In my opinion, there is no better summer appliance than a pizza oven. But after months spent outside or in outdoor storage over winter, you might return to find the all-important pizza stone has cracked.

The culprit is often moisture, says pizza expert Vickie Hawley, founder of Delivita. Repeated exposure to fluctuating temperatures – especially during early spring use – allows moisture trapped in the stone to expand and contract, eventually causing it to crack and bringing this year’s pizza parties to a halt.

Fortunately, the fix is simple: A well-fitting cover that protects your best pizza oven year-round. Here’s how to keep your oven safe and ready for summer cooking.

One of the biggest pizza oven mistakes is assuming that, because many models are designed for outdoor use, it is fine to leave them exposed year-round or simply tuck them into outdoor storage. In reality, temperature fluctuations can quickly damage the stone – especially if you do not clean a pizza stone properly after its last use.

Vickie, founder of Delivita, explains, 'Pizza stones can crack due to thermal shock caused by rapid temperature changes and moisture exposure. If a hot pizza stone is left outside and temperatures suddenly drop, especially overnight, the combination of retained heat and moisture can weaken the material and lead to cracking.

'Moisture can also cause the stone to crack when reheated, as any trapped water expands under high temperatures.'

The trick is to find the perfect cover for your pizza oven, so that it seals tightly around the base to protect against harsh temperature fluctuations, she explains. A durable, weatherproof cover helps shield the oven from sudden temperature swings and keeps moisture out, protecting the stone and ensuring your oven is ready for use.

Beyond choosing the right cover, Vickie also stresses the importance of curing your stone after prolonged disuse, before the first use, and after cleaning a pizza oven.

'The curing process involves gradually increasing the oven's temperature using kindling and an eco firelighter, maintaining a steady temperature of 200-250°C (392-482°F) for four to five hours, and avoiding hardwood logs during this time,' she explains.

This slow, controlled heating process helps evaporate any residual moisture trapped in the stone, reducing the risk of cracks.

What Else to Shop

To perfect the art of artisanal pizza at home, you need more than just the perfect pizza recipes. I have rounded up six of my favorite tools and accessories to help elevate this summer's Italian-inspired entertaining.

All prices correct at time of publication.

Meet the Expert

Did you know that your pizza oven is for more than just pizza? We have rounded up a chef-approved list of other things you can cook in a pizza oven to make the most of your appliance this summer.

Love the latest product news and helpful shopping advice? Sign up for our newsletter and get the latest features delivered straight to your inbox.

I have been cooking and baking since I could walk (I was always helping my mom in the kitchen). However, I have always been in the kitchen, but with the new Gozney Arc Lite pizza oven, I can finally take my culinary journey outdoors.

In the past, I have been put off trying an outdoor oven because of the size and significant investment, but the Arc Lite changes things, offering a more compact cooking experience for under $400.

It is shaping up to be one of the best pizza ovens for summer. Here's why I'm so excited to set it up for review.

I Just Got My Hands on the Compact Gozney Arc Lite

I have been slowly collecting pieces to turn my backyard into the ultimate entertaining space, and what better way to do that than a pizza oven? We reviewed the original Gozney Arc a few years ago and gave it 4.5 stars, setting it as our top pizza enthusiast investment, so I have very high hopes for its smaller sibling.

The exterior of the oven measures 16.9” W x 18.9” D x 11.7” H, making it still large enough for 12-inch pizzas, but not so large that I am struggling to find storage for it in my shed. The extra Gozney Arc Lite cover also helps with this, tucking neatly around the unit to protect it from dust, debris, bugs, and UV, too.

I am waiting for a warm, sunny day to finally put the smaller model to the test, but I have unboxed it all early in my excitement. The gas oven can be used for everything from pizza to desserts, and with the extra Gozney Pizza Volume 01 Cookbook, I don't think I will run out of inspiration to put to the test. My friends are certainly already lining up to be my taste testers.

The oven promises ‘unboxing to first fire in minutes’, so when the next good day arrives, I’ll be timing exactly how quickly I can get it up and running using the included quick-start guide.

As a first-time gas tank user (outside of scuba diving), I’m particularly curious to see how seamless the setup feels. That said, with little more required than attaching a tank to the regulator, I have high hopes the process will be every bit as straightforward as promised.

I can't wait to put it through its paces, but if it is anything like the Gozney original we reviewed and loved, I know we will be onto a winner with the latest more compact offering.

What Else to Shop

A pizza oven is a sizeable investment, so I've curated six essential accessories (plus a larger model worth considering) to help transform your backyard setup into a five-star pizzeria.

All prices were correct at the time of publication.

Still not sure which model works best for you? Check out our guide to indoor pizza ovens vs outdoor pizza ovens to select the perfect model for your home.

Love the latest product news and helpful shopping advice? Sign up for our newsletter and get the latest features delivered straight to your inbox.

If there's one thing I'm proud to have learnt this summer, it's how to make pizza. After a lot of experimenting, however, I've realized that investing in one of the best pizza ovens will make life a lot easier. Since I'm determined to perfect my pizza-making process, I was intrigued to hear about the launch of the new Dome Gen 2 series from Gozney: a collection that promises to bring restaurant-grade cooking to your backyard. So, what makes it so good?

Both ovens in the Dome Gen 2 series series are built for pizza recipes that feed a crowd (perfect if you've got a large family); in fact, they're Gozney's biggest and most versatile designs yet, with up to 90 percent more cooking space than previous models. The Dome Gen 2 is large enough to fit two 10-inch pizzas, for example, while the Dome Gen 2 XL can cook up to three 10-inch pizzas (or one 18-inch pizza). That's a game-changer if you're used to serving up one pie at a time with a standard pizza oven.

With that though, size and space will obviously be a major consideration – you'll need a decicated outdoor space to keep and use it, which won't suit smaller backyards.

The Gozney Dome S1 review and original Gozney Dome review scored top marks from our testers, so we're curious to see how the Dome Gen 2 series shapes up. It launches on 15 October, so there's still a bit of time to save up if you want to treat yourself. And you might be grateful for it: with a starting price of $2,299.99, you'll want to have done your research before you take the plunge.

You do get a lot of bang for your buck though. While the Dome Gen 2 series is designed to fit multiple pizzas – a big plus for group gatherings – it can also cook full meals. Yes, really. This is largely thanks to an impressive hybrid fuel system, which allows you to cook with wood, gas or charcoal, depending on your flavor preferences. As someone who loves charcoal-fired pizza but can't resist the convenience of cooking with gas, this has certainly got me thinking.

I'm also intrigued to see how simple the Dome Gen 2 series is to actually operate. According to Gozney, a built-in digital sensor tracks both time and temperature, with twin meat probes and touch control for seamless use – so I'm hoping that I won't spend any more time agonizing over how to use a pizza oven correctly.

Finally, there's Gozney's signature lateral burner, which offers incremental flame adjustment to ensure even heating and increased precision. It's no surprise to find out that the Dome Gen 2 series was developed in collaboration with three award-winning chefs – including artisanal pizza expert Chris Bianco – so it gets the chef's seal of approval.

Homemade pizza has been my go-to for outdoor evening party ideas this summer, but I'm not ready to give it up once the seasons change. I'll be making sure I know exactly how to use my pizza oven in winter so I can keep the pizza parties going for months to come. I'm excited to find out whether Gozney's Dome Gen 2 series will live up to its promises of cooking restaurant-quality pies and to see how it fares on other dishes with that handy gas option, too. Will it convince me to part with my cash? That remains to be seen, but we'll update you as soon as we can get our hands on it.

Shop more pizza ovens

While we're thrilled about the upcoming release of Gozney's Dome Gen 2 series here at Homes & Gardens, and, if you're interested to find out more about the latest pizza oven tech, we've also been eyeing up Ooni's Vault 2 pizza oven, which features 'pizza intelligence'. So, I don't think pizza is going anywhere this fall.

No matter how much I meal plan and batch cook, I still can't resist the temptation of ordering in a pizza. But in the spirit of frugality (and being able to serve up exceptional pizzas made by my own fair hands), I've been hunting for the best indoor pizza ovens now that the weather is turning – and Ooni's new Volt 2 electric pizza oven has given me pause for thought.

Available from 1 October, the Volt 2 features something that Ooni has termed 'pizza intelligence' – a heating system that automatically adapts to the type of dough you're cooking, ensuring the best temperature and heat balance. It's not simply designed for pizza recipes, however; with an oven and broil mode, and even a dough-proofing setting, this just might be the most high-tech pizza oven we've ever seen – and we've tested a lot here at Homes & Gardens.

Since I really am determined to learn how to home-cook pizza (and restaurant-quality pizza, at that), the high-tech features of the Ooni Volt 2 could be a real game-changer for me. I was impressed by the temperature range alone: while it starts at 70°F (an ideal choice for proofing dough), it can reach a maximum temperature of 850°F. According to Ooni, this enables the Volt 2 to cook a pizza in as little as 90 seconds.

This will depend on the type of pizza you're cooking, of course – but the 'pizza intelligence' feature provides three handy preset modes, each with different heat settings. Choose between Neapolitan (a crispy, fast-cooking pizza), thin and crispy (akin to an New York-style pie) and pan pizza (a thick, fluffy option). Plus, there are two customizable modes allowing you to save your favorite oven settings.

I can't deny that I've been stumped by pizza ovens in the past – they might look straightforward, but figuring out how to use a pizza oven can take a little patience. With tech systems like this one, however, I could be cooking like a professional in no time and with minimal effort.

'I've seen smart technology built into refrigerators, dishwashers, and standard ovens, but never in a dedicated pizza oven like the Ooni Volt 2,' says our Kitchen Appliances Editor, Lydia Hayman. 'The term "pizza intelligence" sounds fancy, but in reality, it’s quite similar to the smart cooking tech found in ovens from brands like Samsung and Bosch. Put simply, it automatically adjusts the temperature and heat balance based on your dough, helping you get an evenly cooked, crispy crust.'

According to Lydia, the smart settings on the Ooni Volt 2 pizza oven really can transform home cooking.

'For casual cooks, it's genuinely useful – you don’t have to hover by the oven, second-guessing every pie,' she explains. 'Just a couple of weekends ago, I hosted a pizza night for six, and I'm pretty sure I spent more time watching the oven than enjoying my guests' company. A feature like this could take that stress out of the process and make pizza nights a lot more relaxing, but possibly less fun and theatrical.'

I, for one, can sacrifice the theater in favor of a show-stopping home-cooked pizza – and the chance to save money on takeout.

Shop more pizza ovens

I can't wait to get my hands on the Ooni Volt 2 pizza oven when it launches in October – I'll be using it to perfect my best ever pizza dough and quick tomato sauce recipes for starters.

If you’ve ever dreamed of creating wood-fired-style pizza at home without the hassle of open flame or bulky equipment, now is the perfect time to act. The Ninja Artisan Outdoor Pizza Oven is one of the sleekest and most versatile appliances for modern outdoor living – and it’s just dropped to its lowest-ever price in this limited-time Amazon deal.

Designed with both performance and polish in mind, this compact countertop oven reaches an impressive 700°F in minutes, letting you cook Neapolitan-style pizza in just three minutes.

But it doesn’t stop there – with multiple settings, including New York-style, Thin Crust, Pan, and even Bake, Broil, and Roast modes, it adapts effortlessly to everything from freshly baked bread to grilled vegetables and sizzling chicken thighs. This really is one of the best pizza ovens available.

Built for real outdoor use, the oven’s dark slate-toned finish, minimalist form, and chef's view window make it a stylish fit on patios, balconies, and garden kitchens alike. It’s electric-powered, easy to clean, and comes with precision controls that take the guesswork out of cooking.

With outdoor entertaining in full swing and warm weekends ahead, this deal couldn’t come at a better time. Whether you're refreshing your garden setup or simply upgrading your weeknight meals, the Ninja Artisan Pizza Oven is the kind of appliance that delivers professional results without professional effort.

If you want to upgrade your pizza parties this summer, don’t wait – this Amazon Prime Day deal won’t last. Stock is moving quickly, and this is your moment to bring restaurant-quality outdoor cooking home for less. You can even try some of our favorite pizza recipes to get started.

Shop pizza oven tools

A great pizza party calls for exceptional tools. Here’s everything you’ll need to craft the best pizza around.

Thoughts of an al-fresco pizza party may currently seem like nothing short of a pipe dream, but Tom Brady's go-to has still stopped us in our tracks. Here at H&G, we consistently view his choice, the Ooni Koda, as one of the best pizza ovens you can choose for taste, convenience, and value – but Brady's endorsement proves we're in good company.

The former New England Patriots quarterback curated a list of Amazon buys that he recommends giving as gifts, but this includes gifts for yourself, naturally. Among them was the Ooni Koda 16 Gas Powered Pizza Oven (available from the retailer), alongside the brand's 12” Metal Pizza Peel (on Amazon) – the pefect accompaniment to your oven. 'No matter who you’re shopping for, there’s something for everyone on your list, so you can make sure to give the gift of greatness this year,' Brady says.

Retailing at just under $600, the Ooni Koda is an investment, but its capabilities mean it's one of the best value pizza ovens for your money, and you don't need to wait until summer to turn a corner of your home into a pizzeria. This oven fits just as seamlessly on your kitchen countertops as it does in your yard – so that party isn't so out of reach after all.

Alex David, H&G's head of e-commerce and professional product reviewer, gave the Ooni Koda's sister appliance, the Ooni Koda 12, saying the process is effortless – leaving you with perfectly cooked pizzas in only one minute.

'The Ooni Koda 16 is the large version of the Koda 12, which is our favorite budget pizza oven. Like all Ooni ovens, it's fast and makes perfect Neapolitan pizzas,' David says. The only drawback is that you have to pay extra for essential features like a thermometer or a pizza peel'. For the latter, however, Brady has us covered. In his gift guide, he similarly endorsed the Ooni 12” Metal Pizza Peel (available on Amazon), described as a super smooth aluminum pizza paddle that's a 'professional’s tool of choice'.

As a final pro-tip, don't forget to sprinkle your Ooni pizza peel with flour beforehand to help your pizza slide from the oven with ease. You can enjoy it knowing Brady has done the same.

There's nothing like a Christmas dinner, but it can be a stressful part of the holiday. Even if you're cooking for a small family, there's a lot of different dishes to create, and the stress ramps up with every extra guest.

While planning out my Christmas dinner this year, I noticed that I had a pizza oven sitting out in the yard - an entire extra oven that could be used to give me a hand through one of the biggest meals of the year. However, I worried that the high heat of a pizza oven would incinerate all my ingredients. I was also concerned the turkey wouldn't fit, and that the vegetables would burn to a crisp. But after speaking to pro pizza chefs, I was convinced to give it a try.

I still had a sample of the new Ooni Karu 2 Pro, so I put all the advice to the test. I found that while you can just about make a Christmas dinner in a pizza oven, it's only the vegetables that make it worthwhile. Here, I share everything I discovered when attempting to cook Christmas dinner in a pizza oven.

Turkey (or chicken)

First up, the centerpiece of any Christmas dinner – the turkey. I wanted to see if the pizza oven could tackle this crucial part of the meal. Many people think that pizza ovens aren't big enough to hold a turkey. They only have a small opening, so many assume that the the tall crown of a turkey won't fit. However, this isn't true.

Pizza chef Hakki Akdeniz told me that 'You can cook a turkey in a pizza oven if you spatchcock it. The pizza oven's high temperature keeps the meat moist while giving it yummy crispy skin on the outside.'

Spatchcocking means removing the spine from the carcass. This allows you to lay the body flat, so it fits into the low clearance of the pizza oven. This has the added benefit of making jucier meat - every part of the bird is on the same plane, so the breast sticking out above the limbs doesn't dry out as the others cook. I was cooking for one, so I went with a chicken instead so that there wasn't as much waste.

With the chicken spatchcocked and dressed in a lemon and herb dressing, I added a quartered lemon, an thickly sliced onion, and a couple cloves of garlic for moisture and extra flavor.

Outdoor cookery expert Mary Cressler suggests 'Lower heat is better heat. Avoid burning the skin by lowering the flame for a better ambient heat matching a typical indoor oven, which for us is between 375 and 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Be sure you are rotating the bird every so often as one side will cook faster with the flame on only one side.'

However, I got off to a bad start. The chicken had been in the oven for around 10 minutes when I noticed that the oven had dropped a lot of temperature down to 246F. I turned it back up a little and a flame shot out the oven and over the chicken.

In the minute it took to fiddle with the dial get the flame down to a reasonable intensity the skin of the chicken on the side facing the flame crisped and charred while the rest was raw. It's all a lot more effortful than cooking chicken in a domestic oven.

Things didn't improve: the oven would drop a lot of temperature, so the only choice was other to have the flame roaring hot or for it to drop down below 250F, which isn't food safe. I turned the flame up higher, and this was a mistake - after a few minutes it incinerated the chicken skin and the vegetables roasting with the chicken, so I covered the chicken with foil to reduce any further damage.

This is fine, but part of the point of using a pizza oven is that you have an open flame for smokiness. If it's covered in foil, preventing that char, you might as well cook it in a regular kitchen oven. Unlike the last time I cooked chicken in this oven, which went well, I wasn't standing by the oven to keep a constant eye on the food and its temperature as I cook, so it's easy to overdo, especially with the open flame. The temperature is much more variable than the consistent heat of a kitchen oven.

The temperature drops a lot, so it's hard to find the balance between too cool and too hot. With the foil covering the chicken, it wasn't getting hot enough, and the oven kept dropping heat in the cold. This meant I only really had two options - either grill it under the flame or bake it at a temperature so cool that it isn't safe. I opted for the former - so it was more like grilled chicken than roast chicken.

So, while it's technically possible, I didn't save any time or make a better roast chicken. For all the effort I put in, it's no better than other turkeys and chickens I've roasted. It tastes delicious - there's an incredible smokiness and char to the chicken but it's more like a grilled chicken than roast chicken.

In short, even if I cooked it perfectly, pizza oven chicken takes a lot more effort and diligence for a slightly worse outcome.

Potatoes

Chef Hakki told me that 'Roast potatoes in a pizza oven is a treat you never knew you needed. To get the perfect crispy skin and airy inside, parboil them first and add some oil or butter.' Following his advice, I boiled the potatoes a little to soften then, then shook them with olive oil, onion, garlic and rosemary.

I turned the potatoes after around 10 minutes, and this showed me that I'd have to be careful with these as they cooked. The outside of the potatoes was licked by the flames and starting to char, but the interior was still relatively raw. The skin was developing a crust closer to wedges than classic roast potatoes, even though the potatoes had been peeled.

I moved them to the back of the oven, and once the the carrots and sprouts finished I could turn the tray and spread them out a little. Getting them out from under the flame hugely improved the flavor of the potatoes and stopped them from cooking like wedges. All together the potatoes had an hour in the oven - half an hour faster than cooking them in a domestic oven.

In the end, the flavor was basically the same. The methods aren't very different and so the oven made crispy, fluffy potatoes. the overall result was good - if not life-changing - roast potatoes. I think this is probably the best use case for a pizza oven on Christmas - you can roast potatoes in a separate oven, freeing up some room in the main kitchen oven.

Carrots and parsnips

Pizza chefs also recommend cooking other vegetables in the pizza oven. Chef Hakki told me that 'Brussels sprouts, parsnips, and carrots roast nicely. Add salt, spices, and olive oil, then let the flame work its magic. It's amazing how caramelized they get.'

I adapted chef Hakki's recommendation a little - in the the second half of the tray I put sliced carrots and parsnips, covered with oil, paprika, salt, pepper, and hot honey.

I cooked these for around 30 minutes, slightly longer than the Brussels sprouts. This is still about 3/4ths faster than roasting them in an oven, too, so it's a good way to cut down on time.

The results were excellent - juicy, tender carrots and parsnips. The hot honey I used caramelized into an incredible char, much better than I've achieved in a kitchen oven, but it proved a double-edged sword.

The char was good, but the couple of carrots or parsnips I sliced too thinly burned into something more like a vegetable chip than a side for a roast. However, all together, these were also very successful, and infinitely better than boiling.

Brussels sprouts

With the big sheet pan taking up most of the oven I could only fit a little loaf tin up side. I filled it up with Brussels sprouts and candied bacon lardons, drizzled with oil and Maggi seasoning.

The sprouts were ready in around 15 minutes, slower than cooking them in a skillet. However, without tooting my own horn, these were delicious. The sprouts took on a delicious char that's hard to achieve in a pan without burning the vegetables. The lardons were all well cooked, and while I had worried that the sugar in the festive seasoning mix would caramelize and burn them, it lent a slight sweetness and nuttiness that played off well against the saltiness.

The only thing that stopped them from being the best sprouts I've ever made made is that the were slightly overcooked. It's hard to judge with a pizza oven, so they were slightly too soft and lost some of that vegetal firmness. However, this is tiny criticism - these are some of the best sprouts I've made.

Should you cook Christmas dinner in a pizza oven?

I think a pizza oven can be a great help if you don't have room in your main kitchen oven. The scenario I imagine is if you're hosting a lot amount of people and need some extra oven room.

If your oven is full with the turkey and other dishes, and Yorkshire puddings and stuffing and the rest of it, a pizza oven can give you another spot for all of your roast potatoes, for example. Vegetables are much better roasted in a pizza oven because they take on delicious, smoky char that boiling or straightforward roasting can't match.

However, simple practicalities get in the way. The simplest is size. A pizza oven only cooks on one level, unlike a kitchen oven which can hold lots of food at once. You'll notice in the image above that I didn't cook any sides like stuffing or pigs in blankets, and that's only because I lacked the room.

On top of that, you need to keep the oven near to the house, because I found it a little frustrating to move from the kitchen to the yard to check on the food as it cooked. In a kitchen you can keep a near-constant eye on food as it cooks, but when it cooks outside you're always moving from the kitchen to the garden and letting cold air into the house.

There's also less control than in a domestic oven, because it's harder to set the oven to a specific temperature. Midway through cooking I found that the temperature would randomly drop or ramp up, and because you open the oven door out in the cold (it was 43°F as I cooked) rather than a warm house I dropped much more heat than usual .

This means that I wouldn't cook poultry in a pizza oven. It's much harder to achieve an even, consistent temperature, so while you can make much juicier meat by spatchcocking it, it's much more effort than prepping a turkey and leaving it to cook for a couple hours.

In the end, I wouldn't cook a whole roast in the oven. It has half the room of a traditional oven, and the main draw of a pizza oven - that it can reach blistering temperatures - isn't useful when slowly roasting vegetables and poultry.

My pizza oven picks

If you're considering a pizza oven, here's some of my current favorites.

A pizza oven isn't the only hack for a good Christmas dinner. Our resident expert chef Lydia Hayman recently tested out some Christmas air fryer hacks that can make your cooking faster, easier, and tastier.

Pizza ovens are among my favorite appliances. I was skeptical when they first came on the scene, but they make restaurant-quality pizza at home.

Yet one of the biggest drawbacks of most pizza ovens is that they can only be used outdoors. If you live somewhere cold, that puts your pizza oven out of action for several months of the year.

However, there are a few ways to make it easier to use a pizza oven in winter. I've tested a lot of the best pizza ovens during cold winter months, so I know all the tricks to make it a little easier.

1. Keep the propane and stone in the warm

It's well known that propane is less efficient at lower temperatures. The colder the air, the more propane you need to cook, costing you money. A smart method of saving money is to store your propane somewhere warm before you use it, as this will make your fuel source more efficient and therefore heat up your oven more quickly.

However, this hack is also true of pizza stones. Pizza stones are excellent conductors, which is why they're in the oven in the first place. However, if you keep your oven in a garage, greenhouse, shed, or out in the garden, the stone will be just as cold as the air.

An easy way to give yourself a head start is to keep the stone in the house the day before you bake a pizza. The stone will be at the ambient temperature of your home, giving you a head start for cooking. Chef Sean Martin says 'Keep your pizza stone in your house when it's not in use, that way you don't have to warm up a freezing stone and you prevent it from getting wet. Be sure you place the stone in your grill before it fully warms up to avoid thermal shock and cracking your stone.'

2. Stick to drier ingredients

Because it's harder to keep a pizza oven at temperature during the winter, and the average temperature of the oven will be lower, the oven will do a worse job of cooking wetter ingredients. This means that the oven will struggle with ingredients like fresh peppers, onions, or chillies. It will also struggle with pickled olives. The pizza will taste great, but it might be a little soggy.

One way to mitigate this is to slice the vegetables thin. You can - very carefully - use a mandolin to slide the vegetables so thinly that they're almost translucent. This reduces the moisture in every slice, making it more likely that the juices will evaporate and saving your pizza from turning damp

3. Close the door - or buy one to fit

Pizza ovens will drop temperature faster in the winter, so one of the most important things is to keep the door of the oven closed as often as you can. Unless you're baking a pizza, the door should be should to retain as much ambient heat as possible.

However, lots of pizza ovens don't have doors. For example, even some of our favorite tested Ooni and Gozney ovens don't have doors. This is fine in the summer when the temperature inside the oven isn't fighting against below-freezing temperatures outside, but it can be an issue in the winter.

However, you can find (slightly bootleg) doors for these ovens on the internet, like this door for a Gozney Dome pizza oven at Amazon. You need to make sure the door fits the oven, but it's a great way to improve fuel efficiency, saving you money in the long run and creating better pizza.

4. Make a prep station

If you're making a lot of pizzas at once, by far the best thing you can do is create a prep station, and this is especially true when baking pies in freezing temperatures. Just like a pro pizzeria, the most efficient way to turn out a lot of pizza is to create a prep station. Ooni sells prep stations, but you can find prep stations for much cheaper on Amazon. You don't even need separate containers - you could make your prep station out of any bowls you have lying around.

However you set it up, the crucial thing is to have ingredients on hand so you can turn out the pizzas one after another. If you create a prep station with cheese, sauce, and topping at ready, it means that you can create one pizza while another pizza cooks. With a little practice, you can turn out plenty of pizza in under ten minutes, limiting the time you have to stand out in the cold.

Pizza expert Michael McCoy told me that 'having a prep station close to your oven is great because the second you put a pizza on a peel, time is not your friend. The less time from table to peel to oven, the better.'

5. Use an indoor oven

You cannot use most pizza ovens indoors. Unless the oven is specifically rated for indoor use, you cannot use it in your home, as it presents a major fire and smoke risk.

However, if you don't already have a pizza oven, it might be smart to invest in an indoor pizza oven. It's the same concept but works indoors.

Full disclosure: I've enjoyed testing several of the best indoor pizza ovens over the years but they don't taste as good as an outdoor pizza oven. They cook pizza under an electric filament rather than a flame. It's like an overpowered easy-bake oven; indoor pizza ovens are closer to air fryers or broilers than ovens. This means that the pizza doesn't taste as good as in true gas or wood pizza ovens. It's always tasted more like frozen pizza, even when you make it fresh.

However, if you live somewhere with freezing temperatures you might find that these ovens are a good compromise. They let you cook fresh pizza fast at home without having to stand out in the yard and freeze.

There's a lot to consider when cooking pizza outdoors. Even the type of fuel you use can have a huge effect on your pizza. Gas is more reliable than wood, but wood burns hotter, so it can be more efficient in winter. Which of these you prefer is up to you, but it's worth considering the benefits of wood vs gas pizza ovens before you buy one.

Ninja appliances are everywhere at the moment, with the Ninja Creami amassing a cult following and David Beckham endorsing their range of appliances. With so much hype, you'd be forgiven for buying the Ninja Woodfire pizza oven without a second thought.

But before you buy, there are some other options to consider. We thought the oven was pretty good when we put it to the test. If you buy the oven, you'll get a fine appliance that makes fairly good pizza. However, 'pretty good' isn't the best, and for $300, you should get the very best pizza oven you can.

I think there are three other deals to consider before you take the plunge. Here's everything we found when we tested the Ninja Woodfire - and why there are other deals out there worth considering.

What's the deal with this pizza oven?

Is the pizza oven good?

This pizza oven is fine. It makes a fairly good pizza, but there's a technical detail that means that it's nowhere near the heights of an Ooni or Gozney oven.

Unlike most domestic pizza ovens, this appliance works using an electric filament. It's like a souped-up Easy-Bake oven. It can generate enough heat to cook a pizza fairly quickly.

When we tested this oven, we found that it can bake a pizza in around four minutes. That sounds impressive until you realize that that's four times longer than a wood-fired or gas-fuelled pizza oven.

That means that this pizza oven also won't puff up the crust in the same way as a gas or wood pizza oven. These ovens get twice as hot as the Ninja. The crust instantly bakes hard and fluffs up at the edges as the water in the dough evaporates into steam - this is what makes a classic pizza crust.

That reaction isn't possible in the Ninja Woodfire. It bakes the pizza dough to a consistency more like bread than pizza crust. It's fine, but it's not entirely dissimilar to baking the pizza in an oven - in which case there's no point in dropping a couple hundred dollars on the oven.

That's also true with toppings. When I tested the new Ooni Karu 2 Pro last week it did an amazing job at cooking vegetables. In just a minute, onions and courgettes on a flatbread developed a delicious char while maintaining a little juiciness. When we made a vegetarian pizza in the Ninja Woodfire, the vegetables were warmed up, but not charred, so it made for damp toppings.

This oven does have one unique feature: the smoker. Unlike other pizza ovens, this is equipped with a wood hopper to smoke meats. This is fine - it makes good joints of smoked meat. However, the hopper is tiny, so you have to keep topping it up as it cooks, unlike, say, a Traeger, which doesn't need constant attention and can hold much more meat.

In short, the oven is fine - but you can get much better appliances for around the same price.

What should you buy instead?

I think there are three deals of around the same price that are a better option than the Ninja Woodfire:

However, don't just take my word for it. Black Friday sees amazing discounts but its important to shop around. Every pizza tester in the world recommends Ooni and it can feel suspicious, so it's worth checking out Ooni alternatives. There is also a range of indoor pizza ovens to consider - and some at around the same price as this Ninja Woodfire.

It's no secret that Ooni dominates the pizza oven market. I've been trying to find something to replace the Ooni Karu 16 as our favorite pizza oven for years - half the time my job feels like I'm advertising for them rather than reviewing.

The good news is that the Ooni Karu 16 has been replaced at the top of my guide to the best pizza ovens. The kicker? It's been replaced with a different Ooni. The company recently launched the Ooni Karu 2 Pro, and when I tried it the other week on seven different pizzas, I knew it had to go in at number #1.

This means that the original flagship oven has been kicked down the pecking order, but that also meant a huge Black Friday discount. Because the original Ooni has been supplanted, it became the cheapest I've ever seen it, and $280 cheaper than it was in the summer. It was such a good deal that it sold out on Ooni's own site, and then on Best Buy, and then on Huckberry. I'm not surprised - it was top of our guide to the best pizza ovens for a reason.

What's the deal?

What's so good about this oven?

For years we thought this was the best pizza oven in the world. It can cook with gas for ease and convenience and wood for unbeatable smokiness. It can cook a crisp pizza crust in just over a minute, making for perfect pizza.

Unlike most pizza ovens on the market at the time, the Ooni Karu 16 had a door, and not just that, a door with a window. It seems like an obvious feature, but it sets the oven above many others because it means that the air retains a little moisture while the rolling flame evaporates grease and wetness from the pepperoni and sauce. This also helps the pizza, because the crust is the perfect consistency. Where other pizza ovens leave the pizza wet with sauce, the Karu 16 harmonizes every element into a world-beating pizza.

That's not just a figure of speech - it was the first domestic pizza oven recommended by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, a non-profit dedicated to preserving Neapolitan pizza.

In short, this was the best oven we had tried. It was faster, easier to use, and tasted better than any oven we'd tested - until the Ooni Karu 2 Pro, available at Ooni and my new pick for the best pizza oven.

What are the drawbacks to this oven?

There are two main drawbacks to this oven: the cooking area and the thermometer.

Firstly, the Karu 16 holds, unsurprisingly, a 16" pizza. But the Karu 2 improves on this capacity by excavating a little space up the back of the oven under the burner. This slightly increases the capacity while maintaining almost the same exterior dimensions. I've done the math and the Karu 2 Pro has more useful cooking space while only increasing its exterior dimensions by 1%. That means more room for cooking, and it's especially useful if you're cooking non-pizza dishes that need skillets or pans.

On top of that, the original Karu has a very basic digital thermometer with a retro digital readout. It's fine, but it just shows the temperature, so you need to learn the right temperatures for different pizzas. The updated thermometer on the Karu 2 Pro - the grandly named 'Digital Thermometer Hub' - has handy color coding to let you know when you reach the top temperature. It also has a probe thermometer, which proved especially helpful when testing roasted chicken thighs.

A smaller improvement is with the door. The door of the new Karu 2 Pro has a bigger window, so you have a better view inside, and it does a slightly better job of retaining moisture.

Are there any other good pizza oven deals?

While the deal on the Karu 16 is the best I've seen this year, there are a couple of other deals worth considering.

Don't just take my word for it - there are plenty of pizza ovens out there and it pays off to do your research. There are a lot of Ooni alternatives and I've directly compared Ooni to their biggest rivals, Gozney. There is also a range of indoor pizza ovens to consider.

When Ooni announced the Karu 2 Pro, I was one of the first people in line to try it. I was dying to see if it could beat its predecessor, the Karu 16.

To be honest, I almost wanted to hate this oven. Ooni dominates our guides to the best pizza ovens and it feels like an advert to include the brand, even though test after test has shown that its ovens are exceptional. I wanted this oven to be mediocre so that we have something new to say about this brand; something that didn't feel like fawning.

But Ooni's new Karu 2 is almost flawless. After testing it on seven pizzas (including gluten-free dough) a flatbread, a calzone, grilled chicken, and even brownies, it's the best pizza oven I've tested. It will go straight in as the new reigning champion in our guide to the best pizza ovens.

Specifications

Who would it suit?

This oven would suit basically anyone looking for a good outdoor pizza oven. It's the quintessential pizza oven - it's fast and makes perfect pizza. I almost can't fault it.

The only caveat? It might not work if you're tight on space and budget. The kit that Ooni's PRs sent me included a bamboo peel, an aluminum peel, a gas conversion kit, and a thermometer gun. These were invaluable when testing, but they aren't included as standard, so you need to pay extra - on top of the $799 basic price. It's also large, so it won't work if you're cooking out of a courtyard garden.

Unboxing

The Ooni Karu 2 Pro arrived in a huge box. It was almost intimidating, a large, 82 lb box that was a little tricky to move around. I had a trolley on hand that made moving the oven out to the yard much easier, but you might struggle without one.

Having said that, the rest of the setup was incredibly easy. I set up the table for the oven and it slid easily out of the box. It easily lifted out of the box and I was pleased to see that most of the crucial parts were already assembled - I didn't have to screw in the legs or do any difficult wiring.

All I had to do was follow the instructions on the app. While I prefer a manual on paper - you lose your place in the app instructions if your phone auto-locks as you build - it was a relatively painless assembly. The only finicky part is clipping in the digital thermometer, but it's hardly arduous. The app said it would take half an hour, and it took 28 minutes - an excellent start.

Best of all, this oven is fast to heat. The stone reached Neapolitan temperature in around 15-20 minutes, which is much faster than other pizza ovens - a 4-minute heat time used to be the industry standard.

Test 1: Cheese pizza

First up, the most important test of any pizza oven: a Neapolitan cheese pizza. Fail at this, and the review isn't worth finishing.

I made a simple pizza dough and topped it with tomato sauce, a mix of mozzarella and cheddar, and finished with rounds of mozzarella. The rest was simple - you just load it onto the pizza peel and launch it into the oven.

The result was better than expected. It cooked slightly faster than other ovens I've tried, taking a little over a minute for all of the cheese pizzas I tried. The dough quickly puffed up into a perfect crust and the cheese melted into a soft golden color.

It aced the taste test. A common issue in some pizza ovens is that they either over- or under-cook the sauce. Overcooked sauce dries out the pizza, and undercooked sauce makes the pizza doughy and wet. This oven was perfect. The door means that moisture is trapped in the air, which means the sauce was moist without being wet, softening the chewy pizza dough without overwhelming it. It was one of the best pizzas I've ever made, and I hadn't varied my usual recipe - it was all thanks to the oven.

Test 2: Pepperoni

Next up, two pepperoni pizzas and it's the same procedure as the cheese pizza - but with slices of pepperoni. The test here was to see the aggression of the flame. Pepperoni is easy to burn, as it curls up towards the heat source and crisps on the edges. Pepperoni also puts out a lot of grease, which can make the dough far too moist.

But this wasn't an issue for the Karu 2 Pro. Much of the grease had evaporated, making for a delicious pizza that felt light and refreshing rather than heavy an oil. On one of the pizzas I tested, the pepperoni slices singed a little, but it wasn't catastrophic.

Test 3: Gluten free pizza

I wanted to test a gluten-free dough and I was also cooking for a celiac, so I tried Ooni's gluten-free dough recipe. It was very straightforward, a simple dough of water, yeast, and gluten-free flour (for those interested, I used the Antimo Caputo flour, available at Amazon, as recommended by Ooni). I was worried as I kneaded it because it looked very wet, even though it didn't feel wet to work with. I was worried that the moisture content in the dough would be too high for the stone and the crust wouldn't form and lift away from the surface.

Thankfully all my worries were unfounded. This is one of the best gluten-free meals I've made. The dough behaved almost exactly like a gluten dough - there were a few worrying seconds before it puffed up, but after about 40 seconds it was just like any other pizza I've made. There was excellent leopard-spotting on the crust and it was perfectly cooked all the way through, with beautiful striations through the dough. This oven can easily handle gluten-free food, so it's a good choice even if you can't eat gluten.

Test 4: Flatbread

I wanted to see how the oven could handle a drier dough. Some pizza ovens are too aggressive and dry out pizzas, which means that they bake flatbreads into crispy, dry cookies rather than moist pizzas. To this end, I tried a flatbread dough topped off with red onions, rosemary, zucchini, goat's cheese, and a homemade balsamic glaze of vinegar and honey, drizzled with olive oil.

This was also perfect. The vegetables were perfectly cooked in seconds, maintaining moisture but developing a delicious char from the rolling flame. Paired with hummus, this was the perfect flatbread - another test passed flawlessly.

Test 5: Chicken thighs

Pizza ovens have a bad reputation as single-use appliances, but they're really no different from any other oven, so I also tried to bake some chicken and onions.

Using Ooni's rosemary chicken thighs recipe, I heated a skillet in the oven and then cooed chicken thighs skin-down for three minutes. After that, I flipped them over, added rosemary and thick wedges of onion, then basted everything in butter.

The result was remarkable - perfectly juicy chicken thighs with deliciously, crisp skin, bubbled to a perfect golden brown color by the flame. Best of all, it was much faster than the equivalent dish would've been in a traditional domestic oven. The pizza oven reaches such high temperatures that you can cook much more quickly than a convection or fan oven.

It was also a great opportunity to test out the probe thermometer, which was fantastic. It's easy to use, it just plugs into the digital thermometer hub, and from there you just push it into whatever you're cooking. It gives an accurate internal temperature for meat - which gives excellent peace of mind when cooking chicken

Test 6: Calzone

Calzone are a crucial test for pizza ovens because they're much harder to perfect than pizza. The extra dough folded over the top means that there's a lot more moisture to cook off, and because the ingredients are protected from the open flame, they cook at a lower temperature.

I took a big chunk of my pizza dough, added tomato sauce, leftover vegetables from my flatbread, vegan sausage - to see how the oven copes with meat alternatives - as well as rosemary, cheddar, mozzarella, and a little goat's cheese.

The result was excellent, with two minor hitches. One is that though the oven is taller than many other pizza ovens, it's not quite tall enough for a calzone. I made a pretty small, flat calzone, but it was thick enough that the rolling flame caught the top and it briefly ignited, singing a burn mark across the top of the pie. It tasted great once I had scraped the char off, but it's a mark that the oven doesn't have a huge vertical capacity.

The taste was fantastic. Every ingredient in the calzone had cooked in a matter of seconds, making for an unguent, indulgent calzone. The only minor quibble is that there were a couple of patches in the crimping where the dough hadn't entirely cooked, but I attribute that more to my crimping the edges too thickly than to a fault of the over. All things considered, this was yet another test aced.

Test 7: Brownies

But we end on a slightly disappointing note - brownies were not successful in this pizza oven. We always test something sweet in pizza ovens, because an oven that can only handle savory dishes is pointless. I whipped up a quick box of brownie mix, put it in a greased tin, and let the oven do its thing.

Unfortunately, this was the only disappointment of the day. I kept the flame low and stood guard by the oven the whole time to turn the brownies and stop them from catching. But even with this vigilance the edges of the brownie caught, broiling the top. I took it out after the recommended time.

Yet while the thermometer and thermometer gun told me the air and stone temperature had been right for the whole cook, this brownie wasn't quite right. The top was burned, but there was a patch in the middle of the brownies that hadn't cooked.

When I put it back in to finish, it was still the same story. Even on its lowest burn, the flame burned the top of the brownie but didn't cook the interior. I think this oven is perfect for thinner doughs in pizzas, flatbreads, and calzones, but might struggle with thicker bakes. This is poor when you consider that other ovens - the Gozney Arc, for example - can cook desserts with ease.

Cleaning, storage, and maintenance

Cleaning this oven is pretty easy. To be fair, cleaning all pizza ovens is easy because you should only even brush the stone lightly and clean the inside with a microfibre cloth. That said, some readers will have noticed that I spilled some flour on the oven door that then baked on - but it was easy to remove the worst of it with a tiny amount of glass cleaner and a towel.

Maintenance is easy, too - there's basically nothing that needs to be done to this oven except to keep it out of the rain and keep the propane topped up.

The trickier issue is storage. This is one of the largest ovens I've tested, and it's particularly long, taking up the width of my entire garden table. It's also one of the heaviest ovens I've tried, weighing in at 59 lb. It's hardly earth-shattering weight, but it's awkward to move this thing around the yard.

How does it rate online?

The Karu 2 Pro has only been out for few days, so there aren't any reviews of it yet. I'll be sure to update this review in future when there's more consensus from every day users.

How does it compare?

I've compared the new Karu 2 to the original Karu 16, and you can see in the table below that it has a range of tiny improvements that put it above the Karu 16. The most notable is the grandly titled 'Digital Temperature Hub', a sleek LED update on the original digital readout. This is brighter and easier to read, and it also has a probe, which is particularly useful for cooking meat and ensuring that it reaches a safe internal temperature. It has a circle display with colors from green to red to let you know when the oven is hot enough for pizza.

The only downside to this display is that it can be hard to read through the glass door. At noon it was hard to see the temperature reading from the probe because the reflections in the glass obscured the display underneath, but this is a minor issue.

Apart from that, the differences are mostly size and weight. The Karu has slightly larger external dimensions (and I mean slightly, it's a 1% difference) but a much larger internal capacity, but at the same time cuts down on the weight of the original Karu 16, which is remarkable. These minor improvements make for a much better oven overall: it's faster, makes more pizza, and it's easier to use.

Should you buy it?

If you want a pizza oven, the Karu 2 is as good as it gets. It's fast, makes large pizzas, and excelled at almost everything I threw at it. It is the best pizza oven around, especially for the price, which is hundreds of dollars cheaper than equivalent ovens at Gozney. If you want the very best, this is the oven for you.

How we test

We put all pizza ovens through a battery of different tests. Firstly, we see how easy they are to assemble, and if there are any potential issues for those with mobility issues or disabilities. Next, we see how long it takes for the oven to warm up.

Then, we test every oven on a huge range of different dishes. We always make cheese and pepperoni pizzas, as well as sweet treats like brownies and more complicated meals like chicken.

For more detail, take a look at how we test.

Gozney has been at the forefront of making some of the top pizza ovens for years. Their ovens are fast, make delicious pizza, and look better than any other brand on the market. They're the perfect capstone to any outdoor kitchen setup.

However, even though Gozney produces some of the best pizza ovens, they will cost you more than almost any other brand. Their top-line oven, the original Dome, usually costs $2000, twice as much as the nearest competitor.

Last year, the best prices were on Black Friday, but there are still lots of other opportunities to buy the brand for less. Here's all you need to know about one of our favorite pizza ovens – and how you can game the system to get one for a discount.

Where to shop the best Gozney deals

Here are all the places you can buy deals from Gozney - as it stands, Gozney itself is the best place to buy one of these ovens.

• Gozney: 10-20% off every Gozney pizza oven, and free shipping when you spend over $50.
• Amazon: enjoy Prime delivery on a range of Gozney pizza ovens and accessories.
• The Home Depot: Shop the bestselling Gozney pizza ovens.
• Ace Hardware: Ace Rewards members get free assembly and delivery.

Our favorite Gozney pizza ovens

Below are the Gozney pizza ovens that we always look out for in the sales. They are products that have been tested, rated and come highly recommended by experts. The handy deal widgets will also tell you whether they are currently at a discounted price. You can read more about each product in our dedicated reviews, which we've highlighted on each product block.

When to shop for Gozney deals

Like many other brands and retailers, Gozney uses certain sale periods and key times of the year to release big discounts on their products. To help you shop at the right time of year, we've rounded up the key shopping dates below.

Amazon Prime Day

It's not always the case, but sometimes you can find Gozney ovens on sale for Amazon Prime Day. There are usually two Prime Day events a year. In 2024, the two sales fell on the 16th-17th of July and the 8th-9th of October.

Prime Day has huge discounts, but you need to be a member to take advantage. If you're a new user, you can get a 30-day free membership.

Gozney Summer Sale

Gozney doesn't run discounts on all the big sales weekends throughout the year, and their last Summer Sale only had two ovens on offer. We predict that the coming Black Friday will be the best time to buy a Gozney pizza oven, and you won't see better prices for the rest of the year.

Black Friday

Black Friday is the Friday straight after Thanksgiving. The day sees big discounts on a huge range of products, as retailers shift stock that didn't sell in the runup to Thanksgiving and try to jump-start Christmas shopping. The day has since turned into more than a week of discounts, with the following Monday nicknamed 'Cyber Monday' due to its particular focus on tech discounts.

This year, Black Friday will fall on November 28th, with Cyber Monday following on December 1st.

Historically, Black Friday is the best time to get a deal on a Gozney oven. Gozney's ovens just went on sale, as well as some of their pizza oven accessories. All of these ovens are discounted on Amazon, too.

Bear in mind that the prices won't drop much on the day itself, and stock may run out before then. If you want a good deal on a Gozney oven, it might be smart to buy it early in the month while the price is low and the stock is high.

How we source the top Gozney deals

For more information about how we test pizza ovens, take a look at our guide to how we test.

Here, we use our in-person tests of all these ovens to inform our recommendations, as well as factor in the price and percentage discount of a particular deal.

We keep an eye on all of the major retailers so that we can spot new Gozney deals. We also have sources in the company so we know ahead of time when deals will land.

FAQs

When is the best time of year for Gozney deals?

Black Friday is the best time of year for Gozney deals because it sees all of their ovens go on sale and bigger discounts than at any other time of the year. Last year, all the lowest prices fell during Black Friday.

Still not sure if a Gozney is for you?

Gozney ovens are some of the most expensive around, so it's smart to see if other brands offer better value. In our detailed breakdown of Ooni vs Gozney, we found that Ooni ovens are often cheaper and make better pizza, but they're boring black-and-gray designs that aren't as stylish as Gozney's.

It's also worth weighing up indoor pizza ovens. Gozney has yet to make an indoor pizza oven, so you can only use their ovens when the weather is good. If you live somewhere wintry or have limited outdoor space, it's worth considering one of these ovens.

There's nothing like a good pizza oven for feeding a crowd. These increasingly popular appliances are perfect for making party food.

However, pizza ovens aren't always ready to use out of the box. A handful of essential accessories make the whole experience a lot less stressful.

Years of testing the best pizza ovens have shown me that these products are all essentials for making the very best pizza. From a simple cleaning brush to a high-tech digital thermometer, these are the crucial tools every pizzaiolo should have on hand.

Essential pizza oven accessories

If you don't know what you're doing, pizza ovens are notoriously hard to clean. A dirty oven makes for bad pizza. Learning how to clean a pizza oven is a quick way to elevate your pizza skills.

If you're in the market for an indoor pizza oven, you only have two options: the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo and the Ooni Volt 12. No other indoor pizza oven on the market comes close to these two models. They've remained the only real options for several years.

However, if you're new to domestic pizza ovens, it can be hard to choose between the two. They look similar, perform the same task, and cost roughly the same.

I've tested lots of the best pizza ovens - in fact, the Breville was one of the first I tested years ago. After lots of tests, I've found that the Ooni Volt 12 makes better-tasting pizza than the Breville. However, the Ooni has several shortcomings - its price, size, and ease of use - which means the Breville can be a better option.

Which oven makes the best tasting pizza?

Winner: Ooni (just, and not for every type of pie)

Taste is hard to call because it's so subjective. However, when it comes to a classic pizza, the Ooni Volt does a better job. You can see in the images below that the pizza made in the Ooni had much better basics. The crust is crisper, and the cheese is golden. The sauce retains its moisture without becoming overly wet and soggy. The Breville oven is worse in all of these departments. The crust is slightly burnt, but still isn't as crisp the cheese isn't as well melted or browned, and the sauce is a little wetter than it should be.

However, the Breville has a significant advantage over the Ooni Volt in that it has dedicated settings for different types of pizza. While the Ooni is better at generic cheese pizzas, the Breville is designed to make lots of different styles of pizza and sort all the timing and temperature for you.

Which oven is easier to use?

Winner: Breville

The feature mentioned above makes the Breville oven much easier to use than the Ooni Volt 12. It offers dedicated settings for different styles of pizza, and it also has dedicated darkness settings, so not only can you tailor the pizza to a particular style, but you can also bake it exactly as you want.

This means that unlike the Ooni Volt 12, there's no learning curve. You can just set it to New York, for example, dial in your desired doneness, and cook.

However, there is a significant catch here, which is that the Ooni oven is better for making pizza in bulk. It has an excellent temperature boost function, which increases the temperature of the oven when its door is open. This means you don't have to wait a few minutes for the oven to get back up to temperature to make your pizza.

On top of that, the Ooni oven is faster than the Breville. On their highest, fastest settings, the Ooni Volt 12 is 30 seconds faster than the Breville oven, which is part of why it tastes a little better.

Which oven is cheaper?

Winner: Breville

For the last year, these ovens were the same price - $999 - but the Breville oven was recently reduced by $200 to $799. The Ooni Volt was also reduced to $899, but it's $100 more expensive than the Breville.

On top of that, the big issue with Ooni products is that they don't include vital equipment. Breville's oven comes with a pizza peel and pan, but Ooni's does not. A peel is essential because it's the tool you need to load the pizza into the oven. With Ooni, you have to pay an extra $10 for the peel. It's not exactly a financial hit, but it's $10 more than you have to pay for the Breville, which is already cheaper.

Which is best for storage?

Winner: Breville - unless you have outdoor space

The Breville Pizzaiolo is easiest to store because it's smaller than the Ooni Volt, which can totally dominate a countertop. The Ooni is also slightly too big for most kitchen base cabinets, so it can be trickier to store than the Breville oven.

That said, the Breville Oven is also huge; when I tested it for a different magazine a few years ago I found that took up almost an entire half of my countertop. However, it's a little smaller than the Ooni Volt 12, so it's a better choice for storage.

However, the Ooni Volt 12 is rated for outdoor use, which also means that it can be stored in outdoor buildings, or, in a pinch, under a cover outdoors, which isn't possible with the Breville oven.

Which is better looking?

Winner: Breville

I think the Breville oven is better looking than the Ooni. It's not the most exciting-looking oven in the world, but it's a neutral stainless steel appliance that won't look out of place in any kitchen. The Ooni, however, is a black monolith that's fine in modern, Scandinavian kitchens, but will look a little too sci-fi in more traditional homes.

Buy Ooni Volt 12 if...

• You want the very best pizza
• You want fast pizza
• You want to make lots of pizza

Buy Brevillie Smart Oven Pizzaiolo if...

• You want to save money
• You want easy pizza
• You have a smaller kitchen

However, these pizza ovens aren't your only choice. Indoor pizza ovens are notoriously poor compared to outdoor pizza ovens, so before you spend any money on these ovens it's worth weighing up indoor pizza ovens vs outdoor pizza ovens. Outdoor models are less convenient, but they taste much better.

Homemade pizza is at its best when cooked in a domestic pizza oven. These clever appliances mimic a traditional pizza oven, making for fast, authentic pizza that a frozen pizza thrown in your oven can't touch.

When you're shopping for a pizza oven you'll notice that they can be divided into two categories: indoor and outdoor. As the weather gets colder, it's smart to consider if an indoor pizza oven is the right way to go. After all, an indoor pizza oven can be used all year, not just in summer, and some of them can save storage.

However, before you spend hundreds on a new oven, there are a few drawbacks that even the best indoor pizza ovens can't overcome. As a pizza oven tester, I've tried plenty of both types, so I know exactly which oven is best for each home.

Which type of oven makes the best tasting pizza?

The most crucial problem is deciding which of the two makes the most delicious pizza. However, it's an easy answer.

Outdoor pizza ovens create a taste that is far superior to indoor pizza ovens. That's because the different fuel sources have a huge impact on taste. The rough rule is that wood-fired tastes best, followed by gas, distantly followed by electricity, which is the heat source in all indoor ovens.

Wood-fired ovens taste best because they impart a smoky flavor to pizzas that other fuel sources can't match. On top of that, wood ovens have flame rolling across the top of the oven to broil cheese. Altogether, this makes for perfect pizza. The best pizza ovens are all wood ovens because they're the closest thing to a traditional brick pizzeria oven.

Gas-fired ovens also have this flame rolling across the top of the oven, so they achieve similar results to wood ovens. However, they lack the smokiness of wood-fired pizzas. If you don't like the smell or taste of smoke, a gas oven could be for you, but many people find that they taste a little sterile by comparison. It's like the difference between a charcoal grill and a gas grill - there's ultimately not much difference, but the smokier option tastes slightly better.

Both gas and wood pizza ovens can reach high temperatures far above a domestic oven. Where a kitchen oven taps out at 500°F, gas or wood pizza ovens can reach 900-1100°F. This is what crisps the crust and metals the cheese, and it means that your pizza can be cooked in one or two minutes rather than ten.

Both types of outdoor oven can be augmented with a huge range of bonus features from steam injectors to keep thicker dishes like calzones from drying out, to skillets for searing meats. They offer much more versatility than electric pizza ovens.

That's because electric pizza ovens are just big toaster ovens. They cook with a huge electric filament. This doesn't have the smokiness of a wood-fired oven, nor the flame-cooking of a gas-fired oven. It makes for a similar pizza to those you'd make in a domestic oven, just with a slightly crisper base thanks to the pizza stone. If you want the very best-tasting pizza, you need a wood-fired pizza oven.

The fairest way to compare is to pit the best indoor pizza oven against the best outdoor pizza oven:

You can see in the table above that the Ooni Karu is a better pizza oven than the Breville Smart Oven. The Ooni cooks with more fuel types, makes larger pizzas - so you can feed more people - and makes them much faster. When we put the two to the test, we found that the Ooni Karu 16 makes much better-tasting pizzas, too.

However, there are a couple of things to recommend about the Breville oven. Its exterior is smaller, so it takes up less room, and while it's only electric it can be plugged into utility power and run straightaway, with no finicky propane hoses or wood pellets. It also has dedicated settings for different styles of pizza, making it easy to make a wide range of different pies.

Which type of oven is cheaper?

Pizza ovens are notoriously expensive, and many models cost more than $1000. However, indoor pizza ovens are more expensive. Indoor ovens like the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo and Ooni Volt 12 tend to cost around $800, depending on sales events. Comparable outdoor ovens like the Gozney Arc and the Ooni Koda 16 cost $700-$600.

If you need a budget pizza oven, I strongly recommend a cheap wood pizza oven. They can taste as good as ovens more than three times the price, and crucially, much better than the equivalent indoor pizza oven. For example, we can compare the Cuisinart Indoor Pizza Oven with one of my favorite pizza ovens, the Ooni Fyra:

You can see in the comparison table above that the Cuisinart pizza oven only wins in one category, its exterior dimensions. The Ooni Fyra has a larger cooking surface, cooks almost seven times faster, and best of all, tastes much better. The Ooni has a lower MSRP too, so it's unless there's a sale, it's also cheaper. If you have any outdoor space, a cheap outdoor pizza oven - even a cheap mass-market pizza oven like this from Walmart - will be a much better budget option.

Which oven is easier to use?

Indoor pizza ovens are much easier to use than most outdoor pizza ovens, and it's their only real benefit. They're easy to set up and use and you can cook whenever you want.

Firstly, indoor pizza ovens run on utility power, so they're very easy to set up. You don't need to worry about sourcing propane and filling up the tank, or fuss with hooking the gas tank up to the oven. You don't need to keep up a continual supply of wood pellets and learn how to light and stoke them. Just switch on the oven and you're good to go.

Indoor pizza ovens don't have as steep a learning curve as other types of pizza oven. Most indoor pizza ovens have programs for different types of pizza. This means you can set it and forget it; you don't need to monitor a temperature gun to work out the single degree Fahrenheit for your ideal New York slice. You can just launch the pizza into the oven and the temperature and timing are sorted for you.

Most importantly, you can use an indoor oven whenever you want. I've had some great times cooking in an outdoor pizza oven, but it gets harder as the weather gets colder. If you've ever used an outdoor pizza oven in winter, you'll know it can be miserable. It's harder to light the oven, it's harder to use with numb fingers, and in the winter months, you can't host. Your guests won't want to sit out in the cold while you fumble with a pizza. This isn't a problem with an indoor pizza oven, because you can use it whatever the weather.

Which is best for storage?

I think that outdoor pizza ovens are much easier to store than indoor pizza ovens. Indoor pizza ovens are often marketed as space-saving appliances, but my experience is that they take up a lot of room. In a large kitchen, that's fine, but most indoor pizza ovens take up at least a square foot. That's a lot of countertop real estate. I know from testing pizza ovens in my small apartment that an indoor pizza oven can take up half a countertop and an entire shelf in a kitchen cabinet.

Outdoor pizza ovens, however, can be stored outside under a cover, or in a garage or shed. While usually bigger, they're stored out of the way. If you keep a pizza oven in the kitchen, you'll have to navigate around it every time you open a cabinet.

Which is better looking?

Pizza ovens are big, expensive appliances, so they'll likely be on display in your kitchen or garden year-round. That means that appearance is much more important than people like to admit.

Indoor pizza ovens tend to look worse than outdoor ovens. Outdoor ovens are designed to be the focal point of a social space, or built into an outdoor kitchen. Indoor pizza ovens are kitchen appliances, designed to look neutral and inoffensive. However, this means that they're pretty boring. Indoor ovens are either stainless steel or black, and they don't do much to elevate the look of a room.

For an example, take the Ooni Volt and the original Gozney dome below. The Ooni is a pretty good oven, but being brutally honest it's not the best-looking appliance in the world. It's a pretty dull black and silver design that looks more like a UFO than a stylish part of your kitchen design. If your kitchen is anything other than Scandi minimalism, you might find this a little too workaday for your style.

The original Gozney Dome in olive, however, is a much more stylish appliance. It's colorful without being garish and can work with a wide range of garden styles from the traditional to the modern. It would look fantastic nestled into a corner of the patio, surrounded by handy kitchen herbs like basil, rosemary, and thyme. Outdoor pizza ovens like this tend to come in many different colors, so you can tailor the oven to your style.

Pizza oven FAQs

Can an outdoor pizza oven be used indoors?

An outdoor pizza oven cannot be used indoors. Both gas and wood pizza ovens create smoke which can be toxic or a fire hazard when used indoors. The only exception is the Ooni Volt 12, the only oven rated to be used both inside and outside.

With the type of pizza oven nailed down, there are plenty of other things to consider before you buy a pizza oven. It's important to consider which is the best fuel for a pizza oven, or weigh up which of the two biggest brands is best between Ooni and Gozney.

Whatever you do, make sure to measure your space before you buy. Pizza ovens are surprisingly hefty appliances and need a lot of room, so make sure it will fit.

Pizza ovens are amazing tools for cooking restaurant-quality pizza at home, but they’re not without their limitations. Even the very best pizza ovens can be impractical to use in drizzly weather or the cold winter months. That’s where the best indoor pizza ovens shine.

As a trained cook, I've tested dozens of indoor pizza ovens alongside my team of expert product testers. We've personally tested every option in this guide, using our favorite pizza recipes from Neopolitan-style slices to calzones and flatbreads. We're looking for indoor options that deliver consistent heat, reliable results, and a whole lot of fun.

In our tests, the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo stood out as the best indoor pizza oven on the market. It mimics the intense heat of a wood-fired oven while being compact and safe for indoor use. If you’re looking for something slightly more affordable but still high-performance, the Ooni Volt 12 is a fantastic runner-up - it heats up fast, cooks evenly, can also be used outside and looks great on the counter, too.

For those on a tighter budget, the Cuisinart Indoor Pizza Oven is worth a look. It’s not quite as refined as the Breville or Ooni, but it gets the job done and can still produce a great pie with the right dough and technique.

The quick list

Best indoor pizza ovens 2026

Best indoor pizza oven

This was the first ever indoor pizza oven to hit the market, and in all my years of testing these ovens, I'm yet to find a better option. Of all the indoor pizza ovens out there, it gets closest to the leopard-spotted charred finish you'd get from a wood-fired pizza oven. The pizzas we've made in this oven are the nearest to restaurant-quality of any indoor oven I've tested, with delicious leopard spotting, a perfect crust, and golden, melted cheese.

One of the best features of this oven is that it's easy to use. Unlike every oven I've tested, there are dedicated settings for different types of pizza. If you want a New York slice, just switch it to that setting. You can do the same for deep dish, thin and crispy, and there's even a dedicated setting for frozen pizzas. You can set the temperature more precisely if you need to, but I found that the settings make the whole process foolproof. Unlike other pizza ovens out there - especially the Cuisinart below - the timer is pretty accurate.

On top of that, the price has recently come down by $200, which makes it cheaper than the Ooni Volt 12 below. They used to be the same price, so this is one of the things that puts it above the Ooni. However, $800 is still a lot to spend on a pizza oven. My personal favorite, the Ooni Fyra 12, is hundreds of dollars cheaper and, frankly, makes better pizza.

That's something to bear in mind as you read this list: none of the indoor ovens featured here quite match a gas oven, and a wood-fired oven tastes even better. There's a smokiness to those pizzas that these indoor ovens can't match, though the Breville Smart Oven gets closest.

You can find more details in our Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo review.

Best indoor and outdoor pizza oven

At the time of writing, the Ooni Volt 12 is the only pizza oven you can use both indoors and outdoors. That means it's perfect for year-round use; unlike most pizza ovens, you won't be freezing outdoors while you try to make a pie in the colder months, and you won't be stuck in a stuffy kitchen next to a hot oven during the summer.

By indoor oven standards, it makes pretty great pizzas. It made a delicious artichoke pizza with the same stone-baked crust you'd find in a traditional pizzeria. However, our tester found that 'Something about the Breville felt a little more authentic than the Ooni.' The leopard-spotting is better in the Breville, so it looks and tastes a little better. However, it's very tight to call. You wouldn't be disappointed if you were served one of the pizzas from this oven in a restaurant.

The best part of this oven is all the little touches. The first is that it's fast, especially by indoor oven standards. Ooni recommends a preheat time of 20 minutes, but our tests found it reached temperature in around 15. This speed is coupled with an innovative 'boost' button, which maintains the temperature even when the door is open. That means you can turn out pizzas one after the other without waiting for the oven to heat back up, which is a unique feature among pizza ovens, let alone indoor pizza ovens. It's much easier to use than the Breville oven above.

So why isn't it number one? Well, this oven is poorly suited to use indoors. It's huge - it's more than two feet deep and nearly two feet across. If you're cooking in a small kitchen, which is one of the main use cases for an indoor pizza oven, you'll have to give up half your counter space. This also makes it very hard to store, as it will take up the entire shelf of a base cabinet and you may not be able to close the door. The Breville above is pretty big, but it's at least manageable, a half-foot shorter than the Ooni. The Volt 12 also weighs in at 39lbs, so while you can lift it out of storage or into your backyard, it's not a process that you'll want to do very often.

On top of that, like all Ooni pizza ovens, the Volt 12 doesn't come with helpful equipment like a pizza peel or a thermometer - if you want these, you'll need to pay at least $1000. This is a great oven, but a thousand dollars is a lot of money to spend on pizza, no matter how good.

You can find more details in our Ooni Volt 12 review.

Best budget indoor pizza oven

The Cuisinart Indoor Pizza Oven is a rare thing: an indoor pizza oven that doesn't cost too much. The two ovens above cost at least $800 outside of sales periods, which is far too much money for most people. This oven retails for around $400, though you'll often see it on offer for more like $300, which is more than half as cheap as the two ovens above. It's also much better than Ooni in that it includes a pizza peel, slice, and deep dish for free, saving you money and ensuring you're ready to go straight out of the box.

Best of all, it's simple to use, so it's a great option for beginners. Unlike Ooni ovens, which need a steep learning curve and fiddly propane or wood attachments, you just put the pizza stone in this and it's good to go. The temperature control and timers are old-fashioned analog dials, so you don't need to learn any operations, just switch them on.

However, when I was testing this oven I found that it doesn't stack up to the ovens above. It's also loud. Most pizza ovens are relatively quiet, but my decibel meter found that this pizza oven tops out at 60 dB. That's similar to a cheap air fryer; it's not the worst sound in the world, but it's louder than the competition.

Most importantly, this oven makes pretty good pizza, but unlike the Breville and Ooni, it's not much better than the pizza you can make in a typical kitchen oven. The base of the crust was well cooked, but the dough was undercooked, even though the cheese on the top of the pizza was overcooked. Both pizzas I made tasted like store-bought frozen pizza, despite being made by hand.

It's much slower than other pizza ovens I've used. The Breville and Ooni above are slow by pizza oven standards - it takes them around three or four minutes to cook a pizza - but they're much faster than this. When you consider that a gas or wood-fired pizza oven can cook a pizza in a minute, the seven minutes needed for the Cuisinart Indoor Pizza Oven feels like an age.

I found that it's pretty poor when making other types of food. We test all our ovens on lots of different meals to see if they're versatile, and this oven couldn't handle a tray of brownies. They were baked solid at the rear of the oven and uncooked in the middle, which isn't what you want from any oven. As I tested this oven, I wondered several times if I should give up and cook my ingredients in the oven.

There are more details in my full Cuisinart Indoor Pizza Oven Review.

Comparison table

How we test indoor pizza ovens

We tested these ovens by making a lot of pizza and putting them through taste tests. I know − it's a hard life being a product reviewer. We tried dozens of cheese pizzas, pepperoni pizzas, and as-many-toppings-as-possible pizzas, as well as garlic breads, flatbreads, and calzones.

We timed how long it took each oven to reach temperature and cook a pizza so that we could assess their energy efficiency, as well as the ease of ignition.

We paid close attention to the look of each oven to see which spaces they would suit. We also considered the nitty-gritty details like assembly, storage, and manoeuvrability. Then we judged all of this against price and warranty, to make absolutely sure that the ovens we recommend offer the best value for money.

You can find more information on our testing process in our How We Test guide.

Indoor pizza oven FAQs

Should I buy an indoor pizza oven or an outdoor pizza oven?

There are only two reasons to buy an indoor pizza oven. The first is if your home lacks a yard or other outdoor space. In this case, an indoor pizza oven is your best bet for delicious homemade pizza. A pizza oven is also a good idea if you live somewhere cold. If it snows a lot, an outdoor pizza oven might not be practical, and an indoor pizza oven will offer you year-round use.

However, if neither of these applies, you should buy an outdoor pizza oven. These cook on gas and wood, which is much closer to a traditional pizza oven than an electric filament. Indoor pizza ovens can taste great, but they're much closer to a homemade pizza cooked in a domestic oven than a gas or wood pizza oven. That's because gas and wood outdoor pizza ovens can reach much higher temperatures, which broil the top of the pizza and bake the dough into a crisp crust.

How much should I spend on an indoor oven?

The two best ovens are at least $800, so expect to pay at least that much. There are some options out there for around $400, but they aren't always the best quality.

What type of indoor pizza oven should I get?

If you can, avoid a rotating pizza oven like this at Amazon, because it doesn't work, and if it did, wouldn't taste any different from a domestic oven. Instead, you need an electric pizza oven with a door. The door retains the heat, making the oven more efficient.

Final thoughts

Indoor pizza ovens aren't your only option for good homemade pizza. If money is tight, it's also worth considering a toaster oven for fast, apartment-friendly pizza.

It's no secret that Ooni makes the best pizza ovens in the world. We've tried and tested them with various pizza recipes, for our shopping guides and have consistently given them five stars. However, the main issue with Ooni is that their ovens are very expensive. Spending $900 on a pizza oven is hard to justify, even if you're obsessed with pizza, like me.

That's why I wait for the Ooni sales to find the best deals. Summer is often one of the best times to shop the brand. Last year, the Ooni summer sales offered up to 30% off our favorite ovens, as well as 20% off accessories. Some bundle deals are live already, so I have dropped them below.

As soon as more deals land, I'll list the best prices from the Ooni summer sales below. I won't include everything (I don't think $2 off Ooni socks is essential), but otherwise, you'll find the lowest prices from the Ooni sales below. Plus, the best offerings from the rivals, like Gozney, too.

Ooni Summer Sales

Other pizza oven deals

Ooni sales FAQs

When is the Ooni summer sale?

Last year, the main Ooni summer sales ran from July 11th - 17th. This gives you around a week to choose which pizza oven you're going to go for.

Are other pizza oven brands running deals?

Yes, the Summer Special at Gozney has already kicked off with some really great discounts on their best-sellers, like the Roccbox and Dome S1 ovens.

For more savings on outdoor cooking, take a look at our guide to the best grill deals.

If you've just started looking into getting a pizza oven, or your curioristy has been piqued by the seasonal sales, you will probably have heard of Ooni. It's the biggest pizza oven brand on the planet, and its popularity shows no signs of waning. Lots of people use the brand's name as a synonym for the 'best pizza oven' – and it can be hard to compete with that.

However, Gozney has been in the game just as long, and while Ooni’s ovens are functional and efficient, they can sometimes feel utilitarian and industrial. Gozney, on the other hand, creates chic, minimalist ovens that elevate any outdoor kitchen, consistently topping our lists of the best Ooni alternatives.

I’ve spent the summer making pizzas and testing every oven I could get my hands on, building on the insights of lead outdoor product tester, Alex David. To make it easier to compare, we've created this guide that breaks down the two brands across four key areas: design, ease of use, taste test, and price (including the latest discounts).

Our final verdict? Ooni came out on top overall, but we think Gozney is worth considering if chic design or a more precise cooking experience matters to you.

At a glance

When considering Ooni vs Gozney, both ranges include models of all shapes and sizes, so the fairest comparison between the two brands is to assess their two top-rated, similar spec ovens – the Ooni Karu 2 Pro vs the Gozney Dome S1. On paper, they're very evenly matched. They both make exceptionally good pizza, and both use both wood and gas.

Both have digital and probe thermometers, and both can cook pizzas incredibly quickly. The only significant technical difference is that the Karu has a door. It's an obvious point, but this makes it much more heat-efficient and means that in the long run, it uses slightly less fuel. This latest Karu is also much deeper than the Gozney Dome, so it's better for large joints of meat. Overall, we felt that the Karu 2 Pro made slightly better pizza, with a better crust.

The only real difference between the two pizza ovens is price. The Gozney Dome is usually $1200 more expensive than the Ooni Karu and I don't think you get a better oven for your money. I've just laid out that these ovens have very similar features, so you're not paying for anything extra. The only improvement is that the Dome looks better, and I don't think good looks are worth $1200 extra.

Design

If you scroll the Ooni website, you'll see that their ovens have a more utilitarian design; they are boxy, angular, and often finished in black tones. The brand prioritizes functionality over style, which means they’re incredibly practical but can feel a bit industrial.

Gozney takes a very different approach. The brand's ovens have smooth, rounded edges and are available in a range of chic colors, instantly elevating the look of any patio. They are tactile, with sleek accessories and modern controls. If you're comparing Ooni vs Gozney on visuals, the latter looks much better in an outdoor kitchen by a long stretch.

Winner: Gozney

Ease of use

When it comes to ease of use for Ooni vs Gozney, each brand takes a slightly different approach to home pizza-making, and every model in their range is different. It's tricky to come down on either side, but here's our take.

Ooni ovens are all about speed and simplicity. For all the Ooni ovens we’ve tested, the setup has been easy. The ovens and accessories lift out of the box effortlessly, and often you'll find that the crucial parts are already assembled. For the Ooni Koda 2 I recently tested, I didn’t have to screw in the legs or wrestle with any complicated wiring – it was ready to fire up in seconds.

The Ooni instructions manuals tend to be clear and friendly; when I had a question about a propane tank, the customer service was incredibly prompt and helpful; they sent through lots of video links, which were fun and useful to watch.

Gozney takes a slightly more precision-oriented approach, aiming for more professional-level results. The Dome S1, for example, took us a little getting used to. The pizza oven took a while to ignite and we struggled to understand some of the instructions in the Gozney Dome S1 technical manual, but got there in the end through trial and error.

However, once you're all fired up and know what you're doing, Gozney's bonus features do make the experience more precise. Not all of Ooni's pizza ovens come with thermometers, but every Gozney has one as standard, which takes out some of the guesswork. Some Gozneys even have notifications to let you know when your oven has reached the right temperature.

Cleaning is just as simple as with both brands – brush the stone lightly and wipe the interior with a microfibre cloth. A cover keeps your pizza oven safe and dry from the elements.

Winner: Tie

Taste and cooking performance

Even after trying dozens of pizzas made across all different brands, we're yet to find an oven that can match Ooni for taste. When we tried blind taste tests for our best pizza oven guide, Ooni came out number one. I don't know if it's how their ovens are shaped, the thickness of the stone, or the efficiency of the heat source, but pizzas made in Oonis have the best crusts, perfectly melted cheese, and a delicious smokiness.

I also recently tried out Ooni's pre-made dough balls, which you can order from their site and they were absolutely fantastic; they are evenly sized, bake well, and tasted consistently great in the Ooni oven – better than our own homemade dough we used for testing, I have to admit.

That's not to say Gozney's pizza-making skills are terrible by any stretch of the imagination; the difference between Ooni vs Gozney are only noticeable when trying to find flaws. Gozney makes very, very good pizza, just not as crispy or evenly cooked. You'll see what I mean if you read our Gozney Tread review.

Winner: Ooni

Price: Which is best value?

Ooni wins on value. This comes with the significant caveat that their ovens are still expensive - our favorite is $799, and doesn't include essential items like a pizza peel - but they're often around $100 cheaper than equivalent ovens. It's hardly a bargain, but it could be a lot worse.

The Fyra 12 is the oven I recommend to the average user. It's cheap and you get all the fun of making homemade pizzas without spending a small fortune. Gozney's Roccbox is its cheapest offering after the Roccbox, but it's still hundreds of dollars more than the Fyra 12.

Winner: Ooni

Ooni vs Gozney: the bottom line

Ooni is the overall winner. To be brutally honest, I think Ooni is overpriced, but they're still much cheaper than Gozney alternatives. I also think Ooni pizza tastes slightly better, with better char, crust, and melted cheese, but the difference between the two brands is tiny. The design isn't as sleek or chic, but I can look past that for taste and value. If you do want something that looks great on a patio, I'd opt for a Gozney oven, but I think you'll be paying a premium for looks and little else.

Other brands worth looking at

If you love the idea of a pizza oven but find both Ooni and Gozney out of budget, there are some alternatives worth considering.

Solo Stove Pi Prime makes ovens that cost a bit less, while still turning out pizzas that rival the top models from Ooni and Gozney. It can run on both gas and wood, letting you choose between the ease of gas or the smoky flavor of wood-fired pizza. The pies we made on it tasted really nice, although we found the design a bit tricky at first – you can read our full Solo Stove review for all the pros and cons.

For indoor cooking, you could also consider one of the best indoor pizza ovens. Ooni leads here as well, but Breville and Cuisinart both offer strong, more affordable options – perfect if you’d rather save money and don’t mind skipping the outdoor setup. We've written a guide to the indoor vs outdoor pizza ovens to help you weigh up the decision.

FAQs

Is everything included in an Ooni or a Gozney?

No, not everything is included when you buy an Ooni or a Gozney pizza oven. My biggest pet peeve about these brands is that they don't include essential equipment as standard. With both brands, you'll have to pay extra for a pizza peel so that you can load your pizza into the oven.

When is the best time to buy a pizza oven?

The best time to buy a pizza oven is in the sales. Both Ooni and Gozney participate in Black Friday, but your next best chance is in the summer. There is no guarantee either company will run a sale, but in 2024 both ran discounts on some of their pizza ovens.

For more help with pizza ovens, check out our expert guide to how to clean a pizza oven, and what else you can cook in a pizza oven.

More From Homes & Gardens

Buying Guides

-Best Pizza Ovens
-Best Indoor Pizza Ovens
-Best Ooni Pizza Oven
-Best Ooni Alternatives

Reviews

-Ooni Karu 2 Pro Review
-Gozney Dome S1 Review

Advice

-Indoor Pizza Ovens vs. Outdoor Pizza Ovens
-Ooni vs. Solo Stove
-Gozney vs. Solo Stove

News

-First Look: Gozney Compact Arc Lite Outdoor Pizza Oven

Wayfair's anniversary sale is just around the corner, and that means some big savings on grills and pizza ovens.

We're in the heart of grilling season now, which means that a lot of the prices for grills and pizza ovens are over-inflated. If you don't have a grill or pizza oven yet and need one in time for a family gathering on July 4th, Wayfair's Anniversary sale could be your last opportunity.

As a product tester, I've tried a lot of the best grills and best pizza ovens, so I know exactly which products make for the best investments.

Jump to the deals

If you want to take a look at the deals for yourself, here's quick summary of the best offers on grills and pizza ovens in the Anniversary sale.

• Wayfair grill deals: hundreds of dollars off Weber, Blackstone, and Monument
• Wayfair pizza oven deals: up to 40% off Cuisinart, Big Horn, and Solo
• Wayfair outdoor furniture deals: thousands off patio furniture
• Wayfair hot tub deals: thousands off Aquarest, Saluspa, and Intex

Wayfair grill deals

Wayfair pizza oven deals

Wayfair Anniversary Sale FAQ

When is the Wayfair Anniversary Sale?

The Wayfair Anniversary sale is running from the 14th of June to the 17th of June, with up to 70% off appliances.

Most pizza ovens I test need a lot of setup. I need to clear a space outside and organize some propane, or arrange wood pellets and logs for a fire. On top of all of this, they're usually around $800.

Not so with the Cuisinart Indoor Pizza Oven. This is the rare pizza oven for under $500, and it's electric, so it plugs straight into an outlet. If you want a pizza oven on a budget, this - hypothetically - is the oven for you.

I've tested plenty of the best pizza ovens over the years, so I know exactly what to look for in a good model. Unfortunately, I didn't find it with this. It's a good oven, but I'm not convinced that it's any different to a kitchen oven.

Product specifications

Unboxing

This oven arrived in a huge box which was almost too big for my countertop. There's no polystyrene, but there's some plastic wrapped around the oven.

This is a very big appliance. It's smaller than the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo, but that's not saving very much. It's larger than any air fryer I've used and larger than a toaster oven, which is the closest direct comparison.

However, I was very happy to see all the extras that come with this pizza oven. It comes with a pizza peel, a pizza cutter, and a deep-dish pan. The biggest players in the pizza oven industry - Ooni and Gozney - don't include these essential accessories, so it was great to see them included in the box.

It's the easiest pizza oven to set up I've ever tested. You put the rack and pizza stone into the oven and you're ready to go. There's no gas or wood to connect and no steps to burn off plastic smells before you cook.

Test 1: Pepperoni pizza

With nothing else to do, I started the first test. I kneaded, rested, and stretched out the dough, added some tomato sauce and shredded mozzarella for a simple Neapolitan cheese pizza.

As I prepared the dough, I set the pizza oven to warm up, and this was my first indication that it wouldn't be the greatest pizza I've ever made. This oven can only reach around 750°F. That sounds incredibly hot when compared to the average American domestic oven, which tops out at about 450°F. However, top-line gas and wood-fired ovens usually reach around 950°F, more than double the temperature of this oven. The very best can be hotter than 1000°F. This means that they give a pizza a delicious, charred crust, and cook it in around a minute. This oven was starting from a much lower temperature, so I was immediately unconvinced.

The other thing I noted as I waited for the oven to hit the temperature is that it's relatively loud. It maxed out at 60 dB. It's like a cheap air fryer, or someone using a hairdryer in the next room. It's hardly deafening, but it's the loudest of these ovens that I've tested.

After 12 minutes the oven beeped to let me know that it was at temperature, so I loaded a pizza onto the handy folding pizza peel and launched it into the oven. There was a little sticking here. I had floured the peel and the base of the pizza, but the peel had some holes in it which caught a little on the dough.

As I predicted, this oven was slow. Previous experience had me twitching to turn the pizza after half a minute, but it had barely changed color. After the typical one-minute mark, I was ready to take the pizza out, but again, it had barely started cooking. The crust puffed up at around the three-minute mark (it should do this almost instantly) and the pizza was ready in around 6 minutes.

The pizza lifted easily from the stone, which was a relief; I had worried that the cooler cooking temperature wouldn't be enough to separate the crust from the stone. The slicer was a lot of fun to use, too - unlike a pizza wheel, it's a mezzaluna, a long blade that had the pizza cut into perfect slices in seconds.

The pizza itself was a little disappointing. To paraphrase the saying, it's pizza - even when it's bad, it's still pretty good. It tasted like a frozen pizza: the dough was a little undercooked, the cheese was a little overcooked, but the crust was fairly good. However, I couldn't get past the fact that I would've had the same result from baking the pizza in my oven. It seems like a waste of $400 to buy a separate oven that's slightly harder to use for basically the same result.

Test 2: Cheese pizza

To ensure the problem wasn't user error, I tried a simple cheese pizza. I rolled the dough out to be a lot thinner, and I hoped that the dough would be less soggy without the grease from the pepperoni.

I found that this made some difference, but not much. It cooked faster, but I left it in longer just to be sure. This meant that the cooking time was around 7 minutes.

The result was fine, but again, it was not all that different from just cooking it in the oven. The dough was better cooked this time round, but still relatively soft. It has all the fun of using a pizza oven, but none of the results.

Test 3: Brownies

We always test pizza ovens at how well they can cook other dishes, and this Cuisinart oven is no exception. I had some ready-made brownie mix on hand, so I combined it together and poured it into the deep dish pan.

After 20 minutes I had brownies - sort of. The brownies were well-cooked at the back, but I noticed a distinct cool patch all along the front of the pan, which was uncooked. This is pretty worrying, as the mix was only an inch thick, which doesn't bode well for thicker bakes.

This is a worse result than the other tests. In the other tests, I could've achieved the same result in an oven. In this test, I had slower, worse result than if I'd just cooked them in an oven.

Cleaning, storage, and maintenance

Having said all this, this pizza oven was easy to clean. It was simple to brush the worst of the soot from the pizza stone, and I could quickly wash the pizza peel and deep dish pan in the kitchen sink. The latter is nonstick, which made it even easier.

Storage, however, is a bigger issue. It's a very big appliance, and I don't have anywhere in the apartment to store it. It would have to sit on my countertop year-round, and it takes up about half of the space. That's a lot of room to give up for an appliance that's pretty niche.

How does it rate online?

I found an interesting mix of reviews online. Most other professional reviewers have found that it's far from the quality of other pizza ovens, and not much different from baking in an oven.

However, lots of other users on Amazon and other retailer websites love it. They like the pizza it makes, and like that it's cheaper than lots of other pizza ovens. They also like that it runs off electricity instead of gas or wood, which can be expensive, and impossible if you lack outdoor space.

However, lots of others agree with me that it's not much different from an oven. Others found it too large or took a while to cook. It's not a problem I have, perhaps because I was running it off a 230V outlet, but others found that it takes around half an hour to reach temperature.

How does it compare?

The fairest comparison is to the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo, another indoor pizza oven. The Cuisinart has one clear advantage over the Breville: price. This oven is usually $600 cheaper than Breville's oven, so if you want indoor pizza on a budget you'd be hard-pressed to beat this on price.

However, the benefits end there. The Breville makes larger pizzas, gets much hotter and cooks faster, and has a dedicated mode for cooking different styles of pizza. While I think gas or wood tastes a little better, the pizza you can make in the Breville Oven is far better than the pizza in the Cuisinart.

Another option is the Ooni Volt 12, which is similarly better at making pizza than the Cuisinart and can also be used outdoors.

Unfortunately, I think this oven is far from the standards of gas or wood-fired ovens. These ovens cook faster and give pizzas delicious leopard spots. Wood-fired ovens in particular impart deep, smoky flavor. This Cuisinart oven is far off the flavor you can get from an Ooni Fyra 12, for instance.

However, I think a better comparison would be to something like the Breville Smart Oven. This is a little toaster oven with an air fryer mode, and I think you'd be better off with this. It has a pizza mode which does a similar job to this oven, but takes up less room and has more functionality. You'd also be better off Cuisinart's own TOA-60 toaster oven. It's not great, but you can cook more with it.

Should you buy it?

I don't think you should buy this oven. In its defense, it's just as much fun as any other pizza oven I've used. However, I could've had as much enjoyment out of doing all the same steps with my usual kitchen oven, and I would've made a very similar pizza.

How we test

We test all our pizza ovens on a wide range of different pizzas and recipes. We time how long it takes them to warm up and cook, measure how loud they are, and double-check all the measures. We then assess the taste of all the pizzas and judge this against the price of pizza to see If it's good value.

There's nothing like a pizza oven for a backyard cookout. Sure, a grill and a smoker used to be all you need, but after trying more than a few of these appliances I think they're fast becoming an essential.

However, pizza ovens are very expensive. If you want the very best, you're probably going to spend around $1000 before you even buy a pizza. This means that lots of homemakers are turning to DIY brick ovens. 

I've tested dozens of the best pizza ovens over the years, and I've spoken to a licensed contractor about the very best method to build your own pizza oven. But before you rush out to buy a load of bricks, take a moment to consider the practicalities. After looking over the data, I think a DIY brick oven could be a fun project, but it's a very advanced and expensive undertaking. If your DIY skills stop at putting up shelves - and you don't have a cool $2600 to hand - you might be better off buying a pizza oven. 

What are the benefits of building your own pizza oven?

Building your own pizza oven can save you a little money. I've seen cheap builds using exercise balls, clay and concrete that cost no more than $300.

Building your own pizza oven also means that you can make it to your specifications. You aren't limited to the 12"-16" diameter of most domestic ovens but can make your oven bigger or smaller as it suits you. In fact, most DIY pizzas are much larger than pizza oven appliances, so if you have a big family or love to feed a crowd, you can make a lot more pizza.

Homemade pizza ovens also use wood, which is my favorite fuel for pizza. This not only gives your pizzas a delicious smoky taste but is the hottest and therefore fastest fuel you can use. A fire in a brick or clay oven can easily reach 1000°F, which will cook a pizza in just a minute.

What are the drawbacks of building your own pizza oven?

The drawback of building your own pizza oven is that it it's a pretty advanced DIY project. You need to know how to lay a concrete foundation, build a foundation from wood sleepers or bricks, and then build the oven itself from fire bricks. I spoke to licensed contractor Jay Sanders who set out the whole process.

'Several steps are involved to construct your own pizza oven. Firstly, you’ll have to lay a foundation made of concrete by leveling the ground. Secondly, the base should be built of materials like concrete blocks or bricks, followed by an oven floor often made of firebricks for increased heat resistance. Then, the dome is built with the firebricks over the floor. Finally, the oven is finished and insulated with a layer of stucco or other appropriate materials.' That's a lot of work, and if you don't know what you're doing, it could be a pretty expensive mistake.

What's more, even if you do know what you're doing, it's an expensive project. Jay Sanders laid out some of the costs for me. A homemade pizza oven 'requires up to $700 on the foundation and block stand, $540 on the hearth, and $1,360 on the floor, dome, and chimney.' While you can jerry-rig a homemade oven for a lot less, it won't look great.

Another drawback is that you need to give up some space to build it. If you have your patio exactly as you like it, you may not want to give up space to a pizza oven.

It might also affect your home's resale value. If you do it well, it's a great feature, but if you build an unsightly oven some buyers might think of it as something they have to spend money and time removing.

Is it cheaper to build your own pizza oven?

It can be cheaper to build your own pizza oven, but it depends on your method. I've seen very cheap builds out there for a lot less than Jay's outlined, but they're made from thin wood bases and clay. Not only do they not look as good as a real brick oven, but worry about their safety. I don't like the idea of a 1000°F fire perched atop a flimsy wooden base. 

Building your own pizza oven isn't necessarily cheaper than buying one. If you finish off your oven with tiles or other design features the cost can quickly mount up, and you'll have put in a lot of effort without saving any money. Building a bigger oven is obviously more expensive than a smaller oven, and this can double your costs.

As Jay showed me, building your own pizza oven could easily cost more than $2600. That's more than double the price of our favorite pizza oven appliance, and seven times more expensive than our favorite budget option. Sure, they're not as large as a DIY brick oven, but you can still find large ovens out there for cheaper, and larger ovens than you could build for yourself without all the fuss of a DIY project.

Pizza oven FAQs

Do I need to use fire bricks in a pizza oven?

You don't need to use fire bricks in the interior of your pizza oven, but the experts highly recommend it. Normal bricks are fine but aren't designed to withstand high temperatures like fire bricks. Regular bricks on the floor of the oven will likely crack under the high heat in a pizza oven. This would form a lip in the floor of the oven which your pizza could catch on, tearing your pizza as you take it out of the oven. It should be fine, but fire bricks remove the possibility.

For more advice on getting started with pizza ovens, take a look at my coverage of how much you should spend on a pizza oven, or my comparison of a pizza oven vs a regular oven to see if it's worth it in the first place. 

If you're an outdoor cook looking to save a little money, a grill-top pizza oven seems like a no-brainer. Unlike expensive full-size pizza ovens, a grill-top only costs around $100. Because it uses the heat from your grill, it saves you from buying a whole new appliance. 

However, after testing dozens of the best pizza ovens and best grills I've found that these little attachments don't live up to the hype. There's a couple of built-in technical flaws which stop them from making proper pizza. 

This is everything you need to know about pizza ovens and grill-tops before you take you plunge. 

Head to head

To demonstrate the difference, here's my favorite pizza oven compared to a pizza oven attachment. 

A pizza oven is a small oven designed to mimic a full-size brick or clay oven. Unlike the oven in your kitchen, a pizza oven cooks at incredibly high temperatures using an open flame. This means it can cook a pizza in around two minutes, and it gives the pizza a delicious, smoky crust with perfect spots of charring. It also uses a pizza stone, to ensure a crisp, traditional crust. 

A grill-top pizza oven is similar to a pizza oven. It also uses a pizza stone but unlike a pizza oven, it doesn't use an open flame. Instead, you put it on top of a gas or charcoal grill, and it uses the heat of the grill to cook. 

Which makes the best pizza?

A true pizza oven makes a much better pizza than any other method. It reaches incredibly high temperatures which immediately cause a crisp crust, but make for delicate, fluffy dough further inside the base. 

The open flame licks across the top of the pizza, gently cooking your toppings and melting the cheese, as well as creating leopard spots of charring that give your pizza a classic, smoky Neapolitan taste. I've tried several outdoor pizza ovens, and even the bad ones make better pizza than you can make in the usual kitchen oven. 

A grill-top pizza oven, on the other hand, cooks at a much lower temperature and has no way of heating the top of the pizza other than radiant heat. That means that almost every time I've tried one of these ovens, I've ended up with an overcooked crust and an undercooked top - and that's the best-case scenario. 

On a couple of occasions, I've found an incinerated base while the top of the pizza has cold sauce. There's no other way to slice it: a proper pizza oven makes better pizza. I don't recommend a grill-top pizza oven. 

Which is cheaper to run?

Most pizza ovens are very expensive - the cheapest start at around $350 and easily climb to $700-800. I've seen some pizza ovens for more than $1000, and many of them don't even include essential accessories like a pizza peel or pizza slice. 

A grill-top pizza oven is usually no more than $200, so it's hundreds of dollars cheaper. However, the ongoing costs aren't much cheaper than a pizza oven. Both styles of oven need fuel; in the case of the pizza oven, either propane, wood, or pellets, and in the case of the grill, gas or charcoal. 

A grill-top oven usually leaves the other half of the grill free for grilling other food, so it's a little more cost-effective than a pizza oven, which can only cook one foodstuff at a time. However, it's still an ongoing cost. 

Which is fastest?

Fellow product tester Emilia Hitching told me that 'Pizza ovens are a lot faster than grill-top ovens. A good pizza oven reaches double the temperature of a kitchen oven, which means it can cook an entire pizza in under two minutes. The very best will cook a perfect pizza in under a minute.' 

However, they're limited by capacity. Unless you buy a large oven, like the 23" Alfa Nano, available at BBQ Guys, you can only cook one pizza at a time. However you organize your cooking, it usually means one final person waiting for a pizza while everyone else tucks in. 

A grill-top oven is limited by the grill underneath it. Unless you're using a Kamado, it's unlikely that your grill will ever top about 500°F. That's still pretty hot, but it will cook a pizza in about 5 minutes rather than 2. I've also seen it take around 10 minutes at which point you may as well cook it in an oven. However, unlike a pizza oven, you should still have some room at the side for grilling burgers or chicken, so you can still feed everyone as the pizzas cook. 

Which is easiest to use?

Both ovens are similar in use. The literal sticking point is the pizza stone. If you don't put enough flour on your pizza peel, or put your pizza in the oven before it's hot enough, your pizza will stick to the stone and cause a mess.  

Other than that, the ease of use is very similar. If you use a gas grill, the setup is similar to using a gas pizza oven. If you use a charcoal grill, it's not much different to light a wood-fired pizza oven. 

Which is most versatile?

I think that a true pizza oven is more versatile than a grill-top, and it's because it uses an open flame. True pizza ovens are amazing at roasting vegetables or chicken because they give the food delicious charring that lends whatever you're cooking a delicious smoky flavor. 

Grill-top pizza ovens don't use any flame, so they're essentially less effective kitchen ovens with a smaller capacity. Sure, you can roast vegetables or bake in them, but there's not actually that much point. 

Buy a pizza oven if...

• You want the best-tasting pizza possible 
• You want fast pizza 
• You want to roast meat and vegetables

Buy an grill-top if....

• You're on a budget

FAQs

How do I clean a grill-top pizza oven?

Like a true pizza oven, a grill-top pizza oven is easy to clean. To just brush it down to remove the worst of the char and crumbs.

For more advice about pizza ovens, try our coverage of how to light a pizza oven to the best wood for a pizza oven.

The first time I ever used a pizza oven, I made an incredible mess. I hadn't heated up the stone enough, there was no flour on my peel, and the crust of my pizza was too thin. 

This all meant that the delicious vegetable pizza I'd spent the past half hour perfecting welded itself to the pizza stone and immediately burnt to a crisp. I then spent my evening frantically googling 'how to clean a pizza oven' and inventing new concoctions with baking soda to try and undo the damage. 

Even the best pizza ovens can be tricky to clean, so it pays off to learn how. Dozens of pizza ovens later - and after some advice from my sources among professional pizzaiolos - here's everything you need to know. 

Step 1: Safety

It sounds like an obvious point, but it's incredibly important. Make sure that your pizza oven is switched off and completely cool. This is always an essential step with any appliance with a heating element, but it's extra important with pizza ovens. Pizza ovens get twice as hot as almost any other domestic appliance, so a mistake here can lead to significant injury. 

Once cooled, if you find you need to lift or move the oven to get a better clean, be wary of any sharp edges hidden underneath the main body. I have a fair few scars on my hands after picking up little nicks and cuts from poorly-machine pizza ovens. 

Step 2: Brushing

Thankfully, the cleaning itself is very easy. Though they can look pretty gnarly thanks to years of burnt-on char, pizza stones season like pans. Though the black char doesn't always seem appetizing, it's completely food-safe. It's part of the smoky taste that makes pizza ovens so much tastier than a normal oven. Baker and chef Tamara Earl told me that 'pizza stones are like fine wine—they get better with age.' 

That means all you need to do is brush away the worst of the soot to prevent a build-up and a potential fire. Chef Tamara told me that you just need to 'get an oven brush and sweep away those pesky crumbs and charred bits.' 

You don't need any chemicals or special products, just brush down the inside. You can find expensive name-brand pizza oven brushes at Ooni, for example, but you can make do with a cheap pizza oven brush like this from Amazon. You don't even need to buy these; a regular dustpan brush will do the job. 

Frank Kabatas, Owner and Operator at East Village Pizza, gave me some advice for a really deep clean. 'The most important part is cleaning the inside of the pizza oven. For the interior, begin by gently scrubbing the oven with warm water using a sturdy metal brush for a few minutes.' After that, run the oven for about an hour to evaporate any water. He also said you can use a mix of baking soda and lemon juice to lightly clean a pizza stone. 'Once you apply this paste to the stone, use some hot water and a good microfiber towel to rinse and dry it off, and you’re all set.'

Step 3: Clean the outside

The outside of pizza ovens always gets a little dirty. There's lots of tomato sauce and flour flying around as you cook and it's best to clean this from the outside of the oven before it's baked on. 

Cleaning the sides is easy, you just need a microfibre cloth, and if your oven is stainless steel or aluminum, it might benefit from a stainless steel cleaner like this from Target. Pizzaiolo Frank Kabatas told me that 'you can use any mild degreaser and rinse it off with some warm water, making sure to fully wipe it down with your towel.'

What you should never do

There are two things to avoid when cleaning a pizza oven. The first is that you should soak the stone in water. Pizza stones are almost always made of cordierite, which is permeable. Any water you use to clean the stone will be absorbed. This will prevent your pizza stone from reaching the right temperature, which means that it won't cook effectively, and the dough is also more likely to stick to a damp stone. More importantly, a damp stone is likely to crack, which can be dangerous. A small amount of water is fine, but too much will take days to dry. 

The other mistake is using chemical cleaners. Again, these can be absorbed into the stone, which at best will make your pizza taste soapy and at worst will make it toxic. 

You shouldn't use chemical cleaners on the inside of the oven. These are usually flammable, and because most outdoor pizza ovens use open flames, this can pose a fire risk. 

How to cook pizzas to minimize cleaning

Being smart about how you make your pizzas can also cut down on your cleaning. Make sure your pizza crust is fairly thick - about a half inch - because otherwise sauce can leak onto the stone and burn into a tough stain. 

Make sure you put flour on your pizza peel before inserting your pizza, because this forms a barrier between your pizza and the stone, which stops it from sticking. However, don't overdo it, because too much flour can cause a fire. 

FAQ

What should I do if my pizza stone is wet?

If your pizza stone gets wet, let it air dry for a few days. Do not attempt to dry it in the oven, because this may cause it to crack. 

We've covered lots of crucial information about pizza ovens, from how to light a pizza oven to the best wood for a pizza oven.

Spring is finally here, and that means the return of outdoor cooking. Many people are thinking about how to step up their hosting this year, and a brand-new grill or pizza oven can take a family cookout to the next level.

However, both these appliances can be very expensive. Depending on the products you pick, setting up with both a pizza oven and a gas grill could cost you thousands of dollars. If your budget means you must choose between one or the other, which should you choose? 

I've been a product tester for years, and I've examined dozens of the best grills and the best pizza ovens. I know all the benefits of both types, so can help you work out which is best for you.

Head to head

Before we get into the details, here's a head-to-head of my favorite grill and pizza oven so you can see the differences.

Pizza ovens: pros

The first benefit of a pizza oven is that it makes better pizza than you've ever made at home. I was skeptical when I first tested one, but the difference between a pizza made in a domestic oven and a pizza oven is incomparable. A wood-fired pizza oven turns out restaurant-quality pizza, making every other pizza you've made at home seem sterile. The pizzas have delicious char and leopard-spotting with a smoky flavor you'd otherwise only find in a proper brick oven. With practice, you can cook a huge variety of pizzas. Traditional Neopolitan pizzas are easiest, but you'll soon be turning out New York slices, deep dish pies, and calzone. 

I've found that pizza ovens are a lot more social than grills, too. Everyone's attended or thrown a cookout where the grillmaster is chained to the grill, turning out dozens of burgers with no time to socialize. With a pizza oven, however, everyone can have a turn making their own pizza, and because pizza ovens are more compact than grills, you can do it right at the table.

Pizza ovens are also a lot more versatile than many people realize. While they make unbeatable pizza, they're also great for other meals. When we test a pizza oven, we always test it on other dishes as well as pizza. My years of testing these ovens have shown me that roast peppers are amazing in a pizza oven because they pick up a beautiful char while retaining their moisture. The same is true for loaded nachos, which take on incredible smokiness if cooked in a wood-fired pizza oven. 

We've also tested lamb and chicken in a pizza oven, and both types of meat were perfectly cooked. What's more, it was faster than in a traditional oven because domestic pizza ovens reach much higher temperatures. We've even made brownies in these ovens, though I recommend getting a gas oven if you're planning this, or you'll have smoky cakes. In short, If you can bake or roast it, you can make it a pizza oven. 

Pizza ovens: cons

Pizza ovens can be surprisingly versatile but are limited to baking and roasting. What's more, you can't smoke in a pizza oven the way you can with a charcoal grill - or even a gas grill, with a little ingenuity. 

Pizza ovens are also overpriced compared to grills. For example, take our favorite-ever gas grill and our favorite-ever pizza oven. The Weber Spirit II E-310 is hundreds of dollars less than the Ooni Karu 16, but you can cook a much wider variety of meals. $700 is a lot of money for an appliance specializing in one dish. 

Grills: Pros

Grills are simply more versatile. Ron Shimek, president of appliance company Mr. Appliance, told me: 'the grill offers a greater variety of cooking options'. In my years of testing products, I've found that a grill is much better for family events because it can handle different types of meals. You can cook seafood, chicken, burgers, and hot dogs all at once or in stages, as well as heat sides or toast buns. You can also smoke meats with a grill, which you can't do - or at least not easily - with a pizza oven.

Grills also make much more food. You can feed 20 people in one grilling session, whereas feeding them from a pizza oven would take much longer. Apart from behemoths like the Alfa Moderno, available at BBQ Guys, pizza ovens can only fit a single pizza at a time. With the time it takes for them to get back up to temperature, you could be doing nothing but making pizza for an hour to feed everyone. On top of that, it could be a long wait for the last person to get their pie.

That's before you get into all the bonus attachments with a grill. Most gas grills have side burners. These are incredibly helpful for steaks or for making toppings like crispy onions. Many grills have rotisserie functions, which can take your chicken to the next level, and they also have meat thermometers that are indispensable when barbecuing brisket. Grills can have griddles for frying pancakes or bacon, and there are plenty of other attachments besides. I've tried steam baskets and even wok attachments for grills.

While we're on attachments, perhaps the clincher here is that while you can't grill burgers in a pizza oven, you can make pizza on a grill. That's because you can also buy pizza oven attachments for a grill like this on Amazon. However, I don't recommend them. I've tested a few over the years, and the results are poor. Don't get me wrong, you'll end up with a cooked pizza, but it will taste worse than a pizza oven. Unlike a true pizza oven, there are no flames to cook the top of the pizza. This means that no matter how I've tried it, the pizza I've made with these attachments has a scorched base and underdone, doughy cheese on top. It's still edible, but it simply doesn't compare. 

Grill expert Leroy Hite agrees. He told me that 'Comparing a pizza oven to a grill to cook with is like comparing the use of a wrench or a hammer – you need the right tool for the right job. Can you cook pizza on a grill? Yes. Are you going to get great results? No.'

Grills: cons

This brings us to the cons of grills. The first is that grills take up a lot of space. Even the smallest grill is bigger than most pizza ovens, so if you're tight on space, a pizza oven could be a good compromise for outdoor cooking.

While grills offer better value than pizza ovens, they're also more expensive. The best pizza ovens top out at $1000, but $1000 is the starting point for gas grills of more than three burners. Kamado grills and smokers are even more expensive. 

Buy a grill if...

• You want versatility 
• You want the best value
• You're cooking for a crowd

Buy a pizza oven if...

• You want the best possible pizza 
• You're working with a small space 
• You're feeding a small family

FAQs

Can you buy a grill and pizza oven in one?

You can, but they're usually as part of expensive outdoor kitchen setups. For example, this Thor Kitchen 6-Piece Modular Outdoor Kitchen at the BBQ Guys has both a grill and a pizza oven in one, but it's very expensive. 

We've covered lots more pizza questions in our articles, from the correct way to light a pizza oven to the best wood for a pizza oven.

After a quick calculation, I've worked out that I've cooked more than 150,000 pizzas. I was a pizzaiolo as a summer job for six years and it's a personal passion of mine. All of these pizzas were cooked in Gozney ovens, so to say that I'm familiar with the brand would be an understatement. 

You can imagine my response when I heard that Gozney had launched the Arc. The brand describes it as 'the world's most advanced compact pizza oven.' If that's true, it's a game-changer for those who have smaller yards or who don't want a pizza oven that will dominate their space. I couldn't wait to put it through its paces.

I was confident that Gozney would deliver on its promises with this sleek and petite oven, but I thought I'd bring in the big guns for testing. I called on Tom, the founder of the pizza business that I used to work for. The number of pizzas that he's cooked in Gozney ovens stands well over a million, so together, we've seen the all-good, the wood-fired, and the gas outdoor ovens. Here's what we thought of the Arc.

Specifications

Who would it suit?

The Arc is designed for single pizzas and smaller spaces. We set this up on a small bit of decking, it didn’t dominate and looked smart too. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that I was smitten at first sight. The easy set-up process only made me more convinced that this is the pizza ovens that all beginners need to invest in.

The gas and temperature gauge takes all the skill and difficulties out of cooking, making it easy for beginners to get perfect pizzas every time. Wood-fired ovens take longer to warm up and they’re harder to control.  The only problem with gas is that it doesn’t give the smoky taste of wood. you’ll get all the lovely brown, speckled cheese. 

The 14-inch dome is perfect if you’re a group of four and willing to share one pizza as it comes out (these only take about 60 seconds in the oven anyway). If you’ll be hosting parties and you need speed and capacity, this is where the Arc might limit you. There’s no space inside to squeeze another pizza or throw a half pepper. Every dish has to wait in line.

Unboxing

When the delivery driver is bringing a pizza oven to your door, you might expect that you’ll need a whole prep team to help them move this serious piece of equipment around. The point of the Arc is that it’s compact. I could hardly believe that the box at my feet even had a pizza oven in it. It weighs just short of 50 lbs, so this is relatively easy to lift, especially since the packaging around it is pretty pared-back. 

The Arc comes with a thermometer, 1.2m gas hose and regulator, burner guard, flue outlet, stone adjustment tool, torx screwdriver, matchstick holder, and a trusty manual. This means you'll need to prep a few things for yourself if you want to get it fired up immediately. First, you'll need a gas tank. Gozney recommends an LPG patio gas bottle; any of the gas tanks from Home Depot will cover you. 

You might also want to get some accessories because these will make your life a lot easier. If you don't already have a placement peel ($70 from Gozney), this is useful for getting a topped pizza from your surface into the oven. Without one of these, it's a messy task. Another essential is the turning peel. This is smaller than the placement peel ($90 from Gozney), giving you more agility once your pizza is in the oven. It also keeps your hands and arms out of the way of the flame's heat. You'll need asbestos hands and arms if you don't have one of these. 

I also got the Arc stand ($250 at Gozney), as I needed a good place to put the pizza oven. If you've got the budget, this will make your life very easy. As would their pizza cutter pizza sever, and Arc cover. However, these extras add up and you can end up spending hundreds of dollars if you're not careful.

What is it like to use?

Once the Arc was on its stand, all I had to do was remove a few blue tags from around the stone and connect a gas tube. You’ll probably want two people to guide your oven into place; one can be the muscle and one can be the brain. The instructions give you a lot of warnings and cautions, which you'll need to sift through to find the practical instructions. However, it’s an extremely simple process that doesn’t need more than 15 minutes.

Once everything is in place, Gozney recommends running the gas fire for half an hour before you start cooking. There’s a neat temperature gauge that updates you on your oven temperature and I wanted this to hit 650°F before cooking pizza. True to their word, the 30-minute timer went off and the oven was 650°F, so I could get testing.

Test 1: pizza

Pizzas come in all shapes and sizes, from Neopolitan to American to deep-dish and more. Gozney’s website has a recipe for them all. With four people to feed, I tested a whole host of flavors, but I started with a simple cheese pizza because it's simple, quick, and a good test of the fundamental features of your pizza oven. 

I used 8 oz of dough rolled into a 12-inch base. After making sure the placement peel was dusted with flour, I slid the base onto it (always add your toppings once the pie is on the peel), added my tomato sauce, and sprinkled over a mix of mozzarella and cheddar. Purists will say that I should have skipped the cheddar, but this is what browns and bubbles best in the oven. Trust me. 

I slid the pie off the paddle and into the oven. Even though the mouth of the dome looks quite small, there’s plenty of room for shaking the pie off and moving it around. 

I let the pie sit on the hot stone for around 30 seconds. The crusts puffed up and bubbled, and by the time these had lifted off the stone by about 1mm, I slid the peel underneath and spun the pizza by 45 degrees. I repeated this until all edges of the crusts were nicely browned. In total, this took sixty-three seconds, which is super speedy. 

Everything cooked through perfectly. Tom and I agreed that these were perfect pizzas. When we checked the base, we found some beautiful leopard-print spotting, the perfect indication that the pizza cooked right through to the center.

When we bit into them, the base had a nice crisp and crunch, whilst the inside crust was still fluffy. The stringy cheese had melted right through. Our peppers and mushrooms still had some crunch, but they were hot and cooked through. In a nutshell, it was perfection. 

Test 2: calezone

I might upset a few people because I don’t think calzones are that great when they’re made in a pizza oven, especially small ovens. It’s hard to cook them right through without charring the outside and undercooking the inside. I’ve faced the same problems in commercial ovens, but I was ready for the Arc to change the game.

I used the same pizza dough to make a vegetable and cheese calzone, which I put on the floured peel and slid into the oven. We turned the flames down a little because the calzone was quite tall, so we were concerned that it would char. By the time we were cooking, the oven was 650°F.

The base of the oven did a great job of crisping the dough, so we could slide the peel back under without making a hole in any raw dough. We twisted it around, keeping it in the oven for as long as possible. In reality, we had to take it out at three minutes 46 seconds because the top was tipping from appetizingly browned into irrecoverably burned. 

In the end, the calzone was cooked right through. The dough was soft inside, all the cheese had melted and my vegetables were soft. The greatest shame was that this had to come at the cost of the top of the calzone, which we ate, but probably shouldn’t have: it was burnt. The issue is that this cooks so quickly on the outside and the flames come so low in the Arc's small dome, that you sort of have to burn it to be able to eat any of it. 

Test 3: Roasted vegetables

The natural progression from pies and all things Italian is to move onto barbecue-style food. Gozney has a whole recipe collection for outdoor cooking online, from nachos to burgers and roasted artichokes to tarte tatin. 

I wanted to start with a basic test that any grill or outdoor cooker should be able to nail. I halved some peppers, quartered some onions, and drizzled them in olive oil and seasoning. I put them in a deep dish and slid it in on the peel.

By now, I had cooled the Arc to 450°F, as advised by the Gozney site. I gave them three minutes and checked for charring: they'd bubbled but weren't ready. I gave them another two and they had transformed from steamy into crispy. When we tucked into them, the skins were soft, falling off the pepper flesh, with some delicious crispy bits on top. The onions were similar, still quite firm, but cooked and softened right through. All the flavors were concentrated and really intensely sweet. It was incredible. Sometimes, it’s the simple things that are the best.

Test 4: Chicken breast

Even as someone au fait with pizza ovens, I was skeptical about cooking chicken with such a gung-ho method. It was easy to play with timings on the peppers because they're vegetables. Chicken, however, is a whole new ball game, and you risk food poisoning if you get it wrong. However, Gosney says you can cook chicken thighs and breasts in the Arc, so who am I to argue?

I put the chicken breasts into the same pan as my peppers and drizzled them in an oil mix, with garlic, salt, and pepper. I put these in the oven at 450°F for six minutes, rotating the tray halfway to ensure an even cook. They came out nicely browned. As someone who is very cautious around chicken, I stuck a temperature probe in the middle and, at 165°F. they were cooked right through.

Once I had made sure it was safe, we tucked into the chicken. The skins were crispy and brown and yet they were still moist and soft, falling apart on the inside. We all agreed that they were delicious.

Test 5: brownie

This is the test that I’ve been telling everyone about. Who knew that you could make peanut butter brownies in a pizza oven?

I made brownies using Gozney’s recipe, baked them in a brownie pan (like this from Walmart), and covered the pan with foil. I had to let the oven cool to 145°F. However, the oven temperature kept dropping, even when I turned the flames back on. This meant that I had to wait for the oven to warm back up again. It only took a few minutes, but finding the temperature turning point requires quite some attention. 

In just six minutes I made some incredible (if I do say so myself) brownies. They had a lovely, peanut butter, glossy crust on top, and they were still gooey (but cooked) in the middle. Even though we were stuffed full of pizza and flame-cooked food, the whole tray of brownies found a spot in our stomachs. 

Cleaning, storage, and maintenance

I was sad to watch the pizza stone scratch and blacken the more we cooked on it. It was pristine to start with and, sadly, there’s very little you can do to keep it that way. 

If you wait for the oven to cool, you can sweep flour and any stray crusts out. You could even give the stone a scrub using a tough bristled brush, such as the Cuisinart CCB-399 Pizza Stone Cleaning Brush. Try to avoid using detergents, since they come into contact with flames when you turn the oven on. If you’re really determined to clean your oven, when cooled, the stone is removable. Once out of the oven, you’ll have free rein to give it a deep clean.

Fortunately, the outside didn’t mark at all. We had the Gozney Arc oven cover, which protects your oven from all the outdoor elements. However, it’s not heat resistant, so you’ll need to wait for your oven to completely cool before putting this on. 

How does it rate online?

The Arc has received praise from plenty of happy pizza customers. I'd say that it's a bit of an online sensation. Reviewers agree that this is the perfect in-between size. It's not compact like the Roccbox and it's not as huge as the Dome S1. 

Everyone agrees that this looks beautiful, is simple to use, and doesn't demand a huge amount of space. 

I'm well aware that showering the Gozney in, well deserved, praise isn't very helpful if you're looking for some balance. However, I'm genuinely being fair; my criticisms are few and far between. I found some who wished that the peels and covers were included in the price since the accessories can get expensive, but that's all there is. 

How does it compare?

The Gozney Arc is a brilliant little pizza oven, but I'm aware of its limitations. For example, if you want to be able to enjoy some smoky flavors, rather than only cooking on gas, you'll want to check out some other models. The Ooni Karu 16 is bigger than the Arc, but it's brilliant for cooking with a range of fuel types. It's also endorsed by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, who are the world-renowned authorities on pizza.

If you like the Arc, but thing you could do with some more capacity, the Dome S1 is a another great Gozney oven. You could squeeze another pizza inside the spacious dome whilst still enjoying all the simplicities of the Arc's gas flames. The aesthetics are close to identical too, so it'll look really sleek in your yard. 

Should you buy it?

The Gozney Arc is the perfect pizza oven if you're new to al fresco cooking. The simple gas controls take all the guesswork out of cooking, whilst still delivering sensitive temperatures and incredible results. It's compact, so you'll be making pizzas one at a time, but that's perfect if you don't want a dome that will dominate your space.

How we test

When it comes to testing pizza ovens, the pleasure is all ours. We love putting them through their paces, throwing dough, meats, bakes, and treats at them. If a pizza oven makes a claim, we test it out.

We make notes on every part of the pizza oven process, which starts with unboxing. The best pizza ovens are easy to set up, even if they’re huge. We’ve tested ones that took hours to get up and, whilst you might be willing to sink half a day to get the perfect pizza oven, it’s nice to have a heads-up.

We’ll also let you know about maintenance because it’s useful to know if your pizza oven is going to be easy to keep clean or if it’s going to need some serious TLC. Most of these are pretty robust, but again, it never hurts to have all the information. 

When it comes to searching for the perfect gift, there is an undeniable allure of a pizza oven. Whether you are gifting for an aspiring chef or a seasoned pizza maker, there are a few things to consider about the recipient to determine whether this is really the right gift for them.  

A portable pizza oven is an exciting and potentially endlessly rewarding gift, whether this is an indoor or outdoor model. However, it is an investment, so, whether you are getting one for a friend, family member, colleague, or loved one, it's key to consider their lifestyle, the space they have, and the type of pizza oven to decide if this is the right gift, and if so, to choose the best model for them. 

Our experts have explained what to consider to determine whether a pizza oven is a good gift, and how to choose the best pizza oven for its new owner, whether to add to their indoor or outdoor kitchen.

Is a pizza oven a good gift?

'The portable pizza oven market is growing exponentially. And with this, come products that fit both big and small budgets,' says Derek Gaughan, owner of Pala Pizza. 'I absolutely think pizza ovens are wonderful gifts. Not only is it a really fun hobby for anyone who likes to cook (especially outdoors), but the whole family can get involved in it.'

'A pizza oven can be a unique and exciting gift, but it's important to carefully evaluate if it's the right choice for the recipient,' say Sara Bereika, owner of Sara Jane Organizing, and Tim Bereika, pizza oven guru. 'Here are some things to consider to help you determine whether a pizza oven is a good gift:

• 'Have they made pizza before? If not, you may want to reconsider.
• 'On a scale of 1-10, how much do they enjoy making pizza? If their score is higher than an 8, a pizza oven may be a great idea. 
• 'Do they have space to store a pizza oven? If so, where will they store it? 
• 'Have they considered buying a pizza oven? If so, what brands have they looked at? There are many options available. Some are smaller and more compact. Some have a spinning base. Some cook with wood, and some with gas, etc.'

1. Know the recipient's interest and lifestyle

Prior to gifting a pizza oven, assess the recipient's interest in cooking. Understanding their interests and lifestyle is essential in ensuring that the gift aligns with their preferences and will be used regularly.

'Pizza ovens are for pizza-making lovers, not pizza-eating lovers,' says Sara and Tim Bereika. 'Making pizza is a labor of love. It requires space to roll out the dough, good ingredients, and the enjoyment of the process.

'If the person receiving the pizza oven enjoys eating pizza but doesn’t like making it, then you should reconsider giving them a pizza oven. You should ask a lot of questions before giving such a gift.' 

Ask yourself whether they enjoy making pizza or other grilled foods. Do they have time do use a pizza oven enough? Have they expressed the desire to spend more time cooking?

Determine whether an indoor or outdoor model would be most suited to their lifestyle and living situation. Consider discussing their outdoor space, cooking habits, and whether they have expressed any interest in having a pizza oven to determine if this is the ideal gift for them.

2. Consider their available space

A pizza oven requires a dedicated space that is well-ventilated and safe for cooking, so it's important to ensure that the recipient of the gift has ample room for the oven, along with the necessary clearance for safe operation.

You should also consider whether they have ample storage for the pizza oven and its various components, or if it will act as undesired clutter. Evaluate the recipient's space to determine if it's suitable for a pizza oven.

This will also determine whether you invest in a indoor or outdoor pizza oven and the model you choose based on its size. 

'Pizza ovens are large, heavy, and take up a lot of space. If the recipient has an outdoor kitchen, then a pizza oven would make a fabulous gift. They can leave it outside and cover it up when not in use. However, if someone doesn't have outdoor space designated for cooking, it could be a bigger hassle for them to bring the oven in and out of storage each time they want to use it,' says Sara and Tim Bereika.

Additionally, if they have ample space to storage and use a indoor pizza oven in your kitchen, then it can be suitable, if not then maybe reconsider this gift.

3. Select the right type of pizza oven

After assessing the lifestyle, interest and space requirements of the giftee, you can determine the pizza oven model they will most enjoy, that will match their cooking habits. 

Consider and research the features of different pizza oven types and how these will match the recipient's preferences and suits the recipient's cooking style, in order to make an informed choice.

The things to consider include:

• Fuel source: Some individuals appreciate the traditional flavor of wood-fired or charcoal ovens, while others prefer the convenience of gas or electric options. 
• Type of pizza: Investigate whether they prefer making Neapolitan, New York style, or other types of pizzas, since different ovens are suited to different styles.
• Size and capacity: Determine the size of the oven based on their available space and the size of pizzas they will wish to make.
• Temperature range, speed of heating up and cooking
• Insulation: To improve energy efficiency, look for ovens that have good insulation.
• Budget: While staying within you budget, look for a quality model, and calculate the ongoing operating costs that the recipient of the gift will have to spend. 
• Maintenance: As well as considering how much effort will require to use the gift, consider the amount of cleaning and maintenance the pizza oven will require. Different models will require more attention than others. 
• Aesthetics: Choose a pizza oven that matches their design style and outdoor or kitchen aesthetics. 
• Indoor or outdoor model
• Built-in or portable model

Pizza expert Derek Gaughan explains his recommendations when selecting the right pizza oven:

'The most popular fuel type these days is propane. Gas is quicker to preheat, easier to maintain temperature, and less of a cleanup. Wood, on the other hand, offers a more authentic experience for those after the wood-fired aspect. However, I will say, from my experience, pizzas do not bake long enough in an oven to pull much flavor from the wood fire. The high heat from a gas oven can make just as good of a pizza as wood can. The best solution to this debate? Grab an oven that's multi-fueled! You can change out the gas burner for a wood tray in minutes. 

'There are two main sizes of pizza ovens to choose from: 12" or 16" (with the exception of some more expensive ovens which can be a lot bigger). 16" ovens tend to be much more money – in some cases double – but offer the ability to make bigger pizzas and/or more maneuverability when baking.

'One of the most important research you can do is determining which style of pizza(s) the giftee likes most. Certain pizza ovens, such as the Gozney Roccbox, are incredible at baking authentic Neapolitan-style pizza because of the intense 950-degree Fahrenheit burner. On the flip side, ovens such as the Halo Versa 16 are only capable of baking New York-style pizza (or any other made with bread flour) due to the smaller flame. New York-style pizza is tailor-made for less intense pizza ovens, between the 500 - 700F range.

'During my hands-on research testing the best pizza ovens, I found that there are a few ovens capable of doing both styles due to a highly adjustable flame - the Ooni Karu 16, Ooni Karu 12G, Gozney Dome, and Solo Pi / Solo Pi Prime.' He's right – we found exactly the same when we put these pizza ovens to the test. 

FAQs

'Gifting a pizza oven can lead to memorable moments and create a focal point for outdoor entertaining. It offers the opportunity to explore different recipes, experiment with toppings, and enjoy delicious homemade pizzas,' says Matt Carlson, founder of Parent Presents, a gifting advisor. 'But it's important to consider the recipient's available space, maintenance requirements, and interest in cooking before making a final decision.'

Oprah's Favorite Things have landed, bringing you the rundown on a wide range of gifts from one of America's best-loved public figures. There's a little something for everyone this year, but I was especially pleased to see one of the best pizza ovens you can buy make the cut. 

This year, Oprah recommends the Ooni Volt 12, which we loved when we put it to the test. It's the only pizza oven in the world that works both indoors and outdoors, and we found it makes fast, delicious pizza that's pretty close to restaurant-quality. 

However, while we loved the taste, this is one of the most expensive pizza ovens on the market. It'll cost you a thousand dollars, which is why we had to see if it lives up to the hype. 

The short answer is that if you have the money to spend, it's definitely worth it, but if you don't have a thousand dollars lying spare, there are other contenders for the best pizza oven to consider. That's if you even want a pizza oven - there are some other picks from Oprah's Favorite Things that won't break the bank.

What are Oprah's favorite things?

Oprah's Favorite Things are exactly as they sound. It's a list of all the products Oprah and her team have loved that year. There are big companies like Ooni on the list but also a range of smaller producers too, and lots of the businesses are BIPOC, women, and veteran-owned. It's a pretty varied list - there's everything from headwraps  to bubble bath to cheese. All of the products are available on Amazon, but you can go direct to the retailers too if you'd prefer to shop directly. 

This year, there's a purple theme, a nod to Oprah's Oscar-nominated role in The Color Purple, the 1985 film adaptation of the novel by Alice Walker. However, Oprah is also producing a movie version of the musical, which releases on Christmas Day this year. With this in mind, some of Orpah's favorite things are gift tickets to the film and a coffee-table book, Purple Rising, about the history of the novel and its adaptations.

We love a few things on here. There's the Purple Love luxury candle from one of our favorite tried-and-tested chandlers, the Harlem Candle Co., and the Fellow Stagg EKG Pro Electric Kettle, loved by our resident barista Laura for making pour-over. There's plenty in the list for everyone, and while we're particularly pleased to see the Volt 12 get the nod, you should bear in mind that it's very expensive.

The Ooni Volt 12

Oprah is right to include the Bolt 12 in her list of favorite things. It's a world first and so far the only pizza oven that's safe to use both indoors and outdoors. That's a huge step. Until now, the choice was gas or wood pellet outdoor ovens, which are no fun to use as the winter draws in and the weather gets colder. The other option was a handful of indoor electric pizza ovens. These don't quite make the same smoky flavor, and it can be annoying to ferry pizzas from the kitchen to your yard if you're hosting a party in the summer. This oven offers the best of both. 

On test, we found it really easy to use. You just plug it into an outlet and you're ready to cook. It reaches temperature in about 15 minutes, and it has a brilliant 'boost' button. A common complaint with pizza ovens is that they lose heat when you open the door to remove a pizza, slowing down the pizza party. This oven doesn't have that problem. Hitting 'boost' ramps up the heat, so you can turn out pie after pie. 

While Oprah says it makes pizza 'worthy of the Old Country', it's missing a little of the authentic Neapolitan flavor of wood or gas ovens. It emulates a little of the leopard spotting but it's not quite the same, and it's certainly missing the crucial smokiness. However, the cordierite baking stone means that it's far closer to the real thing than slinging a frozen pizza in a regular old induction oven.

However, the big catch with this pizza oven is the cost. It will cost you $999, which is a lot of money for a pizza. To be fair, the competition is similarly priced - a Breville Pizzaiolo indoor pizza oven, available at QVC, also costs $999. Nevertheless, a grand is a lot to spend on anything, let alone a pizza oven. Sure, you can use it for other things. On test, we turned out some pretty good roasted vegetables and chicken thighs in similar Ooni products. Yet however you cut it, that's a lot of money to spend on pizza oven. 

Another issue is that while it's a unique indoor/outdoor oven, it's not easy to move or store. It takes up more than three feet square, so you need to devote some countertop space or store it in a cupboard or garage. Weighing in at nearly 40 lbs, you might find it a little unwieldy when it comes time to move it between indoors and outdoors. 

There's more detail in our full Ooni Volt 12 review.

Is there anything better?

At these prices, you maty be wondering if there is anything better than Oprah's pick. These are our favorites after rounds of testing. 

FAQs

Oprah's Favorite things are all well and good but we're starting to see some big discounts at major retailers ahead of Black Friday, too. Amazon hasn't officially announced anything, but there's still some deals if you know where to look, and I've found that Best Buy, QVC and Walmart have cut already hundreds of dollars off some of my favorite tested brands like KitchenAid, Shark, Ninja, and Dyson. If you're already Christmas shopping, you might be better off shopping around. 

The first Woody Pizza Oven Kit landed on the scene in the summer of 2021. Pizza-loving friends James and John saw the popularity of other well-known ovens while people were spending more time at home — but spotted a problem. A lot of the best home pizza ovens were very expensive. Even if you splashed the cash, you didn't get everything you needed to be able to make pizza right away, often having to add peels and more at checkout to be ready to cook.

Their aim was simple: offer a complete pizza oven kit at an affordable price point. When we tested the first Woody for our sister titles, we were pleased with the results, but the team knew they could improve the product. 

Since the first oven, they have tweaked it to have better heat retention in the body and door; a stone that sits flush with the oven floor offering more cooking height; and added a gas attachment option for those who find woodfired ovens hard to use.

When we were given the chance to re-test the oven, in its new, improved form, we were keen. Find out if this affordable pizza oven passes the much revered Homes & Gardens quality standards, and whether it is the right one for you.

Product specification

Unboxing the Woody Oven

When you purchase the Woody Pizza Oven Kit, all you need to buy is fuel to get started. The box contains the oven, a cover (which doubles as a carry case), and a peel for sliding your pizza in and out with ease. This is why they advertise themselves as a kit, because the peel and cover are not included with many other pizza oven brands.

There is an upgrade price to add a gas attachment to your oven, which makes it super versatile. You can also buy wood pellets, kindling and natural firelighters on the Woody site. They sent me these with my kit for review, as well as their handy digital thermometer — again, that can be picked up on their online store.

I have built this Woody's predecessors, so setup was pretty easy for me. Luckily, even if you aren't an old hand at building pizza ovens, there is a leaflet in the box with a QR code to scan to find the guides online. You will see a mix of written instructions and videos, so everything was really accessible. The kit also includes all of the tools you need (a small wrench and two hex keys), apart from a crosshead screwdriver which is required for securing the gas hose if you went for the gas option.

The instructions are thorough, but those using gas might be a bit confused when they have to follow the woodfired setup first. This is because the setup is the same, until you get to the point where you remove the hopper and fire tray to fit the gas attachment. This is still relatively straightforward, but I advise reading through the whole process to see where you need to remove the hopper from to attach a blanking plate for gas.

The basic build takes about 10 minutes, with the most time-consuming part being fitting handles to the door, hopper and peel, and screwing the thermometer into place. Other testers have remarked they found it a bit hard to work out some of the handle attachments, so approach with patience. 

The pizza stone drops into a depression in the oven floor, the chimney is a simple drop-and-turn fitting and then the legs just need unfolding. Once this is set up, you just need a further five minutes to fit the gas attachment and blanking plate, or fit the hopper and fuel tray if using wood.

What's it like to use?

Whether you are using the gas attachment or wood, you have to first cure the stone by lighting the oven and running it for 30 minutes. This is standard when cooking with a pizza oven and burns off any chemicals from the manufacturing process. It also makes the stone less likely to crack in the future. We did this using gas and let the oven cool fully before our first cook.

Cooking pizza with gas

The first time we cooked pizza in the oven was with the gas attachment. This is really easy to ignite. You simply open the valve on your gas canister, and operate the oven like you would a gas grill, using the ignition knob. The door must be open on ignition, but you can use it to help the oven reach temperature, as handily indicated by the on-door thermometer. We found we reached the required 750°F for cooking in around 10 minutes, and checked it with the heat gun aimed at the center of the stone which had a higher reading of over 840°F.

With the oven ready to cook, we dashed inside to build a pizza, making sure we used plenty of semolina on the peel to help slide it onto the stone with ease. I put the pizza in the oven, turning it after 20 to 30 seconds for an even cook. It was ready in just under a minute, albeit slightly burned on one edge. That taught me to turn the gas down a little: you want to cook with a yellow flame as blue means incomplete combustion which is too hot for pizza cooking and generates soot (see my notes on cleaning).

The pizza Margherita we made was delicious, with a bubbly crust, though the cheese hadn't had a chance to catch before the crust burned. 

I made four pizzas in total, replacing the door between each to maintain the temperature (though I didn't really need to do that and it probably contributed to the soot). Each was slightly better than the last as I honed my technique, tempering the flame and turning at the right moment. Overall it was really easy to use and would be my preferred method if catering for a group of people, or making speedy pizzas on a weeknight.

Cooking with wood

Woody was originally launched as a wood-only option, hence the name (though you can use charcoal too in the fuel tray). Wood is my preferred fuel source for pizza ovens as you get the best taste, but it does take a little practice to keep the fire going. Luckily, Woody has a larger fuel tray so you can load up a mix of pellets and kindling to get a strong fire roaring (which is what I did).

You need to use natural firelighters to make sure your fuel catches, then put the tray in the oven to bring it to cooking temperature. I have found this takes around 20 minutes to hit over 800°F but you can get a temperature ready for cooking in about 15. It is also more vulnerable to cross winds when cooking with wood, so do bear that in mind if you don't have a sheltered outdoor space to use it by.

On wood, it cooks your pizza in a little over a minute, though gas does offer a more furious flame that guarantees a quick cook. That said, the flame you get with wood gives what I think is a more even cook, giving you time to turn your pizza, brown the cheese and not burn the crust as easily. If you use the best wood for pizza ovens, you increase your chances of success.

Wood is harder work — as is the case with any pizza oven. My method is to get a nice hot flame, then top up between pizzas with pellets via the hopper, meaning a little bit more reheat time between each. Because wood is more involved, gas is better suited to hosting. Though wood is more fun, and more authentic.

What really stands out about this pizza oven is how well it maintains heat between pizzas. Many competitors don't have a door, so you face losing a lot of heat when monitoring your flame.

Flexible cooking

We also cooked potatoes in the oven. With wood this took around 15 minutes, having par-boiled them first. I think gas would be quicker, but we loved the smokey flavor from the wood. Other Woody owners have cooked meat, bread, and more in their ovens. Just note that you always have to use a skillet on the stone for any wet or greasy ingredients.

The 13-inch cordierite Woody stone is really easy to remove. This was really useful when we had prepared to cook pizza, then got rained off. We simply removed the stone (before we had heated the oven of course) and used it in the oven in the house. The results weren't as good as in the oven with a wood flame, but we still got a delicious pizza at the end. As with the pizza oven, you must heat the stone with the oven to prevent cracking, should you choose to use it inside.

Cleaning

Cleaning is very similar to any other pizza oven. You simply blast the heat for 20 to 30 minutes, turning any food residue to ash. This can then be swept out of the oven once cool. I tend to do this at the end of my cook, then clean down before storage. That way, it is ready for my next use.

Any stubborn food residue can be scraped with a wire brush, and then the only other thing you have to do to clean the oven, is sweep out any soot. I found when I used it on gas and had the temperature too high, it did generate a lot of soot in the chimney and roof of the oven. This is normal with pizza ovens and can be remedied by reducing the temperature and allowing good air flow.

The stone should never be soaked. If it does get wet it needs drying thoroughly or water inside the porous material will expand and cause it to crack. You can buy spare stones on their website, so if you do use them frequently, you can have one clean and ready to go. The industrial-look exterior just needs a wipe-down with a damp cloth.

Storage and maintenance

Woody comes with a protective carry case. In good weather, you can use this to keep the oven clean and dry. It will need storing in a shed or garage through fall and winter, when inclement weather is more common. Note that you may need to store some parts separately, but I find the fuel tray fits neatly inside of the oven and you just have to turn the door the other way round or remove the handle to make it fit.

The cover also doubles as a carry case, that clips over the oven for portability. It weighs nearly 30 lbs, so I wouldn't be able to carry it any distance, but it is easy to carry from home to car, and car to beach. If you love to camp or use a holiday home with outdoor space, it is easy to transport for days away.

How does it rate online?

Woody has only just launched in the US but has been in the UK for around three years now. The brand has a good reputation, and though this version of the oven was only launched in June, it has a 4.4 star rating on Amazon and the company has a 4.6 star rating on Trust Pilot.

Reviewers agree it is good value for money, heats quickly and is fun to use. Those who had issues with delivery or parts found the customer service was prompt and sorted their issues with no fuss.

Other publications also gave Woody a minimum of four stars. The affordability, multifunctionality, and durability were all listed as good reasons to buy.

How does it compare to similar pizza ovens?

The well-known Ooni Karu 12G is the obvious competitor. It is also multifuel and features a fancy glass door that retains heat and allows you to keep an eye on your pizza. Therefore one advantage over the Woody is that you can see your pizza cook more easily than you can through Woody's peephole.

However, the Ooni Karu 12G is not a pizza oven kit. When you spend the $429 to buy it, all you get is the oven. The gas attachment is a further $99.99, the carry case £39.99 and the peel $49.99. The Woody includes all but the gas attachment, which is much better value.

Affordability has been a major USP for Woody since it launched. They certainly are the cheapest pizza oven of this quality that we have tested. There are a few similar looking models on Amazon, for a similar pricepoint, but all seem to be either wood only, or don't have a door and the heat retention properties the Woody offers.

In terms of looks Ooni does have a certain finesse that people love. But, we're also fond of the pit master vibes of the Woody. It has a fun curved top that would make it look at home alongside your smoker or charcoal grill. If you like that cookout vibe, the Woody is certainly for you. Not to mention, it has a sturdiness that speaks to its durability.

Should you buy the Woody Pizza Oven?

I would definitely recommend the Woody Pizza Oven Kit for anyone who wants to create a backyard pizzeria without the price tag. You get everything you need with it, apart from fuel, so with that sorted you can be cooking homemade pizza in less time than it takes to pick, order and receive takeout on a busy Saturday night. Because you get the cover included, once you've had your fun, it is easy to store away for the next pizza party.

Upgrading to the gas attachment for even easier at-home pizza is a small additional cost for lots of additional flexibility — we advise you do this to get even more use from your oven. 

How we tested this pizza oven

This oven was sent to me, free of charge, for testing in early May. This means I have been able to use it (weather permitting) for over four months. With all our pizza ovens, we make sure we cook a classic cheese pizza, before trying out a variety of toppings. Then, if the pizza oven is designed for other uses, we cook further recipes like roast meats and vegetables. I am vegetarian so kept my testing meat-free, but if the opportunity arises to cook for others, I will try roasting a joint and update the review with my results. 

Of course, we also test multifuel ovens with as many fuel options as we can. I am yet to try this oven with charcoal, but have used a mix of wood and pellets, and used it with gas. Each time, I have made a note of how long it took to heat, how long it took to cook and how easy it was to clean afterwards.

I have been allowed to keep the oven, meaning I can put it through its paces in different situations. For the first week of the review I was house sitting for my sister, so got to put the oven's portability to the test. Then, back home, I have used it in both good and bad weather, so I really gave its durability a run for its money.

If you want to reproduce a traditional pizzeria taste at home, then a dedicated pizza oven is a must-have for the backyard. Once you’ve learned how to use it, authentic results with the taste and texture that are both vital to a quality pie can be yours.

The knowledge you need to make sure your pizzas are the real deal includes the details on timings, heat, pizza preparation and the cooking process. Get savvy about these factors and you can serve up delicious slices for friends and family with the toppings everyone loves and the perfect pizza crust.

Here, we’ve put together a guide to all the elements that go into using your pizza oven for mouth-watering results every time. 

Expert advice for using a pizza oven

A pizza oven fueled by wood, wood pellets or gas can produce restaurant-level results in your own yard. The oven is designed to create the high heat required for a traditional speckled crust that’s crisp and delicious, and that melts cheese perfectly and produces wonderfully tasty toppings without leaving you and your guests hanging around. 

But along with the best oven, knowhow on using it is crucial, and these are the essentials.

Heat up your pizza oven

For perfect pizza, it’s essential to allow adequate time after lighting a pizza oven for it to heat up properly. ‘Pizza ovens come in a wide variety of materials, sizes and shapes, all of which have a major impact on the speed – more so than the fuel type,’ says Davide Corsetti, export manager from Alfa Forni in Italy. ‘For example, a traditional brick oven might take up to two hours to reach the right temperature, whereas a modern stainless-steel oven like ours can get there in a matter of minutes.

‘No matter how different they are, all ovens have this in common: you must give the entire structure enough time to heat before you start cooking. Even if the required air temperature has been reached, the oven floor may not yet be hot enough to cook on, in which case your toppings will burn before your base is cooked. If you’re making a Neapolitan-style pizza, you need an oven temperature of 750 to 950˚F and a floor temperature of around 650˚F.’

Prepare the dough

For success with a pizza oven, prepare the ingredients in good time. ‘The best pizza dough is always made in advance, as it’s the fermentation that adds texture, gluten structure and flavor,’ says Davide. ‘You need to make it at least six to seven hours ahead, but some dough benefits from fermenting over a few days.

‘If your dough is resting in the fridge, take it out about one to two hours hours before you plan to cook. While the oven is heating, get organized: get your toppings and tools ready and give your work area a clean. Only once the oven is fully up to temperature and the floor of your outdoor kitchen has been swept of any ash or dust should you start to make your pizza. If you roll it too soon, there’s a chance your dough may stick to the surface while you’re waiting around.

‘Pizzaiolo pros build their pizza on the table, on a bed of flour and semolina. Then, in one confident swoosh, they slide the peel under the pizza, before shaping it into a perfect circle and launching it into the oven. If you don’t yet have the confidence to do that, it’s fine to build the pizza on the peel, but do make sure the peel has been dusted with a 50/50 flour-semolina mix first.’

Launch the pizza

There’s a technique you need to know when it comes to launching the pizza into the oven. ‘The flour and semolina are needed to prevent the pizza from sticking,’ says Davide Corsetti. ‘Give the peel a little wiggle back and forth to loosen it up before you launch – you only need the slightest of movements. The launch doesn’t necessarily need to be quick, but it does need to be assertive. Don’t hesitate!

‘Aim the tip of the peel just past the center of the oven, so that the pizza ends up sitting in the middle of the floor once you’ve snapped the peel out from beneath it.’

Some pizza peels, such as this lightweight peel from Ooni, come with a long handle to make it even easier to transfer your pizza from the oven to the plate. There's also a perforated peel from Ooni, which allows steam to quickly evaporate. 

Consider cooking times

Cooking times aren’t dependent on the fuel your pizza oven uses. ‘It’s the temperature of the oven and the style of the pizza that matter,’ explains Davide. ‘A Neapolitan-style pizza will cook in about 90 seconds at 750 to 950˚F, while the thinner, crispier Roman style cooks for about five to six minutes at 680˚F. 

‘The biggest impact from the fuel type is on how quickly you can turn out several rounds of pizza: with a wood-fired oven, you’ll occasionally need to add more fuel as the temperature starts to dip, whereas a gas oven can maintain a constant heat without further intervention.’

Tend the pizza

For excellent results you need to turn a pizza as it cooks. ‘Again, it depends on the temperature – if you’re cooking at a higher temperature you’ll need to turn it more often,’ says Davide. ‘A good rule of thumb for a 90 second Neapolitan pizza is that you turn it 45 degrees every 15 seconds. But keep your eyes on the pizza rather than the clock.’

'When cooking in my Ooni Fyra portable pizza oven, I find that turning our pizza once or twice during the 60-second cook is more than enough to achieve a good overall color, and it prevents any part of the pizza burning,' says Beth Murton, Head of Gardens at Homes & Gardens. 'It's important to be quick, however, as I don't want lots of heat escaping from the front of the oven when I remove the door to turn the pizza.'

Go beyond the obvious

A pizza oven can be a pretty expensive purchase for an appliance that can only cook one type of food. However, you can use them to cook a wide range of different breads, not just pizza. We've used them to make lots of different flatbreads, and they can add a delicious char to tortillas and naans.

They're also useful for more than just dough. The char-grill flavour that you get from wood-fired pizza ovens is perfect for Mexican cuisine. We've used a pizza oven to cook delicious chicken thighs and grilled vegetables that are perfect for fajitas. If you can grill it in an oven, you can grill it in a pizza oven (as you can see in our review of the Ooni Koda 12). There's really no limit on what you can cook as long as it fits in a flat skillet, such as Ooni's cast-iron skillet pan. 

If you want to get the most from your new pizza oven, it's essential to get to grips with using it properly. Once you've mastered the basics of lighting it and maintaining a constant heat to cook a number of pizzas, you can get more adventurous and try a wider range of dishes. 

You could even try using different types of wood in your pizza oven to add interesting flavors to your favorite pies. 

The Ooni Volt 12 is Ooni's first indoor/outdoor pizza oven, but this landmark oven is now the brand's most expensive product, retailing at an eye-watering $999.99. Before this was released, one of the things I like best about Ooni is that they offer something for almost every budget. I tested and loved the Karu 12, so when I heard that the brand was releasing a new oven at triple the price, I knew it'd have to seriously wow me to seem worth it. 

To put the Ooni Volt 12 through its paces, I invited over a group of friends for a pizza party. Some had used a pizza oven before, but others had never handled a pizza peel, meaning I was able to gauge how beginner-friendly this oven is.  We took turns cooking Neapolitan-style pies, and were all impressed by how fast and evenly the Ooni Volt 12 cooked our pizzas. 

Based on how well it held up in testing, I certainly feel that the Volt deserves a spot in our guide to the best pizza ovens. 

Ooni Volt 12 specifications

Unboxing and setting up the Ooni Koda 12

Setup was easy, but lifting the Ooni Volt 12 onto my counters was a two-person job. Inside the box, you'll find the fully assembled Volt, which is ready to be plugged in for instant cooking. The pizza stone comes in a well-protected pouch, and slides into place inside the oven in seconds. 

Although it weighs nearly 40 pounds, the Volt comes with a handle and a groove at the back to make carrying it that little bit easier. This oven is by no means portable,  which means that it's taken up pretty much permanent residence on my kitchen countertops. Ideally, I'd have liked to be able to lift it into place and put it away before and after each use. 

Inside the box, there was also a pretty comprehensive manual, and an essentials guide to get you started.

Given the dimensions of the oven, I was struck by how small the actual cooking surface seemed. It's 13.27” x 13.27”, which is standard for a pizza oven, but it goes to show that a lot of space is taken up by the heating elements on either side and to the back of the oven.

The controls are pretty straightforward, although you must familiarise yourself with the manual to understand what they mean. The power button is touch-controlled, which took me a few seconds to realize, and there is a rear switch you'll need to turn on in order to start the power. The rest of the buttons are dial-controlled and confirmed with a press, all of which feel very high-quality. 

The first dial is the timer dial, which is totally optional. I didn't use it for my first test but have used it since for cooking pre-made pizzas. This goes up to 20 minutes; it's unlikely that many pies will take that long to cook, but it's good for other options like flatbreads or grilling vegetables. 

Second, is the temperature dial, which goes from 250°F (150°C) to 850°F (450°C). The third dial is the balance dial, which toggles where the heat in the oven comes from. You can split this evenly from the top and bottom of the oven, or change depending on your toppings or what you're cooking. This is the most tricky one to wrap your head around, but it's a mechanism similar to a toaster oven. If you're totally lost, the quick start guide offers different suggestions depending on the type of pizza. 

Making pizza in the Ooni Volt 12

I started by making the pre-made pizza dough mix that Ooni sent, which came out really well. This is the most time-consuming part of making a pizza, but you can also buy pre-made dough which reduces the entire process to just a few minutes. Since first testing the oven, I've used pre-made dough a number of times to make speedy 15-minute dinners, which is something I'd never thought I'd say about a pizza oven.

Ooni claims that the pre-heat time is 20 minutes, but I found that it was actually closer to 15 even when I turned the temperature up to the very highest setting. I simply let it heat up and got on with preparing my ingredients. 

The convenience of this is undeniable, but you do get the trade-off of no wood-fired flavor and a lot less charm than you'll get with a more traditional outdoor pizza oven. For me, someone who lives in a colder climate and has a smaller outdoor space, I'd much rather have the option of using a pizza oven indoors and outdoors, and I'm confident that this will mean I use the oven a lot more than I'd use an outdoor one. 

The biggest problem we had in testing was the pizza sticking to the peel before we were able to place it into the oven. Even with this oven, there's a knack involved in getting it right. 

You can watch your pizza cooking through the triple-paned borosilicate door. It started to rise and bubble after the first minute or so of cooking, and we then used the peel to remove it and spin the pizza around to cook every side evenly. 

With most of the pizza ovens I've tested, there's been a 'first pancake' effect, where the first pie I've made has always gone wrong. This is the first time I've tried a pizza oven that hasn't done this, much to the relief of my friend whose pizza went in first.

There are some hacks to making the most of this oven. If you twist the middle dial completely back on itself between uses, it boosts the temperature of the bottom heating element to bring your pizza stone back to its desired temperature faster. This means you can cook pizzas back-to-back really easily, as opposed to waiting a few minutes between uses while the pizzas you've already cooked go cold. 

Using the Ooni Volt 12 indoors

Hitting 850°F, I was concerned that the Ooni Volt 12 would turn my kitchen into a sauna. The risk of smoke is also pretty high when you're using such a powerful bit of kit. As recommended, I removed anything flammable from the immediate area around the Ooni and opened a window to get some ventilation in anticipation of any burning. 

We were using the oven for around an hour, so the kitchen became pretty hot, but I was really surprised that the exterior stayed at a safe temperature. There was also a distinct lack of smoke, even when we did overcook our pizzas a bit. The fire alarm was not in the least perturbed, which was a pleasant surprise. 

Using the Ooni Volt 12 outdoors

I've not used the Volt outdoors yet, but as soon as the weather picks up I'll be sure to take it for a spin on my patio table. A friend of mine mentioned that she'd be worried to place it on her outdoor furniture in case it caused damage, which is totally understandable. And while you can buy a stand for Ooni ovens, it takes up an awful lot of space. 

From my experience using the Volt on my kitchen counter, it didn't cause any damage whatsoever from the underside of the oven, despite having no legs to lift it away from the surface. I'll keep this review updated when I do manage to use the Volt outdoors, but I'm confident that it won't damage my patio set. My main concern is actually using electricals outdoors, but we're seeing more and more of this with the launch of electric grills such as the Ninja Woodfire anyway.   

How to clean the Ooni Volt 12

The Ooni Volt 12 is marketed as being an indoor/outdoor pizza oven, but you'll have to store it indoors. You have to order a cover separately, which is a bit of a shame given the up-front price, and you're also advised not to store anything on top of or inside the oven when not in use. 

With many pizza ovens you'll find that the pizza stone discolors after the first use, and that's also the case with the Volt. You're not meant to get pizza stones wet, so the best way to keep your pizza stone clean is to flip it between uses. This means the most recently used side will face down, toward the heating element, and any debris will be burned away from the stone. 

I was impressed that the glass door didn't steam up in use, which meant I could check on my pizza while it cooked. It did get flecked with bits of flour from the peel though, and Ooni suggests wiping this with a dry cloth to keep the door free of debris. As with all electricals, you should be very careful when cleaning with water. 

How does it compare?

First launched in 2021, the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo is actually one of the first pizza ovens I tested when I started working at Homes & Gardens. In my review I called it 'unbeatable', so let's see if that's the case. There aren't many indoor pizza ovens on the market, so if you're considering buying one, it's likely a choice between the Pizzaiolo and the Volt. 

Looks: This one depends on your preferences, but the Breville is the one I'd go for based on looks alone. It's a little bit smaller and I enjoy the stainless steel finish.

Price: They're both expensive, but the Breville is a little cheaper than the Ooni. 

Ease of use: This one goes to the Ooni. In the Breville, I actually had a couple of (small) fires inside the oven. They were never dangerous, but they did make me feel more wary of the oven, and it's definitely a bit less user-friendly. The Breville's controls also felt a lot less user-friendly and took longer to pre-heat. 

Taste: Something about the Breville felt a little more authentic than the Ooni. The crusts got that classic leopard-spotted finish that you'll find in a wood-fired oven. Although, that might've been because of the literal fire I managed to start inside of the oven. 

Versatility: Both are designed to cook pizzas, and it's likely that you have an actual oven in your kitchen that you can use to cook other things, so I can see why there's less of a push to experiment with both ovens. That said, you can definitely stick a skillet under the Ooni in a way you might struggle with in the Breville. This is because the pizza stone lifts toward you when you open the door, so all of your cooking will need to be done with the door closed. 

I'm not afraid to hold my hands up and admit when I'm wrong, and I think I'd have to retract my earlier statement that the Pizzaiolo was unbeatable. If I got to have only one of these ovens in my kitchen, I'd go for the Ooni. 

Should you buy the Ooni Volt 12?

If you can spare the money, the Ooni Volt 12 definitely lives up to all its claims. It's a smart countertop pizza oven that can make pizza in just a couple of minutes. With that being said, you lose some of the charm of more rustic Ooni ovens such as the Ooni Fyra 12 when you opt for an electric model, so the trade-off for all that convenience and ease of use is a less authentic and novel experience, and a slightly less smokey wood-fired flavor.

Is it worth it? To me, yes. I don't live in the kind of climate that would allow me to cook outside all through the year, so the Volt effectively means I can now cook homemade, authentic pizza indoors and outdoors, year-round. It reheats a lot faster, cooks more evenly, and allows you to actually talk to your friends when you're having a pizza party as opposed to constantly tending to a fire and turning your pies while they cook. 

Pizza is always a winner when you’re feeding a crowd. But making pizzas at home can be hit and miss. The best pizzas need to cook fast at super high temperatures and that’s where pizza ovens come in. Ooni is one of the brands at the forefront of the new trend of backyard pizza ovens, and with a great range of gas as well as wood fired models, it’s easy to see why.

The Ooni Koda is a gas fired pizza oven. I tried the Koda 12 which can cook pizzas up to 12 inches, though there is a 16 inch model, for those with the skills to create bigger pizzas. I reviewed it alongside the Ooni Fyra 12 which is its wood fired sibling and it was interesting to compare the two.

Personally I like to cook on wood and charcoal when I’m cooking outdoors and I usually shun gas. So I will admit that I went into this review thinking that the Ooni Koda would leave me craving the more rustic and smoky experience that you get from wood or charcoal. But I was surprised, not only at how much I enjoyed the Koda, but also that the pizzas were just as good as in the wood fired Fyra.

Ooni Koda 12 specifications

Unboxing and setting up the Ooni Koda 12

My Ooni Koda arrived ready to go. The set up involved little more than sliding the pizza stone into position and unfolding the legs. What’s more, the packaging is virtually all cardboard, so it’s easy to recycle and won’t end up in landfill.

The gas hose is already fitted to the pizza oven, so I just had to connect it to my propane canister and it was ready to start up. However, it’s worth putting some thought into where you intend to position the pizza oven in your backyard. Make sure you have a heat proof table that’s convenient to stand and cook at.

The gas controls are very simple, a gas flow knob that includes automatic ignition is positioned at the back of the pizza oven. The gas flow and therefore flame, can be turned up or down which gives you instant control in a way that you don’t get with a wood pizza oven such as the Ooni Fyra.

The Koda 12 is a streamlined and compact pizza oven that doesn’t take up too much space. So not only is it perfect for smaller spaces, but it’s also portable, you can even buy a carry case so you can take it camping or to a friend's house.

There are several things I learnt along the way that are worth knowing before you start making pizza in your Ooni. Firstly, there are some must-have accessories that you will need. They don’t come with the oven unless you buy a bundle, which I would recommend considering. The first is an infrared thermometer, which allows you to check the temperature of the pizza stone and is crucial for knowing when it’s hot enough to add your pizza. The other essential accessory is a pizza peel, as getting your pizza in and out of the Ooni will be very impossible without one.

My next tip is to do some research. Download the Ooni app, which includes recipes as well as a helpful dough calculator tool. Then head to the Ooni website and watch some of the YouTube tutorials on making and stretching dough, as well as launching pizzas into the pizza oven. Spending just a small amount of time learning before your first cook will enhance your experience.

When it comes to making your pizzas, don’t overload on toppings, as this makes the pizza harder to handle. Nor should you try to cook several pizzas back-to-back. Allow the temperature of the pizza stone to rise between each pizza — I learnt this the hard way. 

Making pizza in the Ooni Koda 12

Despite a passion for sourdough pizzas, I started by making the classic pizza dough recipe on the Ooni website. The dough is easy to make and stretches into a round pizza shape without too much trouble.

Once the pizza oven is fired up, it takes around 15 minutes to preheat. You’ll be looking for a temperature of around 750-950°F on the pizza stone. Unlike the Ooni Fyra, the Koda doesn’t have a door that you can close to keep the heat in, so I noticed that on a windy day it struggled to maintain a hot enough temperature and needed to be in a more sheltered spot.

Launching the pizza off the peel and onto the hot pizza stone can feel a bit daunting at first, but the action becomes second nature once you’ve done it a few times. And I think it’s easier if you dust the peel with semolina instead of flour. Once it’s in the oven, you’ll need to turn the pizza every 20-30 seconds to ensure the crust crisps and browns the whole way around.

Ooni says your pizza can cook in as little as 60 seconds, but mine took around two minutes, which still feels super quick. Some of my creations included a classic margarita which I made a few times as well as pepperoni, and a cheesy garlic pizza bread.

Even from the very first pizza I made in the Ooni Koda, the quality and flavor of my pizzas far exceeds anything I’ve made in a regular oven. The crisp base and puffed-up crust with its charred bubbles tasted superb. I was very impressed with how quickly and easily I could make professional style pizzas, and the results were comparable to the wood fired Ooni Fyra.

It’s worth noting at this stage that even if you’re not much of a cook, you can still enjoy an outdoor pizza oven. Ooni sells frozen pizza dough online, so all you need to do is stretch it out, add some toppings and get cooking.

Making chicken in the Ooni Koda 12

It took me by surprise that a pizza oven could be used to cook foods other than pizza. But a quick browse of the Ooni recipes online had me inspired to give it a go. Fortunately, I had a cast iron skillet that fit inside the Ooni Koda as this is the best thing to use since you can’t cook meats and vegetables directly on the pizza stone.

I preheated my skillet before adding chicken thighs. They started to char quite quickly, but after I turned down the gas, they began cooking more evenly. The heat inside is fierce and there was a lot of smoking and spitting, so I turned them frequently. After around 15 minutes, the meat was cooked through and the outside of the thighs was charred and crisp and absolutely delicious, with a slight smoky flavor.

Making roasted vegetables in the Ooni Koda 12

Cooking on the skillet got me thinking that this would be the perfect way to cook up a sizzling vegetable fajita mix. I preheated the skillet once again but this time added chopped bell peppers and onions coated in oil and my favorite fajita spice mix. Within 10 minutes I had the perfect sizzling charred vegetables that were far superior to those I usually cook on my stove. 

Cleaning and packing away the Ooni Koda 12

 Pizza stones don’t require regular washing, as they get sanitized by the high heat inside the pizza oven, which also burns away any residue. The most I did was brush off some ash that had collected on the stone once it had cooled. I also wiped the outside if there was any grease on it, but really there’s not much cleaning to do.

My Ooni was cool enough to move and store away within an hour of cooking my last pizza. It should be it should be kept out of harsh weather, so you should store it indoors if possible; a garage is ideal. The legs fold flat for neater, more compact storage, or you can buy a carry case and store it inside that.

How does it compare?

If you’re craving a wood fired pizza oven, but unsure about whether it’s worth the hassle, the Ooni Fyra is an excellent choice. It’s designed to burn tiny wood pellets that are clean and easy to use, and it heats up just as fast as the Koda. The only difference is that you need to keep an eye on the fire and load it up with more pellets when needed so that it continues to burn hot. And while it does require a little more attention, it’s arguably more rewarding, as well as being more portable since you don’t need to take a gas canister with it.

For those that are undecided and don’t mind upping the budget, the Ooni Karu 16 is the top-of-the-range Ooni. It’s a multi fuel model, so you can choose to burn either gas, charcoal, or wood, depending on what you prefer. Plus this larger capacity model has space for bigger 16 inch pizzas as well as a built in thermometer. If you’re looking for the best Ooni has to offer, this is it. 

Should you buy the Ooni Koda 12?

For just under $400 the Ooni Koda offers exceptional value for money. It really will elevate your homemade pizzas to the next level and it’s great fun to use. As someone who isn’t usually a fan of outdoor cooking on gas, I was mightily impressed with its ability to produce charred crisp pizzas just like the wood fired version, albeit without any wood smoke flavor.

This compact and portable pizza oven is so versatile it’ll not only reinvigorate your backyard cooking, but you can take it just about anywhere and cook exciting meals in minutes. So if firing up a wood pizza oven doesn’t sound like your thing, you’ll love the ease of this gas model.

Knowing how to light a pizza oven is a must if you want to dish up slices of pie with authentic flavor and the perfect crust. Get it right and you can make the most of spending time in the yard with family and friends while dishing up food you’ll all enjoy.

If you’ve invested in one of the best pizza ovens, understanding how to prepare for cooking is part of the learning process so you can produce tasty pizzas with the taste you expect and at the time you want from your appliance. The process will vary depending on how the pizza oven is fuelled, so our guide has the details for each type to allow you to cook and serve up free of stress.

We’ve included extra advice below, too, so you can be sure about how to light a pizza oven and become a pizza chef whose creations are celebrated by all your diners.

How to light a pizza oven like a pro

The process for lighting a pizza oven depends on how it is fuelled – whether that’s with wood, gas or wood pellets. Here, we’ve put together the information you need on all three from the experts to make lighting a pizza oven in your outdoor kitchen a smooth and stress-free process.

How to light a wood-fired pizza oven

Lighting a wood-fuelled pizza oven the right way is a skill that’s important to gain. Dan Hart, the founder of Home Pizza Ovens, explains, ‘Typically, pizza chambers measure 24x24in, and at the time of baking, the burning embers will be located to one side of the oven. Prior to the burning embers being ready to bake, the fire must be started in the center of the oven floor so the heat penetrates its entirety.’ 

These are the steps to follow from Dan:

1. Build up a stack of kindling. Set alight a few natural wood firelighters in the center of the stack. 
2. Once the flame is going, add small bits of wood – these must be small logs that can burn quickly, not lumpy pieces you use in a wood burner or open fire – and gradually build up the fire. 
3. Keep adding timber to the flame and after 40 minutes or so (depending on the time of year and outdoor temperature), the floor will be hot enough to get baking. 
4. Drag the embers to one side of the oven and continue to feed the fire during the baking process. 
5. A key tool to monitor the heat of the oven floor is a temperature gun [available at Amazon]. Regularly check the floor before and during bakes to ensure it maintains the optimal pizza oven temperature of 700 to 750˚F.

How to light a pizza oven using wood pellets

Compact wood-pellet-fuelled pizza ovens are many people's favorite type of pizza oven – especially for small backyards – as they are convenient to use and easily portable. ‘There are a few wood pellet ovens on the market and each varies in terms of lighting,’ explains Dan Hart. ‘However, the principle of lighting the pellets and letting them heat the oven thoroughly prior to baking is essential.’

Here’s how to light our garden editor's favorite Ooni Fyra wood-pellet-fuelled pizza oven – you can find more from Ooni:

1. Remove the chimney cap and make sure the chimney vent is open. Keep the door on.
2. Remove the grate and fill with hardwood pellets (around 5oz or two handfuls to start).
3. Put a fire starter at the front of the grate. Light and push the grate back in.
4. Allow the pellets time to fully ignite, using the viewing hole in the door to check for a full flame. 
5. Top up the pellets gradually until they reach the top of the hopper and maintain this level when cooking your pizza recipes.

How to light a gas pizza oven

One of the benefits of a gas pizza oven is how easy it is to light. Tom Gozney, the founder of Gozney, explains how to do so correctly:

1. Ensure you have the gas burner set up correctly and a gas canister safely attached before twisting the ignition knob to fire up the oven. 
2. If your oven doesn’t light on your first attempt, it’s important that you wait a minute or two to allow any gas that was released with the first attempt to dissipate before trying again. 
3. Your oven will take approximately 20 to 30 minutes to get up to temperature depending on what temperature you need and the weather conditions.

Tips to make lighting a pizza oven easy

To make lighting a pizza oven easy, it’s important to get the setup right and use the best fuel. Check out these expert recommendations.

• Locate it correctly: ‘Ensure your oven is on a stable, heatproof surface that is relatively sheltered from any strong winds,’ says Tom Gozney. This is particularly important if you are using a pizza oven in winter, when the winds might be stronger. 
• Consider the fuel: ‘You need to know what fuel type you are planning on using and have the appropriate equipment ready,’ says Tom.
• Opt for kiln-dried wood: ‘If you’re using wood, we would always recommend using kiln-dried hardwood such as ash, beech or oak as they are dense and have lots of energy to burn,’ explains Tom. ‘Avoid softwoods or anything with a high moisture content and make sure you chop your kindling into manageable pieces.'

When should you light a pizza oven?

When to light a pizza oven so it will be ready for cooking when you need it to be depends on the type. Dan Hart offers these guidelines: ‘Wood-fuelled pizza ovens: 40 minutes minimum; gas-fuelled: 25 to 30 minutes; wood pellet ovens: 20 minutes.’

How much smoke does a pizza oven produce?

A wood-fired pizza oven does produce smoke when it has first been lit, so bear this in mind if you're hosting a garden party. ‘One thing we often have questions about is smoke,’ says Tom Gozney. ‘There will be smoke when you first light your oven using wood, but it should reduce as the oven gets hotter.’

Be sure to use kiln-dried hardwood to avoid excess smoke, and tend the fire. ‘It’s important to remember that wood-fired cooking is all about the experience, managing the flame and feeding it as appropriate,’ says Tom. ‘It’s a labor of love from which you’ll be rewarded with that signature smoky flavor.'

What's that? You're a big pizza lover but you don't have a pizza oven yet? Seriously, you're still shelling out $$$$s on the same old takeouts? I thought you said you were serious about the slice of pie. 

If this is the kind of abuse you're receiving from pizza-oven-owning friends (or worse, family), then Black Friday is a good chance to get them off your back and get sorted for next Spring. And luckily, there's a great deal on an oven that I think might just be the big cheese.

Having taken the top spot on our list of best pizza ovens after my review, the Ooni Karu 16 Multi-Fiel Pizza Oven is on sale on the manufacturer's site for only $639.20 and continues to be one of the best domestic pizza ovens I have had the chance to play around with, albeit an initially challenging endeavor.

So, while the price may still be on the higher side for some, it is hard to deny the gratifying learning curve the oven offers, never mind the satisfying pizza at the end of it all. The discount just makes it a sweeter deal. 

While this is not the most straightforward pizza oven to get the hang of, as I reflected on in my full Ooni Karu 16 review, I found it to be one of the more rewarding models on the market – once you have gotten your head around the process, that is. After that, however, I cannot deny that the Ooni Karu pizza oven is truly a smart appliance that delivers on many levels. 

While I could go on and on about my educational experience testing out the oven, it is probably best that I explain some of the basics: the oven itself, despite the daunting box size, only takes around 15 minutes to set up and get going, it takes around 20 minutes to get up to temperature when using wood for fuel, and the pizzas themselves only take approximately 90 seconds to cook through – ideal when you have been waiting for your snack to rise for an hour or so beforehand. 

The Ooni Karu 16 is the big brother of the smaller 12" model, which you may find yourself leaning towards if you are looking for a pizza oven to take on the go (in your RV, let's say, not so much to take with you to the office to whip up some lunch). The 16" design is certainly one to consider for an ultimate backyard setup, however, with the much larger viewing window and higher specs. 

It is important to note when embarking on your homemade pizza journey, however, that despite being a multi-fuel cooker, the Ooni Karu 16 needs you to purchase the gas burner separately. The good news is that the Gas Burner for the Ooni Karu 16 is also on sale for $79.99, down from $99.99. 

The proof is in the pudding (or pizza, I should say) with this oven. It creates undoubtedly delicious dishes and simply gets easier the more you use it. 

Months later, I am happy to report that I still love my Ooni Karu 16 model, and I would highly recommend this pizza oven to anyone and everyone. 

Searching for a pizza oven deal? I might just have found the very best. Recommended by Oprah Winfrey on her Favorite Things list for 2022, and grabbing a spot in our list of the best pizza ovens, Solo Stove's Pi Pizza Oven is on sale on the manufacturer's site for $399.99. 

Admittedly, it's not still not cheap cheap, but it is, I think you'll agree, a thing of beauty. When I tested it, I really liked it, and we've rated it our top compact pizza oven buy. Plus there's a lot more to love, more of which, below.

My sum up when I tested this pizza oven back in the summer was that it's a straightforward oven that makes a mean pizza. You can read my full Solo Stove Pi Pizza oven review for full details, but let me give you some more basics here: it heats up and cooks really fast (to around 650 degrees in 15 minutes), it's super compact and easy to store when not in use, and (for me this is best of all), it can be used for wood-fired pizza and gas-fired.

At 20in in diameter, it makes 12in pizzas in just two to four minutes (depending on how crispy you like them. And, if you're a beginner to making your own, you'll be happy to know that using the Solo Stove Pi was easier than many of the other ovens I've tested.  

Note, the pizza peel and the pizza turner are part of the add-on Pi bundle now. They're not included if you buy the stove-only, but they are extremely useful. 

The litmus test? The pizzas were DELICIOUS, and the biggest downside was that I couldn't cook them as quickly as my family could consume them, which is saying something because I had that production line down to a fine art after a few pizzas.

Months on, you'll be happy to know that we still love the Solo Stove, and it has easily withstood a summer of busy pizza-making. 

Owning one of the best pizza ovens can be an exciting addition to your kitchen appliance collection. This outdoor kitchen upgrade can not only expand your culinary repertoire, but (like the best grills) also doubles as a great centrepiece for entertaining family and friends.

That said, there are so many on the market, and the high price tag can make it feel daunting to choose one that perfectly suits your cooking style and available space.

Having tested a range of pizza ovens and consulted the experts, I have broken down everything you need to consider before choosing a pizza oven, so you can design your outdoor kitchen with confidence.

Step 1: Understanding Fuel Options

When choosing a pizza oven, it helps to understand how they work (this can also help you to avoid common pizza oven mistakes). Unlike a conventional oven, in a pizza oven, the flame rolls along the top of the oven. This means that whatever you're making is licked by the flame, which adds a delicious char to your ingredients that you can't replicate in a conventional oven.

They use a cordierite stone base to conduct and reflect heat. They are part of why pizza ovens can reach such high temperatures, and, as Dr Bryan Quoc Le, food scientist, explains, 'The porous construction of cordierite pizza stones allows it to absorb moisture as the pizza bakes, leaving a crisper bottom.'

Then, there are several types of fuel for powering a pizza oven, and they all have different benefits and drawbacks.

The first type is wood, most commonly as pellets but sometimes as splints. Wood is the best-tasting fuel for a pizza oven. It gets hotter than other types of pizza oven fuel, and unlike gas and electricity, the wood imparts an authentic, smoky flavor that can't be beaten by other types of oven. Wood pellets are also cheaper to run than gas.

That said, it is more difficult to maintain at the right temperature and needs constant monitoring and stoking, which is much more work than the other fuel types. It's more dangerous than other fuel types because you have to feed the pellets or wood splints in by hand. While wood is relatively cheap, there's the ongoing cost and errand of keeping the pellets topped up. Finally, some people don't like the smell of wood smoke.

Gas ovens are much easier to use than wood pellets. Unlike wood pellets, there's no learning curve or stoking. You just hook up your propane and switch on the oven, and it's as easy as turning on a grill or a stove. However, gas is more expensive than any other type of fuel, and compared to wood-fired pizza ovens, it tastes a little sterile. Gas ovens can be very hot, but they can't get as hot as wood pizza ovens.

Then, there is electricity, heating the pizza with an electric filament. This is as easy to use as pressing a button, and by far the cheapest oven to run, but it's not as hot as wood or gas and doesn't always taste as good.

Step 2: Assess Your Space

Before choosing a pizza oven and learning how to use a pizza oven, it is important to assess the space you have available. Beyond the oven itself, you'll need enough room to cook safely, move around comfortably with peels and hot food, and store fuel and accessories. Regardless of the model, pizza ovens should never be placed beneath low roofs or where heat and smoke will blow directly toward seating areas or neighbouring properties.

For very small patios, balconies, or urban gardens, we recommend an electric pizza oven such as the Ninja Woodfire Outdoor Pizza Oven. Compact and easy to set up, it requires little more than a sturdy table and a power outlet, making it one of the safest and most practical options for limited spaces.

If you need something for small outdoor kitchens or portable for camping or moving around the yard, tabletop models such as the Ooni Koda 16 or Gozney Roccbox are excellent choices. Just be sure to position them on a sturdy, non-combustible surface with enough surrounding clearance to work safely and convenient access to your chosen fuel. We like the Grill Force Pizza Oven table from Amazon for this. Ideally, plot out around 16-30 sq ft (e.g. 4×4 ft to 5×6 ft).

For larger outdoor kitchens, premium freestanding models such as the Gozney Dome or ovens from Alfa Forni benefit from a dedicated space, around 36-64 sq ft (e.g. 6×6 ft to 8×8 ft), with room for preparation, serving, and storage. As these are often left outdoors year-round, it's also worth planning for weather protection to extend their lifespan.

Built-in pizza ovens require the most planning and the most space, at around 80-150+ sq ft (e.g. 8×10 ft to 10×15 ft+). They need a structurally sound base capable of supporting significant weight, integration with countertops and cabinetry, suitable drainage, and sufficient access for installation. Professional installation is recommended to ensure the oven is safely and securely fitted.

Step 3: Pick your Features

The best pizza ovens balance heat retention, cooking speed, and usability. When shopping for a pizza oven, there are four key features you should consider, especially when comparing models:

1. Insulation: This is one of the most important (and most overlooked) factors in pizza oven quality. Good heat retention keeps the internal temperature stable between pizzas, reducing recovery time after each bake. Better insulation also keeps the outer shell cooler, making the oven safer to use in tight outdoor spaces or around guests. Look for double-wall construction, ceramic insulation, and dome designs.
2. Stone Thickness: A thicker stone gets hotter to provide better crusts thanks to more even heat distribution. They take longer to heat, but are more consistent and will last longer. Understanding how to clean a pizza oven and how to clean a pizza stone plays a big part in this.
3. Mouth Size: We are not talking about how much you can eat at once here. A wider front opening on a pizza oven will allow for larger pizzas and make them easier to adjust when cooking. That said, they can lead to heat loss when cooking. Premium ovens balance a wide opening with strong insulation and flame positioning to maintain constant temperature.
4. Temperature Control: In gas or electric ovens, detailed temperature dials and well-positioned burners can make a world of difference. Pizza cooking happens in seconds. If temperature fluctuates, you lose control. This is where some cheaper ovens fall short.

Our Best Pizza Oven Recommendations

As a professional product tester, I've had hands-on experience with all the best garden gear, and I think a good pizza oven could give the best grills a run for their money. I've tested twenty models from Ooni, Gozney, and Breville, and I've found the best pizza ovens to suit every garden and budget.

FAQs

How much should you spend on a pizza oven?

Pizza ovens have some of the most inflated prices around, so it's smart to set your budget.

Between $150-$350 will get you a good, 12-inch wood-fired pizza oven. It's worth spending towards the top end of this scale. Cheaper models can make amazing pizza, but I've found that lots of them have poorly balanced doors or bad safety features, such as badly insulated handles or wood pellet drawers that don't shut correctly.

Between $350-$600 will get you a good gas pizza oven. Gas pizza ovens are largely the same, so the difference in price here is mostly a matter of size. A good 12-inch gas pizza oven is around $400; a good 14 or 16-inch gas pizza oven is more like $600. Hybrid gas/wood ovens tend to come in at around this price point, too.

For large pizza ovens, or stylized ovens designed to be part of an outdoor kitchen, expect to pay $1000-$2000. These ovens usually hold more than one pizza and have bonus features like meat probes or wood storage.

What is the difference between a pizza oven and a regular oven?

The point of a domestic pizza oven is to replicate a traditional brick oven. Unlike a normal oven, a pizza oven reaches incredibly hot temperatures. This means that the pizzas cook incredibly quickly, usually under two minutes. Most pizza ovens use open flames, which gives the crust distinctive leopard spots of delicious, smoky char. It makes for a restaurant-quality pizza that tastes much better than a pizza from a normal kitchen oven.

What else can you cook in a pizza oven?

A good pizza oven can make much more than just pizza. They are also perfectly suited to flatbreads, roast meat, roast and char vegetables, and bake to a certain extent (brownies and cookies are ideal).

Are pizza ovens worth it?

It's smart to wonder if a pizza oven is really worth the money. These appliances are notoriously expensive, and when you have a perfectly good oven in the kitchen, it can seem a little questionable to invest in one.

That said, if you truly love pizza, they are a fantastic treat. It is undeniable that pizza tastes better in a proper oven, and that once preheated, it cooks more quickly. They can be great for outdoor dining and entertaining guests with a pizza party.

If you're an amateur chef, a pizza oven is an interesting tool for experimenting with different dishes. However, if you live somewhere cold, are on a budget, or just want an occasional pizza, it's not worth the investment.

Accessories to Shop

A pizza oven on its own is rarely enough to get started. To help you make the most of your setup, I’ve rounded up several must-have pizza oven accessories that improve safety, streamline cooking, and ensure consistently great results.

All prices were correct at the time of publication.

Next, brush up on how to choose a grill to complete your outdoor cooking setup.

Love the latest product news and helpful shopping advice? Sign up for our newsletter and get the latest features delivered straight to your inbox.

Almost every Friday for the last 10 years, my family has had pizza night. We like to make it and we like to eat it. Up until a few months ago, I thought I made a pretty good pizza. But then, I tried the Alfa Nano pizza oven (formerly the Alfa ONE), and I was actually embarrassed to have called myself any sort of pizza connoisseur up to that point. The Alfa Nano is a complete game changer for home pizza chefs, and it will make it physically difficult to ever eat a pizza from your regular oven again. 

After trying out the gas-fired version of the Nano for a few months, I'm convinced it's the best pizza oven you can buy for your home. It's a serious pizza oven, that makes seriously good pizzas. 

All that said, it's not going to be for everyone.

Read on to find out why I love the Alfa Nano, who it'll work for, and who it won't. 

• More dealer information is available at alfaforni.com

Alfa Nano pizza oven: specs

• Fuel type: propane, but there's a wood-fired version, too
• Dimensions: 29" x22" x19" 
• Weight: 110 pounds
• Oven temperature: up to 1,000°F (500˚C) 
• Oven heating time: 15 minutes
• Pizza cooking time: as little as 90 seconds
• Use: outdoor
• Model name: Alfa Nano / Alfa ONE pizza oven

Who will the Alfa Nano pizza oven suit? 

If you're considering the Alfa pizza oven, you are probably a true pizza fan. This pizza oven is not for the person who dabbles in pizza. 

The reason for this is because it's an investment, in more ways than one. It costs more than the best grills, and it'll take up a good amount of room on your patio if you use it with the stand. It's also an investment in time, since you'll need to learn how to cook on the Nano, especially if you've never used a home pizza oven before.

So, this is the best pizza oven for two types of people. The first is home pizza chefs who have already gotten good at using a pizza oven and are looking for an upgrade, and second, pizza aficionados who are willing to take the time to perfect the art of the Alfa Nano. 

If you fall into one of those categories, you're truly going to love this pizza oven.

Alfa Nano delivery & setup

Delivery
Like I've said, the Alfa Nano is a serious piece of equipment. And that starts with the delivery.

The Nano is made in Italy, and is shipped straight from the factory to your home. (It doesn't get more authentic than that!) I ordered both the pizza oven and the stand it goes on, and delivery for both took about two weeks, which was pleasantly surprising given the state of the global supply chain. 

The day before we got the oven and stand, I got a call from a logistics company to schedule a delivery time window. The company offered lots of options, and the package was at my house the next day. 

Since it's pretty heavy, the Nano was actually shipped on a pallet, and the delivery person used a pallet jack to get it off the truck and into my garage. The package itself was about three feet high by four feet wide which, again, included the stand portion.

Without the stand, the box for just the oven measures 30" x 22" x 18.5".

Setup
Overall, assembly for both the oven and the stand took just under two hours, from the time we opened the box until the time it was ready to use. The stand took roughly half that time. Putting the pizza oven together can be done by one person, but you'll need someone else nearby in order to lift the oven (definitely a two-person job). 

The first thing to note is that, you'll receive a few sets of directions. One say North America, and the other is for Europe/UK. Make sure you're using the right set, otherwise things will get confusing.

The stand was straightforward enough to assemble, but did require two people on occasion to hold the pieces in place so that the screws would align properly.

The oven itself was not hard to put together. You basically screw the feet onto the bottom of the oven, insert the flue into the top of the oven, and screw on the ignition knob. But there were some smaller details that took time. For example, all of the exposed metal elements in the oven were covered with a Teflon sticker in order to prevent scratching (see photo above). This is important to protect the oven during shipping, but it just takes some time to remove the sheets before you use it. Hint, we made a hole in the sheet with a tack, and used the tack to gently lift up the sheeting to peel it off.

Setup safety
The Nano features a double-layer of ceramic fiber insulation, which not only helps retain the heat for cooking, but prevents the oven surface from reaching insanely hot temperatures. (A big perk if you, like me, have a bunch of small children).

Still, because you're working with a 110lb oven that reaches temperatures of up to 1,000°F, it's important that you have a safe, sturdy spot to set it up.

Alfa notes that the oven should be placed at least 20cm (8in) from the wall or any other equipment, as well as 50cm around the flue and 1m from the top of the oven.

If you have any questions about the setup of your appliance, you can email them to alfaventing@olympiachimney.com. It's better to be safe than sorry. 

Alfa Nano pizza oven: design

The Alfa Nano is designed to be an at-home version of a commercial pizza oven, but aside from it's smaller size, it could surely still hold its own in a commercial setting.

For one, the pizza oven is made from the highest-quality materials. It has a stainless steel cooking chamber, a double layer of ceramic fiber insulation and four oven floor firebricks.

It's also designed to maximize the quality of both the cooking experience, and the pizza. The mouth of the oven is meant to maintain the heat of the cooking chamber, while also making it easier to turn the pizza during cooking. And, it includes a deflector which helps the heat release slowly from the flue, again, to maintain the heat of the chamber. The firebricks trap heat to ensure a crispy crust every time. 

At 110lbs, this oven is solid and sturdy, and you don't have to worry about leaving it outdoors long term (though mine is on a covered patio). 

From a style standpoint, the oven has a modern Italian flair. It's sleek and contemporary, and it looks as high-end as it is. I opted for the copper color, which is a muted shade that warms up the clean lines. 

What's the Alfa Nano pizza oven like to use?

After we set up the pizza oven, we couldn't wait to try it. The good news? We chose the Alfa Nano gas-fired version (there's a wood-fired version as well), and it couldn't be simpler to get it up and running. You just light it (similar to a grill) and wait for it to heat up, which took about 15 minutes. Then, it's ready to use.

If you've used a wood-fired pizza oven before, then you'll appreciate how incredibly easy this is, because you won't have to deal with cutting logs to fit the oven, and maintaining the fire during the cooking process.

For our first attempt at the Nano, we used a store-bought pizza dough (a sacrilege, I know). I rolled it out, sprinkled some flour on the base of a cookie sheet, transferred the dough to the sheet, topped it with sauce and cheese, and took it outside.

From there, my husband scooped the dough onto the pizza peel that comes with the oven, and attempted his first throw into the oven. Except, the pizza stuck to the peel, and he didn't throw it in far enough, so it got sort of stuck to the bricks midway into the oven and folded in on itself. It ended up being more of a calzone. We did our best to straighten it back out, but this pizza oven it HOT. Essentially, you get one shot to throw your pizza, which is where the practice comes in.

We turned the pizza a couple of times, which is recommended for even cooking. This was also a little clumsy in the beginning, but has since improved. Ninety seconds later (that's all it takes!), we took the pizza out of the oven, let it sit for a bit, and gave it a try. Despite its haphazard looks, it was incredible. The crust was a bit charred on the outside, but chewy on the inside, and the toppings were cooked just right (at the least the ones that didn't end up on the bricks in the pizza oven). 

It was enough to make us immediately want to try again. 

For our second pizza, we added more flour to the base of the crust, and gave it another shot. With basically the same results.

After two ugly, but still delicious, pizzas, we decided to do some research on the right way to make pizza-on-a-peel. We found out a few key tips that have since helped us get better at pizza making, and have also learned a few through trial-and-error.

They are:

• Start with smaller pizzas. The Alfa Nano is the smallest pizza oven size, so the opening isn't huge. While you get the hang of the pizza oven, smaller pizzas are easier to work with. We make ours no larger than the pizza peel, about 8–10" across. They cook so quickly, you can make a bunch in a short amount of time.
• Transfer your pizza directly to the peel, and do it quickly. When your pizza is ready, scoop it up with the pizza peel, and toss it directly into the oven. The more time it sits on the pizza peel (or any other surface) the stickier it gets, and the harder it is to get it into the oven. 
• Use lots of flour, and add cornmeal, too. When you roll out your pizza dough, don't be shy with the flour. Add more flour than you think you need, and sprinkle in some cornmeal, too.

For our second attempt, things went much smoother (though I still wouldn't say we've mastered it, but like all true art forms, this one takes time, and the imperfect but glorious-tasting pizzas you'll make along the way are a very motivating consolation prize.)

I think the most important tip we learned was that smaller pizzas are easier to manage in the Nano, at least when you're starting out. The first time, we used whole pizza crusts for each pizza and tried to cook two full-sized pizzas. The second time, we cut the pizza crusts in half and made four smaller-sized pizzas, which were easier to manage.

We used store bought crusts again just for ease, but according to Alfa, if you truly want to perfect this oven, you should make your crusts yourself. The company has a whole resource library on its website including a recipe for the perfect 

Should you buy the Alfa Nano Pizza Oven? 

I love this pizza oven. It's become one of our favorite 'party tricks', because any time we have people over now, we make pizza. Everyone we've made it for loves it, too, and even when we make pizzas that aren't quite as good looking as what you'd get from a restaurant, they taste every bit as good (or better!).

It's an investment, but a worthwhile one if you plan to use it as much as I do. 

About the reviewer

Kaitlin Madden has lived in three of the pizza capitals of the United States (New York, Chicago, and New Haven County, Connecticut), and likes to think she knows a good pizza when she sees one. She prefers New Haven-style pizza, but New York style is a close second. She still hasn't figured out Chicago-style. 

Alfa sent her this pizza oven to try this spring and summer. She tested it in her family home on a covered patio.

Find out more about the Homes & Gardens testing process.

The Solo Stove Pi Pizza Oven is the first pizza oven from the company famous for its smokeless fire pits. This tabletop oven touts a convenient size, a dual-fuel option (wood or gas-fired) and a whole host of accessories designed to turn any budding home cook into a full-fledged pizza chef. 

But is Solo Stove as good at making pizza oven as it is at making bonfires? 

We were lucky enough to be one of the first to test out this new launch, and if first impressions are anything to go by, this is one of the best pizza ovens you can buy. Here's our verdict on the Pi in our Solo Stove Pi Pizza Oven Review.  

• Solo Stove Pi Pizza Oven, (MSRP) $624.99, Solo Stove

Solo Stove Pi Pizza Oven: Specs

• Fuel type: wood with a gas option
• Diameter: 20.5 in (52.07 cm)
• Height: 15.125 in (38.42 cm)
• Weight: 30 pounds
• Oven temperature: Up to 750˚F when wood fired, 800˚F when gas-fired
• Pizza size: 12 inch pizzas
• Pizza cooking time: 2 minutes
• Use: outdoor use only

Solo Stove Pi Pizza Oven: Delivery and Setup

The Solo Stove Pi Pizza Oven shipped directly from the company, and was on my doorstep a few days after I ordered it. The box was about two feet square and 18" high, and fairly lightweight. It took two people to move it, though, moreso because it was large than because it was heavy.

I found the directions to be very clear and simple to follow, and setup was done in a matter of minutes. Basically, you just place the cooking bricks into the stove, insert the fuel grate and ash pan into the back of the oven, and you're done. 

The stove needs to be placed on a flat, non-flammable surface, so I put mine on a stone patio ledge. This also made it easy to access both the front and back of the pizza oven, so we could add wood to the fire from the back of the oven as needed while also cooking pizzas from the front. 

Solo Stove Pi Pizza Oven: What's it like to use

Lighting the Solo Stove Pi

There are two fuel options for the Solo Stove Pi Pizza Oven: wood, and gas. I tried it with wood (the gas-fired attachment is sold separately, but works with the wood-fired stove).

Starting the fire wasn't necessarily challenging, but it took longer than I'd anticipated.

I think the thing I found to be frustrating about starting the Pi was that, when I went to use it, I was hoping to just throw some logs in and get it roaring, but it required a few additional steps that i didn't realize I needed to do.

The big one is that you'll need a very specific size and type of log to start the fire. The directions specify kiln-dried wood, so you'll need that. Then, the logs need to be 1" wide by 4-5" long. I had kiln-dried firewood, but it was average-sized pieces. So, before we could use it, my husband had to chop it down into little fragments. Our log pieces weren't exactly 1"x 5", but they were close-ish enough. 

The directions also specified that you'll need a small fire starter to insert into the fuel grate to actually start the fire. Luckily, I also had fire starters on hand and just trimmed one down.

Neither of these are a huge deal, just something to know when you buy the oven because it would have been a pain to have to go out and buy fire starters and hardwood if we didn't already have it.

Once we had the wood and fire starter whittled down to size, the rest of the process of getting the fire going was easy. I added the fire starter and wood to the fuel grate, lit it, and waited.

The oven heats up quickly. We had a laser thermometer (something else you will need), which we directed at the surface of the oven to track the temperature. The oven reached the ideal cooking temp, 650 degrees, in about 15 minutes, which was as advertised.

Cooking on the Solo Stove Pi

Cooking on any pizza oven requires a bit of practice and finesse, especially if you've never done it before. I'm happy to report that the Solo Stove Pi Pizza Oven was easier than some of the other pizza ovens I've tried. 

Like most pizza ovens, you roll out your pizza dough, top it, pick it up with a pizza peel, and throw it into the oven. This usually happens with varying degrees of success if you're not a pizza-slinging professional. Your pies can get stuck to the peel, or you can throw it in too far, or not far enough.

One thing I loved about the Pi: It has a handy guard at the back of the oven, which helps you figure out how far to throw the pizza, and prevents you from putting it too far back into the oven. I recently tried a more expensive pizza oven without such a feature, and it took a lot more finesse to get the throwing part right, because if you throw them too far back, you end up with a mushed-up pile of pizza at the back wall of the oven. 

The pizzas that I made in the Pi were roughly 10" wide. The max for the oven is 12", but I think it's easier to work with smaller pizzas.  I cooked the pizzas for two minutes each, per the directions, which was actually just about right. We turned the pizzas once about halfway through cooking. This can be tricky, but I found the key is to not try and turn the pizza too early. 

Note, the pizza peel and the pizza turner are part of the add-on Pi bundle, but aren't included with just the stove. I found both tools extremely useful in using the Pi oven, so if you're considering the add-on bundle, I'd say go for it. 

As for the pizzas themselves? Delicious. Mine came out a little charred on the outside, but soft on the inside, which is exactly how I like them.

The hardest part of the whole cooking experience was making the pizzas as fast as they were being eaten. 

Should you buy the Solo Stove Pi Pizza Oven?

The Solo Stove Pi is a fun backyard accessory that makes it easy to cook up restaurant-quality pizzas. 

It can be a little cumbersome to get the logs to the proper size to fire the oven, so if you'd prefer not to whittle down wood, go for the gas fuel add on to keep the process simple.

Otherwise, cooking with the Solo Stove Pi Pizza Oven is incredibly fast, and the pizzas are so.much.better. than anything you've ever cooked at home. 

Once you're done with the stove, it's also very lightweight and easy to clean and store, which is a big plus for a countertop oven. 

About our reviewer

Kaitlin Madden has lived in three of the pizza capitals of the United States (New York, Chicago, and New Haven County, Connecticut), and likes to think she knows a good pizza when she sees one. She prefers New Haven-style pizza, but New York style is a close second. She still hasn't figured out Chicago-style. 

Solo Stove sent her this pizza oven to try this spring and summer. She tested it in her family home on a covered patio.

Find out more about the Homes & Gardens testing process.

The right outdoor grill station ideas can turn a so-so backyard into your family's favorite warm weather gathering spot.

Beyond just installing the best grill or best gas grill on the patio, a grill station offers added conveniences that uplevel the entire barbecue experience. Think outdoor kitchen ideas, but purely dedicated to grilling: food prep areas, built-in sinks, extra electrical outlets to plug in small appliances, and even shelter from sun and rain. 

Outdoor grill station ideas

From planning an outdoor kitchen dedicated to grilling to shopping for souped-up standalone barbecues, these grilling stations span a range of price points, styles and backyard sizes.

1. Find the right spot for your grill station

One of the most important things to consider when planning an outdoor grilling station is where to put it so it works best for your lifestyle, says Russ Faulk, Chief Designer and Head of Product at Kalamazoo, a luxury outdoor kitchen provider.

'As a year-round griller in the Midwest, I like to make sure my grill is close to my kitchen door and located such that I can keep an eye on the lid thermometer through the kitchen window,' he says. 'Within that context, you need to factor in utility locations. Is the gas and electric already in a good spot, or should you invest in moving it to your ideal location?'

2. Add a rotisserie

If there was an award for the best grill station upgrades, this Los Angeles spread would be hard to beat.

'This particular client was a true grill master and regularly grills for his family several times a week,' says Kate Gross, whose firm Kate Anne Designs created this outdoor kitchen.  'We included a proper Argentine grill that raises and lowers over burning logs, a smoker to infuse and slow cook meats, and a grill to sear meats before they’re slow-cooked, so as to preserve the juices inside the meat. 

'The grill also has a rotisserie feature for rotisserie chicken, for example, but it's also great for cooking up hot dogs and hamburgers on a leisurely pool day. We also have a prep sink, dual refrigerated drawers to store ingredients, a drink fridge, and a “Sonic” ice machine for perfectly crunchy ice, just like you used to get at Sonic as a kid.'

Note how garden bar ideas are incorporated into the grilling station layout.

3. Use a pergola to house your grill station

A pergola can elevate the average outdoor grilling station in a few ways. 

For one, it offers shade from the sun on a hot day, which is especially welcome while standing over a fiery barbecue. Depending on the type of pergola ideas you choose, it can also create surface area for creating a small bar or serving station. And, you can use your grilling station to add ambience to your whole backyard by outfitting the pergola with string lights. 

4. Install a brick surround

A built-in grill station is a polished way to create a cook space outdoors, especially when it's covered in brick, like the one above by bloggers Chris Loves Julia. The designing duo DIY-ed this gorgeous brick surround, but if you're not quite as handy, tap a landscape architect, contractor, or outdoor kitchen company to create something similar.

5. Plan for the elements

Since your outdoor grill station is, well, outside, there are a number of factors to consider when planning for it. 'Considerations such as solar orientation, view, and cover for weather (sun/rain depending) are issues that are specific to outdoor kitchen design,' says Matt Baran of Baran Studio Architecture.

6. Create a freestanding grill station

An outdoor kitchen doesn't have to be hardscaped into your backyard. If a built-in grill station isn't in your timeline or budget this year, look for freestanding outdoor kitchen carts, islands or cabinets to create your own custom grill area. 

7. Add a pizza oven

Consider yourself a true grilling enthusiast? Then you'll need more than just a grill. 

'Smokers and pizza ovens add their specialty cooking prowess to your repertoire,' says Faulk. 'Refrigeration can make entertaining more fluid. And a sink is a critical element for washing your hands during food preparation.'

8. Get the basics right

Not all grill stations have to be over the top. Even a basic grill station can be a winning backyard idea if you get the basics right.

'The most important element of a grill station is a grill that has the temperature range and versatility needed to support the cooking techniques you enjoy most' says Faulk. 'Beyond that, you need to make it a functional space. That means counter-height work areas with enough room to handle platters, cutting boards, and ingredients; a little bit of storage space for tools to clean your grill and your charcoal and wood (if applicable); and task lighting so you can see what you’re doing after sunset.'

In this Saddlebrook Ranch, Ariz. project, designer Kathryn Prideaux designed the outdoor entertaining space around the Kalamazoo grill, from both a functional and aesthetic standpoint. It was sited specifically to take advantage of the desert views beyond the property.

9. Build a bar nearby

Serving as the default grill master is a lot more fun when you're surrounded by friends and family. Bring the party to you with an island or bar area adjacent to your grilling station, which can double as an easy spot for serving up your best BBQ.

10. Add lights to your outdoor grill station

If your al fresco dinners tend to stretch late into the evenings, be sure to add a light source to your grilling station so you can effectively flip your burgers after the sun goes down. If your grill area is adjacent to your lounge seating or a gathering spot,  choose task lighting that will add to the ambience, too. 

How do you build an outdoor grilling station?

First off, it's important to note that your local building codes will govern things like whether or not you can build an outdoor grilling station on your property, where it can be placed, how it's built, what surrounds it, and more. So, your first stop should always be to check with your local building department or zoning commission, or to consult an area builder who is familiar with codes.

Once you've ensured you're abiding by the safety rules, the easiest way to build a grill station is to use premade outdoor furniture options to fashion a layout that suits your needs. For example, placing a rolling outdoor kitchen cart next to your grill can create prep space and a spot for serving food. Or, consider purchasing a prebuilt gazebo or pergola designed to double as an outdoor kitchen area.

If you're looking for a hardscape grill station, your best bet is to hire a local contractor or landscape architect to handle the job. 

There are two ways to enjoy great pizza at home. One is to try every local pizzeria until you've found one worthy of your regular business, and exclusively order in from said pizzeria through eternity. The other is the Ooni Karu 16.

Both satisfy the pizza craving, in very different ways – but only one lets you hone your craft as a pizzaiolo (i.e. one who makes pizzas) until you've reached a level of pizza perfection you might never have experienced otherwise. I'll let you infer which is which. The more I use the Ooni Karu 16, and more importantly the more I eat the pizzas it creates (in a matter of seconds – the cooking, not the eating), the better it gets. But – full disclosure – don’t expect an easy ride.

A relationship with the Karu 16 requires its owner to overcome self-doubt, read quite a lot of instructions, rebuild lost confidence and, above all, be totally engaged with the process. I’m still in the learning phase (having tried out the Karu half a dozen or so times), but I will say I've made strides that have given me confidence that perfection is on the near horizon. I’ve also tried a fair few competing pizza ovens and can tell you that the Karu is by far the smartest, most rewarding and best-equipped pizza oven of all. 

Keep reading to hear more, then take a look at our list of  best pizza ovens to compare the Ooni Karu 16 with other top-performing outdoor ovens for your backyard.

Ooni Karu 16 product spec:

• Fuel type: wood or charcoal, or use gas with the Ooni Karu 16 gas burner (sold separately) 
• Pizza size: up to 16"
• Oven temperature: up to 950°F (500°C)
• Cooking surface: 16.7 x 16.7″ (42.42 x 42.42 cm)
• Unboxed dimensions: 33 x 32 x 20″ (50 x 81.5 x 83.7 cm)
• Unboxed weight: 62.6 lbs (28.4 kg)

Top tips for cooking the perfect pizza

The three things that no-one ever tells you about using a top pizza oven: 

It takes time to master.

You won’t get your pizzas right first time. Or the second time. There are lots of parts of the process that can go wrong – many not the fault of the pizza oven, per-se, but still a key thing to consider when you’re shelling out a serious amount of money to become your own pizza chef. 

Firstly, you'll need to hone your dough recipe, because that will be the thing that makes the pizza bad, good or amazing. Secondly, there isn’t a home pizza maker in the world who hasn’t suffered from peel-stick. Get your plan (and plenty of semolina) in place before you get the temperature up. The more you do this, the easier it will get – like with any cooking experience.

Timing is everything.

The odd thing about cooking on a pizza oven is that it messes with your usual approach to cooking. Regular cooking is usually rich in prep, followed immediately by cooking the food so that everything slowly comes together at the end. 

Using a pizza oven is mad in this regard. You’ll prepare the dough a few hours before you want to eat, then do something else. And then almost all of the actual ‘cooking’ time is actually getting the pizza oven up to temperature – before the actual cooking, which typically takes no more than a minute or two. And then you’re into the quick, intense production line of pizza cooking. This last bit – there’s no doubt – can be quite stressful. You realize that you’ve been making the pizza for half an hour, and actually cooking for about five minute.

Temperature is (also) everything.

The success of a good pizza cook lies entirely in both the temperature of the type of flame. If you can’t control the temperature then you can’t make a good pizza. And this, ultimately, is why the Ooni Karu 16 is the best pizza oven I’ve ever tried. 

There are two main reasons the Karu succeeds here. Firstly, the Karu 16 is easy to fill – the wooden fuel hatch has a removable cover and you can easily fill the grate with wood as you need – it takes five seconds (the Karu also comes with an optional gas burner). But secondly, and best of all, it comes with a digital thermometer display on the front of the oven, which takes all the guesswork – and stress – out of the whole process. 

When you know you’ve got to get the oven to 750˚F, all you have to do is watch the numbers go up – and when they go down, add some more wood in. It’s transformational.

We tried a fair number of recipes – both for pizzas and my favorite, calzone. The oven can do a lot more, but let’s master the basics first. As the dough got better and we regulated the temperature more easily – and kept it high – the pizza got better and better, and the process got easier and less intense. That’s why it pays to work at it, and get through the difficult times, and be willing to make mistakes. 

This pizza oven delivers on many levels – but don’t expect you to get through the education process without getting covered in flour (I managed to get flour in my eye on one occasion); find yourself racing through the kitchen to get another pizza in before the temperature falls and, as I mentioned, getting a base stuck on the peel just as you open the door.

Put off yet? I hope not. Because there really is nothing like the pizzas you’ll make. Ooni advertises its pizza ovens as part of the process of making childhood memories, which is a bit of a stretch – but the Karu 16 is the ultimate culinary addition to an outdoor living experience and if mastered, can be a regular part of your summer evenings.

Setting up the Ooni Karu 16 

I went straight out of the box to set up in around 15 minutes. The oven is heavy (28kg / 61lbs) and barely portable, but with decent instructions was a breeze to get into shape. All of the elements fit together quickly. Setting it up entails putting together the nine different elements – chimney, the main body of the oven, the glass door, etc. – and felt intuitive and easy to follow. 

Using the Ooni Karu 16

Unlike some other pizza ovens, Ooni’s Karu 16 is a breeze to use. We tried the multi-fuel option but owing to a shortage of propane in our area, we’ve been using wood. The fuel hatch is at the back of the oven and after chucking in a couple of firelighters and 2-3 bits of wood to get things going, you’ll quickly build a flame. You’ll need a flameproof glove to access the hatch safely as the flames can flare up when you remove the hatch to add more wood, which you’ll need to do every 5-10 minutes or so to get it up to temperature.

The oven itself is very heavy and designed for external storage rather than a truly mobile cooking/camping experience like some of Ooni’s other products. Ooni sells a pretty good-value range of tables, as well as covers. The body itself is well insulated and sturdy. The clear-view glass on the door is a big win, and enables you to check on the progress of your pizza without having to open the door, which inevitably reduces the temperature.

Once lit, the oven took around 20 minutes to get to temperature. The low and slow approach to getting to temperature definitely pays off, but you could easily meet the 15-minute target Ooni set by putting more wood in early.

We started to cook the pizzas once the oven reached 750˚F. The pizzas took approximately 90 second to cook and, well, were delicious – the crispy, bubbled base you dream of.

Once used, the oven cooled down quickly and needed little maintenance. Our glass door blackened up a bit, but it’s easy to wipe down with damp newspaper or paper towels.

How does the Karu 16 compare to Ooni’s other ovens?

Ooni has a range of ovens – the Karu, Koda, Fyra and Pro. Of the 12” (meaning you can cook a 12” pizza in them) ovens, the Fyra is the entry-level model – it uses wood pellets. Only the Karu and Pro are multi-fuel (wood and propane), and deliver 16” pizzas. The Karu 16 is the premier option, with a bigger viewing door and easier accessibility. In other words, it’s the highest-spec, although not suitable for anyone looking to live the cooking-pizza-by-the-camper-van dream – the 12” models are better for that.

Our verdict

Pizza ovens take a bit of getting used to, and reward a bit of effort. Make sure you have a handful of goes to try it out before inviting your friends over for the pizza party you’ve been dreaming about. When they come, they’ll see that Oonu’s Karu 16 is by some distance the leading pizza oven of its type available. For a pizza oven of this size and spec – a real crossover between the pro models and consumer-friendly versions – it’s very intuitive and easy to use, with some smart features (not least the digital thermometer). It’s not a portable model, but for summer afternoons on the patio, it really can be the center point of an al fresco lifestyle.

About our review – and our reviewer

Jason Orme is one of the UK's leading homes and property experts. He has worked in homes media for over 20 years, appearing in all the mainstream national newspapers as well as many specialist magazines, including Homebuilding & Renovating, which he edited for 12 years. Author of The Self Build Dream, he gives advice to hundreds of homeowners looking to renovate and build their own home each year, and has renovated and built houses from scratch.

He was sent this product to test at home in the backyard, which is how we like to test all pizza ovens and BBQs. We are not given any compensation for our reviews, but may be allowed to keep the product, meaning we can test it over a greater length of time.

The Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo doesn't have the same charming domed lid and chimney as some of the best pizza ovens we've tried, but it can't be faulted for its ability to make amazing pizza. 

What's more, the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo makes it virtually impossible to get the pizza cooking process wrong. Unlike an outdoor pizza oven, where you have to turn your pizza to ensure that it's evenly cooked, the Smart Oven Pizzaiolo creates a consistent internal temperature and even times the cooking of your pizza to make sure it won't burn.

I put the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo to the test for two pizza nights with my family, taking into account the quality of the pizza it produced, as well as how easy it is to set up and use. 

Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo: Specs

• Fuel type: electric
• Dimensions: 18.1" x 18.5" x 10.6"
• Weight: 45.6 pounds
• Oven temperature: Up to 750°F (400˚C) 
• Pizza size: 12 inch pizzas
• Pizza cooking time: as little as 60 seconds
• Use: indoor 
• Modes: 7
• Power: 1800 Watts

Setting up the Smart Oven Pizzaiolo

I was sent the Smart Oven Pizzaiolo by Sage, which is the UK trading name for Breville. Beyond the name though, the machine itself is the exact same no matter where in the world you buy it.

It comes with a pizza paddle, pizza stone, pan with removable handle, a magnetic sticker that sits over the controls to tell you what temperature to use for what type of pizza, and of course, the oven itself. 

It's pretty heavy to lift onto the kitchen counter, but I was able to do it myself. This is partly because it has a handle that makes it easy to lift from the front, and because it's quite compact for a pizza oven, you should find storing it easy enough if you have a little space to spare. 

You can place a sticker over the control panel to switch from a temperature-based display to one that makes it easy to adjust based on what type of pizza you're cooking. You can adjust the darkness of the pizza, and while the right temperature is selected automatically you can override this if you want a more crisp or more doughy pizza. 

Cooking in the Smart Oven Pizzaiolo

I have reviewed more traditional outdoor pizza ovens by making some bread dough in my stand mixer and then rolling out the dough and cooking garlic bread and a range of pizzas for the family. I find that it typically takes a few tries to get the perfect pizza, as you can see in my Gozney Roccbox review, but because of the timer on the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo I had no such trouble with this oven. 

When you select your desired temperature the oven takes a few minutes to come to temperature. It will beep loudly when it's ready, and you can shimmy your pizza from the peel onto the pizza stone, which lifts towards you as you open up the oven. 

Radiant heat will give your pizza that classic Neapolitan leopard charring, mimicking the conditions of a wood-fired oven while not burning toppings. 

My main concern when heating this oven up to the brick oven temperature of 750°F was that it would scorch my wooden countertops, which would have been difficult to explain to my landlord. Thankfully this oven has excellent heat retention and it was actually safe to touch throughout. 

Making pizza

You can make a variety of different pizzas in the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo. The highest temperature is best suited to thin-crust pizzas, and the thicker the base, the lower the temperature should be. This principle is easy enough to apply to a more manual pizza oven, but the hands-free nature of the Pizzaiolo is a real perk for those who make lots of different types of pizza.

You can even cook store-bought pizza in this oven, although if you have the time I would highly recommend making it from scratch, even if you use store-bought dough. 

My first pizza was a thin crust, and the pizza oven recommended cooking it for three minutes. As promised the upper heating element did not burn my toppings, but still created an authentic-style crust with the classic leopard-spotted (but not burnt) texture. 

I found that my mozzarella was not as cooked as I would have liked, but having tested many pizza ovens, this is a common result of adding more cheese than you need to your pizza. So for my next pizza I resumed with a "less is more" mentality, which was a lot more successful! 

What else? 

The Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo comes with a pan that's perfectly sized to sit on the 12-inch pizza stone. This is ideal for deep dish, and there's a handle that locks into place when it's time to remove. 

You are limited by the size of the 12-inch pizza stone, especially if you like your pizzas to be large enough to share, but you will find that even in an outdoor pizza oven you often face these same restrictions. 

The oven needs to re-heat between each pizza, which takes a couple of minutes. This is also the same in any outdoor pizza oven, because every time you open the oven it does release heat. 

One of the most impressive features of the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo is how easy it is to turn on and off. It took 25 minutes to reach its maximum temperature, which is very speedy for any oven. When it is switched off it takes only 15 minutes for the fan to stop cooling the oven down, and while you should absolutely proceed with caution, I was able to remove the inner pizza stone after this point. 

Cleaning the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo

As you can probably tell from the floury countertops in my review photos, I found the cooking process to be very messy when testing the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo. That said, the oven itself is very easy to clean. The pizza stone is easy to lift out and then it's just a case of washing it down with a damp cloth to remove leftover flour and semolina. The exterior is also very clean to wipe down, and the pizza peel can go in the dishwasher. 

Should you buy the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo?

There's no denying how expensive the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo is, with an RRP of $999.95. That said, it's also the most capable pizza oven I've ever tested. It does require access to a socket so you may struggle to use it outdoors, but its relatively compact frame makes it perfect for storing away when not in use. 

If you fancy yourself a pizza chef, you may miss the charred and smokey taste of a wood-fired oven. However, the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo is designed to minic the conditions of a traditional oven with the radiant heat and thick pizza stone. If you want an indoor pizza oven for your home and enjoy making meals from scratch, I could not recommend it more. 

About this review, and our reviewer

Millie Fender is our Editor for all things cooking at Homes & Gardens. She spends a lot of time testing everything from toasters to air fryers in her own apartment, and recommending the very best ones to readers. 

All our reviews are tested from home, and the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo is no exception. Millie put it to the test for a number of days with her family, making thin and thick-crust pizzas to test its full range of capabilities, before sending it back to Sage UK, who kindly loaned it to her for the purposes of this review. 

The Gozney Roccbox is a compact outdoor pizza oven that has space for cooking 12-inch pizzas. It's coated in a silicone skin that makes it safe to touch even when the interior temperature is well over 600 degrees, and it has the option to cook your pizzas using both gas and wood.

We put the Gozney Roccbox to the test to see if it's one of the best pizza ovens you can buy, and while it comes just missed out on that five-star rating, we were still seriously impressed by the design of this pizza oven, and of course, the delicious meals it delivered. 

I've reviewed many pizza ovens, including models from Ooni and Breville, so I was able to directly compare these to the Gozney Roccbox when making homemade pizza for my entire family. This review took place over the course of a few days, which gave me the chance to try out the Gozney Roccbox on both the gas and wood burners. Here's what I thought. 

Gozney Roccbox review: specs

• Fuel type: wood, gas
• Dimensions: 23 x 20 x 17 inches
• Weight: 63.8 pounds
• Oven temperature: Up to 950˚F (500˚C) 
• Pizza size: 12 inch pizzas
• Pizza cooking time: 60 seconds on gas, 3 minutes on wood
• Use: outdoor use only

Setting up the Gozney Roccbox

The Gozney Roccbox had one of the easiest assemblies of any outdoor product I've tested. Unlike the best grills, which often take a few hours to assemble, pizza ovens often come with everything you need to get started right out of the box.

I was instantly struck by how heavy the Gozney Roccbox was. I has to get my partner to help hoisting it out of the box, which was made easier by the strap around the body of the oven which can be used to take it on the go. At 63.8 pounds though, it's not one to carry anywhere. The strap will help you when loading it into your car and taking it out.

The legs of the Gozney Roccbox fold down twice to elevate it to the level needed to add a burner. I got the dual fuel model, which costs extra but means you can switch between gas and wood burning, and both attachments are easy to twist into the bottom of the oven. This makes the fuel very accessible, but you will need to reach around to the back of the oven as well as having access to the front. 

Using the gas burner on the Gozney Roccbox

While there's an undeniable charm to cooking with wood when making your authentic pizza, gas pizza ovens are very easy to use. Much like the best gas grills, it's simply a case of igniting the burner, adjusting the level of gas released, and watching your oven heat up.

I found that the Gozney Roccbox heated up very fast with gas and I was able to get going within 30 minutes. The temperature gauge at the side of the pizza oven shows the internal temperature which is very helpful, and something you won't find with less premium pizza ovens.

The pizza cooked very fast when I cooked with gas. It took around 60 seconds, as advertised, to create that classic leopard-spotted Neapolitan pizza you'll find in authentic restaurants.

Be sure to turn your pizza while cooking. It needs to be turned to cook evenly on all sides, because it's only natural that the internal cavity will be cooler towards the opening of the oven. 

The Ooni Fyra pizza oven has a removable door which helps to even out the internal temperature of their oven, and I found that this did help when achieving an evenly cooked pizza. However, this required you to fit a chimney to the top of the oven as it needs insulation at all times, so for a chimney-free oven, the Gozney Roccbox performs as I would expect.

Cooking with wood in the Gozney Roccbox

The Gozney Roccbox comes with the option of buying an additional wood burner. It twists onto the base of the oven, and has a door that opens up to reveal a cavity for burning wood blocks. I would advise giving yourself half an hour to get the oven warmed up. Even after this, I struggled to reach the optimum temperature of 500˚F, but I was able to maintain a 450˚F heat to make delicious pizzas, adding a few more blocks before each one. 

I have read a few reviews of the Gozney Roccbox that say it's impossible to cook a pizza with the gas burner, but I would disagree. Sure, it's less speedy, but if you like a deep-dish pizza it will allow you time to cook your base thoroughly while not burning the toppings. 

I did struggle to achieve a more charred, leopard-spotted base with the Gozney Roccbox on the wood-burning mode. This has pros and cons, because while it's less speedy, this means you can adapt to pizza cooking without so many burnt pizza bases and uneven results. Having cooked in a very hot wood-fired pizza oven (the Ooni Fyra) I had to really adapt to constantly watching the pizza as it cooked so it didn't burn. The Gozney Roccbox allowed me to relax a bit more, because it cooked the pizza more slowly. 

Cleaning the Gozney Roccbox

Most pizza ovens are very easy to clean. It's simply a case of waiting for the cavity to cool completely, and then wiping the pizza stone from crumbs and any leftover flour.

The exterior of the Gozney Roccbox though, is a little tricky to clean. I found that the front of the oven discolored easily with smoke, especially on the wood burning mode, and fibers easily attached to the silicone coating. I gave them a wash with a non-abrasive cloth to clear residue off and keep the oven looking its best once I had finished. 

Should you buy the Gozney Roccbox

I'm a big fan of the Gozney Roccbox, but it performs far better on gas than wood-fired modes. I'd recommend buying the standalone oven and not investing in the wood burner unless you enjoy deep-dish pizza, because it's tricky to keep the fire going with the wood burner if you want those Neapolitan temperatures. 

The Gozney Roccbox is an expensive pizza oven, and I'm not sure that it outperforms the Ooni Fyra, but they are similar in price and the Gozney is undeniably more appealing visually. I love the two colors it comes in, and the silicone coating makes it great to store in an outdoor kitchen. 

If you want a portable pizza oven to carry around with you, I would give the Gozney Roccbox a miss. However, it's perfect for placing in an RV and taking out when you want a pizza night on the road, and if you simply plan on using it at home, it's a top choice. 

About this review, and our reviewer

Millie Fender is our Editor for all things cooking at Homes & Gardens. She spends a lot of time testing everything from toasters to air fryers in her own apartment, and recommending the very best ones to readers. 

All our reviews are tested from home, and the Gozney Roccbox is no exception. Millie put it to the test for a number of days on both the gas and wood-fired burners and Gozney kindly allowed her to keep it, which is great for her pizza addiction and also great for this Gozney Roccbox review, as she can keep it updated with her ongoing experiences.