20 Best Wood For Ooni Karu (2023 Updated)

If I only had one word to describe it, the title is it. I was hesitant to purchase this because I didn’t want it to wind up as another impulse purchase appliance that was used once and then collected dust.

Happy to report that it is the new Saturday night dinner ritual. I’ve used it every weekend for the 6 weeks since I’ve purchased it, and the whole family enjoys the pizza. I purchased the gas burner as well, so everything in this review centers around this-I haven’t cooked with wood yet.

For speed and convenience, gas is the way to go but I wanted the flexibility to use wood if I wanted to invest more time in cooking. I’m also a bit of a nerd, and since everything is incredibly expensive I worked out the figures to recoup the cost of the oven after making 22 plain pizzas.

Final cost for a 12” works out to about $1. 55 in ingredients, fuel, and time. First, set up and heating are easy and takes about 15 minutes total. I’ve developed a system for making the pizzas and having them prepped so I can turn 5 or 6 pies in the oven in about 25 mins.

The first time may take a little longer as you stumble through, but have fun learning what works for you. It includes instructions and their YouTube has plenty of videos, but it’s almost intuitive. In addition, I had a question about an instruction in the manual and emailed CS; their response came a few hours later with a focus on ensuring everything on the oven was working properly.

Kudos to that team, as there’s still plenty of CS out that always seem annoyed you’re asking for help. What I especially love is that I control what goes into and on the pies. I make my own sauce, I cook and prep my own toppings, and I can control the level of seasonings added.

I prep all my dough once per month and then freeze/defrost as needed. The kids have even volunteered to jump in and help make dinner! The next step is to experiment with Sicilian pizza and then cooking more than pizza in there.

You’ll need are a thin peel to pull and turn the pies. I’ve used both metal and wood and feel that the wooden peel I have is too bulky to pull a pie. I also purchased an infrared thermometer at harbor freight, but after doing this a few times you may be able to develop a feel for how hot the oven is so I’m not sure it was worth the money to buy one; I now only use it to check the temp after preheating.

However, YMMV and if it makes you feel more dialed in with control, have at it. If you’re interested in taking control of your pizza and ingredients and turn a weekend dinner into a fun and creative family event (and ultimately saving some money on food over time) then I highly recommend investing in a product from Ooni.

They have something to suit everyone’s need and at a competitive price point with other manufacturers. They also offer a 15% military discount, which is incredibly generous. Cheers!.

I cannot properly cook a pizza on this thing. I’ve had the oven for 5 months and have “cooked” nearly 20 pizzas on since I got it. I have used a variety of fuels: charcoal only, wood only, and a combination.

I have let it heat for 20 minutes as directed, heat multiple firebox loads, or used charcoal then hardwood. I have watched countless YouTube videos and read a lot of how too’s on the internet. I cannot get this thing to work right.

I have put pizzas in with it blazing hot right after filling he firebox, just as the fire starts to die down, or with only coals in the box. Cooked with the door closed an open. Regardless of what I do, no pizza has ever come out right.

A few were edible from the Ooni alone but most needed additional cooking. The main problems are that ether the bottom of the crust is nearly burned and the cheese is not melted so I have to put it under the broiler or the crust under the cheese is raw, bottom and top are done (or burnt) and I have to put it in the oven to finish cooking.

I have cooked pizzas in the oven for 20 years and have been pleased with the results, but the burning cornmeal stinks up the house. I prefer to cook them outside but grilled pizzas are inconsistent and usually somewhat burnt.

I thought a dedicated pizza oven would be the ticket. We like a lot of toppings on our pizzas. It may work better if we put a dollop of sauce and few slices of cheese on an extremely thin crust. There is nothing wrong with that kind of pizza but those are not the pizzas we prefer.

If it cannot cook the type of pizzas my family likes then it is useless to me. I gave it 2 stars because the build quality is good. It is a quality piece of equipment that just doesn’t work as advertised.

Out of the box, a very impressive unit. I’ve used it twice now and I’m very happy with the build quality, the overall performance, the aesthetics and the portability of the oven. It took a few pizzas to figure out the timing of when to add wood and the cooking method, but once I got that sorted, the pizzas turned out great.

Two areas that I feel are lacking in design: 1 – The fuel tray. It must be pulled out from the front of the oven to empty the ashes, so you have to wait until it’s cold and reach your arm into the very narrow space vs being designed so the tray can be dropped out the back through a door.

Also, It doesn’t really “lock” into place so there can be some movement when adding wood to keep the fire going, which must be done quite frequently. 2. The oven door and fuel tray door do not have a latch or any way to secure them in place.

I would have liked to see latches to secure the doors in place for transporting and storing the unit. I’ve already bumped the handle on the fuel door by accident, knocking it to the ground and causing slight damage.

A combination hinge/latch system would be great, because I don’t like having to keep a dedicated space to place the hot oven door when I’m cooking. The fuel door has a hanger system which is great, I don’t understand why that wasn’t replicated in some way for the oven door.

Great place to buy cooking wood from. I use the white oak a lot for smoking, and also cherry. I may order some of the firewood just to try out vs what I can get locally. Yeah, seems expensive if you can’t find locally.

But if you can’t get most of these hardwoods locally, like myself, then it’s a great deal. Remember, you’re paying for shipping on these boxes so that’s why the price is what it is.

This stuff is great. Wood burns hot and lights up fast. It is $40 but I guess that’s the price to pay for good wood. I won’t be buying from anyone else any time soon that’s for sure.

The wood burns very nicely and works great for my chiminea. I use it to start a strong fire and then add in some other varieties of wood for aroma. I think it is probably priced above what you can find in some other stores, but as of August 2020, it’s a great deal for online delivery.

If you are looking for convenience and quality, than the price is fair.

Hello – I have been meaning to contact Ooni sooner but forgot because my family and I don’t use your oven any longer because it does not function properly. Last year, we remodeled our backyard and though a pizza oven would be a great addition.

After doing some research, we purchased the Ooni Karu 16 Pizza Oven and separately purchased the Karu 16 Natural Gas Burner. Both took months to receive due to supply chain issues (which we understood).

We received the oven first then the burner a number of months later. When we received the burner it worked well twice then the ignitor stopped working. I checked the owners manual and your site for some troubleshooting support but the suggestions were no help and decided that I would have to light the burner with a lighter (which was an inconvenience but not the end of the world).

We then noticed that the burner would go out for no reason and would require us to re-light the burner to keep the oven heating. We would have to do this many times until we were able to get a pizza cooked.

I made sure there was proper airflow and it was installed properly. Also, again, I checked the owners manual and your troubleshooting suggestions, YouTube, etc. but no luck. I attempted to contact Ooni but you provide no phone support any only allow for trouble tickets to be opened up which, in my opinion, is not good customer service.

Overall, my family and I are quite disappointed in Ooni’s products. We were hopeful to get a lot of use out of it this summer (pizza nights, parties, etc) but are choosing not to use it because of the troubles / frustrations we face every time.

For now, the oven just sits on our countertop as a decoration. I typically do not provide product reviews but I thought this was worthy of sharing since we spent over $1,000 with your company (oven, burner, cover, peel, etc).

We would be grateful should Ooni rectify this situation and provide us with either a new burner or a refund (our preference would be a new burner that worked properly). Unfortunately, like having the open a trouble ticket with support, I suspect this will go into a black hole with no response.

Tons of issues with the Fire Safety Device (FSS) turning off at high temperature. After servicing it per Ooni instruction it wasn’t better (involved tearing apart the whole burner). Also many issues with the the lighter/striker ever working, closely following their instructions and repositioning the probe.

I almost always have to use a lighter. After months of issues with the FSD inadvertently turning off the oven, finally figured out you cannot run the burner with the door closed (needs to be slightly open) or it shuts off at high temp.

Works if you just keep the door ajar on the hooks- and no it doesn’t matter the vent or chimney settings of the door is closed. The door is pointless with the gas burner. Ooni then came out with the new Karu 16 glass door in June 2022, which I received and it solved all the shutoff problems.

Clearly the NG burner has issues with ventilation. Do yourself a favor and get the new door accessory if you are getting the NG burner, it’s the only way the burner ever stays lit and holds high heat for fast pizza cooking.

Now it works like a charm. Thankfully Ooni support and R&D supported me well, but the design Should never have made it out of engineering or QA.

I have already made contact with Ooni CS regarding my observations on the Ooni Karu 16 Pizza Oven Gas Burner burner, which I attach below:”The oven is expensive, though good quality and generally using quality materials such as the stainless steel and powder coated outer skin.

The other issue is the poor design of the gas burner. Yes it also appears well built using quality materials though again, pricey, however the fine adjustment of the gas flame is ridiculously difficult.

It is either full on or just on, unless you keep making small adjustment to the rear of the oven, look through the glass and notice nothing has changed, go back to the rear of the oven to turn the control knob and look again, see nothing has changed, and so on.

The pattern of the flame is also poor as it can easily catch the top of the pizza and burn it. Lowering the flame to reduce the burning then causes the oven temperature to drop which, when cooking a Neapolitan pizza of 90 seconds has a big impact.

A better solution would be to have at least triple the ampount of burners with a wider spread of flame producing the same BTU but from narrower flames. Also make the burner box shorter so as not encroach into the cooking area so much.

I understand the need to have its location of the gas burner where it is, due to the wood burning option but to have to continually change the knob and check through the door to see no difference is unbelievably frustrating.

Yes, I can look the fuel compartment door but the view is not ideal, especially when it is positioned with the back close to the fence or wall, and it also lets the heat out. I would, knowing what I know now, not recommend the Karu 16 except to someone who was only ever going to use wood.

as the heat source. The gas burner is very convenient and less messy but not perfect in its execution. “.

If you only eat Neopolitan style pizza, this oven is a great choice, but it doesn’t perform as well as a deck oven for other types of pizzas. If you want to put more than a scant smattering of toppings on your pizza, this oven will either undercook your crust of burn your toppings so this is something to keep in mind.

As a former professional pizza cook, I have made literally thousands of pies in a wide range of oven types. I speak from experience and know that there are work-arounds with this oven but beware of manufacturer’s claims: 1.

It may reach cooking temperature in 15 minutes in Phoenix during the month of August, but here in NW Washington state, plan on waiting for 30 – 40 minutes to get a deck temperature over 400 degrees C.

2. You don’t need to fire with wood to get a nice smoky taste. The gas burner plus a wood chip or pellet cannister does the trick nicely. 3. The gas burner is temperamental and sometimes has regulator flow problems that require a reset procedure.

4. The chamber thermometer does not have an auto-off function so one must be mindful of this to avoid changing batteries frequently. And by the way, the thermometer housing must be disassembled to replace the batteries.

Overall, it is a decent oven and a good value for the price but if you are looking to bake an excellent pie with that perfect chewy crust and deliciously finished toppings, this might not meet your expectations.

I have been so incredibly pleased with my new pizza oven! The quality is top-notch, the support is amazing, and I love all the new and exciting ways Ooni comes up with some amazing pizza ideas. I personally use all three fuel types, hardwood, charcoal and gas.

It’s fantastic to have so many options, some days I need the fire to last longer, so I use lump charcoal, if I want a fast hot in the Neapolitan pizza, I use hardwood, and last if I’m in a hurry, I use gas.

The gas heats up quickly enough by the time you have your pizza stretched out and a few ingredients set to build your classic pie, the oven is absolutely ready for you. It takes about 15 minutes to appropriately preheat with gas and launch your pizza.

I have also tried using the oven to cook steaks and vegetables, and it works amazingly well. The steaks are amazing, I’ love the super crisp sear and juicy medium rare middle. I also recommend the Uni large size stainless steel table, I use mine to roll my pizza oven close to my back door when it’s snowing or super cold, and then I can push the cart and oven back under my roof to keep it safe from the rain.

It’s incredibly easy to store. The best thing about this oven is the pure simplicity, it is so easy to use, you just have to be an attentive pizza maker to prevent burning your creations. I highly recommend this model! It’s super easy to set up and a fantastic value for the money! One last note, the Ooni community is fantastic! I often find new recipes and ideas from all the other Ouni users around the world.

Bought this oven for wood-fired flavor and ability to get higher temps than my indoor electric oven (max 550 F), plus fun activity as part of patio/pool parties. After 6 pizzas I’ve learned a lot. With wood, the temperature is very uncontrollable: varies from 500 to 950 F and is much hotter near the fire than near the door causing one side of pizza to quickly burn beyond edible.

At temps over 700 pizza cooks in 1-2 minutes so there’s really no time for the crust to cook enough to enable turning it before one side burns. Temps above 800 burn top of crust before toppings cook, and flour or corn meal used to prevent sticking catches fire almost immediately.

I’ve tried placing pizza near the door, using less wood and venting heat to get temp near 600 but it’s just not controllable enough. I expected wood smoke flavor in pizza but that doesn’t seem to happen in 2 min.

cook time. I’ll try propane next but would like a way to impart smoke flavor too. I’ve had much better success using indoor oven at 550 F and pizza stone, heating the stone to 550 and then switching to convection broil setting to cook top and bottom evenly in just 3 minutes.

Nothing the Ooni has produced so far is worthy of serving to guests. My cost per pizza so far is $208. 55 including oven, accessories, wood, starter and pizza ingredients, which is of course outrageous.

I’m going to try a few more times and if it doesn’t get better then sell it.

OMG! We bought this with reasonable expectations that it would cook pizza on occasion, but we were massively impressed. The oven is pretty much ready to cook out of the box, not much setup needed, we fired it up and prepped the dough.

then when it was up to temp put in a ‘trial’ to see how it’d go and after about 1min we pulled out a pizza better than anything i’d eaten before. I’ve eaten a lot of pizza! The oven is remarkably easy to keep at temperature, we’ve tried wood pellets, charcoal, wood and we also have the gas attachment.

All are simple to use and easy to switch between solid/gas fuel. maybe 2mins max. Honestly, I have spent 5mins trying to think of a downside to give a balanced review and I cannot think of anything. I’ve been selling the virtues of this oven to family and friends who cannot wait to come for a pizza party.

I’m glad I bought it and given the choice again, I would do the same.

I love this carry cover, it’s not a bag as such and it doesn’t need to be – think more of a shower cap design!. It goes over the top of the Karu oven and the elasticated ‘waistband’ grips underneath to the point of the oven’s foldable legs (you can choose to have the legs folded or unfolded when using the cover).

The carry handle straps then go under the oven and attach to the other side to make a very secure carrying position. I was concerned that I didn’t want to transport or store my oven with the chimney in place as it would be too bulky and awkward.

The Ooni team were very quick to reassure me with a little trick! If you take the chimney off and place it inside the oven area, you can then tuck the cover’s chimney sleeve inside itself so the shape is more like an Ooni Koda when on the move or stored on a shelf.

Great design, very quick and easy to put on and take off.

A nice, water resistant cover to protect and carry the Ooni. I power my Karu with charcoal and wood; therefore, the chimney is always attached. I have seen suggestions for alternative covers, but with the chimney on, these alternatives are not feasible.

And I don’t want to detach and stash the chimney every time I cover the Karu. The straps and buckles are quite sturdy. I feel confident that the carry case will not give way when I am transporting the Karu.

If you plan to leave the chimney on and/or transport the portable Karu, I highly recommend getting the cover.

Delivery was later than suggested upon order. Only once the order was placed did it become clear delivery would take 3 days. I offered to pay for expedited delivery, was told this wasn’t possible. I was then told it had dispatched, waited in, nothing arrived.

It then didn’t arrive and when speaking with the courier, it hadn’t actually dispatched till the following day. The longer paddle ordered is too small to be of use, is extremely flimsy, arrived bent and in no way justifies the cost charged.

An alternative paddle ordered to replace, is far superior, for a 3rd of the cost. This made all the difference to being able to use the oven successfully and turned a very frustrating experience into an enjoyable one.

I have asked Ooni to take back their paddle of lies – no response. The oven itself is very cool, it arrived covered in a film of oil, this is understandable from the metal work etc, but it wasn’t warned anywhere.

I made the mistake of unboxing indoors, so got this oil on some up upholstery which is now marked. I may have been foolish for unboxing an outdoor appliance, indoors, but a little warning on the box or the bags the metal parts are in, would have been helpful.

The first time you use it you have to burn off this oil, which didn’t take long but was noticeable. The product output, after a few trial and error goes (in my case!), is great. You do need to give the oven the chance to come back up to temperature before you make the next pizza.

So if you have a few friends over; you may need two on the go at once. This is exactly what I did with some friends, with three setup, we had a make your own pizza buffet and everyone loved it. There’s a lot of fun to be had with people spending ages selecting their ingredients, laying it all on, only to become distracted whilst it’s in the oven and produce an incinerated black disk.

We should never waste food, but it is inevitable – and does add to the shared experience – who can make the best one etc. The only improvement I could think of; aside from the paddle of consumer betrayal, is a temperature gauge.

Yes you can buy a superior model with a digital temp gauge. But given the low cost of flu gauges, remote thermometers etc – wherever it is the temperature should be recorded, it would be good to have the option of requesting this as an ‘add on’ As it is, it’s easily bodged with a remote thermometer or meat thermometer, just check it has the range.

Does it heat up to the promised temperatures? Sort of, like mpg in a car, it can do, but won’t in normal use. It’s clean and simple to operate. Buy the ooni pellets, they just work. Stay away from the long paddle of disappointment.

Have had lots of issues stemming from one area of my Ooni. Have had the product for a couple weeks and even though it has been alot of fun prepping for pizza the actual cooking has been Meh. My issue stems from the lack of oxygen needed for combustion and continue flame within my Fyra oven.

I have to let the fire start with the pellet grate 30-40% open and the front open to let in enough oxygen in. This presents other issues as pellet grate can easily fall and hurt someone as well as low heat to start due to flame.

Once the flame gets going I will push the whole grate back in to start heating the stone. As previously mentioned the lack of oxygen gives off a small flame and takes a bit longer to heat the stone to adequate temperature.

I continually have to take out the grate for the flame to reignite all while white smoke blows through the Fyra unit and causes a bad smoke taste in the pizza. Once the flame has burned through a substantial amount of the pellets and new pellets are introduced through the not so automatic pellet hopper the flame is extinguished.

Again, this is caused due to no oxygen to continue the flame. At the end I am left with a top burnt pizza due to the constant high temp flame and low stone temp that taste horribly like smoke caused by the ever extinguished flame All in all this has been a negative experience I loved the idea of making pizzas with a wood fired flame but.

We are very pleased with the Ooni Fyra. It has been a learning curve for sure, but we are up to the challenge! We didn’t have any experience making our own pizza, but my husband loves to grill and loves to make flat bread pizza creations, so this was a the perfect gift for him! We started with whatever flour we had around the house, but finally got the 00 flour and it made a huge difference.

We started with just a metal peel (highly recommended Ooni brand as it had both grooves and holes) and later got a wooden peel which loads the pizza much easier. (Mix flour and cornmeal & sprinkle on the peel to help slide off also) Also a hi-temp infrared thermometer is great so you can check internal temps safely and easily.

Make sure you watch YouTube videos for the technique. We are very proud of our pizzas even though they are probably still amateur level to some. Before buying, price the accessories such as pizza peel, pellets (depending on which model), thermometer etc as these things can add up to the total cost.

We have been pleased with the quality of Ooni accessories but it’s not mandatory to use them. Finally, Ooni customer service was top notch. I submitted an email question and a real person got back with me promptly! PS Another thing we have learned is not to pile on too many toppings; better to keep it simple.

I received my first peel, and the board was already separating from itself. To Ooni’s customer care team’s credit, they promptly replaced it when I shared pictures of the product as it arrived. Unfortunately, the good feeling was short-lived as the replacement Peel has also started to separate, albeit from a different location (near the handle vs.

the front of the original). This separation of the bamboo is quite unfortunate as the peel itself is pretty useful. I have fewer issues with my pizza sticking as I slide it into my oven, but it’s only a matter of time before it becomes unusable.

In fairness, I have recently purchased a couple of other bamboo boards from different sources, and they, too, have also separated. Maybe bamboo isn’t good material to work with for cutting boards and pizza peels.

The bamboo pizza peels are the PERFECT accessory to your Ooni oven! They are smooth to the touch and thin on the end so it’s easy to launch your pizza but still very strong so you feel secure. Very nicely designed product.

Highly recommend getting one for every member of your family as you can all prepare your pizzas at the same time and your able to launch them- then everyone still has their own bamboo peel to be served their pizza on- and you can cut on these bamboo peels.

So it’s great! Makes the whole experience very fun when everyone has their own and they don’t have to wait!.

This peel works great for large pizzas or multiple small pizzas. The bamboo surface is sealed for protection on both sides making it stain resistant and easy to clean. I recommend that you hand wash rather than putting it in the dishwasher.

I do my prep, launch, retrieval and slicing on this one. It can also be used as a cutting board for prepping your toppings It is not made for turning pizza in the oven. Because of it’s durability it is very heavy.

And of course, cutting on it will mar the wooden surface.

I bought this cover after watching a video. When I received the cover it did not appear the same as what I saw in the video. That being said, the cover is fine and offers the protection I expected. I like the fact that the cover has two carrying handles and that the straps can be easily tightened and loosened.

The separate cover for the pellet tube and smoke stack is nice, but it doesn’t tightly secure to the main cover when transporting. I also noticed the the two buckles used to cinch down this cover seem to be sewn on backwards, or at least not how I would have attached them.

Also, it is somewhat difficult to determine which way the main cover needs to be oriented when installing. I sometimes have installed it backwards and have had to take it off and start over. The cover fits very snugly and I’m wondering how long it will last before It rips or the elastic gives out.

Therefore, I gave it three stars ,although for the price I think it is a good value and I am glad that I purchased it along with the oven.

This is really a “storage” or “transport” cover more than a “keep it safe from the elements until you use it again” cover. I like the fit and the quality seems very good. The issue for me is that by removing the stack and feeder tube each time, you get full of soot and creosote when handling.

Also, the bag for them fits into your oven, but there is a deflector shield inside that needs to be removed each time (more soot) and I don’t know what to do with the removable door since the cover won’t fit over it while on.

I just thought how I’d be using would be to put it away. However, I love my Ooni 12” Fyre so much I want it ready to spring into service. Thanks.

Late delivery and limited correspondence keeping me up to date, I had to chase via customer services. Is a lovely thing, but cooking a pizza is not as easy as you make it look! My biggest problem is the pizza sticking to the stone, no matter how many tricks I try it happens every time.

Also, the ooni is affected adversely by the wind, any amount of wind causes the oven flames to burn the wrong way and affect the temperature inside the oven. Also, due to the small overall size, the oven only burns at the desired cooking temperature for a very tiny window of time, so you need to be extremely well prepared to hit the optimal heat/time frame before the temperature drops.

The design is superb and the material does an excellent job of keeping the Ooni dry (even in heavy rain), but the manufacturing isn’t so great. I love how snugly it fits the oven, and that there’s an adjustable strap to secure the cover.

They even thought to include a button loop to hold the chimney cover in case you remove the chimney. We had a popup storm and the oven stayed dry. The only down side is the poor construction. I removed it from the box and noticed the stitching along the elastic band was separating.

After I stretched it over the oven, the stitching popped free in several places. It still works fine, but something that I’ll need to sew back together. I’m still happy with the purchase because it does an excellent job protecting the Ooni when it’s sitting outside.

I questioned getting a pizza oven for a long time as it is so expensive. Although, cost of commercial pizza is going up and we have family pizza night Friday nights so I leaned towards pulling the trigger on purchasing one.

I did TONS of research and ooni wins every time. I didn’t want to buy something just because it had the name or was popular, but ooni scores highest in any competition. It has the dual fuel source which makes it easy to switch up at the last minute, it heats up FAST and holds the heat.

Making a good pizza takes time to learn, but all of ours have been edible and tasty just some tastier than others as we perfect the process. If you have had this page up for days/months “thinking” about buying – do it.

I have zero regrets and have a family night each week that has given memories that will last way longer than the big bill of ooni.

My cover broke by the strap of the handle in under 8 months. I live in San Diego, with one of the more mild clients in the USA. I keep the oven outside but in a covered area and not in direct sunlight.

Lifted the oven up the other day by the handle of the cover and it broke. Luckily the oven did not break. I do love the oven but the cover is cheap and frankly it is a liability. If It can’t hold up here not sure how it could possibly hold up in more harsh environments.

I would have expected the cover not the webbing to be the weak link but that was not the case. Now I have to go though a warranty request. Hope that is not too painful.

Works as intended; however, it tends to allow all of the residual flour or corn meal on the bottom of the pizza or surface of the peel, used to keep the dough from sticking to the peel, to transfer into the pizza oven along with the pizza.

This eventually burns and leaves an off-taste to the pizza to varying degrees, depending on the amount of burned flour etc. I have a bit of buyers remorse on not spending more to get the peel with open air slots which would likely significantly reduce the effects of this issue.

I have had to play with the amount of base materials to use to keep the dough from sticking while not using so much that it transfers to the pizza over stone. Some of this is definitely my inexperience with the equipment, but like I said I think this issue would be largely eliminated with the upgraded peel.

I gave it 3 out of 5 stars because I took 1 star for being pricey for what it is to begin with, and another star because it’s not as forgiving or user friendly as the peel with perforations. Overall however, the equipment seems to be well made and again does work as intended.

We put our new Ooni oven to work last week. We made pizza’s for our traveling RV family of 16! 16 rounds of dough, a huge banquet table full of toppings (we may have gone overboard), and 16 super happy faces at the end! We ended up rolling our dough out, which was so much easier than hand stretching.

We used flour and a tiny bit of cornmeal to help prevent the dough from sticking. We had 3 humans working hard – one rolling the dough, the other prepping the toppings on each pie, and the 3rd was our pizza spinner! By pizza #3 we had it down to an art form and had such a blast! Traveling in an RV, you have to pick and choose your appliances wisely due to space constraints – we are so incredibly happy we made space for this oven.

Thanks for a great invention OONI!!.

I originally purchased the standard 14” pizza peel but changed the order to the perforated pizza. The peel is good quality and the perforations allow any excess bench flour while transferring your pizza from bench to peel.

I also purchased the 14” wood peel and turning peel. Each peel have their own benefits. If you are looking to purchase only one peel the most versatile from my personal experience would be the perforated peel.

It allows you to launch the pizza, turn the pizza during cooking (see ooni videos) and remove for cutting/serving.

The brush is well-made and appears to be of good quality but it doesn’t fit the inside to the rear of oven if using the gas attachment on the ooni 16, which is my preferred cooking method. I’ve not tried it with the wood/charcoal attachment.

It’s also not easy to brush the perimeter of the pizza stone. The hard bristles are not flexible enough to easily dispose of small debris (I use semolina to prevent the pizza sticking to the peel and this lands up charred on the pizza stone).

I would not recommend this and I now use a cheap hand-held sweeping brush, with softer bristles and can access under the gas attachment easily. The scraper has not been needed, but I’d suggest a cheaper alternative would be available.

Eg car or paint scrapper for a pound or two. It looks nice though hanging on the side of the ooni table!.

I love OONI. Unfortunately, the ergonomics of this brush do not live up to what we’ve come to expect from ONNI’s designers. The rectangular shape of the handle does not fit comfortably in the hand. A rounded handle would be a much more comfortable fit.

With the metal bristles running parallel with the handle, it is nearly impossible to sweep debris forward and out of the oven. Orienting the bristles perpendicular to the handle (similar to a classic push broom) would improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the brush considerably.

Just sayin’.

I have used it six times since buying it in late November. Air temps when using it have ranged from 20 degrees to -15 degrees Fahrenheit. Each time has been with wood fuel. It does work good, but is hard to manage heat with the cold temps.

Am excited to use it in warmer temps. I have ordered a propane attachment with the expectations that gas will standardize temps and allow for more consistent cooks. Items cooked so far have been pizza and Chicken Tikka.

My family really liked the pizzas we produced so far and each time we seem to improve. My only regret is not getting the 16” oven.

Purchased the 12” Perforated Peel from Ooni for Christmas 2021. It’s a well made product but the design does not work. I have tried to use the Peel a number of times without success. The pizza refuses to launch no matter what I do.

With high hydration doughs (think classic Margarita pizza) the perforations actually prevents the pie from launching. Luckily I have a $10 solid wooden Peel that works great, no issues. The pies launch easily.

Also, adding more flour on the Peel is counter productive as flour gets everywhere falling thru the perforations onto the counter/floor. Save lots of money and forego this product.

So I excitedly bought one of these; and its good quality. However. the holes? They make it really hard to use: 1) to stop the dough sticking you coat a peel with flour/semolina. This naturally just goes straight through the holes! What a mess.

2) The holes mean it can grip your moist pizza dough really well; this is exactly the opposite to what you want. You want it to easily shoot off and on to your pizza stone. So Ooni make a similar one without holes, and I would recommend that alternative.

In my own case I have charity shopped this one and bought a really cheep one with no holes that works much better.

The peel is great for turning and removing pizzas from the oven, but awful at launching. With a thin crust, I find the dough always sagging into the perforations and making it very difficult to launch.

I have to either over-flour the base of the dough (which burns and affects taste), make a thicker crust (not my preference), or top my pizza at warp speed (not suitable for casual pizza party dinners).

I thought my problems were due to my inexperience, but I bought a wood peel last week for topping and launching pizzas and the first 4 have worked perfectly – requires less flour, launches more smoothly, allows ample time for topping.

The perforated peel is superior to the wood peel for turning and removing from the oven, but honestly any low-profile metal peel can do that.

I used them to do pizzas during a summer fayre at school; the oven started well and got into temperature as expected, but after the first pizza the exhausted pellet started accumulating on the burner and there was no chance the oven would keep a decent temperature.

I tried all possible options, like drop feeding the burner, waiting for the oven to get back into temperature, manually clearing off the excess pellets, etc. but nothing really worked. As a side note, I was running the pizza stall with a friend and we had two ovens: his ooni 3 and my ooni Fyra, both of us have experienced the same problem whilst both of us are quite experienced in their use.

While it was fair to say that it was a windy day (but overall ok in UK standard) the reliability of the oven + fuel has been extremely poor and the summer fayre was for us a terrible experience, trying to catchup with a list of orders which at the end forced us to deliver pizzas that were not properly cooked.

Certainly not a good advertisement for the Ooni brand. Regards, Fabrizio Colangelo.

I tried these pellets after suspecting my Ooni Fyra was producing excessive soot and smoke with some other pellets. There was quite a difference, with the Ooni pellets burning cleaner for sure and possible “hotter” since they disappeared faster through the burn chute.

I have since read that instead of a blend of hardwood pellets it is preferable to go full oak, which Ooni pellets are. I don’t know if I can find all oak and try them or if I should stick with what works and buy more Ooni pellets.

Overall I cannot find anything bad about the Ooni pellets except that they are a little expensive.

I started my Ooni journey using these pellets and found them to be of amazing quality and value. They produce consistent temperatures with very low smoke. I have tried others, just to compare, and have now returned to using the Ooni own brand which I will now stick with.

These pellets have taken the guess work and errors out of fuelling my pizza making. A fantastic product.

Brilliant! The thought and engineering that went into the ooni’s development is top notch, the resulting pizza Is rather epic. I also highly recommend cooking naan in there, brush some garlic butter the second its finished cooking, let it rest for couple minutes and you’ll have a hard time staying humble.

All credit goes to the oven as my skills are modest at best. “Off grid” cooking in remote areas also contributes to one feeling like a bit of a superhero. Thank you ooni.

Fantastic! I also purchased the optional propane gas burner which makes it super easy and does not require addition wood or charcoal to be added as you make multiple pizzas. For best results invest in an infrared thermometer to measure the stone temperature and ensure a well cooked crust.

I have also found that giving it a few few minutes in between pizzas for the the stone to reach proper temperature again is beneficial. the unit is easily transportable for taking it to the cottage or camping.

I recommend this unit!.

We are thrilled with this new pizza oven. A few neighbours also have it and we are learning how to best use it.

After buying the Ooni Wood Pellet Stove, the cookbook, the peel and the pizza cutter for my husband, I didn’t buy the firestarters. the first three times we tried to use the stove, we struggled to get it started, to the point of giving up.

I bought the firestarters in the hope that he would give it one more try, and sure enough, they worked beautifully! He is excited about making pizza and showing off to his friends how wonderful the pizza tastes fresh out of his wood fired oven! Thank you so much for a wonderful product!.

After spending thousands of dollars on two ovens and accessories, and recommending many to friends and family, I find my new Kari 16 essentially worthless because Ooni send me a defective gas burner that for some reason they will not replace.

The problem is likely a 2 dollar hose, or regulator valve, but dealing with their customer service is like going through the Spanish Inquisition. As a form of protest, I’m reviewing all of my accessories with one star- especially because Ooni has not honored my repeated requests to unsubscribe from these spam review requests which violates GDPR and several other spam/privacy laws.

We used this for the first time this weekend. It is a learning process. But I have to say it was super easy to light, I was worried about that part. What I did learn is you need to let the pizza stone heat for at least 20+ mins unless you have a temp reader and know it’s reached 500 degrees.

Our pizza’s cook on top but not the bottom but this was solely due to our learning curve not the pizza oven. Id give this a 5 stars.

Great stone with even better customer service! We bought the Karu 12 oven with included stone from REI but the stone that came with it must have been a dud because it cracked down the center after only 2 uses.

I reached out to Ooni and they sent me a replacement stone the next day. We’ve been using it regularly for months now with no issues. It’s better than any other baking stone I’ve tried.

This Ooni oven is absolute garbage. I’ve tried several types of dough, heat, and timings, watched videos on technique and so far it has only produced the worst pizza I have ever eaten. I set the stone down quickly and it broke (first time ever cleaning) and I had to spend $50 to replace.

Don’t by this oven, It’s a waste of money. If I could give it zero stars, I would.

Hi Ooni My mother had recently died and I’d won the oven through Tesco Aperol and it Han just been used a couple times. Then mum passed away and I couldn’t get to the box for the serial number so one your agents just sent me the new slate.

Eventually managed to get Sam the serial number and slate was replaced. Excellent customer service. Thank you so so much. Just need to get accessories now!.

This is fantastic, watched a couple of YouTube videos to see how others cooked using this model, and it was so simple. Heated up very quickly, didn’t have to monitor the flame, used the ooni thermometer and then put the pizza in with the peel.

We bought all the ooni accessories available, the thermometer, peels, carry case, pizza cutter, skillet, bamboo board and large side trough for the medium ooni table. Some items were bought from ooni direct as John Lewis did not have these in stock, we are waiting for the delivery of the additional accessories.

When you buy this oven you do need to also buy a lot of the extras, so although the price of the oven is good, overall we have spent about £700 to get it all kitted out. The pizzas cook in about 90 seconds, this is on 3/4 flame.

We started with smaller pizzas and then worked out way up to a full 12 inch pizza for this oven. We really enjoyed making the pizzas and couldn’t believe how fast they cook. The pizzas have a lovely flamed taste and are far better than any premade pizza.

The oven does get extremely hot so use with caution, if you are turning the pizza, many recommend the turning peel. I am yet to buy this, but I use the regular square peel, and turn the pizza by hand – it is a bit hot when turning the pizza but it’s not impossible without the ooni gloves.

Cooks salmon and veg in minutes using the skillet. The oven is very easy to clean using the brush, which you also have to buy separately. When you purchase this you will receive the oven only, this comes with the pizza stone, and the attachment for the gas connection.

Very simple to connect, very simple to turn on, just press in the button, hear the click and you’ll see the flame. Highly recommend!! The gas version of the ooni ovens is very simple to use, produces no smoke, and you do not have to spend ages tending to the flame, leaving you to have fun creating the pizza or spending time with friends and family whilst you wait for it to heat up.

Fab!.

Like everything else, it’s a trial and error process but like riding a bicycle, once you have it down, you have it forever. It’s both an awesome and excellent Pizza Oven. My wife, being Italian, it’s VERY picky on her pizza.

We made our first two yesterday. The second came out better than the first. I not being the baking type, bought the premade 12″ dough. In time we will start making our own but I just want to know how to both use and cook the pizzas first before worrying about how my dough will turn out.

The biggest most important emphasis is the FLOUR. You MUST insure that there’s enough flour on the peel for the pizza to freely slide and turn. I even cooked my first pizza ON the peel because it wouldn’t slide off onto the stone.

I won’t get into how that turned out but it was edible. The second one we understood the significance of flour it the entire process both in preparing the pie and insuring it freely slides on the peel.

So just by the second pizza, which came out much better than the first, we were making progress. That’s pretty much it. It’s not only that simple, but the pizzas come out FANTASTIC!! By the time I’m though the the box of premade 24 pies, I’ll be a pro.

Heck I may even try to learn how to toss them. Anyhow, if you want an outstanding Pizza Oven that lives up to everything it both say and claims it does, then look no further. As I said earlier, my wife, being Italian, and the Italians in general take their Pizza very seriously.

All their food actually! If my wife is happy, then I know I made the right choice. Enjoy!.

We absolutely love the Ooni Koda 16! I feel as if I need to explain that we originally started out with an Ooni Fyra 12 Wood Pellet model, so we are pretty familiar with how to make great pizza the Ooni way.

Friday night is typically “Pizza Night” at our house. We have made pizzas for as few as two people to as many as thirty guests! It’s a lot of fun for our guests (kids and adults alike) to truly have a hands-on experience with making their own, personalized pizza creations.

Using Ooni pizza ovens has definitely upped our pizza game, while greatly decreasing the time required to bake a pizza. We used to make grilled pizza on our natural gas Weber grill before we discovered Ooni ovens.

We chose the Koda 16 because it allowed us the option to utilize our existing natural gas connection. And the bigger sized oven was also appealing. So far, we love being able to heat up the Koda and enjoy consistent, even heat without needing to feed wood pellets into the hopper, like on the Fyra model.

(Please understand that we would also give the Fyra a 5-star rating, but having the gas option that the Koda offers is even better. ) It did require a little trial and error with learning how to use the Koda, but thankfully, blackened crust can easily be removed.

We can now make a beautiful (not burnt!) pizza in about one minute.

First, the gloves smell awful and my hands stink for quite some time after using them. But the main purpose of the gloves is to protect from the heat and they fail miserably at that. These are welding gloves meant fro brief exposure to heat and sparks.

I have burnt my hands with these thinking they would protect me. I wanted to change the doors and was removing the pizza door with these gloves on and within seconds, the insides of the gloves were burning me.

I had to drop the door and then take the gloves off as the heat was still conducting through the gloves. These are not designed for the kind of heat an Ooni can produce. get a pair of gloves with nomex and kevlar instead.

I am overall thrilled with my ooni experience. I love the oven. BUT these gloves do not really protect my hands. They protect from radiant heat, but not direct heat. I tried pulling a cast iron pan out when the oven was about 500 degrees, and my hands felt some of the protection, but I definitely had to move quick because my hands felt so incredibly hot and they were red for a while after.

I don’t know if these gloves are meant to be used that way, but there should be some sort of acceptable uses for them listed, because I assumed I could use them to get things out of the oven.

These gloves are made for the temperatures that these ovens get up to. Other gloves that you may use with your grills or turkey fryers won’t cut it trying to hold/carry or turn items heated to the temps you will be working at with your pizza oven.

Ooni knows their products. Trust them to know what wirks with them. You won’t be sorry.

I was expecting as this was the oven manufacturer’s own brand that they would be perfect size. However, about 5% of the bag contained pieces that wouldn’t fit in the fire box. A quick smash with a hammer fixed that but it’s messy.

Burns very well though and pizzas were great.

I’m very disappointed with this product. Bought the ooni charcoal for ooni pizza oven only to find around a third of the bag tge lumps are way too big to fit in the space on the oven compartment I would understand if this was a cheaper make but very annoying.

I would not buy this again.

We have the 12 inch Ooni and the Charcoal is too large to use. You have to break it down and even then it back up the fuel chute and didn’t keep the oven hot. We also did not like the flavor from the charcoal.

We are going to throw the bag away.

We have only got around to opening these as they were bought for keeping in reserve until previous stock of pellets was used up. Pellets tend to absorb some moisture in outside storage, so the Ooni pellets burned “better” (with more smoke) than the last of the pellets kept from the previous year.

Wood burning makes better pizza but wins few plaudits from the environmental lobby?.