Pizza dome above fire box

[Canuck350]

Hi Everyone,

New to posting but I have a question. About to build my first RF smoker and was toying with the idea of making a removable pizza oven that I could attach to the top of the fire box. Has anyone every done this?

Was thinking I'd just add a baffle that could isolate it from the SC and a slide that would open up at the top rear of the FB directing the heat into the pizza oven.

 

[johnmeyer]

This isn't exactly what you asked, but I just got this for Christmas:

Camp Chef Pizza Oven Accesory

It sits on top of the heat source. In my case I use my Weber Genesis grill which is fits on top of with about 1/16" to spare.

I was inspired by the Weber charcoal add-on that SmokinAl got:

TRYING OUT MY NEW KETTLE PIZZA ATTACHMENT

When I looked at pizza attachments for gas grills, I didn't get excited until I saw this one. I haven't yet cooked on it, although I did do a one-hour season and measured the temps. I was able to get the stone to about 550 and the oven enclosure well over 600.

So, maybe this gadget will give you some ideas. I'll post about my experience with it after I've cooked a few meals.

 

[dcecil]

I like your thinking on this. I will be following this thread to see what our professional builders have to say

 

[Co4ch D4ve]

Canuck,
I’ve been thinking the same thing! I have a LoneStarz offset with a Grill/Griddle feature above the firebox. Here is a photo...

The lid lifts up to expose a plate steel griddle. If I remove the griddle I can insert a grill above the firebox.

My ideas have been to build a pizza oven that will sit over the opening like you describe. I also would like to build a rotisserie that will fit above the firebox.

I’m curious to hear your ideas.

Dave

 

[Canuck350]

I used to have a kettle pizza for my weber and it worked great, didn't retain any heat so you couldn't bake anything in it but it was great for pizza.

My plan for the firebox topper would be very similar, the stone would sit directly on the top of the box and the dome would direct the heat and occasional flame directly over the stone and out the front. There would be no heat retention but you still get a wood fired pizza. I can use my Egg if i really need to bake anything.

Steve

 

[kmmamm]

Tried building an “oven” over the firebox once. My grand plan was to use it to bake at the same time I smoked. It never worked as planned, and ended up being nothing more than a “mediocre “warmer box”.
Here are some of the lessons learned:

The fire necessary to smoke in the cc was not hot enough to sufficiently heat the internal oven temperature to successfully bake.
Internal oven temps varied almost 30 deg F from bottom to top (stratification)
Because oven sat on top of firebox and didn’t share a common wall, the thermal transfer was very inefficient
Neither fb or oven were insulated and as a result, the oven temp was sensitive to wind and ambient temperatures.

Overall, I was so disappointed, I have never been compelled to build another to see if design changes might improve the results.

 

[Canuck350]

Yeah, no plans to bake for now. I'd like to either use the unit to smoke and keep the fire low OR if I feel like pizza I isolate the FB from the CC and crank it right up as high as I can and open a door to bring the heat up into the pizza box. Which I think would be roughly the same size as the unit John got for Christmas

 

[johnmeyer]

I fixed the broken links in my post above, made some edits, and added a picture. It should make more sense now, if you want to go back and skim it again.

 

[Canuck350]

Exactly, I’m thinking something the same height as the band of the kettle pizza but square obviously.

 

[Canuck350]

Not an artist but something like this.

The opening in the top of the FB would be covered with a piece of plate that slides into a “track” around three sides and on the outside a vertical strip of steel with a Nomex gasket and a handle.

May or may not include the small chimney

 

[SmokinVOLfan]

This isn't exactly what you asked, but I just got this for Christmas:

Camp Chef Pizza Oven Accesory

It sits on top of the heat source. In my case I use my Weber Genesis grill which is fits on top of with about 1/16" to spare.

I was inspired by the Weber charcoal add-on that SmokinAl got:

TRYING OUT MY NEW KETTLE PIZZA ATTACHMENT

When I looked at pizza attachments for gas grills, I didn't get excited until I saw this one. I haven't yet cooked on it, although I did do a one-hour season and measured the temps. I was able to get the stone to about 550 and the oven enclosure well over 600.

So, maybe this gadget will give you some ideas. I'll post about my experience with it after I've cooked a few meals.

Know this is a couple months old but did a search and yours is the only post I could find. Have you cooked on the pizza oven yet? I was looking at getting one and trying to find some reviews to see what people thought

 

[Canuck350]

I've been away for work and haven't had a chance to build anything yet, still if the drawings stage.

 

[johnmeyer]

Know this is a couple months old but did a search and yours is the only post I could find. Have you cooked on the pizza oven yet? I was looking at getting one and trying to find some reviews to see what people thought

I've been meaning to create a new post to describe my experience with this.

Short version: It's a 10 out of 10.

This was designed to be used with Camp Chef's own line of outdoor cooktops, but either by chance or by design, it also perfectly fits my 1995-era Weber Genesis natural gas grill.

I did an initial break-in, without food, to test temperature as well as burn off anything left over from the manufacturing process. At that time I experimented with various settings. Long story short, I found that because this was designed for a grill that is more of a cooktop, with the burners much closer to the food, and because of the design of my Weber (it slopes inward as you go down towards the burners), this cannot sit any lower than the grill grates, As a result, I initially couldn't get it much above 550 degrees.

I then decided to take a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil and cover the opening, even though it is designed to be used with this open. Once I did that, the temperature gauge went up to 700 degrees, and my IR point-n-shoot thermometer showed the built-in stone at 650.

A few days later I did my first set of pizzas, and have made pizza 2-3 times since then. I used Trader Joe's dough, Safeway dough, my own dough, and pre-made crusts, like the Boboli crusts you can get anywhere. The Trader Joe's dough is very soft and very difficult to get on and off the peel, but once I figured out how to do that, the results were nothing short of spectacular: extremely tasty, very crisp crust. The toppings had a perfect char.

In my indoor oven, with the stone on the top shelf and the oven set to 525, it takes 10-11 minutes to cook a pizza. The results are good, and the crust has some crispiness, but it lacks both the crunch that this device gives you and completely lacks that hint of char on both the crust and the toppings. On this device, it takes 4-6 minutes to fully cook the pizza.

At some point I need to find some sort of sheet metal that I can use to replace aluminum foil. I have not yet figured out what material to use or how to attach it. Magnets seem like the right idea, but I don't know how to do that without introducing a gap between the door and the oven.

Even without this eventual modification, I could not be happier.

If you think you want to get this, you need to measure your grill very, very carefully, and then look at the dimensions at the Camp Chef's site. Their dimensions are very accurate, so you can rely on them. On my grill it only has about 1/16" to spare on the two sides, and about 1.5" on the front and back.

 

[SmokinVOLfan]

I've been meaning to create a new post to describe my experience with this.

Short version: It's a 10 out of 10.

This was designed to be used with Camp Chef's own line of outdoor cooktops, but either by chance or by design, it also perfectly fits my 1995-era Weber Genesis natural gas grill.

I did an initial break-in, without food, to test temperature as well as burn off anything left over from the manufacturing process. At that time I experimented with various settings. Long story short, I found that because this was designed for a grill that is more of a cooktop, with the burners much closer to the food, and because of the design of my Weber (it slopes inward as you go down towards the burners), this cannot sit any lower than the grill grates, As a result, I initially couldn't get it much above 550 degrees.

I then decided to take a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil and cover the opening, even though it is designed to be used with this open. Once I did that, the temperature gauge went up to 700 degrees, and my IR point-n-shoot thermometer showed the built-in stone at 650.

A few days later I did my first set of pizzas, and have made pizza 2-3 times since then. I used Trader Joe's dough, Safeway dough, my own dough, and pre-made crusts, like the Boboli crusts you can get anywhere. The Trader Joe's dough is very soft and very difficult to get on and off the peel, but once I figured out how to do that, the results were nothing short of spectacular: extremely tasty, very crisp crust. The toppings had a perfect char.

In my indoor oven, with the stone on the top shelf and the oven set to 525, it takes 10-11 minutes to cook a pizza. The results are good, and the crust has some crispiness, but it lacks both the crunch that this device gives you and completely lacks that hint of char on both the crust and the toppings. On this device, it takes 4-6 minutes to fully cook the pizza.

At some point I need to find some sort of sheet metal that I can use to replace aluminum foil. I have not yet figured out what material to use or how to attach it. Magnets seem like the right idea, but I don't know how to do that without introducing a gap between the door and the oven.

Even without this eventual modification, I could not be happier.

If you think you want to get this, you need to measure your grill very, very carefully, and then look at the dimensions at the Camp Chef's site. Their dimensions are very accurate, so you can rely on them. On my grill it only has about 1/16" to spare on the two sides, and about 1.5" on the front and back.

I appreciate the very detailed info! It really helps out!

I’ve been looking to buy a griddle IE camp chef or blackstone for some time and have been doing research like crazy. I’ve also been looking at just the straight up camp chef pizza oven that runs off propane by itself.

Turns out I’m leaning towards buying a nice camp chef stove that I can run a griddle off of and also have the versatility of the pizza oven attachment like yours or boil pots or whatever else. For the price of a stove and this pizza attachment along with the griddle I spend less than just buying a straight up griddle and don’t get the versatility of the stove.

Anyways don’t mean to ramble on. I appreciate the suggestion and your input and hopefully I have one in the very near future!