For optimum user comfort, we recommend using oven-dried/very dry wood with max. 20% humidity to prevent smoke formation during cooking. Moreover, oven-dried/very dry wood is much easier to light. One should use a harder type of wood because softer wood like birch wood does burn down way too quickly meaning that huge quantities are needed. Be very careful when using tropical hardwood. It does generate a huge amount of heat and when using too much of it at the same time, it can cause the cooking plate to warp. Oven-dried beech wood is best, because it heats very well and burns down to a mass of coals that optimally heats up the cooking plate. Oak wood we prefer less because it burns down to thin ash. Ash wood is a good compromise between beech and oak.