Authentic Pizza Ovens Cover for Lisboa, Pizzaioli, Ventura and Lume Ovens

Description

The brick pizza oven cover from Authentic Pizza Ovens is the one accessory the maker does not treat as optional: the three year warranty on every traditional oven in the range requires the oven to be covered whenever it is not in use. This is the maker's own cover, cut for the Portuguese dome, in the two fits that match the Lisboa, Pizzaioli, Ventura, Buena Ventura, Lume Alto, and Lume Largo, including the stone and brick clad finishes that need the larger XL. Pick your fit above by oven and finish, add it to the same order as the oven, and it ships free on the same liftgate delivery.

Why the maker is so firm about it comes down to what a refractory dome is made of. Fire brick, refractory mortar, and calcium aluminate cement are all porous, and the Brick Industry Association's guidance on water penetration in brick masonry makes the same point about every masonry wall: the material will take on water, so the job is to keep water off it in the first place. On a house that means flashing and drainage. On a pizza oven sitting in the open with a chimney hole in the top, it means a fitted outdoor pizza oven cover.

Why a Brick Oven Needs a Cover, and What Happens Without One

A cured dome is dry inside and wants to stay that way. Leave it uncovered through a weekend of rain and the shell drinks. On the next fire that water turns to steam inside the wall, and you will hear it: a cured oven left in the rain hisses and fogs the door glass for the first twenty minutes while the moisture drives back out. Do that a few dozen times and the hairline cracks every handmade oven develops start to open instead of staying cosmetic, because steam pushes from inside the wall outward. In a freezing climate the same water expands as ice and does the job faster.

The chimney is the other way in. The spout on a traditional Authentic Pizza Ovens dome is an open five and a half inch hole with a damper, and without a brick pizza oven cover it funnels rain onto the cooking floor. A wet floor means a slow first pizza and a floor that spits under the fire. The wood fired pizza oven cover from Authentic Pizza Ovens closes both routes at once: it wraps the dome and it seals over the chimney spout once the cap or extension is lifted off. Ash, leaves, pollen, and the wasps that like a warm dome stay out as well.

Then there is the warranty. Authentic Pizza Ovens excludes weather damage on any oven that was not kept under its own cover when not in use, and treats the cover as a condition of coverage on the same footing as the five day cure. A generic cover from a hardware store does not satisfy that condition, and in practice it does not fit either: a dome with a chimney stub on a 39 inch square footprint is not a barbecue shape. On a purchase the size of a Lisboa pizza oven, the brick pizza oven cover is the cheapest insurance on the page.

Which Brick Pizza Oven Cover Fits Your Oven

Authentic Pizza Ovens builds its traditional ovens in two dome heights and two kinds of finish, and that is all a brick pizza oven cover has to know. White render domes, whether the arch around the door is terracotta, natural stone, stacked stone, or tumbled brick, take the Standard cover, sized for the 39 inch footprint of the Lisboa and the Pizzaioli. Domes with stone, tile, or brick over the whole shell are bulkier and take the XL. The Rustic finishes also grow to a 43 inch exterior, the other reason they need the larger cover. Find your oven and finish below and choose that fit above.

Two things the table does not say. First, the arch material does not change the fit: a Rustic Arch Lisboa and a Premium Lisboa wear the same Lisboa pizza oven cover because the brick is only around the door and the dome behind it is the same white shell. Second, the Pizzaioli oven cover question comes up because the Pizzaioli sits lower than the Lisboa; the Standard cover is cut to the taller dome, drapes the extra inches on the lower one, and the drawstring takes up the slack. If your oven is not listed, send the model and finish through chat and you will get the fit first.

What the Cover Is Made Of

The brick pizza oven cover is heavy duty polyester with a PVC backing, black, with the Authentic Pizza Ovens patch on the front so it reads as the maker's part rather than a tarp. Polyester holds its shape and its color in sun better than nylon; the PVC layer on the inside is the waterproofing, and it is why the maker says wipe, do not wash, because a machine will crack the backing. It weighs about two pounds, which matters more than it sounds: a cover you can lift off one handed with the other hand on the door is a cover that goes back on after every cook.

The hem drawstring and cord lock. Cinched under the base, the cover stays on in wind and sheds water away from the dome.

The hem carries a drawstring with a cord lock toggle, and that is the detail worth paying for. A cover that hangs loose over a dome lets wind pump wet air underneath it and then lifts off in the first storm; cinched under the base slab, this brick pizza oven cover stays put and sheds water down and away from the shell. It comes folded into a zippered storage bag with a hang loop, so it has somewhere to live between cooks that is not the ground. Nothing on it rusts, because nothing on it is metal.

Putting the Brick Pizza Oven Cover On and Taking It Off

Let the oven cool first. A traditional dome holds heat for hours after the fire is out, and the outside of the shell, while never scorching, is warm enough the evening of a cook to trap moisture under a cover and stress the PVC. Cover it the next morning, or once the outside is cool to the touch. Lift the rain cap or extension pipe off the chimney spout, drop the brick pizza oven cover over the dome from the back, pull the front down over the door, and cinch the drawstring under the base. Thirty seconds.

Taking it off is the reverse, and the one habit to build is shaking it out away from the door before you fold it, so the leaves and grit that collect in the folds do not end up on the cooking floor. If the cover is wet, hang it by the loop or over a rail until it is dry before it goes in the bag; a wet cover sealed in a bag for a week is how an outdoor pizza oven cover starts to smell. In snow country, brush the load off the dome before it turns to ice; the cover is waterproof, not a roof.

Care, Fading, and How Long a Brick Pizza Oven Cover Lasts

Care of a brick pizza oven cover is a damp cloth. Wipe the outside down when it gets dusty, hang it to dry, and never put it through a washer or dryer, which strips the PVC backing that does the waterproofing. Bird droppings and tree sap come off with mild soap and water; solvents do not belong on it. Keep it in its bag when the oven is in daily use through summer, and keep it on the oven for the off season.

It will fade. Authentic Pizza Ovens says so plainly: the fabric and dye are fade resistant, not fade proof, and a black cover in full sun goes charcoal gray over a few seasons. That is cosmetic. The waterproofing and the fit do not change with the color, and the maker's two year cover warranty excludes fading for that reason. What the two years do cover is the cover itself: seams, drawstring, backing. With the wipe and hang routine, a brick pizza oven cover gets well past the warranty period before a replacement is worth thinking about.

Who Needs This Cover, and Who Needs a Different One

Every traditional Authentic Pizza Ovens dome on a base needs one of these two brick pizza oven cover fits, and the answer is in the table above. Buy it with the oven, because the oven is not covered by warranty without it and because ordering it separately later means a parcel shipment instead of a free ride on the freight. If you already own a traditional oven and are replacing a worn cover, the same rule applies: white dome takes the Standard, stone or brick over the dome takes the XL.

This is not the cover for the portable Maximus, Maximus Arena, or Prime. Those ovens sit on a steel stand and have their own covers cut to size. It is also not a substitute for a roof if the oven lives in a wet climate; an outdoor pizza oven cover handles rain and debris, but a dome that will sit through a Pacific Northwest winter is happier under a pergola as well. And it is not the answer for a Custom Builders core that a mason has enclosed in a masonry housing; the housing is the cover there, and the chimney gets a cap.

Buying the Cover From Crustify

The brick pizza oven cover ships direct from the brand's Texas warehouse. Add it to an oven order and it packs with the oven, arriving on the same liftgate delivery with no added shipping, which is how the maker intends it to be bought. Orders over $750 ship free; alone, the cover ships as a small parcel. Returns follow the same fourteen day unused policy as the rest of the Authentic Pizza Ovens line, so confirm your finish against the table first. If you are unsure which fit your oven takes, the contact page or chat goes to the owner and the answer usually comes the same day.

The rest of what a traditional oven needs is here as well: the rotisserie spit for the taller Lisboa door, the starter pack of peels, turner, ash shovel, and brush, and the chimney extension and rain cap in the pizza oven accessories collection. The ovens themselves are on the Authentic Pizza Ovens brand page, the base mounted models sit in built-in pizza ovens, and every one of them is a wood fired pizza oven. Still choosing? The pizza oven buying guide is the place to start.

Order the brick pizza oven cover with the oven and it rides free on the same delivery, which is the only way it will ever ship for nothing.

KEY FEATURES

• The maker's own brick pizza oven cover for Authentic Pizza Ovens traditional domes; required by the three year oven warranty whenever the oven is not in use
• Two brick pizza oven cover fits: Standard for white render domes (Lisboa, Pizzaioli, Ventura, Buena Ventura, Lume Premium) and XL for stone, brick, granite, or cast stone over the full dome (Stone Finish, Rustic, Azul, Tudo, Pizza Stone)
• Heavy duty polyester with PVC waterproof backing, black, with the Authentic Pizza Ovens patch on the front
• Hem drawstring with cord lock toggle cinches under the base so wind cannot lift it and water sheds away from the shell
• The brick pizza oven cover seals over the chimney spout once the cap or extension pipe is lifted off; keeps rain off the cooking floor
• About 2 lb; goes on and comes off one handed in under a minute
• Ships folded in a zippered storage bag with a hang loop
• No metal parts; nothing to rust
• Also used to protect the oven in transport
• Care: wipe with a damp cloth and hang dry; never machine wash or dry
• Fade resistant, not fade proof; two year cover warranty excluding fading
• Free shipping over $750 with liftgate; packs with an oven order and rides on the same delivery, direct from the brand's Texas warehouse

SPECIFICATIONS

By fit. Dimensions as listed by Authentic Pizza Ovens; the covers are cut with slack for the drawstring to take up.

Shared by both fits.

INSTALLATION GUIDE & USER MANUAL

Choosing the brick pizza oven cover fit. White render dome, whatever the arch material: Standard. Stone, brick, granite, or cast stone over the whole dome: XL. The table in the description lists every traditional oven and finish. Portable Maximus and Prime ovens use a different cover.

Putting it on. Wait until the outside of the dome is cool to the touch, usually the morning after a cook. Lift the rain cap and any extension pipe off the chimney spout. Drop the brick pizza oven cover over the dome from the back, pull the front down over the door, and cinch the hem drawstring under the base slab with the cord lock.

Taking it off. Release the cord lock, lift from the front, and shake the cover out away from the door so debris in the folds does not land on the cooking floor. Refit the chimney cap or extension before lighting.

Storage. Dry the brick pizza oven cover before bagging. Hang by the loop or over a rail if it is wet, then fold into the zippered bag. Between cooks in season, keep the bag near the oven; in the off season, keep the cover on the oven.

Care. Damp cloth for dust, mild soap and water for sap or droppings, hang dry. No washer, no dryer, no solvents; each of those damages the PVC backing that keeps water out. Brush snow off before it turns to ice.

WARRANTY INFORMATION

Authentic Pizza Ovens warrants the brick pizza oven cover for two years from the date of purchase against defects in materials and workmanship, covering the fabric, seams, backing, and drawstring. Fading is excluded: the fabric and dye are fade resistant, but the maker does not guarantee against loss of color after prolonged sun, and a faded cover performs the same as a new one. Crustify Pizza Ovens is an authorized dealer, so this purchase carries the full cover warranty.

The brick pizza oven cover is also a condition of the three year warranty on every Authentic Pizza Ovens traditional oven. That warranty excludes weather damage to an oven that was not kept under the maker's cover when not in use, alongside the other conditions: cured on the five day schedule, installed to the guide, never fired above 500°C, no accelerants, not used on a trailer. Keep the cover on between cooks and that exclusion never comes up.

Claims on the cover or the oven go to Authentic Pizza Ovens by email with the model, invoice number, purchase date, a description, and photographs; Crustify will help you put the claim together.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS - FAQ'S

Your Questions Answered Before You Buy

The questions buyers ask most about the brick pizza oven cover before they order. If yours is not here, the chat goes straight to the owner and a real answer typically comes the same day.