What's new

Ooni outdoors Pizza ovens, anyone tried?

As part of another forum I participate on that is dedicated to pellet grills, a group of 40 of us funded the purchase of one to be tested, reviewed and ultimately raffled off to one of us. This was the wood fired, pellet burning model. The short answer is Meh, not great. The slightly longer version is that it was quite finicky, had a steep learning curve, didn’t burn clean and really took 2 people to operate it be most effective. The guy who won did some further testing and trials with limited spotty success and then talk of it completely ended. That is telling, because if others had bought it and were happy with it they would be talking it up. I know I for one was really interested in one but after the trials I dismissed it.
 
That's pretty much what i'd seen/read when they were first released, uneven heating, problems i think with the pellet feed maybe but since then haven't gone looking for further reviews, . They do now offer propane versions or conversion kits for the pellet burners. Wonder if they've worked out the issues with the pellet version or whether the gas models resolve any of those early issues.

They have managed to stick it out for a number of years now, must be convincing some that it's a worthwhile product.
dave
 
I have a pizza stone that has handles that i put right onto the grate of my grill. It gets plenty hot and is a lot of fun when entertaining and we serve hot pizza from the grill!
 
There is no way my wife would allow a dedicated pizza oven on our little deck. I already have a BBQ and Kamado out there.

We have been using this on our 3 burner VermontCastings NG BBQ for a few years now, with great success. 1 large pizza fits in it or 2 calzones at a time. I was skeptical at first but it's one of the best additions to my outdoor cooking repertoire.

This was lunch on Saturday

IMG_20190622_113901_01.jpg
IMG_20190622_122659_01.jpg
IMG_20190622_123409_01.jpg
 
Thanks Bruce, looks interesting but, I can't tell from the picture what is it, it's not something i recognize. It may be just the thing i'm looking for.

I was looking at the Ooni because the extreme high temperature they claim. In our oven i can get upwards of 550F for pizza, on the gas grill i can bury the 600F thermometer and get very good results but i'm curious about those 900F plus, Neapolitan temperatures.

dave
 

FarmerTan

"Self appointed king of Arkoland"
My wife worked all the way through high skool at a Pizzaria. We may make one ourselves, wood fired for outside. Or just keep dreaming and talking about it.
 
My wife worked all the way through high skool at a Pizzaria. We may make one ourselves, wood fired for outside. Or just keep dreaming and talking about it.

The thing dreams are made of, hope it sees the light of day!
dave
 
Thanks Bruce, looks interesting but, I can't tell from the picture what is it, it's not something i recognize. It may be just the thing i'm looking for.

I was looking at the Ooni because the extreme high temperature they claim. In our oven i can get upwards of 550F for pizza, on the gas grill i can bury the 600F thermometer and get very good results but i'm curious about those 900F plus, Neapolitan temperatures.

dave

Okay tracked it down, even Canadian Tire carry them and nice price... too big for my grill, two burner Napoleon with rotisserie burner, grill area is 22 x 14.

Conversions for a 22" 'Kettle'?
dave
 
Yeah, sorry @davent .

Mine is a 3 burner grill and it just fits on. It's a Bakerstone Professional from Costco a few years back. They still sell them but not the stainless Pro one.

I'm guessing it goes up to 600* or so, I'll check it next time for fun, even if it doesn't suit your needs. It claims pizza in 2-3 min or something stupid, but we have never been close to that. It's fast, but 6-7min fast. Basically a mini ceramic oven. I've done them on the Kamado too, but I'm afraid to take it up to 700-900* and have it crack.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. You could always fabricate a brick oven for pizza. A guy at work is always looking and talking about making one.
 
No problem Bruce, i'd never seen one before, looks like a cool solution.

My wife saw me checking out the pizza grilling options and thinks pizza would be a good meal for the long weekend, no, start of summer off. Need to whittle down choices to two, so many to try for the first time, so many liked to revisit, then there's best suited to the grill methodology.

dave
 
Thanks Bob, from my wee bit of reading so far, that one seems to be the King of the castle of the Weber Kettle-style conversions. One of the other ones i came across was saying 10lbs of charcoal per cook which seems a bit much. More reading/research to be done. Amazon Canada does carry the KettlePizza as well as others so at least they're options beyond hillbilly hacks available up here.
dave
 

garyg

B&B membership has its percs
I use a stone on a raised grid on the Big Green Egg, equipment I already have. Dome temps +700° F, have only had a crack in the fire ring, which was cheerfully replaced by BGE under the lifetime warranty. You need to be careful not to get it too hot, or the crust will char before toppings are cooked.
 
I have the pizza attachment for our green mountain grills pellet smoker and it works quite well. Basically you remove the grates and other internals and it connects directly to the fire box. Can reach 900 plus temps and works great.
 
Thanks all some new avenues to explore.

Roccbox Portable Wood and Gas Pizza Oven | Gozney

Get a Roccbox and you'll never want for more. I picked one up three months ago and have been making the best pizzas of my life. Heats up to 930 degrees F in 30 minutes using propane, talk about perfect crush. Pizzas are done in 60 seconds flat.

Build quality is exceptional as well.

That's a beast, like a hot rodded Ooni. I'd need to set up gofundmepizzaobsession campaign to finance a trial. Nice oven!

I use a stone on a raised grid on the Big Green Egg, equipment I already have. Dome temps +700° F, have only had a crack in the fire ring, which was cheerfully replaced by BGE under the lifetime warranty. You need to be careful not to get it too hot, or the crust will char before toppings are cooked.

I'd heard those would get well up there in temperature, far higher then what i'm achieving.

Not to worry about the toppings, usually our pizza are pretty simplistic, stripped back and the only topping goal for the bake is to melt the cheese and warm anything that went on cold. We'll precook toppings if need be. Lots gets added after the bake, greens, herbs, anchovies, grating cheeses, olive oil... For oven baking we've cracked eggs on top before the pizza goes in and some ground meat mixes we'll add in raw blobs and they cook fine in a 550F oven, not sure how i'd approach those at the much higher temperatures.
dave
dave
 
Haven't tried one or seen one in the flesh, anyone?

Started out as wood pellet ovens but now they cover a number of fuel options. Screaming hot hitting the temps we're supposed to be baking at.

Ooni Wood-fired Pizza Ovens - Powering the outdoor cooking revolution
dave

Yeah, I've bought one for my dad. He's not a great cook, tbh, though he likes pizza very much and wanted to try.
At first, that was difficult to pick something because my dad nor I knew what specs is needed for good home pizza. Then I referred to reviews on pizzaovenradar which my friend recommended to check. I don't really like reading reviews and all, but when you need to grasp a subject quickly I have to admit that they're very helpful.

Dad's oven is always on the backyard and never moves farther than to the barn at bad weather. Though it's really lightweight, easy to disassemble, not to quirky. The most difficult thing is to lit it up. What goes next -- easy breezy.

Sorry for no pictures -- I'm not the type of person that likes taking photos of food.
 
Roccbox Portable Wood and Gas Pizza Oven | Gozney

Get a Roccbox and you'll never want for more. I picked one up three months ago and have been making the best pizzas of my life. Heats up to 930 degrees F in 30 minutes using propane, talk about perfect crush. Pizzas are done in 60 seconds flat.

Build quality is exceptional as well.
IMO the Ooni Koda is better than Roccbox. Check out the graphic towards the bottom of this page that reviews all of the pizza ovens (having difficulty attaching it). The L shaped burner seems to do better than the jet engine in the back of the Roccbox. I personally have never used the Roccbox, but have used a different Ooni model with a torch burner and definitely preferred the Koda burner.

Edit: direct link to photo I found https://palapizza.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/ooni-oven-burner-styles2.jpg
 
Top Bottom