The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Deck Ovens: Old VS New

Adammac's picture
Adammac

Deck Ovens: Old VS New

Hi guys, Our bakery business is expanding and I'm looking to improve the bread side of the Bakery. We currently bake in a double stack of gas Blodgett zephaire convection ovens which are far from ideal for making bread. 

I am looking for information on how older deck ovens (Blodgett and Bakers Pride) compare to modern more industrial oven ( Miwe and Bongard). I am mainly wondering if the older ovens are capable of baking larger loafs as they are designed for pizza. I am buying used so am only really interested in gas ovens.

I found the following on another forum

"While BTU per square foot of baking surface may not be a scientific measurement of baking efficiency for pizza, it does illustrate where the deck oven models diverge.

BLODGETT

981* . . . . . deck area 18.68 sq. ft. (1.74m2). . . . . BTU 50,000 . . . BTU/sq ft 2677 (2 decks)
961P . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.34 sq. ft. (0.87m2). . . . . . . . 50,000 . . . . . . . . . . 5353 
911P . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.04 sq. ft. (0.47m2). . . . . . . . 27,000 . . . . . . . . . . 5357
1060 . . . . . . . . . . . 14.6 sq. ft. (1.4m2). . . . . . . . . . 85,000 . . . . . . . . . . 5822
1000 . . . . . . . . . . . 12.2 sq. ft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120,000 . . . . . . . . . . 9836
(300F to 650F)

BAKERS PRIDE
Y600 . . . . deck area 15.0 sq. ft. (1.74m2). . . . . . BTU 120,000 . . . BTU/sq ft 8000
Y800 . . . . . . . . . . 20.1 sq. ft. (0.87m2)). . . . . . . . 120,000 . . . . . . . . . . 5970 "

Any advice on this would be much appreciated.

Thanks, Adam

jimbtv's picture
jimbtv

I bake with a Blodgett 911 equipped with a stone and steam injection. The deck size is small, a mere 22 X 33 X 7 inches, but since I am only baking baguettes it works pretty well for me. I can fit 8 - 320g baguettes in at a time. With that said I would like a bigger oven but it does suffice for now.

For artisan bread, steam is a pretty big deal. If you are baking loaves in cloches or dutch ovens then steam injection is not needed. If you bake directly on the stone then steam injection is a must. My experience has shown that finding a deck oven fitted with steam is pretty rare, I'm guessing because pizza, sandwiches, cookies, cakes and sandwich breads do not need steam and that is where the majority of deck ovens have been used. Ovens designed for artisan breads will likely have steam injection built-in but they can be hard to find in the used market.

Blodgett offers steam injection as an option for their deck so I purchased the accessory and installed it on my used oven. The kit is made-up of a perforated pipe, a through flange, some brackets and some screws. I then had to source a steam generator and I settled on one from Reimers. The steam set-up was a bit more of a challenge than I expected but it is working quite well. If I were doing it again I would be working harder to find an oven with steam injection already installed and working.

The stone is wonderful. It takes a bit longer to get the oven up to temperature but once it is there, I think I could leave the oven door open for an hour and not notice a change. Mass does have its advantages.

I think budget is going to play the biggest part in this type of decision. For me I was willing to make smaller investments and commit my own time to getting things operational. If you are looking to get your oven up and running as soon as possible, you may want to work with a used restaurant equipment company that can provide a turnkey installation for you.

Best of luck.

Jim

Adammac's picture
Adammac

Thanks for the response. I have been baking in a few dutch ovens but need to get away from that as  it's very time consuming, so steam will be a must for us.  We're in Ireland so blodgetts aren't as common as the more modern ovens, imo the main advantage of the older ovens is that they are so much easier to maintain/repair. I recently got an old Hobart h600 cheap and rebuilt/sprayed and have been fixing the Blodgetts myself when they break down. Here in Ireland there are few/no repair technicians who have the faintest clue about commercial equipment so it's great to know the equipment. 

Our budget is between 5-10k, I have found plenty of Miwe gas ovens in Europe built between 1995 and 2005 that are within budget but reliability could be an issue I would guess and since these ovens have electronic controls it could get costly. 

We won't be buying until the new year anyway so plenty of research ahead.

Adam