Chicago Brick Oven · Maintenance
Wood for a CBO: Dry, Clean, Hardwood — Not Softwood
CBO's own guidance: use clean, dry hardwood suitable for cooking. Softwood, pressure-treated, or green wood creates smoke, residue, and curing problems.
By Reed · Updated November 10, 2026
What you need
Good vs bad wood choices
- Preferred (hardwood, dry)
- Oak, hickory, maple, cherry, apple, pecan — all split, seasoned 6+ months
- Avoid (softwood)
- Pine, fir, cedar — high resin, heavy smoke, deposits creosote in the vent
- Never (chemically treated)
- Pressure-treated, painted, stained, railroad ties, pallet wood with chemical stamps
- Moisture target
- 20% or less (use a cheap wood moisture meter if unsure)
Step by step
Pick hardwood species
Oak and hickory are high-heat, slow-burning standards. Fruit woods (apple, cherry, pecan) give a lighter sweeter smoke that pairs well with pizza + bread.
Confirm the wood is seasoned
Look for cracks on the ends, lighter weight than fresh wood, bark that comes off easily. Good seasoned hardwood has been split and stacked for at least 6 months, ideally 12+.
Split pieces to fit your oven mouth
Logs that are too long won't fit through the doorway. Split them to roughly the depth of your oven cooking chamber for easy loading.
Store wood dry + off the ground
Stack on a rack or pallet with a top cover. Direct ground contact wicks moisture back into the wood.
Common mistakes
- Using free pallet wood. Pallets are frequently chemical-treated or fumigated with methyl bromide. Check for a 'HT' (heat-treated) stamp as the only safe pallet-wood option — and even then prefer clean cordwood.
- Burning construction scrap. Plywood, OSB, MDF, and most dimensional lumber contain adhesives and chemicals that release into food. Never burn construction scrap in a cooking oven.
Hands-on tips
- A $15 pin-type moisture meter is the fastest sanity check on firewood — anything under 20% is cook-ready, anything over needs more drying time.
- If you only have one wood source, run with it — the real variable is DRYNESS, not species. Any dry hardwood outperforms damp premium fruitwood.
Questions people ask
What type of wood should I use?
Use clean, dry hardwood suitable for cooking. Hickory, oak, maple, cherry, apple, pecan are all good choices — the key filter is DRY (under 20% moisture) and untreated.
Can I use charcoal or gas in a wood oven?
The Hybrid line is designed for gas or wood or charcoal. The wood-only CBO line (500, 750, 1000 wood-burning) is designed for wood as the primary heat source — check your specific model's manual before experimenting with alternate fuels.
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