Insulating Front of Oven

Would you recommend insulating the front of the oven if I have extra blanket. And if so, How?

Welcome to the BrickWood forums, Mark!

I wouldn’t recommend it. While your front technically is fire-facing, the heat still obeys laws of physics so it’s the barrel that absorbs and refracts the great majority of the heat produced by your flames.

It’s optional even to have brick closing off the front of the oven at all. The door is sufficient to retain any heat that would otherwise escape from under the top rim.

If you’re closing off the front (per instructions that limit how much you can close) you should be using firebrick, which are sufficient to refract heat back into the oven on their own.

Extra blanket, if any, would most benefit the barrel arch and the base of the chimney. It wouldn’t hurt to hang another layer across the back, but it’s again not going to have that much of an effect.

It’s very similar to a residential building. Renovators want to sell you new windows and doors because they have a lot of visual impact. But if you want the most bang for your buck, you start with insulating the attic, because that’s where the most heat loss occurs.