Aftercare | Delivita

How to maintain and care for your Delivita pizza oven

Congratulations on investing in a DeliVita wood-fired pizza oven! With some care and maintenance, your professional-grade pizza oven will deliver years of faithful service. Protecting your investment is quick and simple. By the end of this guide, you'll know everything you need to know about how to maintain and care for your DeliVita pizza oven.

The DeliVita pizza oven is simple, with a stylish stainless steel and fibreglass exterior covering a handcrafted clay interior. They work together to create restaurant-quality pizza perfection. Regularly cleaning, maintaining, and protecting your investment can deliver premium performance and protect your valuable investment.

The good news is that caring for your DeliVita pizza oven won't take up much time or involve any expensive tools or parts. In this guide, we'll explain the essential regular cleaning, routine maintenance, and common issues you may experience with your oven.

Essential Pizza Oven Tools and Supplies

Before we explain how to clean and maintain your pizza oven, you'll need to prepare the area and get some supplies ready. You'll want somewhere outside that's safe and accessible. Cover the floor with a mat or sheet if you're worried about your patio or external tiles.

Cleaning your DeliVita oven is simple, with a few items you should already have around the house. You'll need:

• Metal brush and metal container
• Clean cloth
• Warm soapy water
• Wet and dry cloth (if you want to buff up the fibreglass exterior)

Using these simple supplies, you can protect your pizza oven and keep it looking as good as new for years to come.

If the clay interior develops cracks, you may also require fire-resistant clay putty to fix it. Don't worry; you should be able to find this at your local DIY store. Applying it is simple and takes just a few minutes to perform a permanent fix.

Regular Cleaning Routine

The DeliVita pizza oven reaches temperatures of up to 500 degrees, which kills all germs and bacteria. The oven remains hot for up to 2.5 hours after cooking so the ashes evaporate. But If any remain, you can use a metal brush and container to remove them. (Pro tip: You can use them as garden fertiliser rather than chucking them in the bin!)

Food, grease, and grime can build up on the stainless-steel front of the oven and should be removed. Wait until the oven has cooled down and rub the front with soapy water and a clean cloth, and it should look as good as new. You can use a dry cloth and cooking oil (olive oil works well) to remove streaks and get the front looking as good as new.

Avoid using an abrasive cloth as this could scratch the oven. Trust us, even stuck on scraps of food will move with some warm water and elbow grease.

Deep Cleaning and Seasonal Maintenance

Regular cleaning should ensure your pizza oven remains in tip-top cooking condition. Still, you should perform a deep clean at least a couple of times every year. It's essential to deep clean your oven at the end of the summer season or before putting it into storage.

The first part of any deep cleaning involves checking over your oven. Examine the outside and inside for any scratches, splits, or damage. Identifying any issues with your oven means you can act before they get worse.

Then, you'll need to clean the oven as per our instructions above. If you notice deep scratches on the painted part of your DeliVita oven, you can remove these using a car finish restorer, such as T-Cut. You'll need to use the compound to remove the scratch, then buff it with a cloth and wax to restore the factory-perfect finish.

When inspecting the oven, you may find some small cracks in the interior. Don't worry; this is entirely natural. The oven's interior is made from clay, which can dry out and crack as it expands and contracts.

Fixing these cracks is easy and all part of owning an authentic pizza oven. You'll need to spray the affected area with water before applying a fire cement putty to the site (which you can purchase in any DIY store). You can smooth this down to provide a long-lasting and effective fix.

This essential maintenance will ensure your DeliVita oven is ready to be stored. At just 30kg, moving your oven to a safe and dry space for long-term storage is easy. We recommend investing in the official DeliVita cover to provide the best protection.

When the winter is over, and you're ready to start using your DeliVita oven again, be sure to follow the curing process. This prepares your oven for the high temperatures of cooking.

Protecting Your Delivita Pizza Oven

Your DeliVita oven is inspired by Italy but handmade in Yorkshire. It's designed for a life of hard work, but you'll need to treat it gently to keep it in the best condition.

Avoid leaving your DeliVita oven outdoors in extreme temperatures. Both high heat and low heat can damage your oven. You should also avoid getting your DeliVita oven wet, as this can affect the clay interior.

While the official DeliVita cover offers the best protection, if water does get inside your DeliVita oven, you'll need to do a quick cure to care for the clay insides. This involves setting a softwood fire inside the oven for at least an hour.

The DeliVita pizza oven is designed to be portable, and at just 30kg, it's easy to lift, move, and transport. When you're finished with your DeliVita oven, we advise you to fix the cover in place and move the oven somewhere safe, secure, and covered. This could be a garage, garden shed, or shelter.

Warranty and Customer Support

Your DeliVita warranty covers discolouration to the shell, damage to the shell and stainless-steel components, and manufacturing defects. The warranty does not cover damage through improper use or fair wear and tear.

You can find more details about the DeliVita warranty here, including details of how to contact us in the event of an issue with your pizza oven.

Tips for Enhancing Your Cooking Experience

Your DeliVita pizza oven is built to deliver long-lasting performance, but you should use it carefully. Here are some tips and tricks to maximise the performance of your DeliVita oven:

• Always use quality hardwoods such as beech and oak
• Ensure the wood has a humidity of less than 15%, and never burn the bark
• Always try to split the wood with an axe, as freshly cooked wood performs better
• Set the fire in the middle of the oven, then push back after 20/25 mins to allow the stone to reach the appropriate temperature,
• Use one piece of wood at a time
• Don't overload your pizza oven with wood
• Wait 2.5 hours for your DeliVita oven to cool down before removing ashes and cleaning it
• Clean your DeliVita oven after every use
• Perform a deep clean every few months and inspect for damage or cracks (especially in the clay inside)
• If your DeliVita oven gets wet, be sure to cure it with softwood for at least an hour before using it
• Always fit the cover, especially if you're leaving your pizza oven outdoors
• For the best protection, store your DeliVita oven somewhere dry and sheltered (a shed, shelter, or garage)

Conclusion

Your DeliVita oven is a big investment, and we know you'll want to keep it in the best condition. Thankfully, with some regular care and maintenance, you'll be able to enjoy your oven for years to come. Remember to regularly clean your oven, store it safely, and perform periodic deep cleans. It will be ready and waiting to be the centrepiece at your next pizza party.