How to Maintain and Care for Your Delivita Oven

Few things in life are as simple and enjoyable as eating homemade, fresh-from-the oven pizza with friends and family in your own backyard.

The heat spilling from the oven, the scent of almost-singed dough, the comfortable laughter that accompanies a good meal.

Sure, a pizza oven is an investment in your culinary life: it's a commitment to never eating bad pizza again.

But more than that, it's an investment in your social life.

Having your own pizza oven at home is an invitation to loved ones, a nod towards Italian-style hospitality, a physical manifestation of the phrase: “there’s plenty of food to go around.”

And how can you protect that investment for future generations?

Make sure you take good care of it, with regular pizza oven maintenance to ensure the oven's longevity and optimal performance.

Essential Tools and Supplies

Before you start, here are a few tools you’ll need to take proper care of your pizza oven.

Fuel

• Eco Firelighters (preferably wood wool eco lighters)
• Kindling (preferably softwood pine, approx. 2.5-3cm x 10cm)
• Logs (preferably hardwood, approx. 8-10cm x 22-26cm long)

Specialist equipment

• Infrared temperature gun
• Oven brush
• All weather cover

Household items

• Matches/lighter
• Warm soapy water
• Clean cloth
• Abrasive sponge scourer pad (not a metal scrub)
• Stainless steel cleaner (optional)
• Olive oil or baby oil (optional)
• T-Cut (optional)

Regular Cleaning Routine

This is a step-by-step cleaning routine to follow after each time you use your oven. Don’t use any cleaning products inside the oven, as it is essentially self-cleaning. Any bacteria will be burned off with the high temperature.

1. First, allow your oven to cool before cleaning — this will take around two and a-half hours from when the flames have gone out
2. After this time most of the ashes should have evaporated. Use your oven brush to sweep out any remaining ashes or food debris
3. Then, clean the stainless steel front panel with warm soapy water and a clean cloth
4. You can remove any stubborn black marks from the stainless steel front panel with an abrasive sponge scourer pad (not a metal scrubber), or using stainless steel cleaner.

Deep Cleaning and Seasonal Maintenance

The base of your pizza oven is made from heat-resistant clay, which needs to be cured periodically to dry out any water and temper the clay. Cure your pizza oven:

• Before the first time you use it
• After it has not been used for several months
• After it has gotten wet

How to cure your wood-fired pizza oven

1. Remove your DeliVita chimney during curing
2. Use an eco firelighter, surrounded by softwood kindling, to light a fire towards the front of the oven
3. When this small fire reaches 50°, begin adding more kindling to increase the temperature by approximately 25°C every half hour
4. Keep the kindling fire alight for 4-5 hours, and do not allow it to exceed 200 250°C
5. Do not add any hardwood logs during curing
6. Alternatively, you can cure your oven in several shorter burns

How to clean the outside of your wood-fired pizza oven

1. Clean the stainless steel front panel and the outer cover with warm soapy water and a clean cloth
2. Remove any stubborn black marks from the stainless steel front panel with an abrasive sponge scourer pad (not a metal scrubber), or stainless steel cleaner
3. Remove any scratches from the outer cover using T-Cut
4. Shine the frontage of the oven with olive oil or baby oil

Protecting Your Delivita Pizza Oven

The DeliVita oven is a hardy product made for Yorkshire weather. You can continue to use it all year round, but if the interior gets damp, follow the curing process before its next use. Always use the all-weather cover between uses if the weather is likely to be wet or frosty.

If you do decide to store your oven for a season, you can protect it from the elements by storing it properly:

• Clean any debris from the oven, wipe down the exterior and rub it with oil
• Cover the oven with the all-weather cover, and move it to a dry environment
• Follow the curing process before you use the oven again

Troubleshooting and Common Issues

Cracks in my pizza oven
The oven may develop cracks in the interior clay base. This is completely normal. Just spray the area with water, and fill the crack using a fire cement putty, which can be purchased in most DIY stores

Pizza oven leaking water
Small amounts of water may leak from the sides of the oven when curing, and during first use. This is completely normal and will not affect the oven’s performance.

Pizza sticking and burning
Pizzas and other foods may stick to the base of your pizza oven or become burned for any number of reasons. If the issue is due to excess flour or ash on the base of the pizza oven, just use the oven brush regularly to properly clean the oven base when cooking.

Warranty and Customer Support

When you buy a DeliVita pizza oven, you’re buying a lifetime of good pizza — literally.

Your DeliVita wood-fired oven comes with a no-quibble lifetime warranty, which applies to the original purchaser of the oven (excluding commercial use). Just register your oven within 30 days of purchase by writing to hello@delivita.com.

See full details and exclusions of the DeliVita warranty here.

Tips for Enhancing Your Cooking Experience

We’ll leave you with a few more expert tips to help you get the most out of your oven:

• Always use quality hardwoods such as Beech
• Ensure your wood has the humidity of less than 15%, and no bark
• Always try to split the wood with an axe, as freshly split wood performs better
• Add one piece of wood at a time, so as not to overload your oven
• Always start your fire in the middle of your oven, then push it back after 20-25 minutes, to allow the stone to get to temperature.

Conclusion

If you take good care of your pizza oven, it will continue to take good care of you for years to come. Clean it after each use, cure it regularly, and store it properly to maintain your Delivita pizza oven.