How do you clean a pizza stone?

Burn off. Run the oven hot 15–30 minutes so debris carbonises. When it is warm, brush or scrape. No water, no soap, no soak — a wet stone can crack on the next fire. Stains are normal. Flip the stone if one face is ugly.

Can you use soap on a pizza stone?

No. Unglazed stone is porous. Soap lives in it and the next pie tastes like detergent. Scrape dry. A baking-soda paste on a stubborn spot, then fully dry, is the only wet trick — and even that is optional.

How do you clean a baking steel?

Scrape while it is warm. A little soap and water is fine. Dry immediately. Thin oil. If it is black with carbon or showing rust, a Pumice Cleaning Brick, then wash, dry, re-season at 375–400°F / 190–200°C for about an hour.

How do you clean an Ooni or Gozney pizza oven?

After the last pie, run it hot so the floor burns clean. Cool to warm. Gloves on. Ooni Pizza Oven Brush or a long 26-Inch Pizza Oven Brush — sweep, then scrape. Wipe the shell with a damp cloth once it is cold. Keep liquid off the stone.

How do you clean a wooden pizza peel?

Scrape off flour. Wipe. Never the dishwasher, never a soak. If it dries out, a drop of food-safe mineral oil. A wet peel warps and then sticks.

Pizza oven brush and scraper on cream paper

Heat first, soap almost never

How to clean a pizza stone, steel, and pizza oven

How to clean a pizza stone, baking steel, Ooni or Gozney, wood peel, and cast-iron pan. Why you never soak the stone, which brush to buy, and when a pumice brick belongs on steel only.

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Measurements

Most ‘cleaning’ is leftover heat. A dirty-looking stone that is dry and hot will bake a better pie than a pale stone you washed in the sink.

What cleans what

The stone wants fire. The steel can take soap if you dry it and oil it. Do not mix those jobs.

Tool	Outdoor stone	Kitchen stone	Baking steel	Wood peel	Cast-iron pan
Oven brush + scraper	Yes	Sometimes	No	No	No
66 cm (26 in) brush	Yes	No	No	No	No
Bench scraper (cool)	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Sometimes
Pumice brick	No	No	Yes	No	Sometimes
Chainmail	No	No	Sometimes	No	Yes
Heat gloves	Yes	No	No	No	No

Tick = yes. Dash = no or not the job. Bar = only sometimes.

What to buy

Every row is a product we would buy. The tomato button opens Amazon. Prices and stock live there.

Ooni Pizza Oven Brush
Cleaning
Check Amazon.com
26-Inch Pizza Oven Brush
Cleaning
Check Amazon.com
Pumice Cleaning Brick
Cleaning
Check Amazon.com
Ateco Bench Scraper
Bench Scraper
Check Amazon.com
Lodge Chainmail Scrubber
Cleaning
Check Amazon.com
Ooni Pizza Oven Gloves
Heat Gloves
Check Amazon.com
Baking Steel Original
Baking Steel
Check Amazon.com
Lodge Pizza Stone
Baking Steel
Check Amazon.com
Lodge 15-Inch Cast Iron Pizza Pan
Pan
Check Amazon.com

As an Amazon Associate, The Slice Guy earns from qualifying purchases. Prices and stock live on Amazon.

Outdoor ovens: last burn, then brush. The Ooni Pizza Oven Brush is cut for a 12- to 40 cm (16 in) mouth. A 26-Inch Pizza Oven Brush is the longer Amazon version if you own a Dome or you do not want the logo. Wear Ooni Pizza Oven Gloves. If the head sheds wire, throw it away — metal in a pie is not seasoning.

A Lodge Pizza Stone in a kitchen oven: cool, scrape with an Ateco Bench Scraper, dry cloth. Do not dunk it. The same no-soap rule as the Ooni floor.

A Baking Steel Original is different metal. Scrape, wash if you need to, dry like you mean it, oil. The Pumice Cleaning Brick is for carbon and rust — then re-season. Water left on steel is rust by morning.

A Lodge 15-Inch Cast Iron Pizza Pan wants the Lodge Chainmail Scrubber, not oven cleaner. Chainmail is not a pizza-stone tool.

What owners repeat

Not planted quotes and not five-star theatre. These are the two lines that keep showing up when people have paid: the reason they keep it, and the reason someone sends it back.

Ooni pizza oven brush
They keep it becauseSized for a Koda or Karu. Sweep flour, scrape cheese, while the stone is warm not glowing.
They complain thatSteel bristles can shed. Inspect the head. Useless if you only bake on a kitchen steel.
Pumice brick
They keep it becauseCarbon and rust come off a steel. Then wash, dry hard, thin oil, bake to re-season.
They complain thatOn cordierite it is a gouge. That is how stones get replaced, not cleaned.

Common questions

How do you clean a pizza stone?: Burn off. Run the oven hot 15–30 minutes so debris carbonises. When it is warm, brush or scrape. No water, no soap, no soak — a wet stone can crack on the next fire. Stains are normal. Flip the stone if one face is ugly.
Can you use soap on a pizza stone?: No. Unglazed stone is porous. Soap lives in it and the next pie tastes like detergent. Scrape dry. A baking-soda paste on a stubborn spot, then fully dry, is the only wet trick — and even that is optional.
How do you clean a baking steel?: Scrape while it is warm. A little soap and water is fine. Dry immediately. Thin oil. If it is black with carbon or showing rust, a Pumice Cleaning Brick, then wash, dry, re-season at 190–200°C (375–400°F) for about an hour.
How do you clean an Ooni or Gozney pizza oven?: After the last pie, run it hot so the floor burns clean. Cool to warm. Gloves on. Ooni Pizza Oven Brush or a long 26-Inch Pizza Oven Brush — sweep, then scrape. Wipe the shell with a damp cloth once it is cold. Keep liquid off the stone.
How do you clean a wooden pizza peel?: Scrape off flour. Wipe. Never the dishwasher, never a soak. If it dries out, a drop of food-safe mineral oil. A wet peel warps and then sticks.