The Uuni 3 Outdoor Pizza Oven is currently one of the most modern pizza ovens on the market. Make a perfect homemade pizza oven with this beautiful piece of patio cookware.
The best outdoor pizza oven brands bring pizza lovers everywhere yet authentic pizza cooking. Uuni(aka Ooni) is one of the best at it.
But what makes them so special? And what makes this oven different from others.
This Uuni 3 pizza oven review will show you everything you need to know and why you need to buy this oven.
Uuni’s humble beginnings weren’t in the back room of a family home in Naples, but on Kickstarter in 2012.
Anyone who had any doubts about the popularity of a homemade pizza oven choked up quickly, as their company’s financing goal was exceeded by 220%.
And they’ve only gotten stronger since then.
Let’s take a closer look at the Uuni 3.
The Construction
Like any good oven or cookbox, a more powerful pizza oven needs to be able to hold the heat perfectly. The key to this is a stronger physique.
The Uuni is perfectly matched to this. It has a stainless steel body designed to completely insulate the oven. This is the least amount of heat loss and ensures that cooking temperatures in the main chamber of your oven remain as constant as possible during cooking.
Now he found that the design aspect can turn some people off. The fireplace is definitely the first thing that catches your eye.
However, it serves a very important modular purpose, making it the best use of ventilation.
But here’s the good stuff:
The chimney is actually detachable, so you can simply unclip it and store away after cooking. This makes the entire stove much more pleasing to the eye, as well as easy to move and store.
It’s also an unusual 3-leg design. However, this does not affect its stability, but it has helped reduce its weight. The legs also fold up for easy storage…or if you just want to rest it on a surface.
At first glance, the metal might seem a bit flimsy, but don’t worry. It is made of durable stainless steel and perfectly withstands its high temperatures.
Features
One of the things that makes this pizza oven stand out is that it has a wood pellet burner in the middle. The benefit is that this helps to control temperatures more efficiently and keep cooking temperatures consistent.
When we’ve seen wood burners in BBQ grills or smokers, we’ve often seen peak cooking temperatures reach 900°F, sometimes even higher.
And the Uuni is no different.
This bad boy can get up to 932°F. And while you may rarely want to reach that level of heat, it helps ensure your pizza comes in and out of the oven cooked through in just a minute or two.
Besides, I get it.
If you’re lazy like me(and I hope you are) then one of the reasons you like pizza is that it’s easy and quick.
It also makes sense that you would also want a pizza oven that is just that.
This is where the wood stove really takes things up a notch.
The high temperatures it gives off means your oven will be up and running at the desired temperature in just 10 minutes. For anyone who knows anything about charcoal or pellet grilling, this is good.
Plus, the fast start time means you can easily make any pizza in 60 seconds. You could even start a production line if you wanted to(I won’t judge).
Every pizza oven needs a good brick and Uuni has provided one. And not just any stone, but a brilliant cordierite.
Cordierite is easily one of the best, if not the best, material for pizza stones, so having one for free is a real bonus.
Fuel
One of the problems with traditional brick pizza ovens has been that ongoing fuel costs can add up very quickly.
Flavored logs can be expensive, and a large kiln will tear them apart very quickly.
Fortunately, this is not the case with the Uuni 3.
Because the stove uses wood pellets as a fuel source, it is extremely energy efficient.
Wood pellets are very energy efficient and because the Uuni is smaller than traditional pizza ovens it takes much longer to burn.
In addition, wood pellets are relatively cheap.
Wood pellets are also organic. They come in the form of recycled wood, which is then shredded and compacted into densely packed pellets. They haven’t added anything at all and are just wood in its purest form.
Therefore, your pizza will be delivered clean with no hazards, additives or burnt chemicals.
Wood Pellet Burner
One of the main talking points for this stove is its wood pellet burner.
This burner is fed through a pull-out tray on the side of the stove, which is then filled with pellets.
Anyone who enjoys grilling or charcoal smoking knows the difficulty of having to refill the coals regularly, so the tray design is a welcome upgrade.
The pellets are then simply ignited with a simple starter bucket or torch.
Performance
Well, all the features are there. Everything looks great. The wood pellet burner sounds promising.
But how does it work?
First, like any style of “analog”(ie, non-gas or electric) cooking, it takes a little time to master. There’s a definite learning curve, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t get the hang of it right away.
Then you literally cook with fire.
Once the pellets are ignited, the heat-up time is instantaneously fast, reaching our target temperature in about ten minutes.
Due to its clean source of wood fuel and most importantly thanks to its excellent airflow design thanks to its chimney, the heat was clean and smoke was largely kept to a minimum.
The airflow design also meant that high temperatures passed through the oven without temperature fluctuations(bane of life for any outdoor cooking enthusiast).
The pizza we cooked was ready in less than 90 seconds. A complete success.
What we Like
- Its wood pellet fuel burns clean and helps you cook delicious food.
- The wood pellet bowl makes it easy to refill while cooking.
- Their cordierite brick provides excellent warmth without being prone to breakage.
- It only takes 10 minutes to heat up.
- The foldable legs and detachable chimney make it very easy to store.
What we Don’t Like
- Its tall chimney and three-legged design aren’t for everyone.
- The rearmost area of the stove tends to be hotter than the front(although this is not uncommon in non-brick stoves)
Final Verdict
With the Uuni 3 pizza oven, Uuni has created one of the best pizza ovens for beginners. It’s extremely energy efficient without being flimsy, and it’s stable and reliable enough to bake pizza with consistent success.
One of the best budget pizza ovens we’ve tried. It runs on pellets and is easy to use. He offers delicious pizzas at a fraction of the price of other big brands.
Writer & content creator. BBQ fanatic!
