Last Christmas we received an Ooni pizza oven as a present. Many kamado-style cooker fans are also fans of
pizza and pizza ovens, so many of you should be familiar with Ooni (formerly known as Uuni).
Ooni has several models and sizes of ovens and some of them can run using lump charcoal as a fuel. So it should
be no surprise that Ooni sells lump charcoal. As usual, we will be reviewing this charcoal as to its performance
in kamado-style cookers, but we will also try to give an opinion on how it performs as a fuel for Ooni pizza ovens.
So, this charcoal comes to us from Ukraine. As usual, we provide you with a map to the right showing where
Ukraine is located. (Note that if you visit the Ooni website, you will see that it says the charcoal is made
in Lithuania. However, per Ooni, it is indeed made in Ukraine and distributed out of Lithuania.)
We hold high hopes for this charcoal since we have had good
experiences with charcoal made in Central and Eastern Europe and in the European Union (EU). You see,
the EU has standards for everything from bananas to escalators and that includes charcoal. Specifically,
EU Standard EN 1860-2:2023 Appliances, solid fuels and firelighters for barbecuing is of interest.
Recently revised and effective in January of 2023, it contains requirements for lump
charcoal used for barbecuing, table grills, and restaurant charcoal. In the case of charcoal
used for barbecuing, the following requirements exist:
- Minimum 75% fixed carbon content.
- Maximum ash content of 8%.
- Maximum moisture content of 8%.
- No pieces may exceed 5.9 inches, no more than 10% of pieces may exceed 3.15 inches, at least 80% must exceed 0.8 inches, no more than 7% may be less than 0.4 inches.
We have reviewed at least one brand subject to this standard, namely, Lumberjack Charcoal. Lumberjack turned out to be the
highest scoring charcoal we have ever reviewed so it is worthwhile finding out if Ooni charcoal is subject
to this standard. Sadly, it appears that since this charcoal is manufactured in Ukraine, it is not required to
satisfy the requirements of this standard.
Before we get started with the review itself, we would like to point out some issues with the packaging and labeling
of Ooni charcoal. First, the bag is labeled "4 kg | 9 lb". However, it can't be both. 4 kilograms is 8.82 pounds.
9 pounds is 4.08 kilograms. Second, the bag doesn't contain either 4 kilograms or 9 pounds of charcoal. Each bag we
weighed was about 3.9 kilograms. The worst bag we weighed was only 3.76 kilograms.
We contacted Ooni about this and they stated that their intent is for the bag to
contain a net weight of 4 kilograms. They are looking into why their supplier is not meeting this specification. They
didn't indicate whether or not they were going to fix their labeling.
So let's begin by inspecting the bag of charcoal. We dump it on the ground, inspect it for things like uncarbonized
wood, scrap wood, trash, etc. We did find plastic string in one bag, which you can see in this photo.
There was no scrap or junk, etc.
in the bag. We'll note that the charcoal is quite light and not very dense. The fixed weight of charcoal that we
always use for our burn time test filled our small Big Green Egg cooker much fuller than most brands. This should
bode well for the burn time test since generally speaking, dense charcoal doesn't burn as long as light charcoal.
(Yes, you heard us right. Dense charcoal doesn't burn as long as light charcoal. You can read more about this
here: Does Dense Charcoal Burn Longer?.)
Next, we sort the bag of charcoal into large, medium, and small pieces, as well as the chips and dust you
find at the bottom of every bag. Here's what we found:
| Large |
1.0 pounds |
11.1% |
| Medium |
2.4 pounds |
27.5% |
| Small |
3.6 pounds |
42.4% |
| Chips/Dust |
1.6 pounds |
19.0% |
|
|
|
| Total |
8.6 pounds |
|
|
Putting regulatory issues aside, let's discuss the distribution of sizes. We really need to consider the
use of this charcoal both for barbecue and for use in an Ooni pizza oven. First, barbecue cookers. Anyone
who has read our reviews will know that the distribution of sizes of this charcoal for barbecue is pretty
dismal. The 19.0% chips and dust is
High (
) compared to all other brands of charcoal.
The 38.6% of the desirable medium and large pieces is
Low () compared to all other brands.
As far as the size of the charcoal for use in an Ooni pizza oven, there was one large piece which would
probably need to be busted up a bit with hammer in order to fit inside the opening of the fire chamber on
our Karu 12 oven. Overall, we would consider using 4.5 pounds of this bag, or 52%, in our pizza oven. The
rest was just too small and might block the airflow through the fire and into the oven. When you consider that
you need to get the oven up to 900°F or so for making neopolitan pizza, airflow is important.
Obviously, we have never considered the suitability of any other brands for use in an Ooni oven, but
it should be clear that only being able to use half of the bag is pretty dismal. Especially when you consider
that Ooni sells this charcoal for use in its own ovens at a pretty steep price.
We did look at the size distribution of two more bags. The second bag was 60% usable in an Ooni pizza oven. However,
none of it was really desirable for use in a kamado-style barbecue cooker. The third bag was much better. 80% was
usable in an Ooni pizza oven, while 30% of the bag was usable for a barbecue cooker.
So there are two conclusions to be drawn here. First, the usable quantity of charcoal varies widely from bag to bag.
Second, this charcoal is really only desirable for Ooni pizza ovens despite claims that is for pizza ovens and barbecue
cookers. The price is quite high and then only a small amount of the bag is desirable for barbecue cookers.
In our lighting test, we measure how many sheets of newsprint are required to get a good fire going in a standard Weber
chimney starter. Ooni lump took only 1.5 sheets which is
Very Low (
) compared to all other brands.
The smoke when the charcoal burns is very very mild, and there was no sparking or popping
while the charcoal was being lit or while it was burning.
As far as a maximum temperature, Ooni charcoal burned at 895°F, which is
High (
) compared to all other brands.
While the charcoal was burning there was very little sparking and no popping. Also,
the fire spread extremely fast.
In our burn time test we lit the charcoal with a MAP-Pro torch. There was a small amount of sparking and
popping, but really not much considering we were using a torch. In any event, always take care when using a
torch of any kind to light lump charcoal. So, how long did it burn? Remember our prediction from earlier
in this review in which we said that because the charcoal was so light, it would burn a long time? Yep.
We nailed it. This charcoal's burn time was
Very High () compared to all other brands. And as far as
ash production goes, Ooni's lump charcoal's ash production was
Low () compared to other brands we have tested.
So, now this is going to be tricky. First let's talk about using this charcoal in an Ooni pizza oven.
Maximum temperature is important since you need to get the oven super hot. However, ease of lighting
isn't all that important and unless you are going to cook a bunch of pizzas non-stop, burn time
and ash production isn't all that important. So Ooni charcoal certainly burns hot enough, but what is
really a bummer is that some bags of this expensive charcoal only contain 50% usable pieces. So we
would never buy this charcoal for our pizza oven as it is just too expensive. And since at 800-900°F
you don't get any flavor from the charcoal, pretty much any charcoal that will burn hot will do.
Well then, what about using Ooni charcoal for barbecue? It performs extremely well as far as ease of
lighting, max temperature, burn time and ash production. Also it has a very pleasant mild smoke.
But then there's that pesky size thing again. Some bags had a small amount of charcoal useful for
barbecue cookers, but others had almost none. What good is a brilliant charcoal if you bust it up
into tiny pieces? Factor in the cost and Ooni charcoal is simply not suitable for use with barbecue
cookers. We have no choice but to give this charcoal our Below
Average rating.
