This shows you where the hot spots are, of course, but over time you’ll also learn your oven’s natural heat map. Temperature Capability: A pizza oven should at least reach around 700°F, as anything lower will give you difficulty in getting that perfect char. The Koda 16’s larger cooking surface and wide opening not only let you make bigger pies but also afford you more maneuverability inside the oven.

Fatty meats would likely splatter grease on the heating element and cause plumes of smoke even bigger than those we already saw when baking pizzas on the oven’s highest heat setting. LED indicators are integrated into the design, providing visual cues to indicate the status of the oven.

The Ooni Karu 12 Multi-Fuel Pizza Oven runs on hardwood kindling and lump charcoal for fuel (either independently or combined).

I tried using canned air, but that didn’t do much other than fling the leavings around inside the oven. And, as mentioned above, it has its quirks: The hopper can be prone to jams, and it’s normal for flames to shoot out the back of the firebox when you remove the door to launch or rotate the pizza. If you don’t have outdoor space for a portable pizza oven, the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo bakes pizzas just as well as our other picks but from your kitchen countertop.An infrared thermometer is the best (if not only) way to measure the temperature of these pizza ovens. Wood pellets: We found that the pellet-burning pizza oven we tested (the Ooni Fyra 12 Wood Pellet Pizza Oven) was the most convenient of the solid-fuel models.

The same argument applies to the wood-pellet oven we tested: If you keep the hopper full (and flowing), you’ll have consistent heat. That said, they all reached more-than-sufficient temperatures needed to cook satisfactory pizzas in below- and near-freezing conditions.The oven’s refractory stone plate, measuring 32 centimeters in diameter, guarantees optimal cooking results.

It’s best that you invest in two 12-inch-wide pizza peels: a wooden or bamboo peel for dressing and launching pies into the oven, and a metal peel for rotating and removing the pie. Thankfully, the Karu also burns lump charcoal, which is easier to both light and fit into the firebox. Compared with the Koda 16, the Fyra’s smaller stone and oven opening feels a little more cramped for maneuvering your pizza while it cooks. The first time I used the Koda 16, I melted part of my puffer jacket on the oven roof and—wait for it—stuck my face too close to the opening and singed my eyelashes.Wind naturally draws heat from the firebox in the back, through the oven cavity, and up the chimney. But this fireball does come with some quirks that make it trickier to use than the propane-fueled Ooni Koda 16. Unlike our portable oven picks, which are meant for the backyard, the Breville Pizzaiolo is an indoor countertop appliance that’s loaded with preset cooking functions.