The Ooni Pro 16 used to be Ooni’s premium and flagship outdoor pizza oven till the arrival of its successor; the very great “Ooni Karu 16“. Ooni no more manufactures Ooni Pro 16 now as it made Ooni Karu 16 available in the market, claiming that it’s much improved and better than the prior.
Though Ooni still entertains the warranty and issues regarding Ooni pro 16, but Ooni has officially decided to stop its production. That is the reason it is not available to buy on their official site now. However, you can still buy it from amazon or check from any of your local stores. They might have the old stock.
Ooni Pro 16 was reviewed by me when Ooni used to manufacture it. However, you are more than welcome to read its full review. Anyhow, I was much satisfied with this oven. But, Ooni Karu 16 is definitely a gamechanger! You must consider to buy Karu 16 now if you were planning to buy Ooni pro 16. A sincere advice!
Ooni Pro 16 is a bit different from other ones in different aspects. Let me tell you, it’s one of the most loved ovens from entire Ooni’s outdoor oven ranges! This is the reason why you’ll find it “out of stock” or “sold out” mostly.
Without any further delay, Let us just have a quick glance over this beauty and later the specs.
Side view of Ooni Pro 16
Front view of Ooni pro 16
Rear view of Ooni Pro 16
Table of Contents
A QUICK GLANCE ON SPECS:OONI PRO 16
SPECIFICATIONS
- Quad fuelled
- Reaches 950 Fahrenheit in twenty to thirty minutes
- Cooks pizzas in around 60 seconds
- Large cooking surface
- Can cook other than pizzas (bread, meat etc.)
- Mounted analog thermometer to monitor temperature inside oven
- Spacious internal area that allows to cook 16 inch delicious pizzas
- Foldable legs
Being a multi-fuel pizza oven, the Ooni Pro 16 has a lot of potential and creates a room for maximum cooking versatility. Let’s get into what makes this oven a good choice.
But, let us just give you OUR TAKE on this oven first.
OUR TAKE ON:OONI PRO 16
What We Like
- Versatile as multi-fuelled
- Ability to control the heat via door and chimney
- Achieves higher temperatures easily
- Cooks good pizzas if mastered
What We Don’t Like
- Gets pretty dirty after some cooks
- Gas burner kit is sold separately
- Small fuel capacity when cooking with wood
- Need to rotate the pizza to get an even cook
Now, Let us just start with full in-depth review of Ooni pro 16!
Build
The oven, like many other Ooni ovens, has been made from stainless steel. Technically speaking, it is made from “high-grade brushed stainless steel.”
The steel is of the perfect density. It hits the sweet spot of strength and weight. The steel is light enough for the oven to be portable and strong enough to not experience a dent when taking a light blow.
What’s Inside The Box?
1. Ooni pro 16 body
2. Oven door
3. Oven door with thermometer and see-through glass pane
4. Oven chimney
5. Baking board composed of cordierite stone
6. Fuel tray door
7. Burner tray for Wood/Charcoal
8. Ooni pro 16 chimney cap
9. Stone guard
10. Ooni pizza oven gloves
Portability
This isn’t exactly this oven’s strong point. Don’t get me wrong; it is portable, but it’s barely portable. Personally, I wouldn’t like carrying such a heavy object.
The Ooni Pro 16 weighs 22 kg (48.5 lbs). Compared to other models like the Ooni Koda 12, this model is almost 100% heavier. Comparing it to even other models, it still is pretty heavy.
However, it isn’t something that you’ll have a huge problem carrying out. Yes, it will cause you some inconvenience but nothing serious.
If the ease of carrying out is your priority, this might not be a good fit for you. However, considering its size, I think that’s justifiable. For a 16“ outdoor pizza oven, 22 kg isn’t that much.
In terms of portability, I would rate it an 8.5/ 10 – not the brightest but it gets the job done.
Durability
Being made from high-grade brushed stainless steel, the Ooni Pro 16 really is a sturdy build. The build quality and durability is the same as those of its brothers (except the Ooni Fyra 12 which is made from Carbon).
If taken proper care of, you can get five years easily with this. Ooni itself gives you a three-year warranty. This goes to show how much Ooni believes in its products.
Though the steel is strong and sturdy, exerting pressure at a small point can cause the surface to be de-shaped slightly. Normally, this isn’t going to be a problem.
It definitely cannot withstand rain. You’re going to have to buy the Ooni Pro 16 Carry Cover for that. Even if you don’t plan on keeping it in the rain, I would still suggest you get the cover.
Dimensions of Ooni Pro 16
Efficiency
Here’s the deal. Don’t expect this to give extraordinary performance. The performance boost really isn’t there.
Its efficiency is the same as those of the Ooni Karu 12 and slightly worse than that of the Ooni Fyra 12. The Ooni Pro 16 is nowhere even close to the Ooni Koda 12, though.
The preheat time is around 20 minutes in which the oven heats up to around 500 degrees Celsius (950 degrees Fahrenheit). The temperature is exactly the same as those obtained by Ooni’s lineup of outdoor pizza ovens.
This oven accommodates 16” pizzas easily. Since the area of the pizza is larger, you might expect the cooking time to be a bit longer than the normal one. However, that is not the case.
A 16” pizza cooks in the same time as a 12” one cooks in. The reason is the surface area. However, the fuel consumption is slightly more in 16” ovens.
Power Source
The Ooni Pro 16 is a multi-fuel outdoor pizza oven. It can run on gas as well as wood and charcoal. Here’s some information about different fuel sources:
Gas
If you’re looking for the traditional fast food taste, this is your best option. You still won’t get that exact flavour as you need an electric oven for that. However, this is much better at providing that flavour than wood and charcoal are.
You cannot use the oven by attaching it directly to a gas pipe. You’re going to need the gas burner (which means more $$$). The gas burner can be attached to a propane tank (and not directly to a gas pipe).
You can get the Ooni Pro 16 Gas Burner from here.
Wood and Charcoal
The classic BBQ flavour can only be experienced by cooking a pizza with wood and charcoal. The type of wood and charcoal also influences the flavour of the pizza – not to a great extent, though.
The wood/charcoal is fed to the oven through the fuel tray door. You can feed it wood, charcoal or a combination of both.
Gas Consumption
This is a pretty large pizza oven. Consequently, it sucks up gas pretty quickly. The oven will use around 1 lb/ hour. Even though the Ooni Pro 16 is almost the same size as the Ooni Koda 16, its fuel consumption is 20% less than the Ooni Koda 16.
If we do the maths, the cost for the gas comes out to be just around a dollar per hour.
Two Doors
With the Ooni Pro 16, you get two doors. According to your usage, both can be used. Here’s what each door should ideally be used for:
Postbox-style Door
This door can be used for any fuel type. However, you can only use it for maximum 14” pizzas. For 16” pizzas, you’re going to have to use the other door.
Glass Viewing Door with Built-in Thermometer
To cook 16” pizzas, you’re going to have to use the glass viewing door. This can only be used with wood and charcoal. Using this with the gas burner isn’t safe. The flames from the burner can be dangerous for the door.
Cordierite Stone Baking Board
Ooni also provides you with Cordierite stone baking boards. These are heat-resistant, and they can easily withstand the heat inside the oven – even that of the flame of the gas burner.
This is best used with wood and charcoal. The 0.6” stone baking boards give the base of the pizza a perfect finishing. For a non-traditional (like those of fast food) flavor, this is perfect. This, coupled with charcoal or wood as fuel, gives pizzas a great BBQ type of flavor.
The pizza stone is the largest one I’ve seen in outdoor pizza ovens. Measuring at 17.7 x 17.7”, the stones make cooking pizzas easier.
Ooni Pizza Oven Gloves
Since this is a part of Ooni’s pro lineup, they’ve included some accessories as well. It’s the same thing as Apple giving special stickers with their pro products. One of these accessories is the Ooni Pizza Oven Gloves.
These are heat-resistant gloves that one can wear while cooking a pizza. Though the oven is insulated quite effectively, it still cannot control the amount of heat that passes out the oven door.
These oven gloves are pretty effective, by the way. Not only will they keep your hand safe from the radiated heat, but also from conducted heat. In simple words, you can also grab hot objects with ease.
Pizza Flavour and Control
Depending on the temperature and flame, you’ll get different flavours of pizzas. Extremely high temperature and low cooking times will give you crusty bases while slow cooking times at medium-high temperature will give you a consistent cook.
Unlike with the gas burner, you don’t get a lot of control over the temperature. The gas burner’s knob makes things easier and effective. With wood and charcoal, you’re going to have to experiment with the two valves.
Here’s a tip: for more cooking time and slow cooking, keep the valve of the chimney closed. That way, the temperature will be lowered a bit and some other sciency stuff also happens.
Pizza Sizes
You can make up to 16” pizzas easily in this. Even with the 16” pizza, there is enough extra space in the oven for maneuvering the pizza.
If you want to use the 12” and the 14” pizza peel, you’ll have to use the postbox-style door.
You can cook all sizes of pizza (up to 16”) in this, but I recommend going with 12”, 14” and 16” ones.
If you want to cook pizzas larger than 16”, you’re going to have to split up the pizza into four pieces. Since everything is manual, all four pizza pieces may not be cooked exactly the same.
How to Assemble Ooni Pro?
Curious to know about assembling Ooni pro together?
- Just unfold the legs.
- Get chimney in place and lock it. Place the chimney cap in place.
- Place the stone front cart into the bolts that are in front of the oven and tight the nuts.
- Place all the four stones in place above the bolts.
- Adjust the door in front with hinges in place.
- Place the hatch lid at rear side of oven.
- Open the front door and place the wood/charcoal tray behind the stones and at the back of the oven.
Still not there? Relax! Watch the video below to get the things done. Thank me later.
Cooking with Ooni Pro
Now that you have assembled the Ooni pro together, I am pretty much sure that you are highly pumped to cook your first pizza in it. Even my mouth is filled with water now. Hurry up and watch the video below to get your Ooni pro in action.
3-year Guarantee
Ooni gives a one-year guarantee with all of its products. However, you can extend that by up to two more years by getting your product registered on Ooni.
The 3-year guarantee is something that reflects Ooni’s confidence in their products.
Pricing
The Ooni Pro 16 indeed gives many features, but at what cost? At first I thought that the oven is a bit overpriced. But if you look over the features and the versatility it provides, it definitely takes your vote in its favor. However, the price could have been more balanced if some accessories would have been provided with the oven.
Only the oven costs $600 (at the time of writing) and is extremely in demand. This is the main reason that the oven mostly remains sold-out or out of stock on Ooni’s website.
Secondly, Ooni offers attractive discounts on some of their variants of pizza ovens. This attracts more buyers and they prefer to take advantage of the deals.
Price to Performance Ratio
This oven gives a decent price to performance ratio. That’s because this is a premium oven loaded with versatility. Newbies are caught in the learning curve when making their first pizzas, therefore they don’t rate this oven that much that much good than what it truly deserves.
When a product focuses on providing the most features and value to the consumer, the product misses out on the price to ratio thing. But in my opinion, Ooni pro 16 still has a decent price to performance ratio. I would say it’s 8/10. I prefer it over the Bertello Grande.
I would’ve given this a slightly lower number, but I gave it a (comparatively) larger one because of its longevity. Because this product can last for around 5 years, I would say you should go for it if you’re looking for something premium in the long run.
Anyhow, I came across some owners who complained that it’s body caught rust right after a couple of cooks. They also mentioned that the oven was kept away from rain and other probable factors causing rust.
Worth It?
The target audience of the Ooni Pro 16 isn’t exactly the average consumer who prefers cheap ovens and for whom, cooking pizzas is just twice in a month. It’s meant to be used by professionals and the ones who like cooking pizzas more often.
If you’re going to be using your pizza oven almost twice or thrice every week consistently, this is a great option. However, if you’re just planning on throwing a pizza party every now and then, I would suggest you look for other pizza ovens like the Ooni Koda 12 (most portable outdoor pizza oven) or the Ooni Fyra 12 (another multi-fuel pizza oven).
For businesses, the Ooni Pro 16 is on of the best outdoor pizza oven because of its lifespan and features.
No doubt, their is a learning curve involved but people love this once they have mastered cooking in this oven.
Have you tried this oven or planning to buy one? let us know in the comments.
