Top 5 Best Pizza Ovens

Buying Guide

How to Buy the Best Pizza Oven

Home pizza ovens are taking the pizza experience to the next level. With an indoor or outdoor pizza oven, you can enjoy delicious pizzeria-quality slices of Italy without leaving your home or waiting for delivery. Also, depending on the size, the best pizza oven for indoor and outdoor use could be the best addition to your summer staycations and backyard parties. 

And make no mistake- besides the obvious, a pizza oven for your home is also great for preparing various food items, including bread, chicken, fish, meat pies, burgers, and so much more. 

In this home pizza oven buying guide, we’re discussing some crucial considerations when you’re in the market to buy the best pizza oven. 

Considerations When Buying a Residential Pizza Oven

Fuel Source- Is Wood, Gas or Electric Pizza Oven Better? 

The first thing to check when deciding on the best pizza oven to buy is the type of fuel you want to use. Wood, charcoal, pellet and gas are the most common home ovens. But you’ll also find models that run on electricity and some hybrids. Let’s explore the most popular options: wood and gas pizza ovens. 

Benefits and Drawbacks of Wood-Fired Pizza Ovens

Pros 

Most pie lovers argue that wood-fired pizzas are the best, particularly because of their taste. Like cooking on a wood-fired grill, these ovens bake the smoke from the woods into the crust and toppings to give the pizza nuanced flavors. Because they are versatile, you can expect anything from wood pizza ovens, from pies to cheese bread, to have this distinctive smoke flavor. 

Another advantage of wood-fired pizza ovens is their quick cooking times. These ovens can produce pizzas in 1.5 to 2 minutes, depending on the thickness of the crust. As a bonus to healthy eaters, the toppings come out extra delicious because they retain their freshness and nutrients. 

Cooking with wood-fired pizza ovens also means you can produce enough pizzas for the party or family gathering without attracting high electricity or gas bills. 

Cons

The bad news about a wood-fired pizza oven is that it may take up to an hour before building up the optimum pizza baking temperature, that is, 340˚C to 450˚C. Also, it’s a no-brainer that you need hardwoods, such as oak, maple, apple, hickory and walnut to achieve the screaming hot temperatures and smoky flavors unique to wood-baked pizzas. 

Otherwise, most softwoods will make the whole process laborious, besides leaving your pizzas and bread with harsh, bitter notes. 

Also, wood-fired ovens have a learning curve to them. You need to monitor the fire, control the cooking temperature and rotate the pizza at the right time to achieve the required crispiness and taste. 

Benefits and Drawbacks of Gas Pizza Ovens 

Pros

The major benefit of gas pizza ovens is the ease of use. By connecting to a propane tank or your home’s gas supply, these pizza ovens eliminate the need for chopping and stacking hardwood. Preheating the baking chamber is pretty fast too. By simply pushing a button, the oven quickly builds up the required baking temperatures and remains consistent throughout the baking period without needing constant monitoring. 

Secondly, gas ovens tend to be relatively compact compared to wood-fired pizza ovens. This makes them perfect for tiny outdoor kitchens that might otherwise appear crowded with the addition of a wood rack. 

Another advantage of gas pizza ovens is the ease of cleaning and maintenance. These ovens require little clean-up time because they don’t produce smoke and ash. 

Cons

Gas-powered pizza ovens are slightly more expensive than their wood-fired alternatives, although they pay for themselves in terms of convenience. Also, they tend to produce pizzas at a slightly lower rate owing to their lower operating temperatures, which lead to slower cooking times. 

Type of Wood-Fired Oven 

If you’re targeting a wood-fired oven, you’ll need to decide between a single-chamber and a dual-chamber oven. With a single-chamber oven, the pizza and the glowing hot coals are in the same compartment. This oven cooks your pizza with plenty of infrared energy, leading to the best Neapolitan cooked-in-90-seconds style pizzas . While they are the most entertaining to use, single-chamber ovens require a lot of effort and have a larger learning curve. 

With a dual-chamber pizza oven, cooking is done in the top chamber while the furnace is in the bottom chamber. The heat and smoke from the fire chamber travel through an airpath on the sides of the oven into the cooking chamber before exiting through the chimney.

Lighting the fire and controlling the heat is relatively easy with a dual-chamber oven. Dual-chamber pizza ovens also tend to be more versatile than single-chamber models because they are similar to traditional home ovens. 

However, dual-chamber ovens often struggle to deliver Neapolitan-style pizzas compared to single-chamber versions. The design also makes them relatively larger and heavier, and this may limit their portability. 

Size

There are two things to think about when comparing the best pizza ovens in terms of size:

• Cooking space- how many pizzas can it produce at a time? 

• Portability- will you be moving the oven a lot?

Pizza ovens vary in size and cooking surface. Some models have just enough cooking space for a single pizza, while some large wood-fired ovens can produce up to seven 10-inch pizzas. An oven that produces two pizzas simultaneously may be ideal for a typical US family. However, we recommend getting a larger oven if you plan on cooking pizzas for larger family gatherings or parties regularly. 

Likewise, remember to compare the ovens in terms of size and weight when shopping. Whether you’re looking for an indoor or outdoor pizza oven, you’ll want to ensure that it fits wherever you plan to position it. A lightweight and compact pizza oven will also come in handy if you plan to carry it on a camping trip or tailgating party.

Design- Countertop Vs. Free Standing

The other thing to consider when buying a pizza oven for your family is the design- do you want a free-standing or a countertop pizza oven? Most countertop versions can be placed on outdoor concrete, granite and stainless steel tops. But it’s not a good idea to put them on wooden surfaces. If you’re targeting a free-standing oven, check whether the stand is included in the package or has to be purchased separately.