Pizza Oven review

Important criteria to consider when buying an oven:

  1. Size of the cooking floor: a standard pizza is 30 cm wide, you want an oven that let you to rotate it easily and you are not too close to the flame otherwise it will require a lot of attention and you can easily burn the borders. While the pizza cook, you want to start to prepare the second one, you don’t want to turn the pizza every few seconds or remove it from the oven to rotate it.  
  2. The stone material: for the Neapolitan pizza style, the Clay is the best, it has the lowest heating conductivity of 0.3 w/mk. Firebrick stone has a heating conductivity in the range of 1.0 w/mk , Cordierite is in the range of 3.0 w/mk
  3. Size of the chamber: with a bigger chamber it is easier to rotate the pizza, you have better visibility and you can cook other dishes, not only pizza.  
  4. Gas or wood-fire: Gas is more convenient, you turn on the flame, you wait 20 – 30 minutes and you are ready to go. You also regulate the temperature on demand when you need to reheat the stone. Especially for the Neapolitan style pizza, you need to count the seconds. The wood flame is difficult to manage with the small ovens, bigger ovens are easier to use with the wood, you use big piece of wood that make a constant flame. You also want to use Beech or Oak wood.   
  5. Durability: a pizza oven can last several years, consider that you will store it outdoor, even in the shed the humidity can be high. 
  6. Metal Chamber or bricks: Metal chamber can heat really quickly, in 20 minutes, stone can require an hour or more. If you cook a lot of pizza(hundreds), the bricks are better, they keep well the heating and it can also be used to cook bread.  

The most popular 1 Pizza Oven in comparison:

   Clementino Hybrid  Ooni Koda 16  Roccbox
 Fuel type  Gas, hardwood, or charcoal briquettes  Gas Gas, Hardwood kindling, or charcoal briquette  
 Stone material   Firebrick 3 cm thick, 1.0 w/mk conductivity  Cordierite 0.5 cm thick, 3.0 w/mk conductivity   Firebrick 3 cm thick, 1 w/mk conductivity 
 Floor dimension  60 x 40 cm  40 x 40 cm  31.5 x 34 cm
 Preheat time  30 minutes  20 minutes  25 minutes
 Recovery time between pizzas  1 minute and it cook up to 10 pizzas before the need to make a longer recovery  1 to 2 minute but it needs a longer recovery after cooking 3 – 4 pizzas  1 minute and it cook up to 5 pizza before the need to make a longer recovery
Insulation  Chamber 3 cm thick Fiberglass and and  2.5 cm thick insulated board under the stone  Limited insulation on the chamber and no insulation under the stone Chamber 3 cm thick Fiberglass and stone 2.5 cm thick insulated board under the
 Weight  `40 kg  18 kg  24 kg
 Good for other foods?  Good for grilling any type of food  It fit a flat pan    It fit a small and flat pan
 Price  790 Euro 499 Euro   469 Euro

Verdict

Roccbox: it has a nice style, however the cooking floor is small and it has a higher learning curve to cook pizza well. The flame can be too close to the pizza and you need to make them small. 

Ooni Koda 16: good price, it has some limitation using a thin cordierite stone, it is also not well insulated. 

Clementino: this is a small professional oven, it is made with the same material and in the same way of the high-end models. A person can move it but it is not so portable, it is delivered in a pallet. You can cook different dishes and if you use wood, you can also use beech and oak. Beech is the most used wood in pizzeria for the smell characteristic and the flame it makes. 

Bigger oven:

There are several option for bigger models and most of them are valid. The biggest differences is if to select a metal body or the bricks model. The gas option is always a plus, you will end up using the gas most of the times. When you spend more than a thousand euro for an oven, the style is also important on top of the practicality. To don’t go wrong, I would rely on brands that make pizza oven since years and use the best materials. I am including below video review of the Pizza oven I consider to be the best.  

Alfa One
Top of the range - 1 Pizza - wood fired

Clementino
Best value - 1 Pizza - wood fired

Alfa 4 Pizze
Top of the range - 4 Pizza - Wood Fired

Clementi Pulcinella
Best value - 4 Pizza - Wood Fired

Alfa Dolce Vita
Top of the range - Hybrid Gas and Wood - 4 Pizza

Clementi Pulcinella
Gas - 4 Pizza

Clementino Hybrid
Gas and Wood - 1 Pizza