Owner of a stone oven or planning on buying one? These tips are for you!
Having a few years of stone oven usage under our belts we thought it would be useful to gather a few tips and tricks about the use and cleaning of these ovens and share them with you.
We own two Rofco stone ovens (the B20 and B40 model) and most of the tips you’ll find on the list below are especially helpful for other Rofco owners and bakers, but a bunch of them can also be applied to other bread / pizza / stone oven brands or for people who bake bread on a stone in their regular oven.
- Tip for easy cleaning: Ovens with a stainless steal exterior can get stained with not so attractive brown spots and smutches, especially around the steam vents. We found out you can very easily remove these stains by carefully wiping the door with a wet paper towel while the oven is hot. Because of the hot oven and the wet paper you get a sort of steam cleaning.
- Tip for cleaning your oven window: The oven window also gathers a brownish hue after several bakes and it gets harder to see through it. You can get rid of this brown coating by scraping it off with a sharp razor blade.
- We usually clean out our oven between bakes with an oven brush but we also use the vacuum cleaner and put the brush on the porous stone to really get those crumbs out.
- We never bake enriched breads that contain a lot of fat and / or sugar directly on the stones, because we want to keep them clean. We use a baking tray and /or baking paper. We also want to avoid getting the smell of onion and garlic in the stones because, even though we are fond of it, we do not want every loaf we bake to taste of it. So protect your stones when you can expect spilling or leakage.
- Grease or burned sugar spilled on your baking stones? Best clean it with a dough knife or coarse sanding paper
- We make the most of the warmth of our oven by placing bowls of dough on top to help with the proofing (always keep an eye on your dough temperature, also check out these tips.)
- It is important that the stones get enough time to absorb the heat, that is why heating a stone oven takes so much longer than heating a conventional oven. But because the stones retain the heat for much longer, as soon as they are hot enough, you will be able to profit from their heat for much longer. One of the biggest advantages being that not much heat is lost by opening the oven door (unlike many household ovens, where the temperature can drop significantly). This initial blast of heat is crucial in bread baking, especially for good oven spring.
- When using steam, it is best to spray the oven walls. Avoid getting water on the (the protective glass over) the oven light because there is a good chance it will snap.
- To avoid those nasty bakers tattoos, buy some good quality protective oven gloves that go all the way up to your elbows.
- Make sure to clean your stones before the next baking session otherwise the crumbs that got left behind will burn and it will not smell nice plus the burned crumbs will attach to the bottom of your fresh batch!
- Choose your stone oven size wisely and think about how much bread you want to bake initially and in the future. If you know you are always going to bake just one or two loaves you can be happy for many years with a one tier oven that accommodates these small quantities. If you know you are already very fond of bread baking and are keen on baking for others or baking bigger batches, just have a good conversation with yourself and take space, other equipment like mixers and electricity bills into account and make an informed decision.
Rofco, Häußler or other stone oven user? We and many other bakers would like to hear your tips and tricks and baking experiences with your oven.
Leave a comment below!
Hai Lin Leung says
Hi there, thanks for sharing your experience with the Rofco! I’ve just bought one myself (secondhand) in the hope of setting up a microbakery. I’m planning on using it for baking some enriched doughs/buns and pastries too and am hoping to build a little DIY proofing box using a fridge. I wondered if you’d found any domestic fridges that can fit Rofco trays? Or what do you do if you need to put any trays into a fridge? I think theyre just a little bit too deep! Thanks for your help!
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Hai Lin,
We understand what you mean. No we have not found a fridge that will fit the trays. We only use the fridge for bulk fermentation in bowls that do fit in our fridge.
Greetings and hope you will find your ideal method!
Happy baking
Charlotte says
Hi there- lots of useful info here, thanks! I recently bought a Rofco B40 (!!) off a mentor, and now have to transport it ~900 miles home in my car. I am planning to secure it very well and I know it has to be upright (and will likely take out the racks). I’m wondering- can it be tilted slightly and momentarily? I will have to tilt it about 5 inches to get it into my car (trunk height is about 34 inches, oven height is 39″) where I can secure it totally upright where I’ve removed my seats. Do you think that’s ok or it must always remain totally upright? Thanks! Any other self-transport dos and don’ts welcome.
Weekend Bakers says
We have never had to move or transport a Rofco oven ourselves. Ours were always transported upright, that we know for sure. But do contact Rofco.be or the distributor you bought the oven from to get helpful information on how much tilt will still be OK.
Wishing you all the best on your trip! Be safe.
Marieke
MakingThatBreid says
I recently purchased a rofco20 but my bakes can be varied. I preheat the oven as required at 230 and bake my proofed breads straight from the fridge which then affects the oven temp. I saw in one comment to preheat at highest temp, does that mean 300 and then reduce to required temp? Any advice would be welcomed.
Mae Haagenstad says
Can I use Pyrex or glass bread pan in the rofco?
Lu says
Hi!
I’ve just change the light bulb of my Rofco B10 and can’t find the way to put the cristal cover back in it’s place. i’m trying to find out how to do it, can you help me?
Thanks for this post.
Naomi says
Did you find a way? I am struggling to get mine back on too!
Nigel says
Hello,
Can you please tell me if you can use a standard UK plug for a Rofco B40?
Many Thanks
Nigel
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Nigel,
Yes, it is a 230 V appliance and you can change the Euro plug to a UK plus.
Good luck with it!
Jill says
Hi – very helpful post! I just got my Rofco and bake a lot of specialty sourdough for my clients. Many contain garlic….cheese…..raisins….various inclusions. I’m worried about those inclusions leaking and soaking into the stones. Do you have any experience baking bread on the included steel trays that come with the Rofco? I’m thinking I’ll load the bread onto parchment and then onto the preheated steel trays, then steam. I have the baking sheets also but am concerned about the flavors soaking into those and ruining them as well. Just wondering how bread bakes on the metal trays or if you have any other advice?
Thanks so much for all these great tips!
Muna says
Hello,
Thanks for the awesome post! really helpful ^_^ I have a quick question regarding the inside walls of the oven. I accidentally put the dough too close to the wall, after I finished baking it I noticed a brown stain on the back wall. I tried to wipe it down with a wet towel but it doesn’t seem to want to go away. Any tips?
Thanks ^_^
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Muna,
Can you tell us what the oven wall is made of? Our walls (of our household oven) are made of or coated with enamel. What works best for us is first to soak the stain with a wet towel or maybe wet paper that sticks. Then take a sharp new double edged razor blade and scrape off the stain, holding the blade as flat as possible to the surface. Carefully try a very small piece first to make sure you do no damage. The enamel is glass-like and hard so it should be OK, provided your oven also has this material on the back wall.
Erwin says
Met Dip 02 is alles er makkelijk af te krijgen. Wel goed naspelen. En de oven nadien opzetten gedurende verschillende uren om de zeepgeur eruit te halen. Grts Erwin
Marcin says
Hello
Im interested but oven Rofco b20
Could you let me know where can I buy please.
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Marchin,
You can contact Rofco via their site Rofco.be.
Rachel Frampton says
I have been planning to buy an oven since my current is not functioning well. I’m glad you shared this tip; I’ll make sure to wipe off the brown spots with a paper towel whilst the oven is still hot. I’d also keep in mind to clean my oven in between bakes.
Weekend Bakers says
Great you found our tips useful Rachel. Hope you can enjoy your oven a little longer this way.
Nicole says
Good day, on this cold day in Canada,,,I would like to ask you a important question well I am thinking of buying a Rofco B40…
You see I do different kinds of Breads…one of the breads I do is the White Bread that can be tall.
I am confused…. ..instead…does people regret buying the b20 instead of buying the b40, …which one y0u think I would benefit.
..I am a visual person I need to see the item..hehe…but unable can you help on this matter…should I buy b40 or b20….thanks
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Nicole,
If you read this article and especially all the comments it may answer most of your questions!
Think about how many loaves you need / want to bake in one go too.
www.weekendbakery.com/posts…read-oven/
Good luck with the decision making process!
Marieke & Ed
Dino Matelli says
Hi, can the stones of the B40 be removed to make the oven lighter for moving? Cheers! Dino.
Weekend Bakers says
Yes, Dino that is possible. It is quite easy to take them out, but they are heavy and you have to protect / wrap them well because the coarse chamotte stone is slightly vulnerable.
Dino Matelli says
@weekend Bakers, thanks for the info.
Carlos says
Hi there, where can you get spares for a rofco B40 oven?
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Carlos,
I think it is best to contact somebody at rofco.be and ask them about their contact / distributor for your country.
Evelyn says
Hi
I was recently given a Rofco B20.
Would you help with some tips?
I bake two sourdough loaves (600g each).
Would you load both on one baking stone or on two different?
My experience so far, is that when I load both on one stone, I am only getting ‘ear’ on one loaf and not the other.
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Evelyn,
Congrats on your new oven. We hope the tips above are already helpful for you. As for your question about the use of the stones, it does not really matter what stones you use, or it should not matter, because with the B20 you heat up the complete oven (the B40 also has a setting for only the top tier) and all the stones should get hot enough to get a good result no matter what tier you use. Because you also want to be able to make 6 good loaves in this oven at one point maybe.
Make sure the oven is heated for at least 1.5 to 2 hours before use at the highest temp so the heat is as evenly distributed as possible.
Have you already tried to bake two loaves on the top tier or also one on the bottom tier and how did that go?
Could it be that one loaf was differently scored than the other loaf maybe? Probably not, but it can make a difference in the end result too.
The only way to know for sure is to bake several batches and also measure the heat with an infrared thermometer and see if there’s a big difference between the three stages.
Good luck with it and also realize a loaf with less ‘ear’ is still very edible, although we understand you do want your loaves to all look the part.
Daron S Stiles says
I am selling a used, 1 year old, Rofco B40 for $2000. It is located in Idaho Springs, CO. If you are interested, please contact me at: daronstiles@hotmail.com
Anna says
We have 2 Rofco B40 ovens and they are generally excellent, however, the rubber door seal has disintegrated on one of the ovens and I cannot seem to find a replacement anywhere. Any advice?
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Anna,
You should contact Rofco because you can buy new ones from them and replace them.
Hope it will be alright!
Marieke
Caroline Lyall says
Hi,
I’m thinking of buying a rofco as my orders are up to 12 – 14 loaves now and it’s a struggle with one and a half kitchen ovens.
I have limited space in my kitchen and was thinking about having it on a trolley in my dining room.
Would a normal plug be ok?
Thanks
Caroline
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Caroline,
We can tell you a Rofco B40 needs about 3100 W and a B20 needs about 2500 W.
We know in Holland we can just plug it in, but it is always wise to consult an electrician for your situation and also ask Rofco because we do not know about the exact rules and regulations for your country.
You can also read some more facts that might be of interest in this posting plus comments: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…read-oven/
Good luck with it and with all your baking activities!
Marieke & Ed
Chuck says
I just bought a Rofco B40. I didn’t buy the steam trays, can you tell me what you are using to create steam in yours. I see it in the picture above but can’t see it all. Did you buy it on Amazon?
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Chuck,
It is just a plant sprayer that sprays a water mist in the Rofco. We spray each tier for several seconds, especially the walls, avoiding the oven light like we say in the tips. We just bought ours (it’s one that you have to pump before use, so the water comes out with some force) at a local garden center. It works really well for us and this way you do not lose any oven floor space.
Suharti says
Hi. Thank you for the info. I wonder when do you spray the oven, before the dough inserted or after. As you mentioned it should be sprayed to the wall, isn’t it difficult when the dough already inside? Thanks..
averill stevenson says
Hi, I am about to buy the B40. Wondering if placing it on a counter height “36”) support table would make it a comfortable work height?
Weekend Bakers says
We would suggest to try it out with some boxes. Each person is different (in height) and has different wishes and preferences of course. Ours is a quite a bit lower, on a sturdy plywood platform with caster wheels, but if you bake all day long for many days a week, a higher height would indeed be preferable.
Janet Henningsen says
I am wondering if you have had to change the gasket on either of your ovens.
I have the B20 and have been baking with it daily for over a year now.
I can see steam escaping from the top of the oven door while bread is baking. Upon opening the door there is condensation on the metal top part of the door. (This happens even when there is no steam added at the time of loading my breads into the oven.)
The gasket has never been tight as are gaskets on ‘regular’ ovens. The temp. on the top shelf has always been lower than the temps. on the other 2 lower shelves.
I know all ovens leak a bit but this seems a bit over the top.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Janet
P.S. Also, it seems as though the door simply doesn’t close as tightly as it did in the beginning either. I gently shut the door and rather than being firmly closed it can be jostled a bit as though the latch isn’t fully engaged.
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Janet,
Yes we did replace it at one point, we recognize what you are describing. We advice you to contact Rofco or the reseller and order a new one and we are sure all will be well!
The difference in temp is also something we and other Rofco users recognize, but it is a thing that we ‘work around’ by baking the loaves on one tier just a bit longer or you can have lighter and darker loaves, because different people prefer them.
Hope and expect it will be alright!
Janet says
Hi,
Thanks for the reply. It is nice to know that I am not the only one. I do have an extra gasket so I will go ahead an install it. Looks as though all I have to do is insert the metal pieces in each corner to corresponding holes in each corner of the stove.
I, like you, have learned how to manage the different shelf temp. issue and now I find it handy because I bake different styles of bread in one bake. Ones with the most enrichments get placed on the top shelf as it is the coolest shelf and has ample room for oven spring.
Have you had the issue with the door latch not latching as snuggly? IF you have, how did you remedy that? I did take the door apart to see if I could adjust something inside but there seemed to be no obvious way of tightening anything up.
Thanks again!
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Janet,
With our B40 we always give it an extra ‘knee’ to close the door shut, with a little bit of extra effort and then it feels secure and quite snug. When in doubt just contact Rofco and let them help you and solve anything that is not working properly.
We think all Rofco owners take the few ‘quirks’ of the oven because with a few ‘work arounds’ it works well and produces great loaves. Sometimes wish for some updates or alterations like a bigger window in the oven door, but they never seem to have the time for it alas!
Paul says
Hi guys,
Just wondering what is your approach to continuous baking in the B40. I know you mentioned before 235 and down to 50 degrees after 15 minutes and this works for me on a one of bake. Do you have a different approach for continuous baking?
Paul.
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Paul,
We do not use the continuous baking option ourselves, but do know that the idea is to continuous bake at 200 C. Because of the increased distance to the heating elements (compared to the B30) your loaves should not burn at the top this way.
Hope it will work for you.
Ed
Bassim M Dowidar says
Hi
Thanks for posting the tips. I bake bread at home regularly (3 – 4 days a week) and the wall oven I was using just went out. Looking at placing a bread oven in a separate room in the house. The Rofco looks perfect for me from a size and price perspective. I noticed the temp only gets to 480(deg F)! Do you feel that affects the baking? Generally pizzas and breads are cooked at a higher temperature….Even residential ovens go to 500 or 525 F.
Thanks again.
Bassim
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Bassim,
The Rofco can go to around 570 F / 300 C. We bake all our loaves at a maximum of around 460F / 235 to 240 C so this is never a problem for us. We would not recommend baking both sourdough and yeast based loaves at higher temperatures than that. We do not bake pizza in the Rofco, because for good pizza, ideally you need even higher temperatures than 570 F, also depending on the recipe and type of dough. Maybe you have seen our latest articles on pizza baking and the pizza oven we use: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…gh-recipe/
You can also check out this article which is already quite a few years old, but the comment section may have some useful information for you too:
www.weekendbakery.com/posts…read-oven/
Hope this helps, good luck with your decision.
Marieke & Ed
Aaron Roberts says
I am currently a baker in an artisan bakery in the UK. I am going to be starting my own micro-bakery with a viewing to grow. I am looking at the Rofco B40 as my best prospect initially and then utilising it in a bigger set up eventually. I was wondering if when you steam the oven you just use a garden sprayer like it looks like you do to inject the moisture? And does this give you a good crust? I am used to steam injected ovens so this will be taking a bit of a back step for me initially!
Thanks, Aaron
Weekend Bakers says
Yes Aaron this is our preferred method. This way we can direct and control the amount, it’s quick and also, not unimportant with the Rofco, we do not lose floor space. Because the alternative with this oven is to use the steam trays that you can buy with the Rofco, but we just did not like them enough to use them instead of the sprayer. And yes, we are very happy with the quality of the crust on loaves and baguettes etc.
Good luck with your decision making and plans!
Paul says
Hi,
Firstly I’m finding your website extremely helpful, well done! My Rofco B40 is arriving next week and I am super excited. Just a question with regards loading the oven with 12 loaves. Is plywood boards best? Also is it best to make boards that take 4 loaves to load each deck in one go or individual peels and load the 12 loaves separately?
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Paul,
Thank you and Exiting Stuff! Hope it will be great. We found that loading with individual peels works best to be able to place each loaf exactly right. We use these peels:
www.weekendbakery.com/websh…-peel.html
You can look at the measurements if you want to make them yourself. With these measurements you have enough room to place two breads next to each other in a B40 without hitting the bread that’s already in there.
Hope this helps, good luck with everything!
Alex says
Hi! Have you had any success baking pastries (croissants etc) in a Rofco? I’m struggling to get the temp settings right. I have an oven thermometer placed in the oven that I can see through the window of my B40 but it drops to about 150c from 220c when I load it and I’m not sure if this is affecting how the pastries bake (a bit flat). Thanks in advance!
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Alex,
We do not bake pastries in our Rofco oven. We are a bit spoiled and also have a ‘dedicated’ fan assisted pastry oven (a large commercial convection oven with two fans). It is possible to bake pastries in the Rofco and we do know of other bakers who do or did so, but also heard it is a bit of a process to get it right.
But we think it is a bit strange your oven temp dropping this much just by loading the oven. If the oven is preheated well it should be way less. Maybe try and preheat it longer (always at least 1.5 hours maybe even 2 to get the heat into the stones).
Good luck with it!
Alex says
Sorry I am late to thank you for your kind reply, I only just remembered to check back! Ahh, a fan assisted pastry oven sounds amazing! I will persist with the Rofco and you are right, I don’t think I have been preheating for long enough so I will give a 2 hour pre-heat a go before baking next time. Thanks again!
Alex
Gina says
Alex,
I’m so curious to know, have you had better success using the Rofco for pastry after re-heating the oven for 2 hours?
~Gina
Aaron Roberts says
Your pastries shouldn’t go flat once going into a temp of even 150 as the yeast burns off it’s energy over 38. If you are baking them with the bottom heat on, i would suggest you bake it with the bottom heat off. I use a deck oven in the bakery i work in so a bigger version of what you have and we bake them at around 450f so around 232c.
Matthew says
Hi, thanks for your comprehensive analysis and generosity answering questions!
Have you baked many tinned loaves in the Rofco B40? Just wondering if the oven bakes/colours the outside of the loaves evenly?
Also, does it bake enriched breads well?
Thanks!
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Matthew,
We almost exclusively bake bread without tins. Only some sandwich loaves in tins. There can be a difference in bakes / colours depending on which tier loaves are baked on and how fully loaded the oven is. This can also be different from one Rofco to the next we understand from other bakers. It is very easy to adapt as you get to know the workings of your particular oven to leave the loaves on one tier just a minute longer to get the desired color. Or maybe you or your customers want lighter and darker loaves, according to taste. We personally do not experience any of this as a problem with the type of loaves we bake (mainly hybrid and sourdough).
But we have to say for enriched breads we use a different oven, a convection with twin fans, so we are not the most experienced bakers to tell you how well the Rofco does with these breads.
Matthew says
Thank you – appreciate your reply.