Everyone loves pizza, so why not enjoy cooking it from the comfort of your own home with a personal pizza oven? Whether your tastes run toward artisan-baked, wood-fired Italian styles with puffy, soft crusts; thin-crust New York slices or deep-dish Chicago pies, the latest home pizza ovens let aspiring pizzaiolo turn out pizzas that match — or exceed — the quality of those you’d get from most local pizza joints.
To pick out the best pizza oven, we tested 17 popular models in electric, gas, wood/charcoal-burning and multi-fuel configurations, spending more than 10 weeks making countless pizzas to find the best models for any dedicated home pizza baker. In the end, three pizza ovens stood out as the best.
We tested only two electric pizza ovens, and one of them is our overall favorite. We loved using the Pizzaiolo and consistently got the best results compared to every other oven we evaluated. It doesn’t get as hot as the competition (it can hit 750 degrees Fahrenheit (F), while wood- and gas-fired ovens can reach 900 F), but because it can control the temperature more precisely, it produces evenly cooked crusts and overall better pizzas than any other oven we tested.
The Pizzaiolo doesn’t look much like the other pizza ovens we tested. Rather, the heavy stainless steel unit resembles an oversized toaster oven adorned with three push-button dials in front — one for selecting among pre-programmed baking temperatures, one for the baking timer and one for darkness adjustment.
But this is all you need to make perfect pizzas every time: no turning, no positioning, no vent adjusting. No futzing with anything. Simply pick your style with one of the preset modes, wait for it to reach temperature (indicated by an LED “AT TEMP” light), place your pizza on a circular stone (which can accommodate pies of 11 inches or less) and wait for it to cook. It takes three minutes for a “Wood Fired,” eight minutes for a “New York,” and 18 minutes for a “Pan Pizza.” And unlike the gas-, wood-, and charcoal-burning ovens we tested, you can cook at any time of day, in any weather, indoors, in less time than it takes to cook a pizza with gas or wood if we take setup, fuel loading and preheating into consideration.
We preferred the Pizzaiolo to everything else we evaluated because of its predictable, consistent results and even cooking, which comes from the placement and electronic control of the dual heating elements — one pair of concentric circular elements set below the stone and one above. The presets let you precisely tailor the cooking chamber’s temperature by independently controlling the heating elements and the oven’s convection fan, with continuous fine-tuning courtesy of internal sensors. It’s an impressive piece of industrial design and technology. You can override the preprogrammed temperatures and set the heating elements manually, but we never explored this and we don’t expect most users will either.
It’s worth noting that because of the lower, more consistent cooking temperatures compared to gas or wood ovens, you will not get the pronounced burn marks that give your pies that “artisan” look and crust texture, with leopard-skin crust char and big crust bubbles. Instead, you’ll get results similar to those of an American pizza parlor and slice shop with a steel-deck electric setup: very evenly cooked crusts on top and bottom. But is there anything wrong with that? We think not.
We also found that the temperature indicator is solely visual and lacks an audible cue, so as you’re prepping in the kitchen, you’ll want to check for the LED after the suggested 18- to 20-minute preheat period. Nor is there an integrated thermometer to use as a temperature gauge. Also, while the oven alerts you with a tone when the pizza is done, the tone isn’t very loud and it continues cooking at the set temperature after the timer ends. Presumably, this is designed so you can reset the timer and load more pizzas, as with the gas and wood ovens, but to be safe, it’s a good idea to use an external timer.
However, these are pretty minor issues. Given the quality of pizzas we’ve gotten from this unit, it’s a clear winner, even though it’s the most expensive oven we tested. As with all of Breville’s products, the build quality is solid, and Breville’s two-year warranty support is good (longer warranties are available when you purchase directly from Breville).
While we feel that the gas-fueled Koda is the Ooni for most home pizza makers, some will want the ability to cook with either wood or gas. Thus, the Ooni Karu 2 is our pick as the best multi-fuel pizza oven. Proponents of wood ovens appreciate the added flavor or enjoy the artistry, as it more closely replicates the pizza-baking methods used in Naples.
The Karu 2 Pro allows you to use the included wood-fuel tray or install a gas burner accessory. It also adds a hinged metal front door with a large insulated handle, a glass window and a bracket-mounted external digital thermometer with a thermocouple.
We evaluated this oven with both liquid propane gas and wood configurations. Unlike the Koda, which has an L-shaped burner, the Karu has two large gas jets that replace the wood fuel tray at the rear of the oven. Installation took us about 10 minutes, with the hinged door, backplate and thermometer as the three main components that required the included Torx wrench.
In gas mode, we got results similar to the Koda 16, though pizzas tended to cook more evenly and with less effort in the gas-specific Koda. However, we had no problems getting those leopard spots and crust bubbles with Karu’s dual rear gas jets; we just needed to pay close attention to how we rotated our pizzas.
Turning to wood fuel, we couldn’t tell any difference from a flavor standpoint, likely because, at such high temperatures, we had only brief exposure to the hardwood we were using. However, we found it was much easier to overcook the pies, and more careful heat management was necessary. This is accomplished using Karu’s stainless steel vented smokestack and in-oven vent control (when the oven is in operation, you’ll want to use something other than your hands to adjust it, such as barbecue tongs, as it is far too hot).
We did get some great pizzas from the oven in wood mode, and the Karu 2 Pro’s design made the process relatively easy. In particular, the rear cover makes it easy to add additional wood and charcoal and prevents wind from extinguishing the fire.
At almost 63 pounds, the Karu 2 Pro is too heavy to be considered “portable,” so you will want to put it on a sturdy surface, such as a metal table with caster wheels, so you can move it in and out of the elements. If you intend to keep it outside, then you’ll want the cover as well. If you don’t want a large oven but still want to keep your fuel options open, the smaller Karu 12 is available for under $400.
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