stop if you plan to bake using retained heat alone. That would work, for example, with bread where you might want to have a 375°F environment for an hour or two. With a door and a damper, you can do that. Without, your oven would release its heat too quickly.