Best Commercial Pizza Ovens – Top 5 Professional Pizza Ovens For Your Kitchen
Undoubtedly, Commercial pizza ovens are long-term investments. But what if you ruin this investment with bad planning? Scariest stuff!
Among top businesses in the United States, the Pizza business is one the top fields with a booming percentage of failed ventures. Reasonably, a saturation of pizza chains and high-priced equipment are the top reasons why a pizza business fails.
In this regard, picking the best commercial pizza oven isn’t straightforward if I explode some facts bombs. There is a lot of technical and business forecasting required to choose the right professional pizza oven for a restaurant, midsize bakery chain, or a big pizza parlor.
With convection and conveyor pizza ovens being the most sought categories in the pizza oven world, which is the right oven platform to choose for your business? What should be the cost and after-sales service of a pizza oven?
This detailed guide will open a path to choosing the right pizza oven for your restaurant, along with some of the top performers in the market. Let’s dive in;
How to Choose a Best Commercial Pizza Oven:
Mind it; the pizza oven plays a soulful role in the success of the pizza business. It affects the taste, timing, and business costs, including fuel and maintenance costs.
So it’ll demand a lot of effort to do perfect math before the final decision. It would be best if you chose a machine that is an all-rounder in all the departments. Look for the things that should get your FOREMOST attention while picking a professional pizza oven.
Check The Types of Pizza Ovens and Their Pros and Cons:
Pizza oven technology has evolved many folds. So, being an unknowledgeable user of this department, the first thing that’ll hit your knowledge is the pizza oven types. Now, each style has its red and green flags regarding pizza cooking; it also impacts your pizza business goals. Let’s see what I am talking about
Commercial Wood-Fired Pizza Ovens:
Uses wood as fuel, and your business always gets an impact when timber prices fluctuate. Also, you have to rely on wood type as the temperature is the soul of pizza cooking, and you should always be alert for putting wood logs before the oven gives you a temperature warning. If your goal is Neapolitan and Artisan pizza business, this should be your consideration.
Commercial Gas Pizza Oven:
Domestic and commercial areas see plenty of this pizza oven type. Yet, gas pressure is subject to change in commercial pizza oven temperatures. Higher pressure leads to a higher temperature – an obvious rule. If your goal is running a mid-size bakery with multiple baking items, this lands at the top of your priority list.
Commercial Electric Pizza Oven:
Many pizzerias prefer this type due to ease of operations and maintenance. Yet, this type also soars great temperatures to cook thin crust pizza ovens like Authentic Neapolitan and Artisans. However, the electricity and voltage consumption is dependent on the power of a commercial pizza oven.
Be Very Careful for Pizza Oven Technology to Adopt
Seeing your pizza business goal and what type of volumes you will face in the future helps you adopt better pizza oven technology. Below are the widely used pizza technologies, and see where these are impactful.
Conveyors/Convection:
Uses conveyer belt to operate fans for hot air flow. The placement of pizza on this platform is the issue. Pizza coming under uneven airflow can get burnt. The performance of the fan with temperature settings impacts the crust and cooking time.
Electric Infrared Decks:
Widely used technology with easy maintenance and operations. It uses a convection fan or infrared radiation (microwave) to heat the food to get evenly and quick cooking time. Pizzerias prefer this for low to high volume with single and multiple decks. Also, endurance is a decade long, so you don’t worry about re-investment of resources.
Dimensional Fixtures Need a Check:
It may not seem THAT important while choosing the best commercial pizza oven, but you should always map for the size, weight, and place. Factually, once the pizza oven is delivered to your site, it’s hardly returning to the vendor. The miscalculation could be a colossal blunder.
Again there will be psychological and mathematical equations for choosing a professional pizza oven. Map down your goals; if there will be a large setup with the expectation for piles of pizza in a couple of minutes, choose an electric oven with multiple decks.
On the other hand, if you want to place your oven not for a dedicated pizzeria but for a small bakery setup, you can also go with a big countertop.
Energy Efficiency Should Be the Priority:
You don’t want to drain your pizza’s profits in fuel costs. Your priority should be EnergyStar variants in terms of the electric deck and commercial conveyer pizza ovens.
And it’s also a wise move to pick one big pizza oven instead of 2 small ones. This most apparent move also cut downs approximately 23-25% of billing costs.
For wood-fired ovens, the size and temperature impact the timber cost. The higher the volume and temperature to cook pizza, the higher the fuel costs will be.
Maintenance Ease and After Sales Support – Be Very Insightful:
Mind it; your pizza oven is like a car’s engine. It’ll regularly require cleaning shots to last longer than the expected life cycle. Now, choose a pizza oven that is easy to clean and has ample availability of spare parts in the market. In this regard, always choose locally originated models to be on the safe side.
Like, there are American, European (Italy being the largest manufacturer), and Chinese models. So, according to your region, choose the right manufacturing standard to avoid any disaster in the future.
Apart from these factors, you should also consider a good warranty period, insurance facility, budget, and aesthetics in your buying criteria.
Top 5 Best Commercial Pizza Oven For Your Business
Since the oven market sees many “Legendary” oven equipment, we won’t be plunging down your mind with tons of pizza ovens terming them as best. Among the top 5 commercial pizza ovens we picked, we absolutely don’t have enough time to go through each product in seek for a best fit for their needs.
So, with our testaments and experience, Chicago brick oven CBO-750 is our champ in the commercial and professional category. This kitchen appliance poses great value for bucks, including robust build quality, incredible performance and admirable cooking speed for versatile menus. Price may be a concerning factor for lower midrange users, so you can add Waring WP-350 or 750 double deck pizza ovens into consideration. You definitely have to compromise on a quality but it’ll fit in your budget for under 1500 electric pizza ovens.
1. Chicago Brick Oven CBO-750 – Overall, The Best Commercial Pizza Oven
Why Do We Choose This? When it comes to custom pizza ovens, Middleby Marshall, Garland, Earthstone, etc., top the commercial pizza oven markets. But you know what? Why did we pick the Chicago brick oven CBO-750 model? Most of the custom pizza ovens from the above-mentioned brands range from 2K-30K bucks. But this machine under 10K$ is a serious value-packed machine for those kitchen owners who seek durability, speed, and easy usability and maintenance under a midrange budget range for a custom oven. Though it’s a little bulkier than its competitor, we guess it might not be an issue for most buyers.
Who is it for? Big kitchen spaces, High volume ventures, versatile menu kitchens, midrangers.
Who Should Avoid this?Low midrange users, congested spaces
The Best Selling Points of CBO-750:
- Highest Temperature Range: With a hybrid fuel kit (wood+ gas) the large 36000BTU burners upheave temperature to 1000F with so much ease.
- Flexible configuration: Though there will be a price difference, if you want to get services of this machine but don’t have compatible space, it comes in a versatile option for fuel and shape.
- True Value-to-Money: Highest temperature capacity, excellent build, insulation from refractory materials, simple operation, and much more on a lesser budget than its competitors.
- Variety to Choose From: Comes in multiple fuel options and body types like a countertop standalone, giving broader choices to its users.
Though the CBO series also comes with “500” and “1000” models but seeking a true value-to-money, our team’s majority vote goes to this machine seeing its capabilities in competitive pricing.
Design and Safety:
On the design part, ah, anyone can guess it will need considerable space. The manufacturer claims it requires a 10” wide, 18” ceiling, and 30” door combustible clearance; we have no comment on this part. Safety first, we agree.
As this big buddy is NSF/ANSI STD 4 certified, Candie did a thorough safety inspection. The report’s summary tells us the manufacturer has done a splendid job making the Dome, 3-Piece Hearth, Arch, Decorative Door, and Duravent Flue Anchor Plate with refractory materials.
So, on the safety and durability, it’s pretty certain users taking heavy commercial-grade ovens as a long-term investment should strongly consider adopting this bad boy.
Capacity and Performance:
It’s pretty evident with the design that users won’t see a multiple deck option in this machine; however, the 41 x 28 inches baking surface has a manufacturer claim that it can cook 3 12 inches of pizzas in one go. However, we tested the capacity and had somewhat conflicting results. Brian told us it took two 12-inch and 6” inch pan-pizza.
Yeah, we know the capacity doesn’t go with its hype. Nonetheless, the combination of an infrared Hearth 36000BTU burner (thermostatically controlled) and an Ambient Burner 27000Btu (max) quickly raises the temperature to 1000F (as per specifications). We put OAK hardwood with a 26% of moisture ratio, and it goes right towards 967F, which is truthfully outstanding.
The single burner gives a max temperature of 650F, and the infrared burner dynamically controls temperatures at 650F, which landed us with 3 super-hot and soft pizzas in only 2 minutes. The convection, conduction, and radiant model may cause a bit of confusion during your first experience with this machine.
But a little technical guy will get used to it within no time.
Overall, this machine can be the best commercial pizza oven for restaurants that seek speed, accuracy, in fact, an all-in-one package rather than putting several ovens for particular jobs.
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CONS
Alternatives to CBO-750 – Chicago CBO 500, 1000
We choose CBO-750 siblings for its competition, and it wins many races. The most prominent among these are versatility and pricing. One may not get a clear answer regarding performance and all other parameters. But versatility and value of money are what set this commercial gas pizza oven apart from its family members.
2. BakerStone 9152403 – Best-Budget Small Pizza Oven
Why Do We Choose this? For every struggling/newborn pizza or bakery venture that is exceptionally tight on budget and wants to pull THAT ONE value-packed pizza oven for their business from the market, this mini gas oven can genuinely save you under 500$ bucks.
Though it’s not that beast like its rival OONI Koda 16 and Gozney Roccbox, it can be valuable baking equipment for low-moderate pizza volumes. With plenty of goodies, the only drawback you can face here is the average customer support.
Who is it for?For budget customers, businesses with low-moderate volume of pizzas, portability lovers, minimalist design lovers.
Who Should Avoid this? Big chains with high volume, mobile restaurants with impatient customers (you’ll need multiple devices in that case), Neapolitan style pizza ventures.
The Best Selling Points of Bakerstone 9152403:
- Value Packed Device: It’s a function-forward commercial oven with the most competitive price in the market.
- Sustain Heat for Long Duration: With a 5-sided stone, we analyzed it can sustain heat better than its competitor.
- Minimalist Design: You hate tons of temperature meters and knobs? With only 2 knobs, you can easily play with temperature settings.
Design and Build Quality:
Technically, it doesn’t have the authentic essence of a commercial pizza oven if you have a picture of gigantic ovens fully faced with temperature meters in your mind. Like, we can place it more in the Portable ovens category, seeing its very compact size, minimalist design, and moderate pizza-baking capacity.
In that regard, it comes in neck-neck competition with the very famous Ooni Koda 16 and Roccbox and rings the victory bells in many departments.
First of all, if you have ever used OONI or other outdoor pizza ovens, a little difference that can bring our mysterious expression (what! where is the fire?) to your face are the hidden burners. We had the same reaction until we found two burners from side holes which also got used to checking the level of the flames.
Later on, there was another revelation during our test that the front two temperature knobs had crunchy synchronization with these burners. The feel to each knob isn’t that plastic cheap and lets you play with temperature control.
So the minimalist design is actually a goodie for newbies to understand the functionality of temperature settings with great ease. Factually, we indeed loved the ease of operation.
On the other hand, the baking chamber/deck also gave us good vibes with pizza stone skirted on all 5 sides. It sustained the heat for 51 minutes in our testing, which is somewhat higher than Ooni Koda’s 16 45 minutes. So, it is truly an impressive shot.
Performance and Temperatures:
On the baking operation side, the manufacturer mentioned it could reach 800 F with a 25K BTU burner system. Though it’s highly subjected to change with gas pressure, we tested at 748F (max) in our temperature test. These are moderately lower than Ooni Koda 16 950F temperature, but the price is a significant factor here.
With these numbers, the manufacturer also claims a 2-minute pizza baking job, yet it took precisely 3.5-4 minutes in our test to cook a Neapolitan pizza. So, if you expect low to moderate volumes in your peak hours, it can reasonably handle without any worry.
With these sorts of performances, this small commercial pizza oven continued to impress us with its ease of maintenance and dismantling. You can disassemble the top and use it on a fired grill to bake your food.
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CONS
Best Alternatives to BakerStone 9152403 – Ooni Koda 16, Gozney Roccbox
We take Ooni Koda 16 as the closest competitor in terms of performance. Though Ooni Koda 16 beats it with an easy 950F temperature, less baking time, and much control, Bakerstone overshadows many of its lagging with its highly competitive cost against the Ooni 16 600$ price tag. So, Bakerstone is a competitive package on a tight budget, while the price is what gets you the features.
3. Omcan 11387 Conveyor Pizza Oven – A Versatile Conveyor Pizza Oven
Why Do We Choose This? When you ask for a smaller package with tons of performance, you’ll find Omcan 11387 everywhere, topping the chart. We love the baking quality, efficiency, and compact body. However, price is a little factor that may give budget users second thoughts, as this pizza oven with a conveyor belt costs you over 1000 bucks. But don’t worry if you take this as a long-term investment, the price would just be a number.
Who is it for? Small-moderate volumes, Diverse Menu kitchens, congested home and commercial kitchens,
Who Should Avoid this? High-volume ventures, Mobile Kitchens, Budget Customers,
The Best Selling Point of Omcan 11387:
- Compact Body with High Performance: This isn’t a space-hungry machine with a lighter weight to make it highly portable whenever repositioning or resettlement of the kitchen is required.
- Good Performance with Moderate Volumes: For mid-size pizza kitchens, it handles upto 15 14” pizzas in one hour without compromising on quality.
- Height Adjustable Opening: From 1-3.5”, you can adjust the opening during baking to maintain the heat.
Omcan has some serious upgrades from its previous model 11385 that’s why we reported superior stability and features in this version. But if we talk about the closest competitor, we found the Vevor 30” commercial conveyor pizza oven.
Design, Build Quality, and Maintenance:
Like other small to mid-size commercial pizza ovens, the design isn’t that fancy except for the 3 dials responsible for conveyor belt speed and temperature settings. From 0-10, you can set the belt speed, and Austin reported smooth and sweet operations and crispy conveyer belt response.
As there is no stone or metallic baking chamber, the stainless steel build quality feels light considering its competitor. There are no unfinished edges, and we really embraced Omcan’s quality work while assembling this machine.
As mostly conveyor pizza ovens come with removable trays, this isn’t an exception. You can easily remove the tray, and cleaning the residual food will be much easy-peasy. Moreover, we used a damp cloth to clean the conveyor belt and other parts of the oven, and we didn’t find any case of rust or paint issues in the course of 1.5 months.
Performance and Speed:
The 14” conveyor belt with a combination of 3500W infrared heater is mainly responsible for this professional pizza oven to reach a maximum of 500F. However, it isn’t the highest number in the market with such a price tag. And against the manufacturer’s claims of 16 14” inches of pizzas in an hour, we experienced around 14 full-size pizzas in 1:07 hours.
Rounding off the additional 7 minutes, the exact time we analyzed to bake one full-size pizza lands at 4.28 minutes. This isn’t that much impressive, to be very honest, but smooth performance and good temperature settings make it a good fit for small and midsize restaurants, snack bars, and pizzerias.
The manufacturer gave 2nd and 3rd knobs for temperature settings through which you can play with the temperatures, and this little boy will respond well. So, overall, everything works super smoothly and synchronized if you ask about performance.
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CONS
Alternatives to Omcan 11387 – Omcan 11385, Vevor Conveyor Pizza Oven:
Though Omcan 11387 takes much of its inspiration from Omcan 11385, we choose Vevor Conveyor as a hard-hitting competitor. Vevor wins in many departments, like a bigger conveyor belt, less wattage, higher temperature limit, and less pricing. But Omcan being Omcan, has good build quality, much more stable heat control, and slightly faster baking gives a tough time to its opponent. But overall, we think the competition is extremely real and Vevor can be an option for those who are looking for the best commercial oven at a lower pricing.
4. Waring Double Deck WPO350 – Value-to-Money Electric Deck Pizza Oven
Why Do We Choose this? Usually, double-deck electric ovens cost you heavily. This Waring medium-duty commercial pizza oven is an all-rounder in terms of performance versus cost. It isn’t the quickest in the market, taking 12-13 minutes for a single 14” pizza, but the advantage of 2 decks makes it an average of 5-6 minutes per pizza.
The only lag considering the price range is somewhat low-temperature numbers. However, you can pick its bigger brother Waring WP075, for added features. Obviously, in that scenario, it’ll ask your wallet for “more.”
Who is it for? Space-saving kitchens, small business with versatile menus, mid-range budget customers, low-moderate volume kitchens
Who Should Avoid this? High volume kitchens, Neapolitan setups, Mobile Kitchens
The Best Selling Points of Waring WP0350:
- Sturdy Build: A tempered glass door combined with aluminized steel interior gives it a nice finish and premium touch in build quality.
- Space-saving Design: For really, really tight spaces, the double deck space-saving countertop design won’t be a hurdle for the staff to work efficiently
- Good evenly cooking: We tested Chicago style, Sicilian, and other bread types, and the results were even, puffy, and premium standard.
The Waring WP0350, as a double-deck commercial pizza oven, only comes in a race with its older siblings, WP0750 and WP070. This is because you’ll hardly find a double-decker with dedicated deck temperature control under 1200$.
Design and Finish:
The package landed at our place, and Leonard was real quick to report to us some good things about its design. The tempered glass door finish side with 4 temperature control dials on a glossy finish steel body can genuinely attract anyone’s eyeballs.
Although the specification mentions the dimension, we tested it by placing it in a 25X20X20 (W X L X H) inches corner, and it was super greasy fitting. So, for kitchens that are not very spacious in terms of equipment fittings, this countertop pizza oven for restaurants would be the right thing to adopt.
Performance and Temperature Settings:
Double deck electric pizza ovens – and it should have manual operations for each deck; otherwise, a big no to deck systems. Brian reported to us with his performance report, the WP0350 has cream-like dedicated operations for each tier.
Though the maximum temperature limit only reaches 600F, this was a disappointment for Neapolitan lovers. Besides, the cooking time for a 14” deluxe pizza and a 10” Chicago-style deep dish pizza was 10:31 and 12:49, respectively.
These numbers don’t depict the lightning-fast operations, but as it’s a double-deck, you can operate it for multiple pizzas. So technically, 5-6 minutes is a real turnaround time for each pizza. These numbers definitely won’t suit the peak of high volumes. Still, if you have a small-medium business with multiple menus under your belt, this deck pizza oven will handle the situation charmingly.
Yet to massage your satisfaction, if you want to step up further, the Waring WP075 has better temperature limits (850F) and also a bigger pizza capacity (18”) to offer.
Anyways, we tested crystal clear visibility through the tempered glass oven door. That means the inside deck happenings were pretty visible during the baking operation, and it really helped us identify the food behavior. So, we were pretty accurate while rotating our pizza after 6 minutes, and it landed us the MOST evenly cooked pizza as our first test case with this one of the best electric pizza ovens.
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Best Alternatives to Waring WP0350 – Waring WP0750, 700, 500:
The closest competitor to this countertop pizza oven is its older brother WP0750. The price difference is moderately big, but if you want the same sturdy build quality, smooth and even cooking operation, and excellent design, WP0750 is the closest call. With higher temperature limits, bigger pizza capacity, and quick turnaround time, WP0750 is the suitable machine to get fit in somewhat bigger setups than WP0350 gets in.
5. Wisco 561 – A-Well Built and Best CounterTop Commercial Pizza Oven
Why Do We Choose This? For tiny pizza startups like snack bars or bakeries, Wisco 561, upgrading from its little brother Wisco 560, is an indisputably robust cooking appliance with the most sweetly baking performance in a snappy fashion. We had little doubts about its size vs. baking capacity, but the ability to cook a 16” pizza in 3-4 minutes clears most of the clouds of dissatisfaction. The only caution you have to bear in mind is to give some ample clearance space to this machine as this runs really hot.
Who is it for? House kitchens, Tiny or low-volume snack bars and bakeries, Kitchen with Versatile Menus
Who Should Avoid this? Bigger kitchen setups, congested places with small counter tops, high volume pizzerias.
The Best Selling Point for Wisco 561:
- Extremely Sturdy Built: With a brushed stainless steel body, the joining of components as a finished product is actually well-built, and the insulation is supreme.
- Quick Cooking Time: We tested 16” and two 8-inches pizzas; the puffy and evenly cooked pizzas came out in 3.5-4 minutes.
- Heats up Quickly: Though it has a 30 min digital timer with a “Hold” option, it heats up pretty quickly.
Though there are not “a lot” of significant changes from the previous Wisco 560 model, you can experience a good cooking experience with slight modifications in usability. With that being said, it also comes in competition with Vevor 14” Commercial double-deck pizza oven.
Design and Usability:
The first thing that came into our mind was, “from where can you see the food cooking in the oven?” I mean, there is no transparent or tempered glass in the door to see your food behavior during baking. The all-steel metal door blocks the deck view, which is slightly disappointing and inconvenient during baking.
But then, Leonard gave us a report stating the overall layout is simplistically designed according to the norms of easy usability. The digital meter has sharp visibility, and the temperature dial feels super smooth to play with. Also, we hadn’t found any issue with the metal door sliding in and out.
Performance and Temperature:
Looking at baking capacity, you can imagine a shark with the belly of a dolphin. I mean, the body is bigger, but it can only hold a 16” pizza at one time. This led to a negative point when we compared it with the Vevor 14” double deck oven that can cook two pizzas simultaneously for less price.
However, if you are much concerned about the cooking capacity, turn your round dough into rectangular New York-style dough, and it’ll handle two pizzas at one time. Magic, you know!
However, we forgot everything when we set the temperature to a maximum of 650F, and this commercial electric oven gifted us a deluxe pizza with bubbling cheese in the quickest 3:53 minutes. It was a nicely browned crust rendering evenly cooked every curve of the rounded pie.
This is where it wins from its competitor marginally, and we can say it has done a superb job.
Placement and Maintenance:
The cleaning is cream-like. You can pull out the door, and there won’t be any unique stuff regarding cleaning. The only caution you should have in mind is this bad boy’s clearance space.
This bad boy runs very hotly, and if you want to place it with other equipment or separately in a rack, at least 8-10 inches of clearance space is advisable.
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CONS
Best Alternative to Wisco 561 – Wisco 560, Vevor 14” Double deck oven
The competition between Wisco and Vevor 14” ovens is tough utilizing performance and pricing. Vevor takes the lead at pricing, visibility in the baking bay through the glass door oven, and more capacity to handle volume due to its double deck system. But then Wisco 561 wins it back with quick turnaround time, build quality, and quality baking.
FAQs:
How much does a commercial pizza oven cost?
Commercial pizza ovens cost way higher than domestic ones. However, you must note down whether you want a professional commercial oven for a business venture or a “Commercial-grade” oven for domestic use. The professional pizza ovens for restaurants cost you heavily, like multi-thousand bucks (2k-50k+). On the other hand, you can also choose domestic, commercial pizza oven prices will vary from $500-$2000+.
How long does a commercial pizza oven take?
Mostly, a Commercial pizza oven reaches 1000+F and takes around 2-3 minutes on average to cook a pizza. Professional pizza ovens also cook a little quicker and hold batches of pizzas at a single time.
How hot is a professional pizza oven?
Averagely, a professional pizza oven reaches 700-800F. But to meet Neapolitan Pizza temperatures’ standards, some even reach 1000+F or even higher to cook multiple menus.