Gas Deck Ovens

I am currently using a Blodgett 911-P that I fitted up with a Reimers steam generator. The 911 has a Rokite stone the is the full size of the baking chamber and about 1" thick. It takes about 2 hours to bring the oven up to 500 F. I am firing the oven with liquid propane (LP) gas.

There are pluses and minuses to this oven as I am sure is the case with any oven. The primary obstacle is that the baking chamber is not separate from the firing chamber. This means that heat is generated in the lower firing unit which passes through the upper baking unit and then directly out the flue. The challenge is that the steam I inject does the same thing so I have to run the steam generator at around 5 psi. for the duration of the steaming process. If the baking chamber were sealed separately from the firing unit then much less steam would be needed.

Most of the commercial bread ovens I have seen have a sealed baking chamber with a damper. The damper is closed, the bread is loaded, a blast of steam is injected for a few seconds and then the bake begins. When the steaming time has expired the damper is opened and the steam is released for the rest of the baking period.

I bake out of my home and the Department of Health has some funny restrictions about commercial equipment in the home. Right now I am having conversations with Haussler and I am considering their INO 2004 electric oven. It runs on single phase 220 and has a baking chamber of 27" X 27" X 9". This is a little bit bigger than the oven I am using now and it is directed at the home baker. I can also double-stack two of these in a single foot print. You might want to have a look at the specs on this oven. My primary concern is that the steaming system for the INO ovens is a drip system and I don't want to invest the money to find out the steam isn't sufficient.

I hope this information helps in your decision process.

Jim