Guide To Types of Pizza Ovens For Home
Pizza is one of the staple foods in most countries worldwide. Standard cooking equipment can be used to prepare various foods. But, preparing a pizza needs something special.
Preparing a pizza requires a special oven with the proper heat settings and design.
When choosing a pizza oven, you need to consider the one that can create the crust, toppings, and brown cheese to perfection.
In that case, you may be asking, “What are the best types of pizza ovens on the market?
Let’s check them out!
Here’s What You Will Find:
Types of Pizza Ovens
There are quite a lot of pizza oven classifications based on specific features of a given pizza oven.
The most general, based on placement, divide them into four categories.
The four types of pizza ovens for home use are:
- Built-In
- Countertop
- Freestanding
- Portable
Having said that, let’s look a bit more in-depth into different types of pizza ovens.
The primary characteristics define the various types of pizza ovens:
- Configuration
- Fuel Type
- Size
- Design
- Cost
We lay down all you need to know about each of the types of pizza ovens so you can make an informed decision about the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Pizza Oven Configuration
Built-in Pizza Oven
What is a Built-In Pizza Oven?
A built-in pizza oven is an oven that is built into a countertop, grill island, or separate structure. This kind of oven usually has more cooking capacity and plenty of work areas on each side.
As its name suggests, built-in is a pizza oven that can be installed with existing structures in your home.
You can integrate it with your even fireplaces or in brick outdoor grills. The base structure of a built-in pizza oven may alter its size, allowing you to choose the best according to your needs.
Countertop Pizza Oven
What is a Countertop Pizza Oven?
A countertop oven is an oven that sits on top of a table, countertop, grill island, or stand.Â
Countertop pizza ovens are the number one choice among buyers who want to save space and money.
The good thing about these types of pizza ovens is that they can produce pizzas as long as it is connected to an electrical outlet or hookup.
Moreover, you can also install it over an existing home structure to maximize space.
Freestanding Pizza Oven
What is a Freestanding Pizza Oven?
A freestanding pizza oven is usually set on wheels, making it the best option if you want to move the oven to a more optimal position when the weather or season changes.
If you have broader space in your home, a freestanding pizza oven may be the perfect choice for you.
Despite its massive size, this pizza oven is a must-have because of its advanced features.
Considering its size and function, a freestanding pizza oven is typical for outdoor pizza preparations.
Portable Pizza Oven
What is a Portable Pizza Oven?
A portable pizza oven is usually a stainless-steel lightweight oven that is smaller, compact, and can be easily transported.
Despite its size, it can reach temperatures up to 900°F, making it the best choice for cooking from almost anywhere.
A portable pizza oven is popular among homeowners with limited kitchen space.
As you can see from its name, this pizza oven requires fuel to work. But using this pizza oven can produce around two to three pieces of pizza at a time.
Types of Pizza Ovens per Fuel-Type
Wood-Fired Pizza Oven
For the ultimate outdoor dining experience, many people are buying in a wood-fired pizza oven. These types of pizza ovens can reach temperatures up to 900°F, which is unattainable in an indoor oven.
These types of pizza ovens produce intense, even heat, resulting in pizzas with crisp crusts and sizzling toppings.Â
It takes an hour or two for the oven to reach the required temperature, but the pizza cooks in a matter of minutes.
You can also use the oven for baking bread, roasting vegetables, and cooking meat.
Pizza oven kits, which cost about $3,000, are designed to be easy to install.Â
Generally, the kit is built-in in a masonry structure that can safely contain a high level of heat.
The insert may be made of porous clay or concrete combined with firebricks, and the structure is usually covered with stucco, stone, or tile.
Most cooking equipment these days has gone through many improvements.
But, a wood-fired pizza oven can outstand all modern pizza makers because of its unique capability of producing tastier pizza.
This is an excellent choice for most homeowners as it is easy to set up and convenient.
Electric
Electric pizza ovens offer a significant advantage in terms of simplicity of usage.
Simply plug it in, adjust the temperature, and start grilling. There’s no need to stress about setting up or running out of fuel, and aside from the food, there’s nothing to clean up after you cook.
Because these pizza ovens employ convection cooking, the food is cooked uniformly. These types of pizza ovens are a terrific alternative for folks who live in apartment complexes or communities where gas or charcoal barbecues are prohibited.
To avoid getting wet from rain, keep these types of pizza ovens beneath a patio or similar structure.
Electric pizza ovens make up only a tiny fraction of the pizza oven market, and they can be more difficult to find than the other types of pizza ovens, but they may be worth a look.
Electric ovens, available as built-in, countertop, or freestanding units, are easy to operate and maintain. They are also ready to cook in the shortest amount of time.
An electric oven is often smaller than its gas and wood-fired counterparts.
Many argue that the flavor produced by the electric oven doesn’t come close to what the wood-fire or gas model provides. They can only reach temperatures up to 500°F.
An electric pizza oven is often the most common among modern homeowners as it uses electricity to bake pizzas. Since it requires a standard home current, you can use it for preparing pizzas anytime.
The good thing about this pizza oven is that it produces equal temperatures, making more even pizzas. Moreover, you can use and maintain it without prior knowledge.
Propane/Natural Gas
Gas pizza ovens are those that create heat using propane or natural gas.
As a result, they are less expensive in terms of fuel, but the ovens themselves might be more costly than charcoal.
These types of pizza ovens are less difficult to utilize than charcoal and can produce gourmet-quality cuisine.
Natural gas is typically utilized as a permanent connection for built-ins, whereas propane is delivered in tanks and is thus more movable.
A pizza oven that uses natural or propane gas is another inexpensive and portable pizza oven in the market.
There are many good things about these types of pizza ovens: they require little to no maintenance, are easy to regulate, and produce a lot of heat.
Natural gas or liquid propane (LP) ovens are a trendy choice.
However, when it comes to flavor, many traditionalists won’t come near a gas pizza oven.
Instead, favoring wood-fired options. When checking a gas pizza oven, you will probably see a reference for BTU.
A BTU ( British Thermal Unit) is a standard measure of energy; it isn’t an accurate measure of an oven’s cooking power or heat output. A BTU rating is a measurement of the heat produced by the grill per hour.
Considering that natural gas lines or propane tanks fuel it, you will never worry about running out of fuel. In addition, this does not use electricity, which means that you can use it even when the power goes out.
Pellets
Pellet pizza ovens heat meals using wood pellets rather than gas or charcoal. This naturally lends itself to a taste that is unparalleled in terms of smokiness.
They’re simple to operate, and they’re a good compromise between charcoal and gas.
These types of pizza ovens take a few minutes to get up and running, but they provide excellent temperature control.
They also use convection cooking, which results in more equal cooking and less turning.
Pellets come in a variety of wood kinds, allowing for a great deal of taste personalization. Pellet grills excel at cooking “low and slow,” bathing food in delectable wood smoke for extended periods of time.
These types of pizza ovens produce crispy and best-tasting pizzas. This one works like a traditional pizza oven but comes with slight differences.
One is that a pellet pizza oven uses a different cooking method where the food is placed on a set of rolling pellets that are heated in the oven.
Small wood pellets provide the fuel and infuse the food with flavor from the smoke. The pellets, stored in a hopper, are available in a variety of flavors, including mesquite, hickory, apple, and alder.Â
The oven feeds the pellets into the firebox at variable rates – slower for longer cooking times and faster for baking pizza.
Pellet grills are increasing in popularity thanks to their energy efficiency and their clean-burning properties.
Multi-Fuel
A multi-fuel pizza ovens use different fuels to produce heat, including charcoal, pellets, and even wood.
Other multi-fuel pizza ovens can burn multiple fuel types simultaneously, allowing users to make various dishes simultaneously.
If you want to serve your guests and loved ones a pizza cooked according to their specific cooking requirements, investing in a multi-fuel is excellent.
Charcoal
Charcoal is the most traditional and widely used technique of grilling, and pizza ovens can be bought for relatively little money.
Keep in mind that these types of pizza ovens take a little longer to heat up, that temperature management requires some skill, and that charcoal might be more expensive than natural gas or propane.
Charcoal, on the other hand, has the most traditional, smokey flavor of any fuel type. This is a low-cost, classic-looking way to power your pizza oven.
Charcoal pizza ovens are the traditional cooking equipment used to prepare a pizza. This pizza oven features burners made from pre-filled bags of charcoal.
The heat produced by a charcoal pizza oven makes the pizza tastes more delicious.
Pizza Oven Comparison Table
| Type of Oven | Temperature | # of Pizzas | Pizza Cooking Time | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built-In | 500F – 1000F | 1-2 | 1 – 3 minutes | $2,000 – $30,000 |
| Countertop | 350F – 700F | 1 | 12 – 15 minutes | $100 – $12,000 |
| Freestanding | 350F – 1000F | 1-4 | 1 – 15 minutes | $1000 – $10,000 |
| Portable | 500F – 950F | 1 | 1.5 – 2 minutes | $300 – $900 |
Types of Pizza Ovens per External Material
Different pizza ovens are made out of various materials. Knowing what material is used to construct a pizza oven is essential to creating a wise decision.
Here are some of the common external materials used for making the best pizza ovens.
Steel
Steel is a good material used for constructing a pizza oven for different reasons.
The most obvious is that it creates higher thermal conductivity, which is essential for letting heat transfer through the oven evenly and quickly.
Aside from that, steel also makes the ovens sturdier, making them resistant to different rigors. Moreover, this material is also used for its structural integrity.
Cement
Another essential material used for making the external parts of a pizza oven is cement. Cement acts as a binding agent between the oven’s walls and pizzas placed inside.
This prevents the wall from absorbing too much moisture in the pizza, making the walls inedible and soggy. Aside from that, it also gives pizza ovens structural integrity.
Clay
Clays used for making pizza ovens are available in three types: attapulgite, kaolin, and montmorillonite.
This material serves as a filtering agent, improves airflow, and balances the oven’s heat temperature.
The type of clay used for making the pizza oven can affect the pizza’s texture, color, and flavor.
Brick
Did you know that a brick can also be used in making pizza ovens?
Some of you may find brick a strange construction material for this project.
But, its unique properties make it the best material for the job.
Bricks are known to resist extreme heat, creating a pizza oven that withstands high temperatures of up to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Types of Pizza Ovens per Size
When choosing a pizza oven, the first thing you may want to consider is its size.
When selecting the right size of a pizza oven, it should be large enough to hold pizza dough for a large-sized pizza but not so large that it takes up excessive space in your kitchen.
If you are looking for a pizza oven for home use, we recommend selecting a 32″-oven. This size is enough to hold at least two pizzas for personal consumption.
The Pizze, despite its name, is capable of so much more than pizza. Just about anything you could cook over a fire, in a traditional oven, or even barbecue can be done inside the Pizze in less time with more flavor.
The Pizze isn’t just adept at multiple foods, it is also available in multiple modes: You can get the Pizze in a stationary, tabletop design that looks great on patios or other fixtures, or on a sleek rolling base that gives your oven unparalleled mobility. Take it to a cookout, or leave it at home; the choice is yours.
Remember that when selecting the size of any of these types of pizza ovens, you should consider your cooking expertise, your family size, and the number of pizzas you want to make at once.
Width
The ideal width of a pizza oven is measured in a gauge. The wider the gauge, the more pizza dough can fit into it and the more surface area the pizza oven has to heat the dough.
The standard size of a pizza oven is 48-inches wide. But, you can find pizza ovens that are as wide as 60 inches.
For example, an electric pizza oven is generally narrower, measuring 32-inches wide. You can measure the pizza oven’s width from its back left corner to its rear right corner.
Depth
The depth of a pizza oven significantly impacts how your pizza is being cooked. Five inches is the ideal optimum depth for a pizza oven.
This depth size allows the pizza to bake from edge to edge without burning the toppings and cheese.
Aside from that, it also provides you with enough base space to puff up and expand a pizza dough into a crispier and golden crust.
Height
The ideal height for a pizza oven is approximately three to four feet off the ground. This ensures good ventilation, which is necessary to bake the pizza properly.
Aside from that, an optimal height of a pizza oven also provides the best vantage point, enabling you to monitor the pizza cooking. This also allows you to check soggy toppings or burnt crust.
You should also select an adjustable height of a pizza oven to help you create pizzas in different shapes and sizes.
Cooking Surface Width
Small
A small-sized pizza oven usually has less than 20 inches of surface width. You must consider the size of the cooking surface when selecting a pizza oven.
This cooking surface is small enough to handle around two to three pieces of pizza. Aside from that, this is also the ideal cooking surface for residential use that can manage to fit in a pizza screen or pizza pan.
Medium
A medium-sized pizza oven has a cooking surface width of 20″ to 21″. This size is wide enough to cook more than three pizzas and transfer heat evenly.
Moreover, this measurement of a cooking surface will also give you enough space to flip and rotate pizza dough to avoid burnt crust.
Large
A large pizza oven features more than 30 inches of cooking surface width. This is an ideal size for homeowners living with large family sizes.
A large pizza oven allows you to cook several pizzas simultaneously without worrying about soggy toppings and burnt crusts.
Types of Pizza Ovens Designs
Single-Dome Chamber
The single-dome pizza oven is a traditional pizza oven with a unique design. It uses a single, large cooking chamber to heat the air within the oven.
These types of pizza ovens designs result in the crispy, well-browned crust and the traditional flavor and aroma you’d expect from a wood-fired pizza oven.
Single-Barrel Chamber
A single-barrel pizza oven is an oven with a small barrel-shaped chamber that heats the air to create a hot, even baking surface.
This results in a pizza with a thin, crisp crust and a delicious, chewy, bubbly center.
Dual-Chamber
A dual-chamber pizza oven is a pizza oven that uses two different heat sources: one high-heat source and one medium-heat source.
The high-heat source is typically used to heat the stone or bricks to cook the pizzas.
The medium-heat source is generally used to heat the air circulated throughout the pizza oven to prevent the pizzas from burning.
Budget per Type of Pizza Ovens
The main cost associated with pizza ovens is the initial purchase price and installation costs.
Due to significant variations in size, features, and quality, their pricing also varies greatly.
Depending on what you want, a basic domestic oven usually costs less than $1,000 to buy and install, but it can go as high as the sky, according to what you select.
A typical well-designed pizza oven can cost from $3,000 to $15,000 plus any installation costs.
Here’s a quick guide to domestic pizza oven prices.
Cost per Type of Pizza Ovens
| Oven Type | Fuel Type | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Indoor (Countertop & Portable) | Electric & Gas | From $50 to than $1,000 |
| Outdoor (Countertop, Free-Standing) | Gas, Wood-Fired, Pellets | From $1,000 up to $10,000 |
| Indoor (Built-In) | Gas, Wood-Fired | From $3,000 up to $10,000 |
| Outdoor (Built-in) | Gas, Wood-Fired | From $3,000 up to $15,000 |
Less than $500 – If you are on a budget, you may want to consider a pizza oven that costs less than $500. You may think of Mimiuo, Ooni Koda, or Ooni Karu pellets, gas, and multi-fuel pizza ovens.
$500-$1000 – If you are willing to spend a little higher than your standard budget for a pizza oven, we recommend you invest in the Ooni pizza oven. You can rest assured that the pizza ovens produced by the brand are of high quality.
$1000-$3000 – Expensive pizza ovens are also some of the best. If you are willing to spend up to $3000 for a well-functioning pizza oven, it would be best to invest in Ooni Pro pizza ovens that are pellet-, wood-, and gas-powered.
$3000- $15,000– The most expensive pizza ovens have the most advanced features. Mostly, wood-fired pizza ovens are of the highest cost. If you are willing to spend more than $3000 amount of money, we recommend you purchase Alfa pizza ovens.
Types of Pizza Ovens FAQs
What Kind of Pizza Oven is Best?
Consider investing in a gas pizza oven if you search for the absolute best pizza oven. Gas pizza ovens use gas flame burners to heat the oven.
This often results in better temperature control and consistency.
How Do I Choose a Pizza Oven?
Pizza ovens are available in different types and styles. Some are massive, while others require small spaces.
It would be best to choose the pizza oven based on your budget, pizza needs, kitchen space, and experience level.
What Size Pizza Oven Should I Buy?
Several factors will help you determine the size of the pizza oven you will need. Some of them include the number and size of pizzas you want to make and the size of available space in your home where you want to install your pizza oven.
Many pizza ovens are compact enough to fit in most homes in most cases. But, if you’re going to cook large-sized pizzas and want to replicate a professional oven’s performance, we highly recommend you invest in a large-sized pizza oven.
What is the Best Size for a Pizza Oven?
A pizza oven comes in different sizes. But 32″ is the ideal size of a pizza oven for home use.
A 32″ pizza oven has enough space to prepare two medium-sized pizzas. Beyond that, the area is also wide enough to ensure that the pizza receives equal heat and you have enough space to rotate it.
The Last Slice
We hope this guide helped you find the best types of pizza ovens for your baking needs. Remember, you can be one of the best pizza bakers if you use the correct type of pizza oven.
Do not forget to consider the size, style, budget, and cooking needs when selecting the best pizza ovens.
Additional Resources on Pizza Ovens
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Enjoy!
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