Ooni koda 16 on table
Outdoor Pizza Ovens Pizza Ovens

Ooni Koda 16: Is it worth spending money?

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One of Ooni’s budget outdoor pizza ovens that can cook 16″ pizzas is the Ooni Koda 16, a portable, gas-only pizza oven that can be taken anywhere with ease.

This beauty is surely liked by many people who used it. I have rarely came across negative reviews of this product.

It is indeed one of the most like propane powered pizza ovens on the planet. But what makes it so? Let us dig down!

As far as my experience is concerned, the Koda 16 was definitely successful in impressing me.

Let’s first have a quick glance over this cutie pie!

Front view of Ooni koda 16 with burner on
Front Side View of Ooni koda 16 with burner burning

Front-Side View of Ooni Koda 16

Side view of Ooni Koda 16

Side View of Ooni Koda 16

SPECIFICATIONS

  • Gas Powered (works with natural gas too using a conversion kit)
  • Can Reach 950 Fahrenheit in 20 minutes
  • Vast cooking area opens plenty of cooking options
  • Unique L-shaped flame that reduces the number of turns for full cook.
  • More portable as compared to other ovens that can cook 16″ pizzas
  • Foldable legs
  • Lovely design
  • Powder-coated carbon steel body

If you are looking to buy a pizza oven that cooks 16 inch pizzas and  is portable enough to be taken anywhere, then Ooni Koda 16 is probably your best bet. A wide range of pizza enthusiasts can certainly appreciate the quality construction and ease of use of this oven.

Here is an infographic image explaining my likes for gas powered pizza oven – Ooni Koda!

infographic showing advantages of gas powered pizza oven ooni koda

OUR TAKE ON:OONI KODA 16

transparent logo of Ooni

What We Like

  • Sleek design makes it more portable in 16″ pizza ovens category (except for the part that you still have to carry the cylinder if not using a natural gas line connection)
  • Very stable and steady flame
  • Easy Setup
  • Fabulous build

What We Don’t Like

  • Loses much heat due to front door opening
  • Need to rotate pizza continuously
  • Cleaning pizza stone is difficult due to design
  • Need to learn stone temperature difference with respect to burner to cook best pizzas

Build Quality

The oven is made of powder-coated carbon steel, giving it a sleek matt black look, and stainless steel to help it be sturdy. Despite such heavy metals, the Koda 16 is relatively light weight; coming at just about 18 kilograms it is one of the lightest outdoor pizza ovens on the market that can cook 16″ pizzas.

With no compromises on any material or build quality, Ooni has managed to roll out a product that is portable, durable and extremely stylish.

Ooni koda 16 top view

What’s Included in the Box?

When you buy the Ooni Koda 16, you’ll get the following things:

what is in the box of Ooni koda 16
  • Ooni Koda 16 Oven Main Body With Folding Legs
  • Cordierite Pizza Stone Baking Board
  • Gas regulator and hose to connect to your propane tank

Ooni Koda 16 Oven Main Body With Folding Legs

This is the actual oven in its small form factor.

Cordierite Pizza Stones

As stated later on, pizza stones are the corner stone (pun intended) of any pizza oven, helping heat distribute evenly to the dough.

Gas Regulator and hose

This assembly allows he propane fuel to be directly used with the Ooni Koda 16.

Dimensions

The unboxed dimensions of the Ooni Koda 16 are 25 x 23.2 x 14.7” (63 x 58 x 37cm). The cooking surface is 16 x 16” which makes the total cooking surface area 256 square inches.

The boxed weight of the whole oven (and accessories) is 27 kg (59.5 lbs) while the unboxed weight of the oven is 18kg (39.6 lbs). The low weight of the oven makes it a great choice for those looking for a portable sixteen-inch pizza oven.

Ooni koda 16 front dimensions
Ooni koda 16 side dimensions
Ooni koda 16 front width dimensions
Ooni koda 16 inner dimensions

Fuel

This is one of the biggest draw backs of the Ooni Koda 16. Its fuel restriction of simply being a gas powered oven reduces versatility a lot.

It also works against one of the Ooni Koda 16’s biggest selling points of being a portable oven. Really defeats the purpose of being portable if you always have to chug around a giant tank of propane for it to work. This is my own opinion.

Your opinion might differ as many people don’t consider carrying propane tank a hassle.

Anyhow, gas powered ovens do let you have more control over the flame. So, there are always trade offs! It is a matter of your personal likings.

Gas

If you want to cook using a gas, you’re going to have to use a propane tank; you can’t make a direct connection with the pipeline.

Using a propane tank is simple enough, simply assemble the included gas regulator and hose in to the main body of the Ooni Koda 16 and attach a propane tank. The side-mounted regulator provides ease of access, as opposed to previous models where the regulator was back mounted.

a propane gas cylinder

Now coming to the best part, you can also power up this oven by using natural gas as a fuel. But for this, you’ll have to order a separate natural gas conversion kit for Ooni Koda 16.

image of natural gas conversion kit for Ooni koda 16

With gas, you have a lot more control over the temperature and fire. With the knob of the gas burner, you can control how much gas passes through it and thus controlling the temperature.

L Shaped Gas Burner

Since the Ooni Koda 16 is only a gas powered oven, the company made sure it could use that to its full advantage. The cooking chamber is surrounded by an L-shaped burner that distributes heat extremely efficiently across the cooking surface. However, you will need to rotate the pizza so that the other part is also well cooked and the one half does not burn. See the difference in heat intensity with respect to the burner in the image below. This will give you a bird’s eye view of hoe to manage temperature difference and master the art of cooking the perfect pizza.

image showing internal temperature difference in ooni koda 16

In order to ensure that you cook the best pizzas, you will definitely be needing an infrared digital thermometer if you don’t have one. Infrared thermometer by Ooni works pretty well and you can get it by clicking here.

Ooni infrared thermometer

Pizza Stones

Cordierite pizza stone is included in the package. Of all pizza stones, cordierite is the best one; they are durable, can withstand high temperatures, and retain heat for a pretty long time.

It’s quite generous of Ooni to include pizza stones in this price range. The cordierite stones are 0.6” inch (15mm) thick ones.

cordierite baking stone board for Ooni Koda 16

Since these pizza stones can retain a lot of heat, they help with the conduction in the process of cooking pizzas. Though conduction can take place even without these stones, it’s much better with them.

If your baking stones gets lost or in any case broken, you can get the baking stone for Ooni koda 16 separately by clicking here.

Pre-heat Time

Despite the lack of a door to prevent escaping heat, the Ooni Koda 16 takes roughly the same amount of time to get to a functional temperature of 900 degrees Fahrenheit (approximately 500 degrees Celsius), as other, larger ovens from Ooni, such as the Ooni Karu 16 and Ooni Pro 16.

Despite the same heat up time, the Ooni Koda 16 does use up considerably less propane than the other models, however, other models being multi fuel ovens do provide more versatility with charcoal and wood pellets as well. That’s a trade-off you’ll be making.

Set up

The Ooni Koda 16 is one of the simplest ovens to set up, with only 3 components: the oven body, the propane hose and regulator and the pizza stone. One can have their oven set up and ready for use in under 10 minutes.

Setting Up and Cooking with Ooni Koda 16:

Setting up the Ooni Koda 16 is extremely easy. Just unfold the legs, place the pizza stone inside the oven and attach the propane tank. Yes, that it. You are ready to cook your first pizza in it. Watch the video below to know how easy it is to set it up and start cooking right away!

Fuel Consumption

The fuel consumption, as stated earlier, is low with the Ooni Koda 16. 1.3 pounds of propane can be used to make up to 10 pizzas.

The large L-shaped burner helps the Ooni Koda 16 distribute the heat throughout the cooking surface very quickly. On top of its fuel consumption being very low, it’s also uniform. A win-win situation. In fact, it is efficient because of the uniform heat distribution.

Efficiency

Once the oven has been pre-heated to the recommended temperature, you can cook stoned pizzas in around a minute and a half, absolutely perfect for any occasion.

After around 15-20 seconds, you will have to turn the pizza. For that, the Ooni 16” Pizza Peel works ok – not great, though. You’ll have to buy a separate item if you want to flip your pizzas “perfectly.”

Iron Cast for Versatility

If you want to use the Ooni Koda 16 for cooking food products other than pizza, you’ll have to use the iron cast. Without the iron cast, you won’t be able to cook anything other than pizza since the stones are not very well suited for other applications, such as steaks.

You can use any iron cast – it need not be of Ooni. However, if you still want to get all your things from one place, you can get Ooni’s iron cast from here.

There are different iron casts for you to choose from. You can get the Ooni Cast Iron Sizzler Pan, Iron Grizzler Pan, Skillet Pan or Dual-Sided Grizzler Plate from Ooni’s website.

Ooni Dual-sided Grizzler Plate

black colour Ooni dual sided grizzler plate

Must Haves

If you have bought Ooni koda 16 or still planning to buy on, I will recommend that you also buy the following accessories so that you can get the max out of your pizza oven. It would be so generous of Ooni if they would have included these must haves in the package, but they haven’t. So for now, you will have to buy them separately.

Ooni Koda 16 cover

If you want that your oven lasts longer, then this must not be just an option. This should be in your buying list. This will give your oven the max protection when unused. You can buy the Ooni Koda 16 cover by clicking here.

image of Ooni koda 16 cover in black color

16″ Pizza Peel

To slide the pizza inside the oven, you will definitely be needing a peel. This also helps in rotating the pizza so that you can cook evenly and do not but some particular side of the pizza. You can get the 16″ pizza peel from Ooni by clicking here.

image of 16 inch pizza peel by Ooni

Pizza Turning Peel

Some people find it difficult to turn the pizzas using a rectangular shaped pizza peel. So for them, the circular perforated turning pizza peel is the right fit.

you can get this turning peel by clicking here.

Image of turning pizza peel by Ooni

Pizza Sizes

As the name suggests, you can cook up to 16-inch pizza easily in this oven. Technically, you can also cook pizzas greater than 16 inches. There is a workaround.

Cut pizzas larger than 16” in either two or four parts (according to the size) and cook the pizza pieces separately.

If you are planning a pizza party and confused how much pizzas to cook and of what size, you may find this post helpful.

A Few Downsides

Of course, this product isn’t perfect; it does have a few downsides. Here are some of the things that I don’t like about the Ooni Koda 16.

No Door

The lack of an oven door, or even an attachment that can serve as a makeshift door really hinders the Ooni Koda 16.

The front end and back end of the cooking area have very different temperatures and you will have to rotate your pizza in order to avoid burning on one side.

Difficult for beginners

The Ooni Koda 16 is not recommended for beginners to use; there is a learning curve to baking the perfect pizzas, which is why this is model is not suited for one to start learning on.

Gas Option

The gas burner option is a very good option to have, it gives a lot of control to the user and helps with the Ooni Koda 16’s learning curve.

However, it being the only option hinders the versatility of the device, and, as mentioned earlier, counter acts the advantage of it being portable since you will always need a propane tank on you to make it work.

Iron Casting for Other Food Products

For other food products, you’ll have to use iron casting pans that are sold separately. Come to think of it, it does make sense. The Ooni Koda 16 is an outdoor pizza oven. Any extra feature is something extra.

Still, I believe they should’ve given at least one casting iron to use with the oven – especially considering the price point and that it is marketed to be useful for cooking things other than pizzas as well.

Bottom Line

The Ooni Koda 16 is a solid portable outdoor pizza oven. It combines a sleek and sturdy design with an easy to set up and use experience.

Ooni Koda 16

The oven is designed to be only used with propane tanks and natural gas (with conversion kit). However, for $500, the oven is pretty good. Its price to performance ratio would be a high 8.5/10.

Food products other than pizzas can also be cooked/prepared in this. However, they would require a separate casting iron pans which are sold separately.

Have you tried the Ooni Koda 16? If so, how was your experience with it? Let me know down in the comments.

K16 - US

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