Can You Use Charcoal In The Roccbox Pizza Oven? Yes, Here’s How…

The Gozney Roccbox has been a game changer in an ever-expanding market for pizza ovens, especially for its ability to burn multiple types of fuel using detachable, modular burners.

If you’re wondering, “can you use charcoal in the Roccbox”, the short and sweet answer is yes. However, in order to do so, you need to purchase Gozney’s Wood Burner 2.0 attachment, which currently costs an extra $100.

Keep in mind, if you’re using one of the original wood burners sold with the Roccbox, you’re out of luck. Thankfully, the Wood Burner 2.0 will work with any Roccbox and allows you to burn wood, coal, and charcoal briquettes. You can buy the Wood Burner 2.0 directly from Gozney by clicking the link below.

It’s also worth noting that several competitor pizza ovens, notably the Ooni Karu 16 and Ooni Karu 12G, can use charcoal right out of the box without any additional attachments. You can find out more about those pizza ovens here and here.

Using Charcoal In The Roccbox

The Roccbox is designed to use gas as its primary fuel source, which is all it’s capable of doing straight out of the box without any additional attachments. The gas burner it comes with provides a consistent and easily controllable heat, which is ideal for cooking pizzas. In fact, I’d argue that the Roccbox works best when using propane, but that’s another story.

However, the Roccbox can also be used with a detachable wood burner (sold separately), called the “Wood Burner 2.0”, which is mostly intended for those looking to burn wood (hence the name).

But what you might not know unless you dig deeper into the fine print is that the Wood Burner 2.0 is a multi-fuel capable burner. This means in addition to normal wood, a Roccbox with this attachment can also burn coal and charcoal briquettes. .

Related Post: Does the Roccbox use propane or butane?

Comparing to Other Pizza Ovens – Roccbox vs Ooni

While the Roccbox is an amazing pizza oven in its own right, if you’re specifically looking to cook with charcoal or wood, you might want to consider some alternatives that are especially designed to use these fuel types.

The Ooni Karu 16 and Ooni Karu 12G are two pizza ovens that are equally well designed that can burn wood or charcoal right out of the box, without any additional attachments.

The Karu 16 is Ooni’s flagship pizza oven model with a 16 inch baking surface costing $799, which is more expensive than the Roccbox. The Ooni Karu 12G is a newer 12 inch model that also burns charcoal and wood right out of the box and costs only $429, which is much cheaper than the Roccbox ($499 + $100 for burner = $599). 

In my opinion, if you want something similar to the Roccbox that can burn charcoal without any additional attachments, the Ooni Karu 12G is your best bet. It’s newer than the Roccbox, cheaper than the Roccbox, and is specifically designed to use charcoal and wood. 

Final Thoughts

If you already own a Roccbox and want to use charcoal, the answer is simple: purchase the Wood Burner 2.0 and cook with all the charcoal or wood you want. But if you’re currently in the market for a pizza oven and weighing your options, the choice isn’t quite so clear.

While the Roccbox can certainly burn charcoal using the Wood Burner 2.0, it’s not specifically engineered for it, as the name suggests. The Wood Burner 2.0 also adds an additional $100 on top of what’s already a somewhat expensive pizza oven ($499). That means a total of $599 for a 12 inch pizza oven, which is definitely on the expensive side compared to the Ooni options.

The Roccbox is an amazing pizza oven that’s designed with care and performance in mind. That said, if I were looking for a new pizza oven that can use charcoal and wood as a primary fuel source, I’d opt for the Ooni Karu 12G which is newer, cheaper, and more feature packed than the Roccbox. 

That said, if you want to be able to use gas and charcoal/wood, you’ll need to buy a gas burner attachment for the Ooni Karu 12G which costs $99. This still ends up cheaper than the Roccbox, but the difference isn’t quite as stark ($529 vs $599).

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