How hot can a red brick get?

Not sure if this forum or rocket stoves is the best place to ask this question, but love reading all the previous posts and thoughtful answers, so here goes.

I've been working on a multi-year project to build an outdoor cooking space that will eventually have a smoker, wood-fired oven, and wood bbq. The space is on a slope and I have built a retaining wall with concrete block faced with used red brick that I was lucky enough to be able to recycle out of a nearby property that had replaced a 1970's brick patio with flagstone. 1200 brick for the 'cost' of hauling and cleaning. Cowabunga.

I'm working on the smoker section, where my plan is to rest an old, fairly standard 2-barrel smoker (big barrel for the smoking chamber, small barrel for the fire) on four fire brick pedestals, the brick placed vertical and the tops cut on an angle to cradle the big barrel. The fire barrel will hang off the end of the wall.

My question: can I use my red brick for all the areas around the smoker, including underneath the big barrel (where the clearance is maybe as low as 2" and curves up from there), as well as the wall end that faces the small, fire-barrel (where the clearance is about 2")?

I've done a ton of sleuthing on The Google and have not been able to come up with a rough thermal spec for a middle-aged red brick. Can it handle, say, 6-800 degrees of indirect heat off the fire box without cracking, sloughing off chunks, turning to dust, etc?

Any help is hugely appreciated!

https://permies.com/t/30551/Fake-fire-brick

May be an answer in there.

Or there

http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/4811/1/JSIR%2065(2)%20153-159.pdf

To me 600/800c° no prob, with slow heating, and cooling.

Satamax Antone wrote:https://permies.com/t/30551/Fake-fire-brick

May be an answer in there.

Or there

http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/4811/1/JSIR%2065(2)%20153-159.pdf

To me 600/800c° no prob, with slow heating, and cooling.

Thanks for the reply. I'd read the fake-fire-brick article and while it wasn't conclusive, it did lead me to think the red brick might be okay. The pdf talks about many attributes of red brick across different firing temps, unfortunately heat rating wasn't one of them.

BTW: I'm in the US, so 600-800F, not C. Although, if you think the brick can handle 600-800C, then 600-800F should be no problem!

The rocket stove I build from old red porous bricks did not last a year. The heat stress causes cracking.
So my answer is: Not rocket-stove hot.

800f° yep, i think it would handle that no prob. If it's red brick. If ever it's concrete, that's the limit at which it starts spalling.

I think you would be fine.

There is an old Fort close to me that was built in the 1830's, and it has several red brick ovens. One was used in the kitchen to feed the men of the fort, and the other two were "Hot Shot Furnaces"". They were used to heat up the cannon balls so they were red hot and thus would set the wooden hulls, rigging, and sails on fire of the ships of that era.

I'll be darned if I could find a picture of the main kitchen as I know I have one somewhere, but do have one of one of the Hot Shot Furnaces. (If you are into history, it is of Fort Knox in Prospect, Maine, the Battery B furnace). (And yes, the first Fort Knox, not the second one)

Travis Johnson wrote:There is an old Fort close to me that was built in the 1830's, and it has several red brick ovens...

Wow, a picture is indeed worth a thousand words. I'm going to move ahead full-tilt boogie with the red brick. Pics to come. Thanks!

I'm curious what the star looking things on the outside walls are. Are there metal bars inside the building attached to those to reinforce the building? Seems doubtful they're just decorative. I never knew there was a Ft. Knox v1.0. Learn something new every day.

Mike Barkley wrote:I'm curious what the star looking things on the outside walls are. Are there metal bars inside the building attached to those to reinforce the building? Seems doubtful they're just decorative. I never knew there was a Ft. Knox v1.0. Learn something new every day.

https://civilwartalk.com/threads/furnace-used-for-making-red-hot-shot-inside-of-fort-moultrie.101169/



hope this helps

Mike Barkley wrote:I'm curious what the star looking things on the outside walls are. Are there metal bars inside the building attached to those to reinforce the building? Seems doubtful they're just decorative. I never knew there was a Ft. Knox v1.0. Learn something new every day.

That's st andrews crosses, a Cross on a wall, attached to a metal bar going just through the wall, or all the way across the building, and you have the same cross on the other side. To avoid the building to bulge.

Tho, there is a lot there.

Can't find anything in english, but here you have tons of pictures.

http://combiencaporte.blogspot.com/2013/09/les-ancres-metalliques-anciennes.html