What’s in the Box?
The gas-powered Stoke pizza oven package comes with everything you need to kickstart your home-made pizza experience:
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Oven body
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Cordierite stone
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Assembly tools
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Pizza peel
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Pizza cutter wheel
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Delallo pizza kit
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Carry case
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User manual
Assembling and Setting Up the Stoke Gas-Powered Pizza Oven
Like its wood-fired alternative, the gas-powered Stoke oven has some assembling. But the process takes around 10 minutes, and it’s straightforward. An Allen key is the only tool you need for the assembly and is included in the package.
The Stoke gas-powered pizza oven will arrive in a large box with all the detachable parts stuffed inside the oven body itself.
- Step 1: Place the oven body on a flat surface and fold out the four legs at the bottom.
- Step 2: Install the temperature gauge. Start by screwing the nut off and slide the thermometer into the top of the oven. Next, screw the nut back on from the inside.
- Step 3: Unwrap the Cordierite cooking stone and slide it inside the oven body from the front.
- Step 4: Attach the heating unit. The heating unit/igniter attaches at the back of the oven body using three screws. Start by inserting a screw into each hole, leaving them loose and jutting out a bit. Next, align each of the three holes on the igniter with its respective screw so that the igniter is flush with the oven body. Lastly, use the Allen key to tighten the screws to the body.
- Step 5: Attach one end of the included propane hose to the igniter and the other to your 10 or 20-pound propane tank.
Dimensions and Portability
Portability is the key selling point for the Stoke gas-powered pizza oven. There are two size options for the Stoke gas pizza oven: 13” and 16”.
The 13” Stoke gas pizza oven is 23” long, 19” wide, and 13” tall and weighs 34.7 lbs. The 16” Stoke gas-powered pizza oven is 25” long, 21.5” wide, and 13” tall and weighs 46.8 lbs.
Broadly speaking, the two sizes are within the range of what pizza lovers consider portable. Compared to the competition, the 16” Stoke gas pizza oven is about 35% lighter than the wood-powered Ooni Karu 16” oven, which weighs 63 pounds.
Of course, a big part of Ooni Karu’s weight comes from its chimney, fuel tray, and grate. All in all, the Stoke is the clear winner here if you plan to bring your pizza oven to your outdoor adventure trips, and weight is at a premium.
Both sizes of the Stoke pizza oven come with a free all-weather bag. It’s a sturdily built weather-proof bag with handles that let you bring the home-made pizza experience wherever you go.
Build, Design, and Features
The Stoke oven has a clean and sleek design thanks to its black color and curved and straight lines. Its body is made of premium cold-rolled steel, guaranteeing a durable and corrosion-resistant product.
This oven doesn’t have any features out of the ordinary. It’s just a simple gas-powered pizza oven designed to do its thing without a lot of frills. It has a built-in temperature gauge to eliminate guesswork. Its legs fold out from the bottom to elevate it and fold back for easy portability when it’s time to pack up.
Like other Stoke ovens, the gas-powered model uses a cordierite pizza stone. Cordierite is a heat-resistant mineral added to ceramic to make it stronger and more durable than conventional ceramic. But it really stands out in its ability to withstand high temperatures without cracking. The result is a pizza stone that heats up quickly and evenly to deliver pizzas with crispier crusts and no cold spots.
Functionality- Cooking With the 16” Gas-fired Stoke Pizza Oven
The gas-fired Stoke pizza oven can use a 15 or 20-pound propane tank. But your local hardware store or Amazon has special adapters that you can use to connect it to a small camping gas cylinder. After connecting the heating unit to the propane tank, all that’s left is to turn the knob counterclockwise to ignite the burner.
Stoke gas-fired pizza oven 16” takes 15-20 minutes to heat up the stone to 900 degrees F. The best part is that you don’t have to keep adding more pellets to maintain the temperature, as it’s the case with wood-fired ovens.
As you wait for the stone to heat up, spread your dough and top it up with your fillings. Remember to finish building your pizza on a nicely dusted peel to make loading it into the oven easier. Go light on the sauce and toppings so the pizza heats and cooks evenly.
Place the finished pizza in the middle of the pizza stone. Pay close attention to the pizza as it cooks. Because the back of the oven is naturally hotter than the front, it’s important to keep rotating the pizza 45-90 degrees every 20-30 seconds to prevent it from burning. The 16” Stoke gas oven cooks pizzas in 2 minutes.
How Well Does the Stoke Gas-powered Pizza Oven Cook?
Pizzas from the Stoke gas ovens come out with a crispy crust and char marks on the side, just like real Neapolitan pies. The toppings cook nicely, too, because the curved roof of the oven deflects the heat back to the oven.
There will be a learning curve, especially if you’re new to making pizzas at home. But it’s not as steep as using a wood-fired oven. The trick is to let the internal pizza stone warm up for at least 20 minutes so the bottom of the pizza cooks evenly. Secondly, remember to rotate the pizza frequently throughout the two minutes. And if you find the flames too hot to manage, use the knob at the back to kick it down a notch.
Stoke Pizza Oven Pricing and Policies
The 16” version of the Stoke gas pizza oven costs $577.99 at the time of writing this review. The 13” model is $100+ cheaper at $445.99. Stoke often throws up to 33% discounts on its pizza ovens, saving pizza lovers several hundred bucks.
All Stoke pizza ovens come with free shipping and a 365-day trial. With the full-year trial period, the experts at Stoke will do all they can to help you get used to cooking pro-style pizzas from your Stoke. However, Stoke promises to refund your purchase if the oven still doesn’t work for you within the first year.
What Current Users Say
Going through Stoke gas pizza oven reviews, most users pointed out three major things about this oven: affordable, easy to assemble, and straightforward to use.
Even before factoring in the discounts and the freebies, Stoke ovens come at a lower price than other brands. And they do that without compromising the overall quality and design of the oven.
Because this is a gas-powered oven, it’s generally easier to assemble and operate than its wood-fired alternatives. The first pizza is almost always a disaster. The learning curve is the only complaint we came across. But things get easier with every pizza you make.
The ability to dial in lower or higher cooking temperatures is another biggie for most people. They say the versatile pressure regulator allows them to experiment with all styles of pizza, from Neopolitan to east coast style pies.
Some users wish the oven had a door to keep the heat from escaping and eliminate the need to keep spinning the pizza. While it’s a good suggestion, we doubt it would solve the issue of the back of the grill being much hotter than the front. But most people easily overcome this hurdle by letting the stone heat up for 20 minutes and rotating the pizza regularly. The pizza only takes 2-5 minutes to cook anyway, depending on how much heat you’re using.