Pizza ovens

oh sorry my bad, was getting the price of the 12 mixed up with the 16. In that case it seems to be 500 for Ooni vs 450 for the Roccbox with the Ooni potentially being available at 400 (20% discount) on Black Friday, so either way the difference is only 50 euro. The Roccbox comes with a 5 year warranty compared to the Oonis 3 years which is an advantage though given they have no moving parts and are made from stainless steel that shouldnt rust Id wonder what can really go wrong with them (except for the stone cracking but they can be replaced cheap enough). The Roccbox claims it is restaurant/commercial grade but the sales blurb doesnt seem to go into any detail on what that actually means, from what I can see both of them are made with 304 food grade grade stainless steel. Maybe the Roccbox has better insulating properties or something but for domestic use the Ooni is more than adequate.

The Roccbox does come with a pizza peel though which the Ooni does not. From the specs the Roccbox is 315 x 340mm cooking area which is smaller than the 16 inch Ooni so thats a consideration too. The Roccbox has the option of adding a wood burner (extra 100 euro) which the Koda does not, if you wanted to ever use wood you'd have to get a Karu instead for the option to use wood.

Given the prices are reasonably similar Id say your choice comes down to mainly aesthetics and which one you prefer the look of. For me the Ooni wins there, it just looks like a nicer design. Whatever one you go for though they are both going to get up to 500 degrees with both delivering excellent pizza. So I think Id go with the Ooni, especially if you can get it for 400 on Black Friday

Looking at a Ooni Frya for christmas, everything ive seen there doesn't seem to be much of a downside to the pellets vs gas, is this true?

I got my Frya last November/December.

Go for it, it's great fun and learning how to make good bases is too.

Ah yeah that’s fair enough. I will say you can get a small 5kg bottle - I would say if you’re gonna lug the oven somewhere with a peel etc it shouldn’t be much more hassle to bring the gas but I get what you mean. They’re not light by any means!

We have a karu, so slightly different. Personally I prefer the taste when we use wood/charcoal to cook but it does take minding and we'd mainly only use it if it was for ourselves and we were in no rush between pizzas. Gas however is far handier in terms of not having to mind it. If your cooking a few pizzas that you want out quickly like if you have a few friends over or whatever gas is definitely the easiest.

What temp does it get to?

Im sure itll work but if it doesnt get hotter than a normal oven then just use the oven!

I have a Karu with gas attachment. My experiences of gas and wood are different to yours. I find the wood more convenient, easier to use, and much more reliable. I don't find the gas gets hot enough either. Tops out at 400-420 for me at the centre of the stone (which Ooni say is as design)

What temp should stone be before pizza going on? It was reading 420 at the back and maybe 320 at the front, after about 15 minutes lighting (gas).

Ooni are putting their prices up for the US market, they said they are not planning it for the EU market at the moment but fair warning that it could happen at some stage. The price of shipping and matierals is what they are blaming it on

At least they are giving notice of the price rise to allow people who planned to buy an Ooni to avoid it. Still they're getting expensive, the Koda 12 is the entry level for most people and thats heading up to $399 in the US

It depends on the yeast. What one did you use. There is fast action, instant dry, etc, etc. What does the packaging say?

Need some advice. We are getting on great with our Koda 16 but we are finding that we are getting a lot of residue on the stone after the first pizza which is inevitablly resulting in over char on the base of all the other pizzas. The first one is always perfect.

Its definitely not a result of holes in the dough/sauce or cheese getting on the stone as there are no holes when the pizza comes out. We have reduce the amount of flour on the peel to just what is necessary to stop it sticking.

Ideally there would be something that we could use to brush out out between pizzas, but it is just so hot in there we would worry any tool would melt or burn? Any suggestions?

Use fine semolina when launching instead of flour,and flip the stone over each time you start it up that helps too.

We did try scraping with the peel but because of the gas flames there isnt really any where for it to go, plus not too much came off with the peel. A brush would be ideal but again we have the heat issue.