Why Infrared is a Win for Your Pizza Oven
Most pizza ovens are kind of wasteful. They spend a ton of energy heating up the air and the heavy oven walls before the pizza even feels a thing. It’s like heating the whole house just to warm up a cup of coffee. We do things differently with infrared (IR) heating. Instead of warming the air, it sends heat waves directly into the dough and the toppings. It’s fast. Really fast. You can skip that annoying 30-minute preheat. The elements hit the right temperature in seconds, which means you aren’t burning electricity while you wait. Plus, because you aren’t pumping a massive cloud of heat into the room, your AC doesn’t have to fight so hard to keep the kitchen cool. Your staff will thank you for that. To make this work, we use high-purity quartz tubes and tungsten filaments. Quartz is great because it lets the heat pass right through without getting stuck. Depending on how thick your crust is, you can pick between short-wave or medium-wave emitters to get the heat exactly where it needs to go. Now, kitchens are messy. Grease gets everywhere. Since oil on the glass blocks the heat, we use special coatings to keep the tubes clean. One quick tip: make sure your wiring can actually handle the wattage. If you cheap out on the connectors, you’re just asking for a burnout at the terminals. But look, I’ll be honest—it’s not magic. Because these elements put out so much intense heat, they don’t last forever. You’ll need a plan to swap them out every so often. And you have to be careful with the setup. If you crank the wattage too high without the right shielding, you’ll end up with a burnt top and a raw bottom. It’s all about finding that sweet spot with the element placement to get a perfect, even bake every single time.