Pizza ovens

RonnieL · 07-06-2018 9:19am

mpeter92 wrote: »

The insulation of the oven is bad quite bad. I was looking at videos of homemade pizza ovens and they use insulation material that wraps around the oven that they secure with wire.
I was wondering would it possible to add insulation to the aldi oven?

I'm sure it would be possible but I'm personally gonna cut my losses with the aldi oven, and at some point in the future I'll build a proper one. As you said, there's loads of videos and plans online for self builds. They generally involve special concrete (vermiculite), fire bricks, insulation etc. My personal favorite approach uses one of those gym balls to form the dome. Some day!

As an aside, I just fixed my kitchen oven yesterday after the element went. I've had to replace a thermostat in it recently too - I reckon my weekly pizza cooking, with it running at max for a few hours is not doing it any favours.

Carra23 · 11-06-2018 2:39pm

I tried out the Aldi pizza oven yesterday for the first time and to be fair, its obvious that it isn't a great oven and that insulation wouldn't be the best but with that said, I cooked 10 beautiful pizzas with it yesterday and can't complain, considering its price. There is a garden centre in Kildare somewhere that sells a pizza oven that I'm sure is better than the Aldi one but it starts at €1400 :eek:

The oven heats up pretty quickly, managed to get it to 300 degrees within 20 minutes but as noted, the insulation is so poor that if you don't manage the fire well it will drop fairly quickly.

It will do me for a few years until I am ready to build a real pizza oven and in those few years I can see it cooking hundreds of pizzas, plenty of BBQs and a good few slabs of beef in the smoker.

I've tried attaching a couple of pictures but the sizes are too big apparently. ANyone know how to get around this or reduce the size of the photos ?

lawred2 · 11-06-2018 2:39pm

stevek93 wrote: »

Jasus what temperature do you cook your pizzas at? :eek:

220 - 240

lawred2 · 11-06-2018 2:45pm

OU812 wrote: »

00 dough as requested (lunchtime pizzas)

I have to say - the base looks lovely but the toppings do not do it for me

Dizzyblonde · 11-06-2018 3:23pm

Carra23 wrote: »

I tried out the Aldi pizza oven yesterday for the first time and to be fair, its obvious that it isn't a great oven and that insulation wouldn't be the best but with that said, I cooked 10 beautiful pizzas with it yesterday and can't complain, considering its price. There is a garden centre in Kildare somewhere that sells a pizza oven that I'm sure is better than the Aldi one but it starts at €1400 :eek:

The oven heats up pretty quickly, managed to get it to 300 degrees within 20 minutes but as noted, the insulation is so poor that if you don't manage the fire well it will drop fairly quickly.

It will do me for a few years until I am ready to build a real pizza oven and in those few years I can see it cooking hundreds of pizzas, plenty of BBQs and a good few slabs of beef in the smoker.

I've tried attaching a couple of pictures but the sizes are too big apparently. ANyone know how to get around this or reduce the size of the photos ?

I use Postimage. Upload your photo then copy the hotlink for forums

Alkers · 11-06-2018 4:04pm

Carra23 wrote:

I tried out the Aldi pizza oven yesterday for the first time and to be fair, its obvious that it isn't a great oven and that insulation wouldn't be the best but with that said, I cooked 10 beautiful pizzas with it yesterday and can't complain, considering its price.

How did you manage to do ten pizzas on it? The most we've managed is two before the temps drop right down and we have to get the fire going again and stop cooking until the temps build up. It's a bit too much effort to make one or two pizzas and then it doesn't stay hot enough to make more!

Carra23 · 11-06-2018 4:07pm

My brother in law manned the 'engine room' and kept the temps up by adding logs whenever it got close to 200, while I was in and out of the kitchen rolling dough and assembling pizzas, 8 normal ones and 2 gluten free. We used solid ash logs if that helps

Alkers · 11-06-2018 4:19pm

Carra23 wrote:

My brother in law manned the 'engine room' and kept the temps up by adding logs whenever it got close to 200, while I was in and out of the kitchen rolling dough and assembling pizzas, 8 normal ones and 2 gluten free. We used solid ash logs if that helps

When you added a log, did you stop cooking until the flames died down or just keep cooking? The manual advises cooking over embers as opposed to flames. Not meaning to question you,, just we haven't used ours yet this year after not finding it great previously. Must give it another go!

Carra23 · 11-06-2018 4:53pm

We just kept cooking as flames were burning. As I said in previous comments, I have 2 pretty cool videos of pizzas bubbling away and you can see flames licking up the sides !!

I also took advice from a poster earlier in the thread not to place pizzas directly on the stone so I placed them on a steel pizza dish thingy that we had been using to cook pizzas in our conventional oven. I have to say, especially in view of the price, I'm very happy with the oven and so were all of our guests.

Carra23 · 11-06-2018 5:13pm

Attached pics from my phone with No problems

Carra23 · 11-06-2018 5:27pm

Carra23 wrote: »

Attached pics from my phone with No problems

Obviously not ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚

TireeTerror · 13-06-2018 1:08pm

This Uuni 2S video just appeared online. Some amazing looking pizzas on there. Anyone tried it? It was obviously made in Ireland too.

RonnieL · 13-06-2018 2:03pm

TireeTerror wrote: »

This Uuni 2S video just appeared online. Some amazing looking pizzas on there. Anyone tried it? It was obviously made in Ireland too.

Looks class. Looks as though it would suffer from the poor insulation issue, but definitely a much better design than the aldi one. I wonder are the pellets expensive, and how many you'd go through.

RonnieL · 13-06-2018 2:12pm

RonnieL wrote: »

Looks class. Looks as though it would suffer from the poor insulation issue, but definitely a much better design than the aldi one. I wonder are the pellets expensive, and how many you'd go through.

Just checked the (Irish) site mentioned in the video. It seems they have a new version which adds some insulation. https://gobbqco.com/shop/pizza-ovens/uuni-3/

I want it!

TireeTerror · 13-06-2018 3:20pm

The Uuni 3 looks awesome, it even has gas if you dont want to use pellets.

Muahahaha · 13-06-2018 3:53pm

Yep must admit I have serious want for that Uuni right now. I saw the pro version in action last year and thought it was great but at £500 not a hope I was buying one. But this version at £170 is really tempting me. I wonder can they get up to 550 degrees C and above or is 450 their limit? Im looking for something that can also do tandoori chicken so the higher the better.

TireeTerror · 13-06-2018 4:58pm

I checked the Uuni website and it states the Uuni 2S can get to 500c in 10 minutes. Then when i looked at info online I see them telling people ways in which to reduce the stone temperature back down to 500c is they have it too hot, so it must be able to.

At £170 and sold in Ireland its a no brainer. I going to order one now because I clicked the link there and I see its because of a sale its at that price. I live quite rural, takeaways are no use because everything is cold by the time I get home, even if I put the boot down!

Im going to make Naan breads etc in it too!

curiousb · 14-06-2018 10:19am

TireeTerror wrote: »

This Uuni 2S video just appeared online. Some amazing looking pizzas on there. Anyone tried it? It was obviously made in Ireland too.

I have the Uuni 3 and it has positives and negatives. When I got it first it ran only on pellets and I found them a total pain in the ass. Very hard to keep a consistent temperature and I eventually gave up on it.

Then Uuni brought out a gas attachment for it which I bought and total transformation! With the gas you can get it up to temperature in about 20 minutes and it just stay there. Easy to get the stone to 400c.

There is no insulation so it cools down pretty quick.

I used to have a wood fired clay cob oven which was great, as you could burn decent sized logs in it and it held temperature easy. You could also slow cook on it overnight as it was well insulated and held the residual heat great.

But the Uuni is great (with the gas) for quick pizzas. And you definitely don't notice any difference in flavour between wood and gas cooking. A pizza cooks in about 90 seconds so minimal time anyway for smoke to penetrate.

fmul9798 · 14-06-2018 4:43pm

Where do you see it for 170?

RonnieL · 14-06-2018 4:45pm

fmul9798 wrote: »

Where do you see it for 170?

https://gobbqco.com/shop/pizza-ovens/uuni-2s-portable-wood-fired-oven/

Dizzyblonde · 18-06-2018 10:36am

I saw these yesterday - they're €90 in B&Q but are on sale in Woodies for €79.99. Surely using a pizza stone on the barbecue with the lid closed would do the same job?

Muahahaha · 18-06-2018 3:37pm

curiousb wrote: »

I have the Uuni 3 and it has positives and negatives. When I got it first it ran only on pellets and I found them a total pain in the ass. Very hard to keep a consistent temperature and I eventually gave up on it.

Then Uuni brought out a gas attachment for it which I bought and total transformation! With the gas you can get it up to temperature in about 20 minutes and it just stay there. Easy to get the stone to 400c.

Regarding the wood pellets do you know what kind of temperature they were getting the oven up to? And why were they a pain, is it because you have to use loads of them because they burn too fast?

Also how much was the gas attachment?

curiousb · 18-06-2018 3:59pm

Muahahaha wrote: »

Regarding the wood pellets do you know what kind of temperature they were getting the oven up to? And why were they a pain, is it because you have to use loads of them because they burn too fast?

Also how much was the gas attachment?

The pellets got the oven up to around 400c, so that was not the problem. They burn quite quickly though so lots of topping up needed and if you don't top up in time, you get lots of smoke as the temperature drops and it takes a bit of cajoling to get it back up again. Some people have added funnels to the top of the hopper so more pellets can be loaded at any single time, but I never tried that. I know some people have no problems with pellets, but I never got on with them.

The gas attachment was around €50 as far as I recall. The nice thing about it is you can fire it up and just cook one or two pizzas with a minimum of fuss.

Northern Monkey · 18-06-2018 8:08pm

We use ours way more since we got the gas attachment. It’s so much more convenient than the pellets and lets you focus on sorting the pizzas rather than maintaining the fire. I think we are going to try steak on ours this weekend.

TireeTerror · 19-06-2018 11:07am

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

I saw these yesterday - they're €90 in B&Q but are on sale in Woodies for €79.99. Surely using a pizza stone on the barbecue with the lid closed would do the same job?

I have one of those and its absolute garbage. The heat comes from below which means the pizza stone is hot, but there is very little heat coming up over the top, you need to leave it in so long just to try and melt the cheese that the bottom is literally like a bit of wood.

I have that Uuni 2S, I got it from that link and I used it the other night for the first time after watching the video a few more times. Its like a professional oven at your house, and so easy. Its so fast though, you actually cant believe it watching how rapidly its cooked, its amazing.

My friend came round and tried it and he went and bought one too! He cant see me have anything but he wants it, so annoying!

Northern Monkey · 19-06-2018 9:11pm

TireeTerror wrote: »

My friend came round and tried it and he went and bought one too! He cant see me have anything but he wants it, so annoying!

I have 3 people in the office talking about buying one since I got mine (and a 4th that will cave if the others buy one).

Muahahaha · 19-06-2018 9:48pm

Just wondering are the Unni ovens strictly outdoors only? I mean when using the gas attachment, could you use it indoors in the winter under the extractor or does it get too smokey to do so?

curiousb · 20-06-2018 9:54am

Muahahaha wrote: »

Just wondering are the Unni ovens strictly outdoors only? I mean when using the gas attachment, could you use it indoors in the winter under the extractor or does it get too smokey to do so?

More knowledgeable people than me have said this is a strict no no.

There's an Uuni facebook group that has tons of info on them and I think I saw it mentioned there.

Muahahaha · 20-06-2018 12:30pm

Yeah I was looking at the questions and answers section on the Unni on Amazon and lots more said there not to use it indoors because the back of it can flame up when the door is opened. The reason I asked was because I was thinking it would be handy to operate indoors during winter. But as one of the Amazon reviewers rightly pointed out operating it in winter is actually okay as the pizzas cook in under 2 minutes so unlike winter BBQing it is not like youre standing outside in the cold for too long.

curiousb · 20-06-2018 12:32pm

Muahahaha wrote: »

Yeah I was looking at the questions and answers section on the Unni on Amazon and lots more said there not to use it indoors because the back of it can flame up when the door is opened. The reason I asked was because I was thinking it would be handy to operate indoors during winter. But as one of the Amazon reviewers rightly pointed out operating it in winter is actually okay as the pizzas cook in under 2 minutes so it is not like youre standing out in the cold for long.

We have had a New Years Eve pizza party for the last couple of years and it's great fun. I have erected a gazebo over the patio with the oven just outside it and me inside it!

Pizza ovens

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