HPC Fire Di Napoli Series Hybrid Dual Fuel Wood & Gas Burning Built-In Pizza Oven (Ready to Finish)

Description

The HPC Fire Di Napoli is the Forno de Pizza oven with the tile left off and a chimney put on: the same one piece cast refractory dome with two inch walls that HPC tiles for the Villa and the Forno, set on a 304 stainless hearth inside an insulated steel enclosure, with a refractory arch for the front and a 36 inch section of 6 inch DuraTech chimney on top. It arrives assembled and ready to finish. You build a non combustible base and surround to HPC's drawings, set the oven on it, run the chimney up, and clad the whole thing in the stone, brick or stucco of your outdoor kitchen. It burns wood, natural gas or propane, and both at once, because the gas burner is how you light the wood. Every Di Napoli is built in Miamisburg, Ohio by Hearth Products Controls, the company behind the HPC electronic ignition in fire pits across the country, and the same flame sensing ignition runs this oven. Crustify is an authorized dealer, and every HPC Fire Di Napoli ships free by freight.

If you have been pricing a site built oven, this is the model that gets you the look of one without a mason laying a dome. The oven is finished inside; the outside is a steel box your crew frames around and faces. HPC's drawings give the base, the opening and the clearances, the chimney is a standard DuraTech 6 inch system, and the ignition and gas valve are the same ones HPC services on the Villa and Forno. This page covers the base and enclosure, what is in the crate, the chimney, the fuel and ignition, cooking and curing, how it compares to the Villa, the Forno and the other built ins on this site, and what to order with it.

The Base, the Opening and the Surround

Start with the base, because the Di Napoli is a weight on two walls, not an oven on a counter. HPC's manual gives two ways to carry it. Side bearing: two block walls 33 1/2 inches apart, and the hearth rests on 1 1/2 inches of each. Front and rear bearing: a wall across the back and a wall across the front, the hearth again on 1 1/2 inches of each, with the front wall set so the finished stone, brick or stucco lands 12 inches from the front of the hearth. Either way the depth from the finished face to the back of the oven is 32 inches, the minimum width of the masonry is 33 1/2 inches with no maximum, and the hearth sits in a notch in the block so its top is where you want the counter line. HPC also allows a steel frame base sized to the oven's 470 lb installation weight. The block or steel, and everything else that touches the enclosure, has to be non combustible.

The one thing the base must not be is a solid slab under the oven. The bottom of the hearth has to stay open, and HPC draws a 20 inch tall by 32 inch wide open area under it, 20 inches minimum from the bottom of the hearth down. That space is where the gas shutoff valve lives, inside or outside, and where the 110V GFCI outlet goes on the left side of the base, at least 4 inches from the hearth. It is also how the burner breathes and how a technician reaches the valve, the ignition module and the hearth stone later. The front 12 inches of hearth overhang stays open underneath for the same reason, and HPC marks that area in red on the drawing: do not fill it, do not close it with a solid countertop.

The surround goes up after the oven is set. Frame it in steel studs or lay it in block, never wood, sheath it in cement board with fiber mesh tape on the joints, mortar the refractory arch to the cement board around the mouth, and apply your stone, brick or stucco, contoured over the arch. Roof it in whatever the kitchen is roofed in and put a chimney cap of your choice on the stack. HPC's clearance from the top of the oven opening to any combustible material, including a roof overhang or soffit attached to the house, is 36 inches, and the hearth needs 2 inches to a combustible back wall or none to a non combustible one. The oven cannot go inside a living space unless the local building authority approves an exhaust system, and it is not for a vehicle or a boat.

Plan the delivery. The assembled oven weighs about 450 lb on HPC's site and 470 lb on the manual's installation pages, and HPC recommends a forklift to set it. The crate arrives by freight on a pallet with a liftgate; moving it from the curb to the base is the installer's job, so have the equipment there on delivery day. HPC asks for a licensed hearth installer, and for a licensed gas installer on any natural gas line.

What Is in the Crate

The Di Napoli ships as one assembled piece, 33 1/2 inches wide, 24 1/2 inches tall at the enclosure and 44 inches deep from the front of the hearth to the back of the box. Five parts make it up, and every one of them is in the crate.

The oven

The same oven HPC builds for the Villa and the Forno: a dome cast in one piece of refractory, the material that lines kilns, with two inch walls rated past 2,400°F. One piece means no mortar joints to open up and nothing to lay up on site. Two inch walls mean the dome soaks heat for the first half hour, then holds it, so the oven keeps its temperature between pizzas and through the bread, roasts and smoking that follow; HPC says the outside of the dome runs at about a third of the inside temperature. Inside the enclosure the dome is insulated, which is what lets a stone surround sit against a 1,000°F oven. The mouth is 18 inches wide and about 11 inches tall, the same as the Villa.

The hearth

A 3 inch thick 304 stainless steel hearth carries the dome and the cooking stone. The cooking floor is the one HPC quotes for the Forno, about 29 by 30 inches, roughly 870 square inches, two pizzas side by side or a pizza and a pan. The gas burner sits under the floor along the left side, as HPC confirms for all three ovens, with the pilot and the control panel on the front face of the hearth: an on and off switch for the electronic ignition and a knob that turns the flame up and down. The front 12 inches of the hearth is the overhang that projects past the finished face of your surround, and the gas inlet, a 3/8 inch NPT female fitting, and the ignition module are under it.

The enclosure

The ready to finish part. The insulated oven sits in a steel box 32 inches deep that your framing attaches around. It is not a finish, it is the thing you finish: cement board, then stone, brick, tile or stucco, whatever the rest of the kitchen is faced in. Because the enclosure is a known rectangle with known clearances, the mason or framer works from HPC's drawing instead of guessing at the shape of a dome.

The refractory arch

A cast refractory arch finishes the front of the oven around the mouth. It is mortared to the cement board, and the stone is contoured to it, so the finished opening reads as a brick oven mouth rather than a hole in a wall. The arched front projects 12 inches from the enclosure on HPC's top view, with a 1 1/2 inch step at the enclosure line.

The chimney stack

A 36 inch straight section of 6 inch inside diameter DuraTech double wall chimney, factory fitted to the collar on top of the enclosure. The collar sits 4 5/8 inches from the back of the box, so the chimney runs up through the back of your surround. The rest of the run is yours to buy to length, as covered in the next section.

A Real Chimney, Not a Front Vent

This is the biggest difference between the Di Napoli and its two siblings. The Villa and the Forno exhaust through a stainless vent in the mouth of the oven, so nothing rises above the dome. The Di Napoli vents through the top of the enclosure into a 6 inch chimney, because it is meant to be buried in a structure, and smoke has to leave the structure somewhere. That is why the clearance above the opening is the only one that matters at the front, and why a Di Napoli can sit under a roof that a Villa could not.

HPC specifies DuraTech, DuraVent's all fuel double wall chimney system, in 6 inch. Never use a chimney with an inside diameter smaller than the oven's outlet; the outside diameter of a DuraTech section is the inside diameter plus 2 inches, so plan the chase around 8 inches. The 36 inch stack in the crate is the first section; the run above it follows DuraVent's own installation instructions and the National Fire Protection Association's Standard 211: the chimney extends at least 3 feet above the highest point where it passes through a roof and at least 2 feet higher than any part of a building within 10 feet of it. DuraTech can run up to 60 feet, so a two story chase is within reach. Two rules from HPC that overrule anything else: no damper anywhere in the chimney, the stack stays open its full length, and the flow of combustion air through the opening is never obstructed. Finish the top with the cap of your choice.

Wood, Gas, or Both at Once

The Di Napoli is a dual fuel oven in the plain sense: it has a gas burner and it burns wood, and HPC's manual has you use them together. Lighting it is a knob and a switch. Open the cylinder valve or the natural gas shutoff, set the oven control to off, switch the electronic igniter on, and wait up to a minute the first time for gas to reach the pilot. The flame sensing ignition confirms the pilot before the burner opens; the oven will not light from a match. Then turn the gas knob to set the flame, lay small pieces of dry oak on the burner, and the gas lights the wood. Once the wood has caught and made coals, push them to the center with the back of the brush to heat the floor, add more wood on top, and leave the gas on. HPC's reasoning is simple: the gas keeps the oven hot and the flame steady, and it burns off smoke from a dying or damp fire. On a weeknight you can skip the wood and cook on gas alone; on a weekend you can run the fire hard and turn the gas down; and when you want the gas on and a fire going, that is how the manual tells you to run it.

Natural gas, FDP-DiNapoli/RTF-EI-NG

Fixed piping at 6 to 7 inches of water column, run by a licensed gas installer to the 3/8 inch NPT inlet under the hearth, with a shutoff valve inside or outside the base where you can reach it. HPC's troubleshooting page notes that a starved natural gas line is the most common reason a pilot will not stay lit, so size the run for the oven and for anything else on the line.

Propane, FDP-DiNapoli/RTF-EI-LP

A 20 or 30 lb cylinder with a QCC1 valve, through the regulator HPC supplies, at 10 to 11 inches of water column. The cylinder never goes inside the oven base; it lives in its own enclosure built to the manual's ventilation rules, with two openings top and bottom on opposite sides sized to the tank, a floor 2 inches off the ground, a door that opens without tools, and the L bracket from the kit anchored so the tank cannot tip. The oven can also run from a house propane line, connected like natural gas. Any flex line between the supply and the oven must be rated to the oven's input and certified to ANSI Z21.75. If you change fuels later, HPC converts the oven through an HVAC or gas technician.

The ignition is 3 volts DC: two D cell batteries in the module, good for six months to a year in HPC's experience, or the 110V adaptor plugged into a 15 amp GFCI outlet, which HPC wants on the left side of the oven base at least 4 inches from the hearth. Either way there is no mains power in the oven itself and nothing to ground to the gas pipe. On a permanent oven with a base you are wiring anyway, the adaptor is the obvious choice; the batteries are the backup for a power outage.

Cooking in the Di Napoli

Thirty minutes from a cold start is HPC's number for pizza, with the gas and wood running together. The floor is the gauge: at its hottest the hearth reads about 800°F, the top of the dome runs over 1,000°F, and HPC's troubleshooting page wants the hearth at 625 to 650°F before the dough goes in. The manual's old test still works, a pinch of flour on the hearth should scorch in a second or two. Brush the center of the floor clear, launch, and give the pizza a quarter turn every 30 seconds until the cheese and crust are where you want them, which at full heat is a Neapolitan pizza in a couple of minutes. An infrared thermometer takes the guessing out of it; HPC sells one and it is in the What to Order section.

Bread goes up front, where the floor runs 300 to 400°F while the back is at pizza heat. Roasts and vegetables go in a pan once the fire has settled. HPC's manual covers grilling in the oven with the grill rack: slide a disposable pan on the hearth to catch the drippings, set the rack over it with mitts, oil the rack, and sear over live coals; without a drip pan you can leave the embers on the floor and set the rack straight over them. Heat control is wood, gas, and the door: less wood and less gas for lower heat, and the door works as a damper, less air in, less fire.

Smoking is the last thing you do, not the first. When the cooking is done, let the fire die to coals, turn the gas off at the knob and at the cylinder or shutoff, add your smoking chips to the dying fire, and put the door on. The smoke circulates in the dome at low heat and the door thermometer tells you where you are. The gas is fully off before you smoke. For wood, HPC is specific: oak only, dried at least a year, debarked, 1 1/2 to 3 inches across and 12 to 14 inches long. Seasoned oak with no bark is what keeps the smoke down and the embers from popping onto your food; HPC boxes its own white oak cooking wood splits, 25 pounds at 10 to 12 inches, which ship free on the oven's pallet, and our pizza oven wood guide covers why oak.

Curing and the First Firing

A refractory dome holds water from casting, and the first fires drive it out as vapor; you may see steam or drops leaving the oven, and that is normal. HPC's first firing is gas only, no door, and takes at least five hours: two hours with the burner at about half an inch of flame, one hour at an inch and a half, one hour at two and a half, then one more hour as the oven climbs with a little kindling added. Do not rush it; heating a new dome too fast is how cracks start. After that the oven is yours. In freezing weather, start every fire on gas before adding wood, for the same reason. Hairline cracks under an eighth of an inch are normal in any refractory oven; anything larger, call HPC for repair instructions. Do the first firing after the oven is set on its base and before the surround is closed up, so the installer can check the gas connection and the ignition while everything is still reachable. HPC's curing instructions are a separate PDF in the Installation tab, and our pizza oven temperature guide explains what the numbers mean once it is cured.

How the Di Napoli Compares

Five built in ovens on this site cover the same decision from different directions. The Di Napoli is the one for a surround you design, with gas ignition and a chimney through the roof.

Between the three HPC ovens the question is what exists on the day the oven arrives. A finished counter with a cabinet under it: the Villa. A patio and no kitchen yet, or an oven that may move: the Forno. A structure on the drawings with a chimney in it: the Di Napoli. If you want a brick dome with no gas at all and a mason who will clad it, the Builders Custom is the masonry version of the same idea, and the GX-DL is the wood only oven that needs no cladding. Every other built in on the site is in the Built In collection, the whole HPC line is in the HPC Fire collection, and every gas and wood oven we carry is in the Hybrid collection. If you are still deciding between a built in and a cart, read built in vs freestanding first, and where to put a pizza oven before you pour the base.

Who Should Buy the Di Napoli, and Who Should Not

Buy the Di Napoli if you are building an outdoor kitchen or a backyard oven structure from drawings, you have a mason, framer or contractor on the job, and you want the oven to disappear into the stone with a chimney through the roof. It is the oven for the homeowner who wants Friday pizza on gas and a Sunday roast on wood from a permanent oven that looks site built, and for the builder who wants a finished, warrantied, gas lit refractory oven with HPC's drawings instead of a dome to lay up. It is the right answer when natural gas is already run to the kitchen or a propane cylinder can be housed in its own enclosure next to the base.

Do not buy the Di Napoli if there is no structure to build; that is the Forno, the same oven on a cart. Do not buy it for an existing counter you would rather not demolish; that is the Villa. Do not buy it if the base will be a solid slab, a wood frame or a continuous countertop, or if the 20 by 32 inch service space under the hearth cannot be kept open. Do not buy it where a 6 inch chimney cannot be run to the heights the code asks for. Do not buy it for indoor use or for a commercial kitchen: HPC rates the oven for outdoor use, and the two year warranty covers residential use only. And if you want a wood oven with no gas, the GX-DL or the Builders Custom are the built ins on this site that do that. Our pizza oven buying guide walks the whole decision.

What to Order With It

The door with thermometer first. It is what makes the Di Napoli an oven and a smoker rather than only a pizza oven: it holds heat for bread and roasts, works as a damper, and carries the gauge the manual relies on for smoking. The HPC accessory kit puts the peel, brush, utensil holder, wooden paddle, pans and dough sheets on the same delivery. The infrared thermometer reads the floor so you launch at 625 to 650°F instead of guessing from the flour test. A box of HPC's white oak cooking wood, 25 pounds of cured 10 to 12 inch splits, gets the oven through its first fires. The grill rack HPC makes for these ovens is on the HPC accessory page; ask us and we will add it. No cover is listed for the Di Napoli because the surround is the cover. Accessories ordered with the oven ride on the same freight at no added charge.

Buying the Di Napoli From Crustify

Crustify is an authorized HPC Fire dealer, so the full two year warranty applies. The Di Napoli ships by freight from HPC's warehouses in Las Vegas, Nevada or Dayton, Ohio: an oven in stock leaves the same or next business day and is 2 to 5 business days in transit, one HPC has to build runs about 4 weeks, and we confirm the date with HPC before your card is charged; it arrives crated on a pallet and delivered curbside with a $95 residential liftgate fee at checkout; a business address with a dock pays no liftgate. Shipping is free in the contiguous 48 states; Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico are quoted before you order. Inspect the crate before you sign and note any damage on the delivery receipt; concealed damage is reported within 48 hours. Returns on an unused oven in its original packaging follow our return policy, with return freight paid by the buyer, so have the base drawn and the chimney run planned before you order. Chat and email go straight to the owner and are usually answered the same day; if you are sizing the base or the chase, send the drawing through our contact page and we will check it against HPC's manual before you pour.

KEY FEATURES

• HPC Fire Di Napoli ready to finish pizza oven: one piece cast refractory dome with 2 inch walls on a 3 inch 304 stainless hearth, inside an insulated steel enclosure, made in Miamisburg, Ohio
• Arrives assembled with the oven, hearth, enclosure, refractory arch and a 36 inch section of 6 inch DuraTech double wall chimney; you frame, clad and finish the surround
• Dual fuel: wood, natural gas or propane, or both at once; the gas burner lights the wood and holds the oven steady
• Electronic flame sensing ignition on two D cells or a 110V adaptor, no mains power in the oven
• Hearth about 800°F at its hottest, dome top over 1,000°F, refractory rated past 2,400°F; about 30 minutes to pizza
• Same cooking floor as the Forno and Villa: about 29 by 30 inches, about 870 square inches, 18 inch mouth, two pizzas at once
• Vents through a 6 inch chimney, not a front vent; 36 inch clearance from the top of the opening to combustibles, no damper in the stack
• Overall 33 1/2 wide by 24 1/2 tall by 44 inches deep; enclosure 32 inches deep, arched front projects 12 inches
• Base: block or steel, non combustible, 33 1/2 inches wide minimum with no maximum, oven on 1 1/2 inch bearing walls, 32 inches to the finished face, 20 by 32 inch open area under the hearth
• About 450 lb assembled; base designed for 470 lb per the manual; forklift recommended, licensed hearth installer
• Choose natural gas or propane above; FDP-DiNapoli/RTF-EI-NG or FDP-DiNapoli/RTF-EI-LP
• Door with thermometer and accessory kit sold separately; no factory finish, no tile, no cover needed
• Two year HPC warranty, original purchaser, residential use; hairline cracks under 1/8 inch are normal
• Ships free by freight from Las Vegas or Dayton, in stock same or next business day with 2 to 5 business days in transit, about 4 weeks built to order; $95 residential liftgate; returns unused in original packaging per our return policy

SPECIFICATIONS

Documents: HPC Fire Di Napoli spec sheet (PDF) and the HPC Fire Forno de Pizza flyer (PDF).

VIDEO

Both videos show the same HPC oven that is inside the Di Napoli, on the Villa and the Forno; the dome, hearth, burner and ignition are the same in all three.

INSTALLATION GUIDE & USER MANUAL

Before the base is built. Confirm the plan has a non combustible block or steel base at least 33 1/2 inches wide, bearing walls that give the hearth 1 1/2 inches on each side or front and rear, 32 inches from the finished face to the back of the oven, and a 20 inch tall by 32 inch wide open area under the hearth that stays open. Decide where the gas shutoff goes, inside or outside the base, where the 15 amp GFCI outlet goes on the left side at least 4 inches from the hearth, and where the propane cylinder enclosure or the natural gas stub goes. Plan the chimney chase around an 8 inch outside diameter and the heights NFPA 211 calls for. HPC asks for a licensed hearth installer, a licensed installer on gas, and a forklift to set the oven.

Base. Build the base to HPC's drawing, with the hearth notch in the block so the hearth top lands at your counter line and nothing solid under the oven. Rough in the gas and the outlet into the service space.

Oven. Set the assembled oven and hearth onto the notched bearing walls with the forklift and fasten it to the base with silicone or mortar. Connect the gas to the 3/8 inch inlet under the hearth, leak test every joint, and plug the 3V adaptor into the GFCI or load two D cells. Light it and confirm the pilot and burner before anything is closed up.

Chimney. Continue the 6 inch DuraTech run from the 36 inch stack on the oven to the heights in the code, per DuraVent's instructions. No damper, no reductions, nothing in the flue.

Surround. Frame in steel studs or lay block around the enclosure, sheath in cement board, tape the joints with fiber mesh, mortar the refractory arch to the board around the mouth, apply the stone, brick, tile or stucco contoured over the arch, roof it, and cap the chimney. Keep the 12 inch hearth overhang and the service space under it open.

First firing. Gas only, no door, at least five hours on the schedule in the curing instructions. In freezing weather, start every fire on gas before adding wood.

Running it. Igniter on, pilot lights, set the flame, lay small dry oak on the burner, let the gas light it, push the coals to the center, add wood, leave the gas on. Gas fully off before you smoke with the door on. Shut the main gas valve when the oven sits unused; HPC's own video shows a spider nest in a pilot that sat over a winter. HPC recommends an annual service by an NFI certified professional.

Documents: HPC Fire Di Napoli user manual and installation guide (PDF), HPC Fire oven curing instructions (PDF), HPC Fire Di Napoli spec sheet (PDF).

WARRANTY INFORMATION

Term. HPC Fire Inspired warrants the Di Napoli for two years from the original purchase against defects in material and workmanship, to the original retail purchaser, not transferable; keep the sales receipt. HPC repairs or replaces the defective component at its option, with new or remanufactured parts, or a product of equal or greater value if the model is no longer made.

Residential use. The two year warranty applies to the oven in residential use only.

Cracks. With the temperature swings of a wood and gas oven, cracks will form in the refractory and do not affect performance; HPC does not warrant a crack free oven and does not replace an oven for cracks. Cracks larger than one eighth of an inch from improper heating or handling are not covered; if one appears, contact HPC for repair instructions.

Exclusions. Normal wear, misuse, improper handling, wrong voltage, use contrary to the manual, disassembly or repair by anyone other than HPC or an authorized service center, improper use of gas, and acts of God. Modifying the oven voids its certification and the warranty.

Claims. Contact us first with photos and your order number and we handle the claim with HPC. Shipping damage is separate: note it on the delivery receipt or report concealed damage within 48 hours.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS - FAQ'S

Your Questions Answered Before You Buy

These are the questions we get most often about the HPC Fire Di Napoli, answered from HPC's manual, spec sheet and flyer. If yours is not here, chat or email goes to the owner and you will usually hear back the same day.