The Verge says Ooni’s portable pizza oven earns its backyard hype
The Verge’s Jess Weatherbed says years with an Ooni Fyra 12 made the portable pizza oven a go-to outdoor cooker over a grill.
By Hana Yoshida · Markets Reporter
3 min read
The Verge’s Jess Weatherbed says Ooni’s portable Fyra 12 pizza oven has become her preferred outdoor cooking tool after several years of use. Her recommendation matters for shoppers weighing a specialty oven against a barbecue as summer outdoor cooking season arrives.
Weatherbed wrote that she received the Ooni Fyra 12 as a gift and changed her view of home pizza after using it. She said she still likes grilling, but the wood-pellet oven has become her choice for outdoor meals when pizza is an option.
Model and alternatives
According to The Verge, the Ooni Fyra 12 originally sold for $349 in the US, but Ooni no longer sells that exact model on its US website. Weatherbed said the Fyra uses wood pellets, which give pizzas a wood-fired flavor.
For buyers looking at similar products, Weatherbed pointed to a 12-inch wood-pellet oven from Big Horn Outdoors, listed by that company at $200. She also described Ooni’s Karu 12 as the closest successor to the Fyra, with support for wood logs or charcoal; The Verge’s product listing showed the Karu 12 at $249 at Amazon and Ooni, down from $349.
Weatherbed said the Fyra was easy to put together, requiring chimney pipes and flame guards to be attached. She said the Karu’s setup appears similar, with the main fuel difference being that the Karu takes wood or charcoal in a rear fuel compartment instead of pellets.
Cooking speed and setup
The Fyra 12 is made for 12-inch pizzas, according to Weatherbed. She said it came with a square pizza stone that worked adequately, though she noted that other 12-inch stones or steels could be used.
Weatherbed was less positive about the included Ooni pizza peel. She described the supplied peel as flimsy and said she preferred a no-brand peel she had used elsewhere, recommending that buyers consider a better paddle for handling pizzas.
On one recent weekend, Weatherbed said the process from assembling the oven to eating two pizzas took under 40 minutes. She said preheating with a full pellet hopper took about 15 minutes, and each pizza cooked in roughly four minutes.
During baking, Weatherbed said users need to turn the pizza with a peel about once a minute. She said the oven could feed a group of six adults if raw pizzas are ready to load or if another person helps assemble them.
Cleaning, portability and cautions
Weatherbed said results depend more on pizza-making skill than oven operation, adding that premade dough and sauce can reduce the learning curve. She said she became comfortable making pizza from scratch after two attempts.
The Verge writer said the pellet model burned through its fuel in about 45 minutes and cooled enough to move by hand around an hour later. She also said it required less cleanup than a barbecue because grease was minimal, with occasional washing of the stone and soot removal from the chimney after buildup.
Weatherbed said the oven’s folding legs make it portable enough for trips to picnics, camping outings, beaches and garden parties. She said she has used it on a wooden table without damaging the surface, but warned users to leave space behind the oven because flames can come from the rear vent when airflow increases through the front grill and chimney vent.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.