Burning the Flame at Both Ends – When You Need To and When You Don't (Fire Deck Tips)

Boldly going where no oven has gone before…
The rectangular Wood Stone Fire Deck (FD) series was developed to accommodate installations that couldn’t use a traditional round stone hearth oven. It’s innovative design allows customers the opportunity to install stone hearth ovens in buildings were space wouldn’t allow another shape. This is the proverbial “Square Peg for a Square Hole” solution.
There are some important differences in the Fire Deck that are important to note. Because of the rectangular shape, several of the wider FD ovens including the Fire Decks 8645, 9660 and 11260,  require a heat source on both ends of the chamber.  This is different than our Mountain Series ovens which can operate on a single internal heat source.
The heat at the opposite ends of these Fire Decks can be supplied by either a gas flame on both ends, or a single gas flame with an opposing wood fire (or in the case of the 9660 or 11260, wood or coal). This is especially important to note when one of these wider Fire Decks is specified with only one Radiant Flame Flame burner,  with the intent to burn solid fuel on the other side. When specified this way, the customer will need to burn wood on the opposite side to achieve proper performance.   (Note: conversion to gas is always an option if solid fuel becomes challenging for supply, venting or neighbor issues).
We bring attention to this fact because it is a little different than our round Mountain Series (MS) ovens and worth noting when selecting your oven. The Mountain Series ovens, because of their shape, are designed so a single internal heat source creates more than enough radiant heat.  In a MS oven with a radiant flame (RFG),  when vented correctly, wood may be burned or not burned, without affecting the oven’s capacity to maintain temperatures.
Exceptions to the rule: Because of its smaller cooking chamber, the Fire Deck 6045 can operate with a single internal heat source (gas or wood).  And for our largest Fire Decks, the Fire Deck 9690 and 11290 (the ones that are 90 inches deep) there are two radiant gas flames going the full depth of the oven, and because of the high output of BTUs and these ovens’ deeper dome, they will work with an internal heat source on just one side. 
If you are interested in Wood Stone Fire Deck ovens and have any questions about fuel configurations, please call us: (800) 988-8103.
Additional Resource:
Fire Deck Rotation Tutorial