Vesta oven user manual

The VESTA charcoal oven is a closed grill-barbecue, controlled by an adjustable draft system: first from the bottom, when air enters, then from the top, when smoke exits. The oven is equipped with a convenient hinged door at the front. Charcoal burns inside, and grates and roasting pans are placed above it.

Before first use

Turn on the water spark arrestor (hydrofilter).

Without loading any food into the oven chamber, preheat the oven for 60 minutes. The protective lubricants remaining on the metal parts must burn off.

Loading Charcoal

Remove the grill grate from the grill chamber.
Place the charcoal on the grate. Charcoal will light faster if piled high.
Do not remove the protective screen (it protects the grill walls and door from overheating)!

The amount of charcoal loaded depends on its quality. Lower-quality charcoal means lower heat, so you need to load more. We recommend starting with a 3-5 kg load and then experimenting to find the most convenient load for you.

Lighting the Coal

To avoid overheating in the chamber, do not allow the temperature to rise above 250 degrees Celsius on the thermometer! The temperature in the chamber may differ from the thermometer reading by +/- 70 degrees Celsius.

Turn on the water spark arrestor (hydrofilter).

Open the chimney damper and the ash vent. The chimney damper is located at the top of the grill. To open it, move the handle to the vertical position.

The ash vent is located at the bottom of the grill. Opening and closing is controlled visually.

Pull out the ash drawer approximately 5 cm. Light the charcoal with a match or lighter in three places: at the top of the ash drawer and on both sides at the bottom. Do not push the ash drawer all the way in; leave a small gap. This improves air circulation and speeds up the ignition process.

ATTENTION! It is strongly recommended not to light a grill using charcoal lighter fluid!

The distinctive smell of burning petrochemicals will fill your kitchen.
People with a keen sense of smell can detect this odor in food cooked on a grill even many hours after using the lighter.

Dry alcohol tablets can be used to light charcoal in a professional grill. They burn with a nearly colorless flame and, most importantly, are odorless.

Before loading food into the grilling chamber

Close the ash vent. Push the ash drawer all the way in, leaving no gaps.
Open the firebox door and check the condition of the coals.
Use a poker to level the coals and distribute them evenly across the grate.
Insert the grill grate into the guides. The height of the grill grate above the coals depends on the type of food being cooked.
For cooking meat, the grate should be positioned lower, above the coals.
For cooking fish and vegetables, raise the grate higher.
Close the flue damper. To do this, turn the damper lever to the horizontal position. Make sure the ash vent is also closed.
Close the grill door and wait 5-10 minutes, then open the flue damper to release combustion gases from the grill chamber.
Open the grill door and check for flames.
Partially open the flue damper. The grill is ready for cooking.

Cooking

The chimney damper should remain slightly open and the ash pit closed throughout the cooking process.

If smoke begins to escape from the gap between the door and the grill body during operation (for example, when cooking a large amount of food at once), open the chimney damper further—as much as necessary to completely evacuate the combustion products.

At the end of cooking, close the chimney damper.

Increasing the Oven Temperature

If you need to raise the oven temperature during operation, for example, from 150 to 200 degrees C, open the upper and lower dampers to full power. Once the set temperature is reached, close the dampers. The oven will go into standby mode.

Lowering the oven temperature

When lighting the coals, the oven can "overheat" to 300-400 degrees C. Meat is cooked at 200-250 degrees C. There isn't always time to wait for the oven to cool naturally by closing the ash pit and chimney damper. In practice, two methods are used to reduce the temperature of the coals:

Spray with water. A hand sprayer is very convenient.
Sprinkle the coals with coarse salt.

Which method is best and most convenient for you is up to you to decide.

NOTE! We sometimes encounter the claim that Spanish ovens cook food at 400-500 degrees. Please pay attention to the thermometer scale.

Asian thermometer manufacturers produce them for both the European and American markets. Accordingly, the thermometer has two scales: the upper scale is in Fahrenheit and the lower scale is in Celsius.

250 degrees Celsius is equal to 482 degrees Fahrenheit.

Grill damper settings table

Mode	Lower damper	Upper damper
Ignition	Open	Open
Cooking	Closed	Closed 30-45 degrees
Standby	closed	closed 90 deg
Increasing Temperature	opened	opened
Switching Off	closed	closed 90 deg

Ending the Stove

About three hours before the end of the stove operation, stop adding coals and cook with the remaining coals at the temperature they provide.

When cooking is complete, close the stove The grill door, upper damper, ash pit, and ash drawer will be closed, thereby cutting off oxygen to the coals. The oven temperature will begin to drop slowly.

Turn off the water spark arrestor (hydrofilter) after the equipment has cooled to 40 degrees Celsius or below.

Note: If the equipment is not equipped with a thermometer, the rule is as follows: if the grilling surfaces or grates can be touched by hand, the equipment is considered cool.

Remember to empty the ash drawer.

Cooking Tips

The most comfortable and universal oven temperature was found to be 150 degrees C according to the thermometer on the door. Inside the oven, the temperature is 170-190 degrees Celsius. Meat, fish, and chicken are perfectly cooked at this temperature. Steaks can be cooked to a specified degree of doneness (5 levels). Higher temperatures cook too quickly, easily overcooking food.

Examples:

Meat - beef tenderloin, mignon, 150 g, 4 cm high. Thermometer temperature: 150 degrees. A grill grate with a 300x300 mm cast iron plate placed on it (cast iron grill) was used.

Medium: Searing the meat on a cast iron grill (closing the pores): 20 + 20 sec. Meat on the grill: 2 + 2 min. Coloring on the cast iron grill: 30 + 30 sec. Total cooking time: 5.5 min.
Medium well: Searing: 20 + 20 sec. Meat on the grill: 2 + 2 min. Rest. Meat on the grill: 1 + 1 min. Grill coloring 1 min. Total cooking time - 7.5 min.
Well done: Meat on the grill 3 + 3 min. Cast iron grill 1 min. Total cooking time - 7 min.

Fish: Salmon 200 g, 2 cm thick. Grilled 4 min.

Steaks are tender, rich in juices inside, with a beautiful brown crust and grill pattern.

Maintaining the Vesta Spark Arrestor

Cleaning the Filters

Cleaning the filters should be done weekly. The labyrinth filters of the extractor hood and spark arrester are dishwasher safe or can be washed in a bath with cleaning solution.

For efficient and safe operation of the spark arrester, periodic maintenance and cleaning of both the spark arrester unit and the extractor hood unit is necessary.

Self-Cleaning Mode

To clean the spark arrester bath and centrifugal pump rotors, pour cleaning solution into it and run the centrifugal pump for approximately 1 hour.

The cleaning solution can be poured directly into the spark arrester bath or into the lower water tank.

Drain the dirty water down the drain. To completely drain dirty water from the spark arrestor tank, remove the overflow plug from the drain hole.

Periodically clean the lower water tank of accumulated dirt. To clean the tank, close the ball valve leading to the spark arrestor, open the drain valve, and turn on the pump.

Detergent

When cleaning the spark arrestor, you can use any low-foaming detergent. For example, washing powder for automatic machines.

The hydrofilter also cleans well with detergents with an alkaline pH. A basic cleaning solution can be as follows: 250 ml of liquid laundry soap and 250 ml of washing powder for automatic washing machines (the cheaper, the better).

This cleaning solution must be poured into a tank with clean water at the beginning of the shift.

At the end of the shift, the water in the tank must be changed (the hydrofilter operates as usual: it cleans smoke and cleans the hydrofilter).

Maintenance Schedule

Action	Frequency, note
Change water in the hydrofilter	Every shift (every 2-3 days is acceptable)
Wash filters (8 pcs) and dividing wall (plates)	Weekly. The filter is disassembled into 2 halves and washed in the sink.
Rinse with cleaning solution	Weekly. Add an alkaline cleaning solution containing weak foaming agents to clean water. Drain the water after each work shift.
Visually inspect the spark arrestor tank	Every 2-4 weeks. Inspect the wall of the hydrofilter tank for grease deposits. Remove any deposits with a soft spatula or scraper, and increase the concentration of the cleaning solution during the next wash.
Clean the hydrofilter tank	Every six months to a year. Mechanically or with a high-pressure washer.
Clean the ventilation system	Every six months to a year, depending on the degree of contamination.