Ooni Pizza Ovens Cracked: Which Ooni Oven Should You Buy in 2023?

With so much brands offering a variety of outdoor pizza ovens in 2022, it has become even more harder now to choose the best according to your needs. Ooni, a renowned brand of outdoor pizza ovens has a lot to offer in this regard and is surely a value for money option.

But, choosing the best oven according to your priorities and budget can be tricky. This is where I come in. Welcome to pizzaforguys.com.

This post will help you choose the best Ooni outdoor pizza oven according to your need and preference.

An oven that is not a perfect fit for you might be a perfect fit for someone else because of different taste and needs.

So, the choice depends entirely upon your liking and priority of a certain feature or characteristic. I am just here to help you in that!

A Brief Intro About Ooni

Outdoor pizza ovens are great for cooking stoned pizzas on the go. Most of them don’t take a lot of time to heat up, either. The portability factor, combined with the effectiveness, makes outdoor pizza ovens worth the money.

And when someone talks about portable outdoor pizza ovens, how can they forget Ooni? A massive player of the category just mentioned. They have everything in their lineup to match your taste.

It won’t be wrong in saying that Ooni is amongst one of the few brands that are reigning in the category of outdoor pizza ovens.

Before I list some of the best outdoor pizza ovens based on specific factors, I’ll go through some of the needs that you need to look for in one. Of course, everyone is going to have different needs and preferences, and. according to that, select an oven accordingly.

Portability

Since you’re looking for an outdoor pizza, this one should be pretty obvious.

Anything under 25 kg counts as portable, and almost all outdoor ovens weigh below this. The heaviest one that I’ve came across weighed 22 kg. The lighter ones were around 15 kg.

Make sure to buy a carry cover for your oven, too. Most ovens don’t have a handle that you can use to carry them around. Therefore, you’re going to need a cover.

Durability and Lifespan

The longer an oven lasts, the better it is. This feature depends more on the brand than it does on the price tag. For example, a specific brand might have sturdy and durable ovens even in the lower price range whereas some other brand might not have as durable ovens even in their premium line-ups.

If taken proper care of, a good outdoor pizza oven can last for more than a decade. Keeping and using your oven in the rain, not cleaning it frequently and being harsh during loading and unloading are some of the things that reduce the lifespan of an outdoor pizza oven.

Efficiency and Max Temperatures

Since you’re buying a pizza oven for cooking pizzas, this is going to be your main priority. You want a pizza oven that has a short pre-heat time and has high maximum temperatures.

The industry standard for maximum temperature is 500 degrees Celsius and around 15 minutes for pre-heating. Depending on the fuel source, this varies.

Ease of Use

Some pizza ovens are meant for use by professionals. Because of this, it can be hard for beginners to use them. On the other hand, ovens meant for use by beginners might not be perfect for experts.

Only rarely will you find pizza ovens that are made for first-timers. Consequently, you, as a first-timer, won’t cook great pizzas. There’s a learning curve associated with all ovens. As a beginner, you want an oven that doesn’t take a lot of time to get used to.

Pizza Size

Most pizza ovens are suitable for cooking up to 12” pizzas. Some of the heavier ones are also used for 16” pizzas.

Outdoor pizza ovens that can cook 16” pizzas do cost some additional bucks. But for many, they are worth the money as long as they cook delicious pizzas.

You can cook pizzas greater than 16” in a 12” oven. By slicing your pizza into four pieces, you can cook your 16” pizza (or even greater) in small ovens, but of course, it takes an extra effort.

Pricing

Another big factor that most people take into account before buying is not just an oven but anything – price. Commercial ovens can cost up to thousands of dollars while the affordable ones are at usually under $500.

For some people, it is hard to spend even some extra 100 dollars. Everyone wants the best possible option in a certain budget.

There are some brands that do provide value for money in each of their product. People connect to their products well because of the value they provide. So, even if a product is costly, it is important to measure it against the value it provides!

If it justifies the price tag, it is good to go!

Fuel Source and Flavors

If you want authentic flavored pizzas at home, you’ll have to use either wood or charcoal. With gas ovens, you’ll get the traditional fast-food taste.

Though gas ovens do not provide the BBQ-like taste, they certainly are much cheaper and easy to handle than multi-fuel source pizza ovens. However, most ovens do not have an option for a direct connection with gas pipelines; they can only be used with propane tanks.

For wood, some ovens use special wooden pellets while others can get the job done with any type of wood lying around.

Best Outdoor Pizza Ovens BY OONI

Enough talking about the features and all. Here are my picks for 2022 for the best outdoor pizza ovens by Ooni based upon certain characteristics or features. I hope, Ooni caters all the needs and priorities of various people in their variety of products.

So, whether you want the best budget pizza oven, best propane pizza oven or the best multi-fuel pizza oven or the most portable pizza oven, this list will serve you (pun intended) well.

So here’s the deal. When it come to best Ooni pizza oven in 2022, here are my top picks for:

1. Best Versatile Pizza Oven – Ooni Karu 16
2. Best Spacious Outdoor Pizza Oven – Ooni pro 16
3. Best Propane Fuelled Oven – Ooni Koda 16
4. Best Beginner-Friendly Oven – Ooni Koda 12
5. Best Portable Budget Friendly Wood Fired Oven – Ooni Fyra 12
6. Best Affordable Oven With Maximum Options – Ooni Karu 12

Anyhow, here’s an infographic that will guide you to choose between various Ooni ovens depending upon your requirements!

Who doesn’t like versatility? The one with the ‘YES’ needs to be cooked in Karu 16 (pun intended). Ooni Karu 16 is as versatile as an outdoor pizza oven can get. No one beats this beast when it comes to versatility.

With every possible fuel option, this beast features a hinged oven door with a ViewFlame technology to enhance the cooking experience and keeping an eye on what’s cooking inside.

Digital thermometer mounted to the body of the oven helps you to manage the temperature while a fairly large cooking surface allows the pizza lovers to fulfill their pizza cravings by cooking 16″ delicious pizzas in Ooni Karu 16.

This is also one of the two outdoor pizza ovens in entire Ooni’s product range that is compatible (with natural gas burner installed) to cook with natural gas too.

Offering a fabulous build and perfectly fit for domestic purposes, the Karu 16 is the first and the only pizza oven that the “Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana” nominates as “RECOMMENDED FOR DOMESTIC USE“.

If budget is not your limiting factor and you want something premium and value for money, then this is the oven to go for. I mean, name a thing that that this beast doesn’t offer. Why so quiet? There you go. HAPPY BUYING!

The Ooni Pro 16 is capable of cooking 16” delicious pizzas easily. Even with 16” pizzas, there’s enough space in the oven for easy maneuvering the pizza. In my opinion, this is the unique selling point of this cutie pie. It’s opening size! You can just cook more than pizzas with the Ooni Pro 16, be it roasting meats or cooking fresh bread. It welcomes all.

Loaded with a little less features than Ooni Karu 16 and offering an immense opening size, many people love to settle for Ooni pro 16 and save some extra bucks.

This is a multi-fuel oven, so you can use whichever fuel source you feel like using. Since the oven is made for large pizzas, the oven is bigger in dimensions and weighs more (but still less than Karu 16) – to be precise, 22 kg.

Ooni pro 16 is definitely a pro oven. Prior to Ooni Karu 16, the Pro 16 enjoyed the flagship position in Ooni’s products range. Ooni’s main focus with this oven was not portability. Rather, it was the value and delivering a fairly large opening height!

For some people, controlling the temperature and making a perfect cook with wood and charcoal becomes difficult. For many, convenience matters more than the original wood flavor. Ooni caters the needs of such people with its tremendous Ooni Koda 16 pizza oven.

This cutie pie gives more control with the flame to the users as compared to other ovens with different fuel inputs. Just rotate the knob and manage the temperature.

As gas powered ovens do not produce soot, they are easy to maintain and manage.

For the families who enjoy making pizzas without any hassle, every twice or thrice a week, this is the perfect pick.

Offered at an extremely affordable price, this oven can cook delicious 16″ pizzas with ease. There is still a learning curve involved, but with time, if you master cooking in this oven, you’ll start loving it.

This oven might not offer multiple fuel options or other catchy features, it attracts the people who love sleek designed propane fuelled pizza ovens.

Last but not the least, this is amongst the most portable outdoor pizza ovens that can cook 16″ pizzas.

Here is the most important thing. Ooni will be increasing the price of this oven by 100 Euros fron 1st February 2022. So make sure to make a purchase before the mentioned date.

If you are looking to master cooking a little and then go for some expensive pizza oven or you just need to cook personal sized pizzas, then Ooni Koda 12 is the best pick. It cooks delicious pizzas and beginners love to get their hands on this one.

Being a gas powered oven and being the lightest in Ooni’s entire line-up, this oven is what every beginner likes.

This gas-powered pizza oven does not have a chimney. This gives it two advantages:

1. It’s quite light in weight
2. It’s small in size

Pre-heating to 500 degrees Celsius in just 15 minutes, the Ooni Koda 12 can cook 12” stoned pizzas in around a minute or two.

Weighing under 10 kg, this oven is a great choice for those of you who are constantly on the go.

With almost no hassle in setting up, this is pretty much the simplest oven to use; thus suited for beginners! Are you a beginner? If yes, this won’t disappoint you.

The Ooni Fyra 12 is the best budget friendly, portable and wood pellet outdoor pizza oven in the market. With valves to control the intensity and the maximum temperature of the fire, you can either cook pizzas for relatively longer times at lower temperatures or at higher temperatures for shorter times.

For getting authentic-flavored pizzas, this would be a great option. The Ooni Fyra 12 is quite affordable.

Do keep in mind that you’ll have to use the special hardwood wooden pellets provided by Ooni. These pellets are specially designed to leave minimum ash and provide the least amount of smoke. Cooking Neapolitan style pizzas at such price and at ease of your backyard comes true with Ooni Fyra 12.

The oven takes 15 minutes to pre-heat to a maximum temperature of around 450 degrees Celsius. However, you’ll have to keep the oven topped with the fuel source for consistent heat. Otherwise, the temperatures will drop.

Some of you might be thinking that the tall chimney may prove to be problematic when it comes to portability, it detaches from the oven and fits perfectly in the Ooni Fyra 12 carry case (sold separately).

The Ooni Karu 12 is a multi-fuel outdoor pizza oven which is also quite versatile in this price range. You can use any of the three fuel sources according to your needs: wood, charcoal and gas.

Weighing at around 12 kg, the Ooni Karu 12 is also quite the portable oven. Even though it weighs slightly more than the Ooni Koda 12 does, you can also use hardwood pellets, normal wood or charcoal to fire it up which is not the case with Koda 12.

Because of this, you are not bound to carry the propane tank with yourself to light it up.

For those of you who are going to be experimenting and switching up different fuel sources, this is the perfect oven.

At such a price range, this oven has a lot to offer and is enjoyed a lot by users across the globe. Imagine how relaxing it is to cook Neapolitan styled and artisan pizzas in your backyard with this beauty!

Bottom Line

Since everyone has different needs and requirements, it’s impossible to point to one oven and say, “This is the best oven for you.” I’ve tried to cover as many needs as I could come up with.

Your best could be someone else’s average and vice versa. So, the best is the one that caters your current needs and preferences.

Light weight and portability, cost-effectiveness, being multi-fuel in nature, most versatile, wood fired, propane powered or beginner friendly – no matter what your requirement is, there’s always an oven that’s perfect for you.

I have reviewed and categorized the Ooni’s ovens according to my experience and what I heard from genuine users. Therefore, I am sure that you won’t be much surprised with your experience!

Do you own any pizza oven or are planning to buy one? If so, which one?