Heat-resistant gloves

Ooni Heat-Resistant Gloves. A pair for reaching into the 500-degree oven.

Ooni Heat-Resistant Gloves are grill gloves from the Scottish pizza brand Ooni, designed for contact with the hot surfaces of a pizza oven. Not potholders, not latex gloves, not thin household gloves.

Ooni Heat-Resistant Gloves are the pair of gloves that sit between your hand and the glowing metal of the oven when using a pizza oven. They are made from a multi-layered, heat-resistant material that can withstand brief contact with metal surfaces beyond 250 degrees Celsius without the heat penetrating to the skin. Anyone operating an Ooni pizza oven will realize when first adding wood or removing the oven door: it’s impossible without gloves. The Ooni gloves are the pair that Ooni designed for their own ovens.

One pair — for both hands

The scope of delivery includes one pair of gloves — two pieces, for the left and right hand. The cuffs extend well beyond the wrist, so the forearm is also protected when reaching deep into the oven with the pizza peel. The gloves are designed for a secure grip: the outside has a textured surface that prevents even smooth metal handles from slipping out of your hand.

The gloves fit adult hands in standard size. This is also the first limitation of this product: there is no size selection, the pair is unisex and designed as "one size". If you have very small or very large hands, it's best to check the fit during the first try-on. The cuff is flexible enough to fit even slightly larger forearms.

When to use the gloves

Most clearly when working with multi-fuel ovens like the Karu 2 Pro or the Karu 12G: adding wood, removing the glowing oven door, cleaning the combustion chamber — all of this is hardly possible without heat-resistant gloves. But even with gas ovens like the Koda 16, there comes a moment when you put away the pizza peel and have to reach directly into the oven — for example, to change the stone or to pull on the cover before the oven has completely cooled down.

From experience: The gloves are designed for short-term contact, not for continuous heat. If you hold the glowing oven stone for five minutes straight, you will eventually feel the heat. For normal oven work — opening the door, adding wood, getting pizza, turning the stone — the heat resistance is perfectly adequate. Do not put the gloves in the washing machine; damp fiber structures conduct heat faster than dry ones. After use, simply shake them off and store them dry.

First limitation: The gloves are not an alternative to the pizza peel. Grabbing a pizza directly from the oven, even with these gloves, is not a good idea — cheese, sauce, and hot dough are so hot that they will penetrate any material. The gloves are for metal, stone, and oven contact, not for the pizza itself.

Second limitation: The heat resistance is designed for radiant heat, not open flame. If you reach into a burning flame with the gloves, you will burn yourself. This applies to any heat protection glove for home use.

Ooni — from Edinburgh to a Pizza Brand

Ooni was founded in Edinburgh in 2012 by Kristian Tapaninaho and Darina Garland. The accessory range consists of tools that are tailored to Ooni ovens. The gloves were not developed as grill gloves, but with a focus on the specific situations that arise with pizza ovens: grabbing the oven door, adding wood, cleaning the stone.

In the range, the gloves are positioned between consumables (fire starters, pellets) and tools (peel, turning peel). An accessory that is easily overlooked — until you have to remove a hot oven door for the first time and scald your fingers.

The hand protection that belongs in every oven's shopping cart

Anyone buying an Ooni oven should order the gloves at the same time. The alternative is pot holders or kitchen gloves, neither of which are designed for pizza oven temperatures. The pair for 27.99 euros is one of the most affordable accessories in the range — and one of the items where the purchase pays for itself at the latest after the first use.

Suitable as an addition: a 14" pizza peel or the perforated pizza peel, so the pizza finds its way out of the oven, and an oven brush for the stone. All three tools are part of the basic set for a successful pizza evening.

The gloves for everyone who understands that 500 degrees is not a metaphor, but a temperature at which you can burn yourself very quickly without protection.