Ooni calls the Karu 2 a multi-fuel pizza oven. The box tells a narrower story. Open it and you find an oven ready for wood or charcoal, and nothing else.
Gas is a $120 burner sold on its own. By Ooni’s own figures, that burner also heats the oven more slowly. So the real question is simple.
Is this a wood oven with a gas option? Or a gas oven you pay for twice?
This review covers the Ooni Karu 2, model UU-P30300, the second generation 12 inch Karu. Ooni says plainly it is the oven once sold as the Karu 12G, renamed.
First Impressions of the Ooni Karu 2
The Karu 2 arrives in a box Ooni lists at 45.8 lb. Lift the oven free and the first thing you notice is the glass door. Most wood ovens at this size give you a solid steel hatch. Here you watch the flame roll over the dome while it works.
Setup is light work. The stainless legs fold down and lock, and the chimney lifts off for travel. There is no assembly worth the name.
There are no accessories either. Ooni states the oven ships without a peel, a cover or a thermometer gun.
First fire is where the character shows. A handful of kindling and some hardwood splits in the rear tray catch fast. The flame climbs up the back wall and curls along the roof toward the door. That rolling flame is what you pay a wood oven for.
The first pizza tasted like it. The crust blistered and charred in spots, with a smoky edge gas never quite gives. It also cooked unevenly until we learned to turn it. Expect your first two pies to teach you something.
Key Features of the Ooni Karu 2
Every feature on this oven leans one way. It is built to make wood behave, with gas bolted on behind.
- Rear fuel tray: Ooni made it 45% larger than the first Karu’s. Bigger logs fit, so you feed it less often during a session.
- Cordierite stone: It is 15mm thick and 13.3 inches across. A 12 inch pie fits with a finger’s width to spare.
- Borosilicate glass door: ClearView sends an air curtain across the inside face to keep soot down. A magnet holds the door shut.
- Cool touch handle: Ooni calls it SureGrab. It stays comfortable to grip while the oven is roaring.
- Built-in thermometer: An analogue dial on the body reads the air inside. It does not read the stone, which is what matters for the base.
- Multiple Vents or Dampers: A throttle lever on the chimney trims the draft. With Ooni’s Flamekeeper baffle and Draft Defender Plate, it steers the flame over the dome.
- Stainless steel: Stainless steel goes into everything that sees the fire: shell lining, floor pan and legs. The outer body is powder-coated carbon steel, with an aluminum nose front and back.
- Gas burner option: The burner fits at the rear in place of the fuel tray. It runs on bottled propane only and is rated at 5.3kW.
Switching fuels is a short job, not a click. You lift out the fuel tray and undo two screws on the Draft Defender Plate. The burner slides in and the same screws go back. Ooni quotes under a minute, and that is fair once you have done it twice.
Ooni rates the Karu 2 at 950°F, or 500°C. Ooni says it reaches the 850°F baking range in as little as 15 minutes. That is quick for a portable with a thick stone.
The gas side is slower on paper.
The burner’s own page says it heats the oven to 850°F in 25 minutes. Ooni does not say which fuel the 15 minute figure assumes. Read together, the pages suggest wood is the faster fuel. Most buyers expect the reverse.
The glass door does real work. It keeps the dome hot between bakes and lets you judge the crust without opening up. Ooni credits it with making the burner 36% more efficient than on the older Karu 12.
The weak point is the floor. A 13.3 inch stone under a 12 inch pizza leaves almost no margin. The side nearest the flame chars first, so you turn every few seconds.
Charcoal is the calmer fuel. It gives a lower, steadier bed of heat with less flame over the roof. That suits a thicker New York style pie, which wants longer in the oven. Lump charcoal topped with a split of wood gives you both.
Recovery between pies depends on you. On wood, the stone only comes back if the fire stays fed.
Build, handling and durability
The materials list reads well for the price. Stainless legs and internals resist the heat and the weather better than painted steel. The 15mm cordierite stone is thick enough to store heat between pizzas.
Weight is easy to live with, though Ooni cannot settle on one figure. Its spec table says 33.6 lb. The same page also says 33.7 lb, just under 34 lb and just under 35 lbs.
Dimensions disagree too. On Ooni’s page the oven is 28.3 by 16.5 by 30.3 inches. An Amazon listing photo prints 28.7 by 16.4 by 29.7 instead. The oven carries the same whichever number is true.
What will decide its lifespan is moisture. Ooni advises a cover or dry indoor storage to keep the stone dry. A damp stone heated fast can crack, so treat that advice as a rule.
Running costs, upkeep and value
Amazon listed it at $448.95 on 2026-10-15, a hair under Ooni’s $449. Either way, you get the oven alone. Add the $120 burner and you reach $569, which matches Ooni’s own Gas Burner Bundle price. A peel, a cover and an infrared reader for the stone all come on top.
So the honest frame is this. The headline price buys a wood and charcoal oven. Judged as that, the glass door, stainless frame and thick stone justify it. Judged as a gas oven, you pay for a fuel tray you may never use.
Fuel costs are hard to pin down. Ooni publishes no figure for wood burned per session or propane used per hour. The 36% efficiency claim is relative to the Karu 12 only. Hardwood splits and lumpwood charcoal are cheap, but you burn them steadily to hold the heat.
Upkeep is modest. The fuel tray lifts out for ash, and ClearView means less scrubbing of the glass. The stone needs a brush and the occasional scrape, never soap.
Warranty is a strong point with a catch. Out of the box, the oven has one year of cover. Five years needs a registration, filed inside 60 days.
The burner carries five years too, but its regulator and hose get two. Ooni does not say whether an Amazon order earns the extension. Check before you buy there.
Possible Ooni Karu 2 Complaints
- Multi-fuel, minus one fuel. Many buyers read “multi-fuel” and expect all three. You get wood and charcoal for $449. Gas costs another $120, and fitting it means pulling the tray and two screws each time.
- Wood fire takes practice on a small floor. A 13.3 inch stone gives a 12 inch pizza little room. The flame side burns while the door side lags. A turning peel and a few practice pies fix most of it.
