Fireside • Fire It Up
Gas vs Wood Pizza Oven: Propane, Natural Gas or Firewood?
Turn a knob, or build a fire? Here’s an honest look at gas and wood-fired pizza ovens: heat, flavor, cost, convenience and safety, plus what it really takes to put a gas burner in a brick oven.
Gas is easier: you turn a knob, the flame stays steady, and there’s no ash to clean out. Wood gets a brick oven’s firebrick cooking surface hotter, fills the brick with heat for roasting and baking long after the fire dies, costs little to run, and works with no gas line and no power. For a backyard brick oven you build yourself, wood is the natural choice. A gas burner can be added to a brick oven, but it takes a burner certified for that use, a gas line and a licensed installer.
Most of the gas pizza ovens you see online are small portable ovens with a thin steel or stone shell. They heat fast because there isn’t much to heat, and they cool down just as fast. A brick oven is a different animal. Its value is the heavy firebrick or castable refractory that soaks up heat and gives it back for hours, and wood is what it was built to burn.
Gas vs Wood Pizza Oven: Quick Answers
- Convenience: gas wins. Push-button start, steady heat, no ash.
- Heat: wood wins. A wood fire puts heat right on the firebrick cooking surface and rolls flames across the ceiling.
- Flavor: closer than you think for a 90-second pizza. Wood wins for roasts, bread and anything that cooks longer.
- Fuel cost: wood is usually cheaper, and often free if you cut your own.
- Install: wood needs a chimney. Gas needs a certified burner, a gas line, a permit and a licensed gas fitter.
- Power outages: a wood-fired brick oven keeps cooking with no gas, no power and no plug.
- Brick ovens: every BrickWood oven is designed and built to burn wood.
Gas vs Wood Pizza Oven at a Glance
| Wood-fired brick oven | Gas (propane or natural gas) | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting up | Build a fire, feed it for about an hour | Push-button or knob start |
| Top heat | 800 to 900°F on the firebrick cooking surface, ceiling past 1,000°F | Depends on the burner. The cooking surface usually runs cooler than under a live wood fire |
| Heat control | Add wood, move the fire, use the door and damper | Turn the knob |
| Cooking after the fire | Hours of roasting, baking and slow cooking from the stored heat | A brick oven holds heat either way. Small portable gas ovens cool off fast |
| Flavor | Char, live flame and a little smoke, strongest on longer cooks | Clean, neutral heat |
| Fuel | Seasoned hardwood. Cheap or free | Propane tanks or a natural gas line |
| Cleanup | Sweep out ash after it cools | Almost none |
| Install | Chimney and exhaust kit | Certified burner, gas line, permit, licensed gas fitter |
| No power or gas? | Keeps cooking | Natural gas stops when the line does. Propane lasts as long as the tank |
| The experience | The fire is the show | Quick and easy |
Heat: Which Gets Hotter?
A wood fire. In a brick oven you build the fire right on the firebrick cooking surface, move it around while the oven heats, and push it to the side when it’s time to cook. That puts heat straight into the brick under the pizza, while the flames roll across the ceiling to bake the top. BrickWood owners regularly read 800 to 900°F on the cooking surface.
A gas burner sits in one fixed spot. It heats the ceiling and the air first, and the firebrick cooking surface heats more slowly, mostly from the heat that bounces back down. That’s why many gas ovens bake a great pizza in 2 to 4 minutes but struggle to hit the 60 to 90-second bake of a true Neapolitan pizza. Our pizza oven temperature guide covers the heat each pizza style needs.
Flavor: Does Wood-Fired Pizza Taste Better?
Here’s the honest answer: for a pizza that bakes in 90 seconds, the difference in taste comes mostly from the heat, not from smoke. A clean-burning fire of dry hardwood makes very little smoke, and the pizza isn’t in there long enough to soak much up. What wood gives you is intense heat from below and live flame from above, and that’s what makes the charred, leopard-spotted crust people love.
Where wood flavor really shows up is in the long cooks: roast chicken, prime rib, vegetables and bread baked in the heat that’s left after the fire. Those foods spend 30 minutes to several hours in the oven and pick up that wood-fired taste. Our 30 wood-fired recipes show what one fire can cook.
Burn only dry, seasoned hardwood. Wet wood smokes, and smoky fires make food taste sooty, not wood-fired. Our firewood guide covers what to burn and what never to burn.
Cost to Run: Gas vs Wood
Gas burners are rated in BTUs per hour. A gallon of propane holds about 91,500 BTUs, so a 60,000 BTU burner on high burns about two-thirds of a gallon an hour. Natural gas is usually cheaper per BTU where you have a line, but running a new line to the backyard adds to the install cost.
Wood is usually the cheaper fuel, and it’s free if you cut and season your own. One firing heats the brick for pizza, then keeps cooking for hours on the stored heat without burning another stick. Our firewood near me finder can help you find local firewood dealers.
Can You Put a Gas Burner in a Brick Pizza Oven?
Yes, it can be done, and commercial pizzerias have converted wood-fired ovens to gas for years. But a gas conversion is not a weekend DIY add-on. It’s a gas appliance installation, and it has to be treated like one.
Every BrickWood oven is designed, tested and built to burn wood, and the free BrickWood plans are written for a wood-fired oven. BrickWood doesn’t sell gas burners. If you want gas, here’s what a safe installation takes:
- A burner certified for the job. Use a conversion burner listed for use in a masonry pizza oven, with a certification label from a recognized testing lab. Never use a homemade burner, a turkey fryer burner, a weed torch or a burner pulled out of a portable pizza oven.
- Flame safety shutoff. The burner needs a safety valve that cuts the gas if the flame goes out. Unburned gas collecting in a hot oven can explode.
- A licensed gas fitter. Have the gas line, regulator and burner installed and leak-tested by a licensed professional, following the burner maker’s instructions.
- A permit and an inspection. Most towns require a permit for a new gas line or gas appliance. Call your building department first.
- Combustion air and a working chimney. The burner needs fresh air to burn cleanly, and the exhaust has to go up the chimney. A poorly vented gas burner makes carbon monoxide.
- A plan before you build. The burner mounts through the oven wall or under the cooking surface, so the opening, the gas line and the controls have to be planned into the base and the oven before the masonry goes up.
⚠ Never Rig Your Own Gas Burner
A homemade or uncertified burner in a sealed brick chamber is a fire, explosion and carbon monoxide hazard. If you want gas, use a certified burner with a flame safety shutoff, and have it installed by a licensed gas professional with a permit. If you want the easiest, safest path to a backyard brick oven, build it to burn wood.
One more thing to know: a gas burner takes up part of the firebrick cooking surface, and a wood fire built on top of an unprotected burner can damage it. Ovens that burn both fuels use a burner made for that, usually with a protective cover.
Propane vs Natural Gas for a Pizza Oven
If you go gas, you’ll choose between propane and natural gas. The burner has to be built or converted for the gas you use. The orifice and regulator are different, so you can’t just hook a natural gas burner to a propane tank or the other way around.
| Propane | Natural gas | |
|---|---|---|
| Supply | Portable tanks or a larger tank filled by a delivery truck | A gas line from the utility |
| Energy | About 91,500 BTUs per gallon | About 1,000 BTUs per cubic foot |
| Install | Simpler where there’s no gas line. Tanks need safe clearances from the oven | Needs a line run to the oven, often trenched across the yard |
| Running cost | Usually higher per BTU | Usually lower per BTU |
| Run out? | Yes, keep a spare tank | No, as long as the utility is on |
Dual-Fuel Pizza Ovens: Gas and Wood
A dual-fuel pizza oven burns gas or wood, or both at once. The idea is gas for a quick weeknight pizza and wood for the weekend. Many commercial pizzerias run their ovens this way, using a gas burner to hold a steady base heat and a few logs for flame and color.
It sounds like the best of both, but there are tradeoffs for a backyard brick oven:
- Cost and complexity. You pay for the burner, the gas line, the permit and the installer, on top of the oven.
- Lost cooking space. The burner sits on or beside the firebrick cooking surface where a pizza or pan would go.
- Burner protection. Burning wood over a burner that isn’t built for it can damage it, so dual-fuel ovens use burners and covers made for that job.
- A brick oven still needs time. Gas doesn’t make firebrick heat-soak any faster. Whatever the fuel, the brick needs time to fill with heat.
For most backyard builders, a good wood fire and a little planning are simpler, cheaper and hotter.
Why Most Brick Oven Builders Choose Wood
- It’s what the oven is built for. A brick oven’s firebrick barrel or castable dome, its chimney and its opening are all designed around a wood fire.
- More heat where it counts. A wood fire heats the firebrick cooking surface directly and rolls flames over the ceiling, for the fastest, most charred pizza.
- A whole day of cooking from one fire. Fire it once and the stored heat roasts, bakes and slow-cooks for hours. See what you can cook in a pizza oven.
- No gas line, no permit for gas, no gas bill. Firewood is cheap or free.
- It works when nothing else does. No power and no gas? A wood-fired oven still cooks. Here’s how to cook without electricity.
- The fire is the fun. Friends gather around a live fire. Nobody gathers around a gas knob.
The trade is time. A brick oven takes about an hour to heat, and you’ll feed the fire while you cook. Most owners find that hour is part of the evening, not a chore. Our firing guide shows exactly how to heat a brick oven the right way.
Gas or Wood: Which Should You Choose?
| Choose gas if… | Choose wood if… |
|---|---|
| You want pizza in 20 minutes on a weeknight with a small portable oven | You want a permanent backyard brick oven that lasts for decades |
| You already have a gas line where the oven will go | You want the hottest firebrick cooking surface and true Neapolitan-style pizza |
| Your town restricts wood burning or open fires | You want to roast, bake and slow-cook for hours on one fire |
| You’re willing to pay for a certified burner, a licensed installer and a permit | You want to build it yourself and keep fuel cheap |
| Convenience matters more than the fire | The fire is half the fun |
Check your local rules either way. Some areas have burn bans on high-pollution days or limit outdoor wood burning. Find out what your town allows before you build.
Building a Wood-Fired Brick Oven
Every BrickWood oven is a wood-fired brick oven you build yourself, with no masonry experience needed. The Mattone Barile Grande is our best seller and our most versatile oven, with a 24" x 41.5" firebrick cooking surface and an 18.5" ceiling. The Mattone Barile is its smaller firebrick barrel. The Cortile Barile and 28" Mattone Cupola are castable refractory ovens that heat fast. See every kit side by side on our pizza oven kits page.
A pizza oven door and a chimney damper let you control a wood fire almost like a knob: door off and damper open for a roaring pizza fire, door on and damper closed to hold the heat for hours. The 28" Cupola’s door seals the oven on its own, so it needs no damper. Our chimney and damper guide explains how draft works.
Gas vs Wood Mistakes to Avoid
- Homemade gas burners. Never rig a burner, a fryer burner or a weed torch into a brick oven.
- Skipping the flame safety shutoff. If the flame blows out, gas keeps flowing into a hot oven.
- DIY gas lines. Gas lines and fittings belong to a licensed professional, with a permit.
- Propane tanks too close to the oven. Follow the burner maker’s clearances. Never store spare tanks in the oven base.
- Burning wood over an unprotected burner. It can ruin the burner.
- Comparing a brick oven to a portable oven. A portable gas oven heats in minutes and cools in minutes. A brick oven takes an hour and cooks for a day.
- Burning wet or treated wood. Wet wood smokes and won’t get the oven hot. Treated, painted or pallet wood should never be burned in an oven you cook in.
- Rushing a wood fire. A huge fire in a cold oven can crack the brick. Give it an hour, and cure a new oven first with our 6-day curing schedule.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a gas or wood pizza oven better?
Gas is more convenient: push-button start, steady heat and no ash. Wood gets a brick oven hotter, holds heat for hours of roasting and baking, costs less to run and needs no gas line. For a backyard brick oven, wood is the natural choice.
Does wood-fired pizza taste better than gas?
For a 90-second pizza, most of the difference comes from heat, not smoke. A wood fire gives a hotter cooking surface and live flame for a charred crust. Wood flavor shows up most in longer cooks like roasts and bread.
Can you convert a wood-fired pizza oven to gas?
It can be done with a conversion burner certified for masonry pizza ovens, a flame safety shutoff, a permit and a licensed gas fitter. It’s best planned before the oven is built. BrickWood ovens are designed to burn wood.
Can you build a DIY gas pizza oven?
You can build the brick oven yourself, but the gas burner and gas line should be installed by a licensed professional with a permit. Never use a homemade or uncertified burner in a brick oven.
Is propane or natural gas better for a pizza oven?
Propane works anywhere and needs no gas line, but usually costs more per BTU. Natural gas is usually cheaper and never runs out, but needs a line run to the oven. The burner must be set up for the gas you use.
Does a gas pizza oven get as hot as wood?
Some do, but a gas burner heats from one fixed spot, so the cooking surface usually runs cooler than under a wood fire. A wood-fired brick oven regularly reaches 800 to 900°F on the firebrick cooking surface.
Is a gas pizza oven cheaper to run than wood?
Usually not. A 60,000 BTU burner on high uses about two-thirds of a gallon of propane an hour. Firewood is usually cheaper, often free, and one firing of a brick oven cooks for hours.
Can you burn wood in a gas pizza oven?
Only if the oven and burner are made for both fuels. A wood fire over a burner that isn’t built for it can damage the burner. Check the burner maker’s instructions.
Plans for a Real Wood-Fired Brick Oven
Our free plans show you how to build a wood-fired brick oven that hits 800°F and up, then roasts, bakes and slow-cooks for hours, with a complete materials list for every BrickWood oven and its base. Price your whole build locally before you buy a thing.
- Plans for every BrickWood oven and its base
- Complete materials and tools lists
- Emailed to you as PDFs, ready to print
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Gas appliances must be installed by a licensed professional following the burner maker’s instructions and your local codes. Check local burn rules before building any wood-fired oven. Always follow the plans for your specific BrickWood model.
