How we test pizza ovens
Here's how our experts put pizza ovens to the test to tell you which ones cook the perfect fresh pizza.
Last updated: 13 Apr 2022
If you love cooking pizza and have mastered making your own dough, then a pizza oven is likely to be on your wish list. The right oven will take entertaining your guests up a notch – but how do you choose the right one?
On this page:
We’ve put a selection of pizza ovens to the test so we can tell you which models work best.
Our expert testers and kitchen lab
There’s no doubt our home economist Fiona Mair and test coordinator
Chantelle Dart know their way around a kitchen. With 30 years of combined
experience between them, they’ve seen lots of new technology enter the kitchen space,
including the increasingly popular air fryer.
Fiona and Chantelle
know how to put kitchen appliances through their paces and
pizza ovens are no exception. They carry out their testing in CHOICE’s kitchen lab, which is kept up to date with the latest reference machines and calibrated measurement tools so we can bring you the right results.
How we choose what we test
With a range of products on the market, what makes us choose one pizza oven
over another to test? As with most of our product testing, our aim is to
test the most popular models on the market and what you’re most likely to
see in stores.
We survey manufacturers to find out about their range of models, check
market sales information and also check for any member requests to test
specific models. From this information we put together a final list that
goes to our buyers, and they then head out to the shops and purchase each
product, just as a regular consumer would. We do this so we can be sure
products are the same as any consumer would find them and not ‘tweaked’ in
any way for better performance.
How we test pizza ovens
The CHOICE Expert Rating, which helps determine the pizza ovens we recommend, is made up of a performance score (50%) and an ease of use score (50%).
Performance
Fiona and Chantelle put pizza ovens through their paces by making their own
pizza dough to cook fresh pizzas to assess each oven’s performance.
They test with a thin-crust and thick-crust pizza to assess the ability of
the pizza oven to evenly cook a fresh pizza with differing base
thicknesses. The goal is to achieve a crisp, firm, golden base with evenly
cooked toppings that are moist and not dried out, all within a short period
of time.
For the larger pizza ovens, Fiona and Chantelle also conduct a roasting test to see how
well the oven can roast a chicken (a non-uniform food containing bones and
a centre cavity that can dry out, as some parts cook faster than others).
For ovens with multiple shelves, an additional multiple-shelf cooking test
is conducted, cooking pork and potatoes (though this test does not contribute to the overall score).
And as with other kitchen appliances such as ovens
and
cooktops, when we’re done testing, we get to eat the results. One of the perks of
working at CHOICE!
Ease of use
To work out how straightforward the pizza oven is to use, we look at:
- how easy it is to cook pizza in it
- how easy the pizza ovens are to move around
- how stably they sit on the bench or floor
- how easy it is to ignite and use the controls
- how easy they are to clean.
Related
Rebecca Ciaramidaro is a Content producer in the Household team at CHOICE. Rebecca writes about a wide range of children's and household products, ranging from cots and strollers to ovens, BBQs, espresso machines and electric blankets. And also grocery items such as nappies, sanitary pads and laundry detergents.
Previously at CHOICE, Rebecca worked as a Test officer in the kitchen lab.
Rebecca has a Bachelor of Science (Nutrition and Food) from the University of Western Sydney.
Find Rebecca on LinkedIn.
Rebecca Ciaramidaro is a Content producer in the Household team at CHOICE. Rebecca writes about a wide range of children's and household products, ranging from cots and strollers to ovens, BBQs, espresso machines and electric blankets. And also grocery items such as nappies, sanitary pads and laundry detergents.
Previously at CHOICE, Rebecca worked as a Test officer in the kitchen lab.
Rebecca has a Bachelor of Science (Nutrition and Food) from the University of Western Sydney.
Find Rebecca on LinkedIn.
