How to bake pizza in 90 seconds (without burning it)
Most convection ovens are slow because they waste time heating up the air first. It’s like trying to warm up a room with a space heater before you can actually start cooking. We decided to skip the middleman. By using shortwave infrared (IR) bulbs, we hit the dough directly. The result? We knocked the bake time down from five minutes to just 90 seconds. It’s a massive difference when you’re in the middle of a rush. The secret is in the heat To get that kind of speed, you need a lot of power packed into a tiny space. We use tungsten filaments inside high-purity quartz. Here is why that matters: unlike the heaters you’re used to, shortwave radiation actually sinks into the pizza. It cooks the crust and melts the cheese at the same time. You get that perfect, crispy base and a great rise, but your toppings stay juicy instead of drying out. Getting it into your oven We made these bulbs with standard connectors, so you can just swap them into your existing oven setup without a headache. We also filled the quartz envelopes with halogen gas. That stops the filament from wearing out too fast, so the lamps actually last, even when you’re running them hard all day. One quick warning: check your wiring. These bulbs pull a lot of amps. If your relays are too small, they’ll fry. It’s worth double-checking before you flip the switch. The catch (and how to fix it) When you’re dealing with this much intensity, things can go south quickly. If the bulbs are too close to the pizza, you’ll end up with charred cheese and raw dough. It’s a fine line. You’ll want precise mounting brackets and a solid PID controller to keep the heat in check. And don’t forget about ventilation. These things put out a lot of energy, and you don’t want your oven housing to turn into a sauna.