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

21 Years ago Keith Carpenter and Harry Hegarty saw the need for a stone hearth oven that did not have heat recovery issues – basically a stone hearth that could meet the demand for the high production restaurants in North America.

About 7 or 8 years ago Wood Stone saw the same need in the manufacturing of Tandoor Ovens. The challenge being that the traditional clay ovens did not hold temperature, did not have a proper listing to be installed responsibly, maintained antiquated and inefficient burner systems coupled with inefficient insulation, and mostly, the clay vessels continue to collapse and fall apart within 2 years of use.

With our expertise in ceramics behind us, we created a stone that replicated the baking characteristics of clay. We added to it strength and durability and to-date not one of our Tandoors has collapsed or fallen apart. We also added a burner system that allowed us to reach much higher temperatures, if needed, and at the same time burn much less gas. Again, much of the efficiency can be credited to the ceramic which is designed to hold on to heat. This same burner design gave us consistent temperatures from the bottom to the top of the vessel and completely around the vessel’s cooking surface. Due to the steadiness of the heat, we do not have to use a traditional cover on the top of the tandoor to balance the bake of a Naan Bread top and bottom. Both the simple clean-out tray at the bottom of the tandoor, and the very accessible, serviceable burner are simple additions that make the Wood Stone Tandoor a great value.