Ooni Pro (Uuni Pro) Pizza Oven on Wood Pellets
Cooking pizza with pellets? At first that didn’t sound like it was a very good way to get a rip-roaring pizza oven hot enough, but we were wrong. This is our experience cooking with the Uuni Pro (now known as the Ooni Pro) pizza oven on wood pellets.
Okay, first things first… let’s back up in time a bit. A little over a year and a half ago, we heard about the Uuni 3. This seemed like an amazing little pizza oven – and for only a fraction of the price of most pizza oven models we had been looking at online. It also had the distinction of being one of the few pizza ovens you could run off of wood pellets. While this is not a priority for most serious pizza makers, the idea sounded interesting to us and it got us wondering how well it would perform.
We kept our eye on this interesting little pizza oven for a while. When we were getting ready to pull the trigger and order an Uuni 3, the Uuni Pro showed up on an Indiegogo campaign. What was this? We took a peek.
The Uuni Pro boasted a larger cooking area and the ability to cook with four different fuels! Uuni was saying it could use wood (actual pieces/chunks of wood), charcoal, wood pellets and gas. It could reach temperatures of over 900 degrees F in 20 minutes and cook pizzas in ~60 seconds. That is some serious heat for such an affordable and *portable pizza oven.
So we ordered one. When the Uuni Pro finally came, assembly was very easy. The instructions (which weren’t necessary for all of us “leave-me-alone-I-can-figure-it-out” types) are straight-forward and clear. Within 20 minutes it was assembled with the wood/charcoal burner installed. But we were curious as to the wood pellet-burning capabilities, so we switched to the pellet burner.
The pellet burner is also very easy to assemble and only took us about 3 minutes our first time (since then, it only really takes less than a minute after you know what you are doing).
Once the pellet burner was installed on the Uuni Pro, we tried a “cool run” of switching out the windowed door with the pizza door. Doing this when the oven is cool is something we highly suggest. Dealing with such high temperatures is no time to be experimenting with equipment. It too was easy and even became easier and faster with practice. We mentally ran through the lighting and pellet-feeding process just to be sure we knew what we were doing when the heat was on (literally).
At this point, we were ready to light up the Uuni Pro. We added the initial amount of pellets (just enough to be even with the top of the pellet tray) and got out the butane blow torch. Things went smoothly at the start. The wood pellets were smoldering and a draft had picked up quickly. Before we knew it, we were ready to add more pellets. It was here that we went off script a bit.
The new addition of pellets seemed to really choke the flame a bit. We blew into the back of the oven a bit just to give it a kick of airflow. Please note: we don’t recommend this, as the temperature by this time was already pretty hot. That seemed to do the trick. Once the flame was at full steam, we made sur to top off the pellets to the recommended level and the temperature really started to rise.
In all, it took about 25 minutes for the floor of the oven to reach about 700 degree F. Also, the thermometer on the door reached over 900 degrees F (as promised). As long as we kep the pellets coming, there was almost no fluctuation. Since then, we have noticed that We were very happy with how quickly it reached its temperature and how simple it was to keep it there. Then we decided to switch to the pizza door. It went smoothly and, at the culmination of our initial burn, we had a very hot oven and a beautiful rolling flame.
Since the initial burn with the Uuni Pro, we have baked a couple dozen pizzas (many with wood pellets). After a few bumps along the way (rookie mistakes) and fine tuning of techniques, we have found what works. We are happy to conclude that this pizza oven is a serious machine for the home pizza maker.
Check out the short video below to see what it typically looks like to start up the Uuni Pro Pizza Oven on Wood Pellets.
If you are interested in purchasing the Uuni Pro, please consider using the link below. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. So you don’t pay any more, but I get a referral fee.
We at WoodCookers love cooking with wood. The Uuni Pro is a fantastic pizza oven, but it has so much more to offer (as you will see in future posts).
* The Uuni Pro weighs ~60lbs. When it comes to portability, the Uuni 3 is king, but the Uuni Pro certainly is portable.