There is a particular moment on a Saturday afternoon, standing on the paving with a tape measure, working out whether the thing you have been reading about all week is actually going to fit between the table and the back step. It is a better question than it sounds, because the answer changes what you can cook for the next decade.
The Ozpig Series 2 and the Ozpig Big Pig do the same fundamental thing. Both are closed wood-fired stoves with a flue, both cook and heat at once, and both will outlast the patio furniture. They are aimed at different people, though, and the honest way to choose between them is to stop comparing feature lists and start measuring your own space and your own guest list.
The Numbers, Side by Side
The complete guide to outdoor cooking settles this in a paragraph. What follows is the long version, for anyone who wants the measurements in front of them first. Everything in it comes off the live product pages, not a brochure.
| Spec | Ozpig Series 2 | Big Pig |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 18kg | 36.7kg |
| Packed size | 42 x 36.9 x 40cm | 71.9 x 47.9 x 43.8cm |
| Set-up footprint | 66.5 x 53cm | 115.4 x 47.9cm |
| Height to chimney top | 154.5cm | 193cm |
| Cooking surface height | 70.5cm | 76.5cm |
| Cooking surface | 26cm round plate plus 34 x 25.5cm plate | 49 x 21cm removable stove top |
| Door opening | 183mm diameter | 41 x 16cm |
| Chimney | 3 x 300mm sections, 58mm diameter | 3 x 450mm sections, 75mm diameter |
| Carry bag included | Yes | No |
| Warranty | 5 years | 3 years |
The two figures that decide most purchases are the set-up footprint and the weight. Everything else is a preference. Those two are physics.
How Much Patio You Are Actually Working With
The Series 2 sets up in a 66.5cm by 53cm patch and stands 154.5cm to the top of its chimney. That is about the size of a small outdoor table, and low enough to sit under a pergola beam without anyone ducking.
The Big Pig is a different proposition. At 115.4cm long, it takes up roughly the space of a two-seater bench, and at 193cm it is taller than almost everyone who will be standing around it. On a generous deck, that presence is the point. On a courtyard with a low awning, it is a problem you will notice every time you cook.
Measure the height of whatever is above the stove before you measure the floor. Clearance overhead is the constraint people forget, and it is the one you cannot solve by shuffling the furniture.
How Many People You Cook For
Cooking surface is where the gap really opens. The Big Pig gives you a single 49cm by 21cm removable stove top, and its door opening is a 41cm by 16cm rectangle, which swallows longer splits and lets you work a proper coal bed across the width of the firebox. It holds the largest firebox in the range.
The Series 2 splits its surface into a 26cm round plate and a 34cm by 25.5cm plate, with a 183mm round door. Add the two plates together and the total area is closer than the headline suggests, but it arrives in two pieces rather than one continuous run.
For four to six people, the Series 2 keeps up without complaint. Past about eight plates, the Big Pig stops being an indulgence and starts being the reason dinner is on time. A single long surface means you are not cooking in relays.
Does It Ever Leave the Patio?
This is the question that settles it for a lot of people. The Series 2 weighs 18kg, packs down into a 42 x 36.9 x 40cm box, and comes with a fitted carry bag. One person can put it in a boot without thinking about it, which means the same stove that runs your patio on Saturday runs a riverside camp on Sunday.
The Big Pig weighs twice that at 36.7kg, packs into a box about 30cm longer, and comes with no bag. It is not immovable, and two people shift it easily enough, but it is designed to have a home and stay in it.
If the stove will ever need to travel, that decision is already made. If it will not, the Big Pig's weight is an advantage rather than a cost, because nothing about it moves while you are working on it.
What You Want to Cook on It
Both models take the same broad accessory paths. Both burn hardwood or charcoal, and heat beads work too, with the Series 2 taking a dedicated Heatbead Basket. The differences are in the detail.
The Big Pig runs a half-and-half plate system: two interchangeable plates side by side, so a Big Pig Chargrill can sear steaks at one end while a flat plate handles onions at the other. That is one continuous stove top running two jobs over one fire. The Series 2 can run two plates as well, but as separate pieces, with the large warming plate sitting off to the side.
The Series 2 answers with the Ozpig Chargrill Plate and Drip Tray, which runs proper grill lines and catches rendering fat rather than letting it hit the stove. Both models take a rotisserie kit (Series 2, Big Pig) and both take the Ozpig Oven Smoker, though the Big Pig needs a separate smoker adapter to mount it. That adapter has a hidden benefit: it leaves the opposite side of the Big Pig free to work with pans while the smoker runs.
Check the accessory compatibility before you buy the stove, not after. The Series 2 accessories and Big Pig accessories ranges overlap but are not interchangeable.
Smoke, Chimneys and Your Neighbours
The Big Pig's chimney is 1,350mm of 75mm flue in three sections. The Series 2 runs 900mm of 58mm flue. More height and more diameter means stronger draw, which means a cleaner burn and smoke leaving higher up. On a suburban block, that matters more than it sounds.
A taller flue puts smoke above head height and above the fence line rather than drifting into the conversation. Where the stove sits under a pergola or awning, each model has its own offset kit, and they are not interchangeable: the Big Pig Offset Chimney Kit extends its outlet by 400mm, while the Series 2 takes the Double Offset Chimney Kit, which steps the flue sideways by the same 400mm and carries a pole socket so the added weight does not unbalance the stove.
The chimney is not a detail. It is the difference between a fire people gather around and a fire people move away from.
What You Get in the Box, and for How Long
The Big Pig arrives with a stove plate, four screw-in legs, two mesh floor fire grates, two cooking port plates, two warming plates, a lifting tool, a spark arrestor and three chimney sections. It carries a three-year warranty.
The Series 2 comes with a carry bag, a BBQ plate, a large warming and BBQ plate, four zinc coated legs plus four zinc extension legs, three chimney sections, a spark arrestor, a multi-purpose tool that doubles as a poker and plate lifter, and a fire grate. Its warranty runs five years.
That warranty gap is worth noting, because it runs opposite to what most people assume. The bigger, heavier unit carries the shorter cover. Neither figure is short by outdoor cooking standards, but if length of cover is part of your decision, it points to the Series 2.
So Which One Fits Your Patio?
Take the Series 2 if your cooking area is tight or partly covered, if you regularly feed four to six people rather than ten, if the stove will ever go camping, or if you want the longer warranty. It is the all-rounder, and calling it the smaller option undersells how much it does.
Take the Big Pig if you have the floor space and the overhead clearance, if you host properly and often, if you want one long cooking surface running two jobs on one fire, and if the stove is going to live in one spot as the centrepiece of the yard. The larger firebox and the taller flue are what you are paying for, and on a big night they show.
The one answer that is definitely wrong is buying the Big Pig for a courtyard because bigger sounds better, then discovering the chimney does not clear the awning. Measure first. Both stoves reward the person who did.
The Fire You Will Still Be Using in Ten Years
Neither of these is a purchase you make twice. That is worth remembering while you are agonising over the half metre of footprint between them, because the stove that fits your yard is the one that gets lit on a Wednesday for no particular reason, not just the one that comes out for birthdays.
Get the size right, and the rest follows. Somewhere down the track there will be a night in July with the coals settled, the flue drawing clean, and nobody in any hurry to go inside. That is the whole point of choosing carefully now.
