Does Ooni Karu Use Wood Pellets? (Explained) 2022 2024

Last updated on October 26th, 2022 at 05:21 pm

Good equipment at home can be of much assistance; knowing how well to use the equipment is more of a task.

When you use a piece of equipment properly, you achieve the reason for getting the equipment, and the equipment lasts longer.

Ooni Karu requires proper use to avoid damaging the machine.

Ooni Karu does not use wood pellets but hardwood. Hardwood used allows the formation of powerful rolling flames in place of wood, gas, or charcoal can be used. An Ooni uses hardwood but not colored or treated wood; for best results, wood to use in Ooni Karu should be kiln-dried hardwood, beech, and oak.

Can You Use Wood Pellets In An Ooni?

You can use wood pellets in an Ooni; an Ooni can accommodate wood, charcoal, gas, and even wood pellets.

You can use any wood pellet in an Ooni, but preferably, wood pellets from an oak source are best.

When using wood pellets in an Ooni, the number of wood pellets should not overload the machine.

When you overload an Ooni with wood pellets, it affects its functioning and becomes slow until the pellets have burned to some extent.

Also, dry wood is very important in using wood pellets in an Ooni, as wet pellets would affect the fire.

However, sometimes pellets are wet, and the fire would not come up. Hence dry wood should be used.

Whether to use wood pellets in an Ooni depends on the type of Ooni machine in use.

Two types of Ooni that use wood pellets are Ooni Fyra and Ooni 3, except Ooni Karu and Ooni Pro, which do not use wood pellets but instead use other fire sources.

Can I Use Traeger Pellets In Ooni Karu?

You cannot use Traeger pellets in Ooni Karu because a Traeger grill uses wood pellets, and an Ooni Karu does not use wood pellets.

Ooni Karu can use gas, hardwood, and charcoal; even though Traeger pellets comprise hardwood, you should not use them in Ooni Karu.

Traeger uses different pellets, but hickory wood pellets are more popular as they are all-purpose pellets, although pellets from other sources work well.

In the end, it doesn’t matter the type of wood pellets used because the final results are the same once the heat is okay.

How Much Wood Pellets Does Ooni Use?

How many wood pellets an Ooni uses depends on the size of the Ooni because they vary. Hence the quantity of wood pellets to use differs too.

The most important thing to consider is to avoid overloading the machine with pellets that do not work correctly.

For an average-sized Ooni Fyra12 and Ooni 3 machine of about 12 inches, a whole pack of pellets that weighs about 300g is enough to keep the fire up and have the heat at the needed temperature and achieve the desired result.

Two 10kg bags of pellets would stay up to 20 hours of continuous cooking. Also, the quantity of wood pellets an Ooni uses depends on whether you start the fire afresh when cooking.

If the machine had been in use, it would have heated up. Hence, it doesn’t need many pellets as the heat helps with the cooking process.

Can You Use Softwood Pellets In Ooni?

You can use softwood pellets in an Ooni, and you will obtain the same results at the end of the cooking process.

Hard or soft pellets do not affect the cooking, although hardwood pellets are preferable for use in an Ooni than pellets from softwood.

Woods burn differently in their log forms; hardwood tends to burn longer and has very high heat intensity compared to softwood in its log form.

In pellet forms, softwood and hardwood burn with the same intensity; however, you achieve the same results at the end of the cooking process.

In most cases, softwood pellets have high heat output and release less amount of ashes when compared to hardwood pellets.

Hence, using softwood requires deficient maintenance, releasing little ashes, and hardwood pellets require more maintenance as they release a lot of ashes.

In addition, research has shown that when you use softwood pellets, they burn better.

How Do You Light Ooni Karu With Pellets?

An Ooni Karu does not use pellets, only charcoal, wood, and gas. Hence, the lighting process would be just lighting Ooni Karu when you use one.

Therefore, it’s essential to ensure all the features are ready for use and assembled adequately before using.

Like every other cooking appliance, once the necessary materials to light the fire are available, lighting Ooni Karu becomes easy.

Depending on the fuel method used at a particular time, the lighting processes are different, requiring all the necessary materials to be in place.

This helps the machine to function correctly and in achieving the required results.

For example, when using wood in lighting up Ooni Karu, the necessary materials to be made available are; hardwood for kindling, firelighters preferably 2, matches, a thermometer, and heatproof protective gloves.

When the materials are available, the steps in lighting the Ooni Karu machine include the following:

Close the door, open the chimney, and ensure the chimney power cap is off.

Arranging the firelighters into the fuel tray and building the hardwood around the firelighters.

Use the matches to light up the fire. Make sure there’s clean smoke before the cooking process begins.

When there’s a need to add the fire, carefully add hardwood for the kindling, ensuring the machine is not overloaded.

It is also important to check the temperature of the stone using the thermometer so that the right amount of heat is available to cook the pizza.

When using charcoal, the essential materials are charcoal and a firelighter. Steps on how to light up Ooni Karu when using charcoal include:

Close the door, open the chimney vent and remove the chimney cap; this ensures maximum airflow; then draw out the fuel tray to add charcoal.

Add the firelighters to help the fire catch up faster, then add a quantity of charcoal in the fuel tray and slide it back into the back of the oven.

Use the matches in setting up the fire.

It is important to allow the charcoal to catch up properly before use, that is, when it is white. When adding the charcoal, you should wait for the charcoal to turn red and avoid overloading.

To reduce the airflow, the chimney baffler should be closed, while to increase airflow; the chimney baffle should be open

When using gas in the cooking process with an Ooni Karu, it is essential to properly check the availability of the gas before setting up the fire.

The processes involved in lighting up the fire in an Ooni Karu are:

Open the vents, chimney, and door of the Ooni.

Carefully remove the backplate and attach the gas burner, then tighten the screws to help fasten the burner to the oven.

Push the heat dial control and turn it anticlockwise until the flame ignites. Then allow the oven to heat up to your desire, then begin the cooking process.