Uuni pizza oven- long term users

I’m really into homemade pizzas and always quite fancied an Uuni 3. How often do you tend to use yours and any good tips ? are they easy to light and do they smoke much ?

thanks

I’ve used maybe 8 times this year. Love it. It’s a mk 2. Make sure pellets are completely dry. I pop mine in oven sometimes as store in garage that’s not completely dry. It smokes when lit, but soon runs pretty clean. You need to keep the hopper topped up. I find it needs a tap with the peel or something to keep pellets flowing. Also tapping the wee fire basket thing clears ash and keeps it running well.

Get the gas conversion, soooo much less faff

I have a 2s. It’s great to use. Bit of a faff to light sometimes but once it’s going then you just need to keep on top of the fueling.

The smoke can be a bit thick at times but usually ok.

To be honest the biggest faff is the prep of all the dough and ingredients then only being able to cook one at a time. Usually means that everyone has finished by the time I get to cook mine.

But they are ace and their basic dough and tomato sauce recipes make awesome pizzas.

Got a link to their basic dough and Tom sauce?

I’ve had one a couple of years and still use it. To be honest, it’s not that easy to light and can be a faff. Gusty winds are an issue as the draft varies. Makes good pizzas though. It’s an activity rather than a fast an efficient way to a tasty meal.

Dry pellets and generous use of accelerant to get it lit are my recommendations. It’s also easy to over fuel it once it’s going and that makes it go out as you get fuel spilling into the oven where there isn’t enough air for it so it smokes and pops.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/652135961591112/

https://ooni.com/blogs/recipes/tagged/italian

Unni 3 here. Literally ten seconds before coming on here tonight we were talking about doing pizzas on sunday night. I would never switch to gas, love the whole wood fired thing. I’ve never had any issues with lighting, always get the fire box facing in to the wind, I use a combination of zip odourless lighterblocks, little wood swirls and the pellets, piece of piss. The novelty of home, wood fired pizza never ever wears off for us. Only slight moan would be it’s not a meal we ever eat together as such, it’s every man for himself on the production line then I fire them up.
Hit the buy button!

I got one for Xmas which was good timing as we’ve been without a kitchen for the last 4 months and all we’ve used is a two burner camping stove, Weber Q BBQ and the Ooni.
So we’ve been using it about every 10 days since the beginning of Feb (it’s in a big barn so no rain soaked pizza)!

I have to say it’s changed the way we eat pizza…. They’re so much nicer than shop bought.
I started with the pellets which are fine but, as already said, you need to keep on top of it as the temperature can do quickly.
When we finished the first bag I bought the gas adapter as I’ve got a massive tank of propane that needs using.
The gas makes life much easier… Click the button and it’s lit, walk away, come back 10 mins later and you’re ready to cook.
I make dough in batches using a 1kg bag of flour to make about 9 out 10 dough balls.
These then get chucked in the freezer, defrosted in a minute in the microwave and then left to rise for a couple of hours.
Remember that less is more…. Too much sauce will make the pizza soggy and difficult to get off the peel.
Also get a digital thermometer and some wooden peels (Amazon) for building and launching the pizza into the oven and use the supplied metal one to turn the pizza as it’s cooking.
Oh, I also got a couple of cast iron skillets and they make a wicked steak!
Overall I love it and am looking forward to beach pizza if summer decided to return.

for lighting, get a blowtorch and have at the pellets through the holes in the fuel box.

Also….if you can’t be arsed to premake dough, don’t bother with the yeast and make pflammkeuchen instead. Google it….cheese, onion bacon on a base of fromage blanc NOM NOM NOM

If you really can’t be arsed, you can make an edible alternative on a tortilla base, but they cook fast.

And save a ball or two for sweet pizzas. Precook the base because the toppings don’t need cooking, only heating, and the sugar chars in no time. But Nutella and banana, marshmallows, strawberries, all ace!

Pellets are ok if you have someone happy to stay by the oven and vigilantly keep it topped up. Very faffy if you cook single handed. To be honest if you want the whole “wood fired” thing you’re better off with the Pro that can burn real wood.

We got the gas burner and I’ve not used pellets since. Fire it up and leave for 20 mins while I get everything else ready then start cooking. If I was buying again now it’d be the gas only Koda.

Use it a couple of times a month at least, we’re veggie so it’s what we do instead of BBQs. Often have friends and their kids over so cooking up several pizzas is a quick fun way to feed everyone, the kids love helping to make their own.

I’ve got an uuni/ooni 3 for sale in Sheffield if anyone is interested. I’ll add it to the classifieds later today if anyone is interested. Will be looking for £140. Only selling as I’ll be up grading.

I got the houlker flame guard and now use kiln dried oak in my Ooni 3. Real step up not faffing with the pellets which always seemed to leave an after taste no matter what. Beauty of using chunks of oak is it kicks the heat out for far longer so much less faffing about with pellets and still get the woody taste.

I’ve got a 2s and use a jam funnel to extend pellet capacity, I can easily make a pizza and load without having to top up the pellets, I check them once a pizza comes out.

You need a ir thermometer to check the oven and stone are up to temp.

There is a app pizzapp+ ? That guides you on dough making ingredient quantities. A Kenwood mixer is helpful in making dough but not essential.

Lastly there are helpful Facebook groups to help you out.

Love ours – a neighbour has one too, and they’re at their best with a big bunch of people, and we tag team the cooking so there’s a fresh pizza coming out every couple of minutes. Avoid Uuni’s proprietary pellets – a massive con. You can get a bag of oak pellets from a garden centre for a tenner that’ll last for ages.

To light it quicky, I soak a trayful of pellets in firelighter gel. And keep it topped up every few minutes once it’s going.

The whole thing – making dough, sauce, chopping up toppings etc. is why we only do it for a lot of people, it’s a chore otherwise.

Oh – and you need more than one paddle – one having a pizza prepped on it, the other shovelling a pizza in/out of the oven.

But it’s great.

Use mine fairly regularly. 2S with wood pellets only.

Never had a problem lighting it (blowtorch through holes at back), strong wind can be hassle as others say.

Dough making faff puts me off much more often than any hassles with the uuni/ooni. I tend to use the bread maker for making the dough.

Steak on a iron skillet is amazing.

Any difference in the taste of the pizza between wood and gas ? The gas does look a good option, and appears to be a bit better at temperature control.

No difference in taste for me, the convenience of the oven being ready in under 10mins is a boost. Get an IR thermometer to check stone temp. I bulk make dough and freeze any excess pizza balls to use later. Thaw the frozen dough at room temp 4-5 hrs

I’m now in the Uuni club… Homebase are selling the Uuni 3 for £176…pick up tomorrow

The koda v the unni 3 was a test we did after steel city downhill. Mate made all the dough and provided the toppings. We then had a pizza off, the 3 was just better all round. A word you’ll use is leoparding, the koda just didn’t cut it.

My efforts.

2 smaller pizzas at back are Gluten free pizza for son’s girlfriend. GF flour pizza is another art I’m still mastering.

great looking pizza Bruneep. Looking forward to trying mine.

long term Uuni user/owner here – bought the first iteration from the crowdfunder and then upgraded to the Pro when that first followed.

The family love it. Still primarily use the pellet hopper – mainly because I’ve got the remainder of a bag that I’m trying to get rid of. Does pizzas for a family of four in about 25 minutes from first being lit – will smoke a bit when first going but can’t say I’ve ever had an issue getting it going – I just stick one of those natural firelighter things down the hopper, sling a lit match after it and once it’s going, top it up with pellets. Get it up to temp and then it’s just a case of ensuring they’re feeding down to the burner ok. It’s just as simple as getting it raging hot, 90 seconds for each pizza x 4 and then we’re done.

Having two or three peels helps speed things up considerably.

oh, if making your own is too much of a PITA at times – (I’ve recommended these before) the Waitrose frozen pizza dough balls are ace. No nasty additives, minimal salt. We always keep some in the freezer in case we or the kids have friends round. You can defrost them in the microwave pretty quickly and they make a suprisingly decent pizza.

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/northern-dough-co.-original-pizza-dough/893403-307494-307495?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIicS1_7784gIVA7ftCh2AHQscEAQYASABEgJprPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

If anyone is in the market for one, Costco are punting out the Koda for £180 including Peel.
We’ve just got a gas burner for our 3, although I miss the fun of using fire, the convenience of gas is so much better, especially when making for the whole family.

Has anyone burnt wood chippings in theirs ? They have chipped a few trees on my site and left them in dry piles, it looks ideal. Failng that can I use a small axe and cut up very small pieces of wood to burn ?

I suspect the moisture content would be too high in both to get the temperature needed

Can you recommend some cheaper wood pellets to use than the Uuni ones ? reading reviews people say to stay away from soft wood pellets due to soot issues, and to try hard wood (beech and oak) pellets.

This seems pretty good. £25 for 20kg of Beech wood

https://wildstoves.co.uk/product/premium-wood-pellets-pizza/

I stick with uuni pellets as they never let me down. You really don’t use that much.

Love it, pizza is good, steak and lamb chops are epic. Just wang a blow lamp up it to get it cooking and check the hopper between pizzas. Never add pellets then directly add pizza. Give it 60secs to burn clean.