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Most indoor pizza ovens reside in local pizza joints or professional kitchens. Stand-alone pizza stones for the oven were about as close as home cooks could get for years. However, the proliferation of outdoor pizza ovens has encouraged appliance designers to make ovens designed to pump out Neapolitan-style pizza right on your counter. In our tests, the No. 1 choice for this task (and many more) was Ooni’s Volt. The best indoor pizza ovens will allow you to get restaurant-quality results at any time of year without leaving the house.
Best overall: Ooni Volt
Best splurge: Breville Pizzaiolo
Best compact: Piezano Electric Pizza Oven
Best value: Cuisinart CPZ-120
Best budget: Nordic Ware Pizza Stone
How we chose the best indoor pizza ovens
Our indoor pizza oven recommendations are based on hands-on testing using both homemade and store-bought doughs. We focused on making Neapolitan-style pizzas, which require high heat (temperatures between 850 and 900 degrees Fahrenheit) that goes well beyond a standard oven. While pizza dough recipes abound online, we used a recipe found in Pizza Night: Deliciously Doable Recipes for Pizza and Salad by Alexandra Stafford.
This pizza cookbook accounts for the fact that a home chef may have access to a dedicated pizza oven and provides recipe variations specifically for this purpose. The big difference is in the hydration level in your dough. Following many online recipes and pizza cookbook recipes will leave you with potentially lackluster results because they were developed for home cooks using their standard ovens.
While we focused on Neapolitan pies during our testing, our indoor pizza oven recommendations can also be used to make Detroit-style pizza, bar pizza, pan pizza, focaccia, or any other type of bread. We even threw in a pre-made frozen pizza here or there because sometimes convenience is key.
The best indoor pizza ovens: Reviews & Recommendations
If you’ve been less than impressed by the pies from your local pizzeria and are ready to take your relationship with pizza to the next level—or just from the backyard back inside—read on to find the best indoor pizza oven for your needs and budget.
Best overall: Ooni Volt
Brandt Ranj / Popular Science
Specs
Maximum temperature: 850 degrees
Size: 24.2 x 20.8 x 10.9 Inches
Price: $899.99
Pros
Excellent design
High maximum temperature
Ample room for launching
Cons
Price
Ooni has been one of the leaders in the outdoor home pizza oven revolution, and the Volt brings that innovative spirit indoors. Electric coils above and below the pizza stone provide even heating to the top and bottom of your pie, ensuring a crispy crust with well-cooked (or charred) toppings. In our tests, getting fresh pies into and out of the oven was simple because the Volt’s mouth was large enough to accommodate a wooden peel without feeling cramped. This is helpful for newer pizzaiolos who’ll find pizza launches (the actual term for putting a pizza into an oven with a peel) stressful.
A big part of the Volt’s appeal is its design. The oven itself looks and feels premium, but its three-dial control system is at the heart of its functionality. These dials allow you to control the Volt’s temperature, cook time, and how much heat is distributed between its top and bottom heating elements. That last dial is crucial if you’d like to use the Volt to cook more than just pizza. Ooni offers a variety of non-pizza recipes, including jalapeño poppers and chocolate chip cookies, on its YouTube channel. If you’d like to use the Volt to cook a steak, roast a chicken, or make focaccia, have at it.
Having an indoor pizza oven this powerful is a double-edged sword, depending on your pizza-making skill level. Cranking its heat setting to the maximum level is the best way to make an authentic Neapolitan pizza, but the pie will require constant maintenance throughout its 90- to 120-second cook time. We were able to get the hang of it after a dozen or so pies, but be ready to invest in a turning peel. Of course, you can cook pizzas of any style at a lower heat setting, increasing their cook time but giving you more leeway during the cook.
The Ooni Volt’s versatility, design, and performance earn it a spot on any serious pizza cook’s countertop; using it to its full potential as an auxiliary oven for other foods is just toppings on the pie.
Best splurge: Breville Pizzaiolo
Brevil
Specs
Maximum temperature: 750 degrees
Size: 18.25 x 18.15 x 10.5 Inches
Price: $999.95
Pros
Pull-out drawer for easy launching
Specific settings for different pizza styles
Breville+ compatible
Cons
Price
The Breville Pizzaolo is a premium pizza oven that accommodates both season pros and beginners who need a little guidance through the pizza-making process. Our favorite feature is a mechanism that moves the pizza stone forward as the oven’s door opens. This makes the pizza easier to launch and, with practice, ensures your pie is in the center of the oven for even cooking. Like the Ooni Volt, the Pizzaiolo has three knobs that allow you to control different aspects of your cook.
However, Breville took a different approach when designing its temperature control knob, which is labeled “Style.” You can turn the dial to sections labeled Frozen, Pan, New York, Thin & Crispy, and Wood Fired to achieve the right temperature for each type of pizza. There are also settings for 350 and 750 degrees Fahrenheit if you’d prefer to cook low and slow or blazing fast. These settings will save you from having to look up YouTube tutorials on pizza temperatures. The additional knobs on the Pizzaolo’s front side let you adjust the lightness and darkness of your crust and the time of your cook.
One of Pizzaiolo’s biggest strengths is its integration into the Breville+ ecosystem. By downloading the Breville+ app on your iPhone or Android device, you’ll be able to view recipes developed by chefs for the Pizzaiolo. This is a huge help if you’re just starting with pizza making or want to tackle more advanced or adventurous recipes. The Pizzaiolo isn’t cheap, but it’ll guide and reward you on your way to becoming a master home pizza chef.
Best compact: Piezano Electric Pizza Oven
Granitestone
Specs
Maximum temperature: 800 degrees
Size: 13.62 x 13.77 x 6.49 Inches
Price: $127.98
Pros
Easy to store
Gets up to 800 degrees at max output
Removable stone is easy to clean
Viewing window makes it easy to check on pizza without constant bending over
Cons
Stays hot for a while after cooking, so you’ll need to leave it sitting out
I’m immediately suspicious of any gadget I first encounter via TikTok. When this countertop pizza cooker hit my feed, it seemed like snake oil. After all, it has that pun-based name, and it looks like an oversized George Foreman Grill. It pleasantly surprised me during testing. Set to maximum, the Piezano claims it’s capable of hitting 800 degrees Fahrenheit. Using an infrared thermometer, I found that it did get up around 800 F after roughly 20 minutes of pre-heating. Once I put in the pizza, it dropped considerably and couldn’t seem to climb back to 800 degrees, but it stayed above 600 degrees, which is more than my oven or air fryer can say for itself.
I found a pizza with pre-made dough and store-shredded mozzarella (forgive my laziness) and that took roughly four minutes to cook. The oven allows cooks to reduce the temperature from the top heating element during the cook in order to prevent cheese from burning as the crust cooks. That’s one of the most common mistakes beginners make when using any kind of pizza oven. A small window provides a view of the toppings, so it’s simple to tell when it’s done.
The Piezano is relatively easy to clean as long as you’re tidy while you cook. The pizza stone comes out, so you can wipe it down and wash it between cooks. The rest of the device doesn’t really come apart, so you may need to clean inside a few nooks and crannies from time to time.
Overall, this is a very capable little countertop pizza oven. It’s easy to maintain, simple to learn, and stores away easily thanks to its short 6.5-inch height. You can also get it for around $100 fairly regularly.
Best value: Cuisinart CPZ-120
Brandt Ranj / Popular Science
Specs
Maximum temperature: 700 degrees
Size: 17.5 x 19 x 11 Inches
Price: $271.99
Pros
Temperature guide
Digital timer
Comes with accessories
Cons
Launching pizzas can feel cramped.
If you’re committed to getting a fully featured standalone indoor pizza oven on a budget, nothing can touch Cuisinart’s CPZ-120. Its build quality doesn’t quite measure up to the Ooni Volt, but it’s well-constructed and roughly a third of the price. In our tests, pies made in the CPZ-120 were similar in taste and texture to the ones made in the Volt and better than what we’ve gotten out of a traditional oven due to the higher cooking temperature.
There’s only one knob on the front of this indoor pizza oven, and it allows you to adjust its temperature. Handy time and temperature guides printed on the oven’s glass door let you know what settings to use based on the pie you’d like to make. A digital timer with “+” and “-” buttons on the CPZ-120’s face allows you to set a cook time and will beep three times when the pizza is ready to remove. In our testing, you’ll still need to turn the pie around a couple of times to get an even cook.
Cuisinart has improved the CPZ-120’s value tremendously by including a folding peel and deep dish pan with the oven. A peel is essential to launching and removing your pie, while the deep dish pan gives you cooking options without having to invest in an additional accessory. Given the CPZ-120’s modest price, Cuisinart didn’t have to include any additional tools, but it’s offering this oven as a complete set for new pizza makers.
Best budget: Nordic Ware Pizza Stone
Nordic Ware
Specs
Maximum temperature: N/A
Size: 13.63 x 13.88 x 1.88 Inches
Price: $15.29
Pros
Price
Large size for different pizza types
Handles make it easy to remove
Cons
Lesser results than using a standalone oven
Getting into indoor pizza-making doesn’t require getting a standalone oven. You can use the full-sized oven in your kitchen instead, so long as you use a pizza stone. This stone from Nordic Ware will allow you to make 13-inch pies, which are slightly larger than the ones you’d get from the standalone pizza ovens we’ve recommended. Using a pizza stone is easy: Turn your oven’s temperature up to its highest setting (typically 500 or 550 degrees), insert the stone, and allow it to fully heat up.
A full-sized oven will take longer to reach its maximum temperature than a countertop indoor pizza oven, so you may have to wait as long as an hour before you can start cooking pizza. Once the stone is heated, you launch your pie on top and rotate it as necessary while it cooks. We like that Nordic Ware’s pizza stone sits on a metal rack with handles, so you can take your pie out of the oven—use oven mitts!—once the cook is complete.
A pizza stone will set you back under $20, and you already have an oven in your kitchen, so it’s the most economical way to make pizza at home. The results won’t be as good as the pies you’ll achieve in a standalone indoor pizza oven, but they’ll still be tasty if you use the right recipe.
There are many factors to consider when deciding which indoor pizza oven is right for you. Below are the factors we considered most important when writing this guide.
Maximum heat
The reason to choose a dedicated indoor pizza oven over the one already in your home is that it can get hotter—a lot hotter. Different styles of pizza require different cooking temperatures (here’s a handy guide with a full breakdown) which can vary by hundreds of degrees. The hotter an indoor pizza oven gets, the more options you have.
Size
Our indoor pizza oven recommendations can all be used on a countertop, but they vary in size. The basic rule is that the more powerful a pizza oven is, the more space it’ll require. All of our recommendations are designed to accommodate a 12-inch pie, but you can push the larger ones to fit a 14-inch pie if you’re adept at launching and maneuvering your pizzas in a tight space.
Price
You should always consider your budget when shopping for appliances (or anything for that matter), and the amount you spend should be commensurate with how often you’re realistically going to make homemade pizza. If you’re prepping dough weekly for multiple people, investing in a more professional-grade oven makes sense. You don’t have to break the bank if you only plan to make occasional pies for a few parties a year.
FAQs
Q: Is it worth getting an indoor pizza oven?
Yes. If you want to cook Neapolitan-style pizzas especially. Most conventional ovens can only be heated up to between 500 and 550 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas an indoor pizza oven can reach up to 950 degrees Fahrenheit. Not only does this dramatically decrease your cook time, but it also gets you pizza parlor-like pies at home. If you use pre-made dough and reasonable ingredients, you can get the price of a single pizza down around $3. That’s way cheaper than takeout and even frozen pizzas.
Q: Which pizza oven is better: wood or gas?
Indoor pizza ovens run on electricity for both safety and practicality. If you plan to cook pizzas outside, you can check our guide to the best outdoor pizza ovens.
Q: How long do pizza ovens last?
This will depend on how frequently you use it and how diligently you clean it. With proper maintenance—cleaning the stone after every use, checking for burnt crumbs under the stone—you should be able to use this appliance for a decade or more.
Q: What is the best size for a pizza oven?
Most indoor pizza ovens allow you to make up to a 12-inch pie. If you’d like to cook a larger pizza, consider getting a big pizza stone for your conventional oven or getting an outdoor pizza oven.
Q: How much does an indoor pizza oven cost?
This depends on its feature set, but our recommendations range from about $50 for a pizza stone to $1,000 for a fully tricked-out indoor pizza oven.
Final thoughts on the best indoor pizza ovens
Best overall: Ooni Volt
Best splurge: Breville Pizzaiolo
Best compact: Piezano Electric Pizza Oven
Best value: Cuisinart CPZ-120
Best budget: Nordic Ware Pizza Stone
Home pizza ovens have become very popular over the past few years, thanks largely to the rise of companies like Ooni and Gozney. However, these ovens require access to an outdoor space, a dedicated fuel source, and good weather. It can be difficult for all three of these factors to align perfectly, so we’re very pleased to see indoor pizza ovens becoming more available. There are still fewer indoor pizza oven options when compared to the ones designed to be used outdoors, but we hope to see that continue to change.
Source : Popular Science