How to light a wood fired pizza oven

Lighting a wood fired pizza oven is not as difficult or time consuming as you may think. The common misconception is that it takes hours, not with Igneus ovens! Our Igneus pizza ovens all use the same technique which once you have mastered, it will only take about 25 minutes to get the oven up to heat and ready to cook awesome pizza (depending on the oven model/ size).

Key things to note are;

• Do not use paper to light the fire. Use a natural firelighter instead.
• Use Kindling and Kiln Dried Silver Birch logs as fuel.
• Silver Birch logs need to be 10-12 inches long and 3 inches wide. For all ovens apart from the Igneus Minimo. (We recommend 6 inches long and 1 inch wide for the Minimo)
• WARNING: Do not use any form of accelerants such as petrol, kerosene or paraffin as it is extremely dangerous.

Lighting technique;

1. Build a tower of kindling in the centre of your oven. Use a natural firelighter (such as Twizzlers) to get the fire going.
2. Light the natural firelighter with a match and leave the door off the oven. Keep the chimney damper open (if the oven has a damper). The kindling should start to catch.
3. For 15 minutes keep adding kindling into the pizza oven, at the rate of about 4 pieces every couple of minutes. Make sure you haev spread the fire out across the front stones of your oven.
4. You should now begin to see a healthy red glow from the significant pile of embers. There should be a healthy yellow flame coming from the large kindling as it burns. The fire should be well established now.
5. After 15 minutes, you should be reaching 450 – 500C, at this point add 3-4 kindled down pieces of hardwood to the fire to really build a solid base heat. You will then move the fire to the back or side of your pizza oven. Do this by using the embers rake or brush (ensure you are wearing some good quality gauntlet gloves)
6. Now add 2 silver birch logs into the fire, one on the left and the other on the right (use your pizza peel to place them onto the fire). These should burn for about 25-30 minutes before the oven needs to be fed once again.

We know it can be hard choosing a pizza oven, our team can help you choose the right one for your needs. You can get in touch by calling us on 01423 575885

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