Buying New Pizza Ovens!!

[Fireside_Pizzeria]

I have some Vulcan ovens which do not keep alot of heat in when we’re busy. They don’t have stones, just metal bottoms. We’re thinking of trying to find some nice used Baker’s Pride or Blodgett ovens. But before I can figure out which to buy, I have a couple of questions.

First, since mine are natural gas, does it matter the btu on the ovens? Second, what other considerations should be considered before doing this?

The ovens are not deep enough for even 4 - 18" pizzas in one deck. I haven’t even tried to go after larger orders because the ovens just can’t keep up on a normal Friday night, let alone adding more.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[blavis]

I was using lincoln impingers, double stack, went to blodgett double stack with stones, electric to gas, same problem you got. I am going back to my lincolns, adding a third one. the taste wasn’t that big a difference. the blodgetts are slow and slower to recover. closing tom. to rewire.

 

[NicksPizza]

blavis:

I was using lincoln impingers, double stack, went to blodgett double stack with stones, electric to gas, same problem you got. I am going back to my lincolns, adding a third one. the taste wasn’t that big a difference. the blodgetts are slow and slower to recover. closing tom. to rewire.

In using decks, BTU muscle is key to recovery times. Every time that oven door opens, you have to get that heat back up. A Blodgett 981 double deck “baking oven” is underpowered at 50K BTU for two decks. George will add in, I feel certain, some of his experience with pizza owners. I am learning that you really need closer to 100K BTU or more for a deck in order to keep it moving well enough during peak operations in high volume shops.

Blavis didn’t say what model or BTU his Blodgett decks were, but you have to have enough muscle, or the decks slow way down. The Bakers Pride 600/800 series pushes 120K BTU per unit . . . Blodgett 1060 is the same. Blodgett 961P is a smaller, less powerful oven at 50K BTU per deck/unit.

So, you really need to be looking at deck size and BTU rating to bake your 18" pies. You can squeeze six 18" pies into the below. All three have the 120K BTU burner in each deck/unit, but actual performance and speed of recovery is for someone else to describe . . .

BP 600/602, 36x60 deck
Blodgett 1060, 37x60 deck . . . but the
800/802 is a better fit at 44x66 deck.

 

[George_Mills]

Hi Fireside:

Nick has pegged your situation. You can barely squeeze 6- 18 in pizzas into a BP-Y 600 The Y 800 can handle that chore.

I don’t know where you can find ether of those models used. We have not had a used deck oven offered to us in a couple of years. Good luck in your quest.

Most of the deck ovens arround are bake or roasting ovens and have not enough BTU for pizza

George Mills

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

If you’re looking to buy decks, don’t overlook the Marsal deck ovens. Be sure to look at deck size, BTU, and stone thickness. The BTU and stone thickness will have a lot of influence on how consistent the oven bakes when you put a load to it. The Marsal #1060 that we have has 130,000 BTU (natural gas) and a 36 X 60 baking surface that is 2-inches thick. This oven is rated to bake 6, 18-inch pizzas at a time. As a side benefit, you don’t need to rotate the pizzas in this oven either. If you really need capacity, go with one of the new, high efficiency, air impingement ovens by Lincoln, PESI, XLT, or Middleby-Marshall. When combined with the Hearth Bake Disks from Lloyd Pans <www.lloydpans.com> and set up to bake at 470 to 500F with a 5 to 5:45 minute baking time, these ovens can really crank out the pizzas, and they are essentially identical to those made in a deck oven. You pays your money, and you takes your choice.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

 

[Fireside_Pizzeria]

Thanks everyone for the help. I’ll look at the different brands and see what will work best. There’s seems to be quite a few Baker’s Pride and other brands on Ebay. That’s just one resource that I’m looking at.

 

[George_Mills]

Hi Fireside:

There are some Y600 single Y602 double Bakers Pride ovens on Ebay they have 60" X 36" decks the rest on Ebay appear to be smaller ovens not to great for 18" pizzas.

Many of the ovens for sale on Ebay do not indicate what model they are, the deck size or the BTU. Not to be critical, but I will. If the model size and BTU are not indicated I would fear the seller is thinking some buyers will not realize the ovens are smaller than what they should buy.

George Mills

 

[Fireside_Pizzeria]

George,

I agree with you. Before I bought anything off Ebay or from anyone. I would have to find out exactly what I was buying. I even found Vulcan ovens like ours, but I’m trying to get away from that problem. I’ll keep doing my research, and see what happens.