I am going to look at a Blodgett 1000 tomorrow.
It is used and appears to be in reasonable condition from the photos I was sent.
This will be my first oven purchase. Any advice as to red flags or deal breakers would be welcome. The cost of the oven is about $2500.00 for a single deck.
Thanks
If the oven is old, which it probably is if hes selling it cheap you want to be very sure that the stones are not cracked at all. This is because the stones from old blodgetts have asbestos inside them, which helped them hold a high temperature. If the oven is plugged in and working, bring an oven thermometer with you to test the thermostat, make sure it gets hot enough to do what you want to do with it. A rebuild kit for those can get expensive, and blodgett doesn’t sell them anymore.
Also, look under the stones when the oven is off and see if the metal plates under the stone aren’t melted (forget what theyre called, but i’m sure a lot of people on this forum know).
When i bought my first pizza shop it had 2 Blodgett 1000’s. One was 40 years old and one was 45. Both worked perfectly, and i used them every day for 3 years with no problems. The only thing i ever had an issue with was the thermostat and i think the rebuild kit was like $600. If you’re buying it from another pizza place, offer him $1000 - he’s gonna have a tough time getting more for it from a reseller and resellers are some of the only people who would buy it from him.
Hi two cheese to walk:
I think the Blodgett was one of, if not the best deck ovens ever produced.
The price is very low for that oven if in top reconditioned conditioned.
It would be worth the cost to have a technician do an inspection of the units.
Ovens that have set idle for some time rust rapidly. I have seen many that had little metal remaining .
George Mills
Thank you pcl and George.
I was not aware of the stone/toxin issue, and yes if it is to rusted out there will be nothing
to bolt the new parts to. Glad to hear that they served you well pcl.
thanks again.
cheese to walk
“I was not aware of the stone/toxin issue”
There is nothing toxic about the old stones that contain asbestos.
The reason they were discontinued was that in cutting of the stones to size from large sheets there was asbestos released.The stones once cut posed no hazard to operators or pizza buyers. The old stones are highly prized.
George Mills