SELECTING A WOOD FIRE OVEN

Always ensure that you select a quality unit which will last for at least as long as you plan to operate the establishment in the manner chosen Remember that inferior ovens and segmented ovens crack and eventually disintegrate. This not only means that you will use excessive amounts of fuel and suffer from poor performance during the operational life of the oven, but that the oven will need to be replaced early in its life. Golden Embers have replaced numerous ovens which are as little as two year old. Because wood fire ovens are invariably "built in" in some way this will represent considerable expense and inconvenience. Replacing a structural item such as a large wood fire oven will often mean major structural work needs to be carried out and the restaurant closed for trade for a period, losing important revenue.

THE MAIN FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN SELECTING AN OVEN ARE:

SIZE - The oven needs to be large enough to satisfy your capacity requirements, but must also be able to fit into the space available. An extremely large oven which reduces the seating area is not a sensible purchase. Remember that the cooking chamber is the most expensive part of the unit, so, if you want an oven with visual size, but do not require additional capacity, build a facade around the oven to give the appearance of size. This will be far more cost effective and will minimise operating costs of the oven whilst still giving the visual impact desired.

CAPACITY - Size does not always have a direct bearing on capacity. A small high performance, efficient oven may be able to process far more pizzas than a large, low performance oven.  Throughput is calculated by extrapolating the cooking time per pizza by the number of pizzas that can be cooked at once. The formula is (MINUTES TO COOK/60 x NUMBER OF PIZZAS AT A TIME = PIZZAS per HOUR) Establish the true throughput of the oven you are considering by contacting existing users. The throughput can be increased by raising the cooking temperature, providing the material from which the oven is constructed is a true refractory capable of operating efficiently and of withstanding high temperatures. Golden Embers ovens use the purest high grade dense refractory materials which are normally used to construct Gold Smelting Blast Furnaces with  extreme operating temperature ratings. The original wood fire pizza ovens operated at around  400^°C. Many pizza ovens are extraordinarily fuel hungry when operated at these temperatures, or are made from materials which cannot withstand such temperatures and so have to operated at lower temperatures and take much longer to cook.

APPEARANCE - is not necessarily dictated by the form in which the oven is actually delivered. Some oven designs are sufficiently flexible so as to enable you to construct a facade to suit your decor. Golden Embers ovens allow you to have almost any style of facade constructed around the oven, not just a tube, square, or igloo.

EFFICIENCY - is measured in the amount of fuel (wood or gas) which the oven consumes in order to maintain its operating temperature. An oven which is constructed from high quality materials and according to sound Thermal Engineering principles may cost more initially, but will rapidly pay for itself in fuel savings. For example most brick ovens require around 1.5  to 2 ton of wood per week to operate, whereas a Golden Embers oven uses only 0.2 ton of wood in the same period. Efficiency is a function of design, construction material and operating technique. A well designed, fuel efficient oven will not have an unnecessarily wide or large tunnel mouth. An oversized tunnel mouth not only results in excessive amounts of thermal energy being dissipated into the environment, (which will make the ambient temperature around the oven uncomfortably high) and  reduce the efficiency of the combustion process.

INSTALLATION METHODS - will have a significant impact on the operation of the restaurant. A brick oven which is built on site will normally mean that the restaurant needs to be closed for some weeks while construction is undertaken. On the other hand, an oven cast in a single piece is able to be installed in a matter of hours, when using appropriate mechanical lifting and moving devices.

In summary, you should select an oven made from top quality materials, which is fuel efficient,  able to support high cooking temperatures and  has adequate throughput capacity for your needs

POSITIONING A GOLDEN EMBERS OVEN

 Fire, by its nature, holds a special appeal for most people, so you should seek to position the oven so as to ensure that the majority of patrons can see the fire. To achieve this you will need to position the oven so that the tunnel faces at least partially towards the dining area. By doing so the oven will be a focal point and can even attract custom in its own right. Although you should always maximise visual impact and atmosphere for the patrons, never lose sight of the fact the oven is actually a kitchen appliance and the Pizza Maker will need to stand in front of it for extended periods of time. As such it is advisable to  endeavour to locate the oven within convenient range of the kitchen or food preparation area. Also ensure that an adequate flow of fresh or cool air is able to pass through the area in which the Pizza Maker works.  

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