I have the Arc XL that I absolutely love. If I were building an outdoor kitchen I'd love to have something like the the Koda, but I don't really see the extra real estate being worth the additional cost. I suspect prices will come down on both units next year, but for now I would recommend the Arc XL as most users aren't going to be able to juggle multiple dishes in the oven concurrently. Just getting pizza dialed in can be a challenge for even experienced cooks.
I’d like to see you lower the stone temperature down to around 620 for New York style pizza and see what the results are between the two ovens. I’d also like to know how consistent the temperature is across the stones from left to right and front to back, and how difficult it is to get equal temperature on both sides of the oven in the Ooni since it has two separate temperature controls. Thank you, this was a very well done video.
Thank you for this great comparison between the 2 ovens! Fuel consumption vs pizzas cooked would be a very important statistic to know before making the final decision
Seems like the Koda 2 has the potential to get the closest to a real brick style pizza oven in pizzerias because of the additional space. It seems like you can make a large pizza and still have a large area to use for maneuvering to dial in the bottom crust or the top cook, which as I’ve been doing my research on compact pizza ovens to buy, there seems to always be a trade off between top cook and bottom crust that makes the learning curve steep. In my opinion, the tops on the Koda pizzas looked perfect, while the bottom was slightly underdone for what I would prefer. What I’ve seen folks do in “real” pizza ovens is move the pizza to a new spot on the stone to absorb that untouched heat (to more brown the crust), or lift the pizza up to finish the top if the bottom outcooks it. What I’d be interested in hearing is whether or not it feels like you have more control over the pizza cook in the Koda Max, and overall whether that additional control (if there is any) results in a “perfect” cook more often? Also, do you feel like it has the temperature range to tackle any kind of pizza a person might like (Neo, Detroit, New York, Grandma, etc.)? What’s the time to get to max temp? What’s the heat loss on a Neo pizza, and how quickly can it reset for the next pie?
Do a full Ooni review!. A suggestion, please review stone temps versus temp gauge. Include times for the full heating, and the stone temps as it heats up. Also, please note how the stone recovers after a pizza cooks. I run a small pop up pizza operation and am seriously considering this oven. Thanks a bunch!
Awesome comparison video! I'm planning on selling pizza at my local farmers market starting in spring so I'm looking into what would be best for me and I think the Koda 2 is the way go now. To be able to fire 2-12in neapolitan style pizzas at the same time in 1 oven makes way more sense than buying 2 gozney arcs.
Appreciate the review. Thank you. For the OONI Koda 2 Max I would be interested in any tests you may do with vs without the glass shield. I like the idea of being to take advantage of the larger opening (with shield removed) but am curious to know what impact it may have on time to reach temperature and/or maintaining temperature. Thanks!
I’m looking forward to picking one up next year. Do you find you’re able to get good leopard spotting on the base? The few reviews I’ve seen of this oven don’t seem to let the stone get hot enough before baking, so the bases always come out looking slightly underdone.
I'm a big fan of the Halo versa pizza oven. I have 2 of them & can't say enough about them. That being said the size of the ooni Koda 2 is pretty cool. I come from the Philadelphia area and 20" pizza is what I'm used to. I'm not taking away from the 16", but it is cool to be able to cook a 20", but I would never give up on my halo versa pizza ovens. They're just to good.
Better leoparding on the Gozney xl and I like the burner on one side for more control without worrying about 2 sides with burners. Also the controls should be in front, not the side. Personal choice but I like more crispness and that ooni bottom was too soft. Your reviews are excellent however. I am torn between the Alfa Portable and the Gozney arc xl. More gadgets means more problems later on and the Gozney could be a problem later on while the Alfa should give you better long term satisfaction. I actually have the Arc xl paid for and need to pick it up and got it for $729 so the price is hard to pass up on.
Nice, fair, and informative comparison review. If I was in the market for this kind of pizza oven, I would be able to make an informed choice. You guys do this really, really well. I have a Gozney Duel Fuel oven and use wood 99% of the time. I think wood is the most fun way to cook, but I have the space, wood source, etc. If you had to use gas only or if you just don't want to bother with wood, I would go with the Gozney.
Your reviews are top-notch! I use them to make purchase decisions. I wonder on this one, though, if the Ooni Karu 16 would be a better comparison? It almost feels like this MAX is sort of alone in the market for the price range. Just a thought. 👍 Love the content!!
Thanks for watching, and I think it's my first ever comment from a Jedi? The Force is with me. I might run a comparison with this and the Koda 16 in the future. There's just a lot of people trying to decide between Ooni and Gozney, so we wanted to show the newest products from each brand.
@TheBarbecueLab By the way... watching your pizza dough prep and launch videos last night solved the problems I was having getting started with pizza baking. First really nice pizza came out this evening. 😁👍
I love my Arc XL. It has been getting heavy usage since late March with no problems. I'd be worried with the wiring inside of the ooni. Even if it's rated for a high temp if you leave those burners going to burn off melted cheese/stuck dough who knows how long that shielding will hold up.
Couple points of contention. Gozney will send you a stone removal tool for free. I know this because I just received mine in the mail. Also the temp on the gozney is measured under the stone so it's the stone temp.
Impressive 20" home cooked pizza. Good technique with the super soft dough. I would Cook 2 smaller pizzas on the ooni with different toppings. But the problem for us is it is always windy here. The flat tops are not viable most days with the open sides to the flame. We have problem getting our regular grill up to temp on cold days. 30 min to temp is a no go also. Did I miss if they can be hooked up to Nat Gas? Both seem to waste lots of heat.
Koda 2 review please! Cooks for something other than pizza (chicken, fish, roasts...) the versatility of the oven would be great to showcase, specially given that the flame seems to go quite low? Thanks in advance!
That's a great idea. I would for sure turn any protein in these ovens, since the heat is almost all coming from the top down. Depending on how hot you're running the over, it'll be more broiler than grill, so flipping is almost a necessity.
Love your content. Well done. With the extra space of the Ooni, I would like to see you cook tandoori chicken on flat metal skewers. I have the breeo pizza oven and the flat metal skewers with wood handles and can't use them in my breeo oven because the fire from below burns the handles. Also, I think I can hear your cicadas at my house too! 😂
I'd love to see you do a review on the Breeo pizza oven please! I've watched the available videos online and they are limited and don't get into the detail that you do when you review products. I'm really researching on the gozney and the breeo. Thank-you love your channel
In addition to what @MrGonzoron said, it would also be interesting to see how you are actually using the Oooni Koda 2 Max with the grill plate on one side and making pizza on the other side. How well does it work with the grill plate? Is it anyhow comparable or usable as a grill replacement if you don't want to have both, pizza oven and separate grill?
Gozney for the win. The final cook on those pizzas was fantastic. This is coming from an “Uuni” Pro and Gozney Dome owner. People always talk about make bigger pizzas like pizza shops. Honestly a 14” pizza is the perfect size. You get a decent slice and you can make many more pizzas with different toppings. People love to try different things but not if they are eating 16-20” slices.
I also prefer the Gozney. I took a pizza class that allowed me to use/cook on both and I like the Gozney better. And you are spot on about the 14" pizza.
I don't know what Gozney has for steak cooking options when it comes to pans or griddles, but I like the Ooni Grizzler plate. You can certainly cook steak or chicken or fish in these ovens, you just want to minimize grease splatter if possible to keep the stone clean. Other than that, they work like a restaurant Salamander in my experience.
I love the review, it was informational. I have an Ooni 12 inch multi fuel . I Use it all the time. The Gozney looks like it had better crust on the bottom, and also it puffed up more on the sides than the koda Max. Does the insulation in the arc make a difference?
I didn't add that to the review since I was having a hard time locating each factory. Pretty sure they're not made in the US since I'm sure that would be a part of their marketing campaigns.
I've never actually designed a pizza oven from scratch before and I don't know the hinderances to it, but I have the blackstone which I absolutely love, but I'm looking for something to do 20" pies and bigger and I feel like what i would want from a pizza oven is what most people would want from a pizza oven. Things I hate about ooni and gozney, top heat, so it takes FOREVER to heat your stone, and by forever I mean 30 mins. My blackstone can be upto temp in 10-15 mins (700F roughly for my new york pizzas). Bottom heat just makes so much sense, and then the blackstone has a stone on the top that heats so you have top heat, which is great but sometimes I also dislike because you can't control top heat so I'm in there with a metal pizza peel shielding my pizza from the top heat. But ideally for these pizzas oven? You want a way to control bottom heat and top heat, and in fact HAVE a bottom burner, have a 20 inch surface, have fast recoup time (i've cooked on an ooni and they have time to reheat the stone in between pizzas), Nothing beats my blackstone on 16 inch pizzas making like 6-10 pizzas for friends or if I'm doing like 15-20 pizzas for a friends party. It has everything I basically need except for the 20 inch size, and its bulky and difficult to take with my anywhere has a large footprint. I would pay in excess of 999.99 for a pizza oven though that met all the above criteria. Control top and bottom heat, 20 inch cooking surface, fairly portable, and it irritates me that the ooni above has tapered pizza stones. I can have pizza stones cut as replacements as I have a pottery shop near by that does custom corderlite shelves fairly cheap, but its annoying that they would taper it so it would be more difficult to replace the stones. I've been using the screen method for years simply because i hate cleaning up the mess of having flour or semolina all over the place. Starting on a screen, peeling it off and then relaunching it just saves so much time cleaning burning flour and junk all over the ground.
Can’t speak for the Ooni but the temp on the Gozney isn’t reading the ambient. The temp prob is touching the bottom of the stone so in theory it’s telling you the stone temp once it’s heat soaked through. That said, the top of the stone and the bottom of the stone has a 200-250 degree difference
Came here to say this. With my Arc XL I haven't noticed as great of a difference between between the Arc temp and my Thermoworks IR gun. I usually only see about a 50°F difference (Arc being lower.) You would think a review channel would do better homework, but maybe just overlooked.
Great review. I am sold on Ooni just not sure if I should go with Koda 2 Max or karu 16; perhaps stretch the budget and go with the Alfa one. Besides making a good pizza, which either Ooni will do just fine, I would also like to use it to sear the steak and for that I’d prefer the wood. This leaves me with Karu 16 or Alfa one, but max 2 has so much more space for a nice NY style pizza. Your input would be helpful. Cheers
I mean, you’ve pretty much outlined the criteria in your comment. I love the extra room in the Koda 2 for everything, so I’d pick the Koda 2 over the Koda 16. Since the Karu 16 can be wood as well, that becomes a bit more of a toss up, but if I had to choose between the Koda 2 and the Karu 16, I’d go Koda 2 all the way. I’ve never had too much space in a pizza oven where I felt I had too much. It’s always the opposite.
@@TheBarbecueLab thank you for the reply. I guess I could always do a reverse sear (smoke part only) in my Weber kettle for the wood charcoal flavour and finish it off in koda 2. Cheers
@@dannymigliaccio5435 regardless of whether a porch is screened in or not, what material is above the oven (and how much clearance there is between) is the most important thing to consider.
I haven't seen moisture injection or steam options for pizza ovens at this price point. When you get to around the $2,000 US price point is where I generally start seeing those options come into play.
@@TheBarbecueLab After I asked this, I did a little research and found that the Dome has a little hole on top that is used for moisturizer injection. They sell the accessory on the Gozney website for $34.99. It’s called the Dome Steam Injector. It’s great for baking breads! Extra point to Gozney. I was unable to find any info about the same for the Koda 2.
great ! awesome review, the best, almost perfect ; ). So sad for me ( and the rest of the world),that you didn’t take the time to mention it in centimeters or kilograms. No sweat, I’ll convert.
I wouldn't bake two pizzas simultaneously in the Koda 2, I would just find the sweet spot on the stone and bake one pizza perfectly versus trying to play pizzaiolo with two.
I’m not sure how sound it is to test ovens with that large of a discrepancy in price and cooking space between them, even if they’re new offerings from each company.
You provide thorough reviews and insightful details; however, it becomes frustrating when you engage in politicking and refrain from choosing a clear winner.
I could choose a winner…. For me. That doesn’t mean it’s the winner for you or for anyone else. I just run the tests, show you the results and let you decide which is best for you. There’s plenty of other channels who just declare a winner and then get complaints in the comments about how they bought the winner and hate it. No grill or smoker or oven is perfect for every person, so no winner I pick would be accurate for everyone.
Nice review. How long does it take to get back in temperature for the next pizza? And does it have or can you get a door to close it and reach faster the temperature? ( Ooni Koda 2 Max )
No door that I'm aware of, and I don't know that there's one planned by Ooni. I don't work for them, so I'm not in the know. As to getting back to temperature, as soon as I could get another pizza stretched and topped, it was back up to temp. 90 seconds max for me in reality, but I didn't test that since I didn't have any problems with deck temp in my tests.
It was two of the refrigerated dough balls from Trader Joe's supermarket. I kneaded them together to form one giant doughball, and I think it was around 800-900 grams.
I think the real challenge in bread is you'd have to take out the glass half door to get any real height, and then you'd lose so much heat it's impractical. I don't know that they have any door planned, but I don't work at Ooni, so I could be wrong. I think bread would be tough on this oven, but I'm sure someone will try it and accomplish it.
I make bread in the Arc. Heat oven. Shut off. Launch dough when surface of stone is around 600 F. Use third-part door to seal. After 20 minutes flame on to finish crust.
I make excellent pizza in a regular oven with the rack on the lowest level on a thin steel pizza pan with the oven set to 500 to 525, get excellent crust rise and crispy bottom crust. preheat the oven if you can put the pan in as well and transfer the pezza from a peel, no peel no problem the steel pizza pan is so thin it heats up in 1 minute or less and starts the crust browning. In about 6-8 minutes perfect pizza. make you own Pizza doe, or walmart, lidle sell decent ones. no need for a pizza stone,/steel or 45 minute pre heat times the minute the oven comes to temp, pizza in all under 20 minutes for first pizza and additional pizzas out in 10min. ovens with exposed elements work better.
get a custom 18inch by 24 inch rectangle pizza peel and cook rectangle pizzas, precook toppings like mushrooms, onions etc, also use tongs if you need to rotate smaller pizzas, no need to take it out of the oven and stall the cooking process.
I suppose it would be possible, but that’s using the entire floor of the oven, and to turn the pizza you could only pull it all the way out, rotate it 180 degrees and that’s it. I think you’d have two underdone sides, but just a theory.
@@TheBarbecueLab Well as you know , the pie comes out of the pan half way . But the cooking tecnic would have to be trial and error . It may be pan full cook time
You do have to monitor your pizza, but we were able to get some 1 turn cooks in the Ooni oven. With flames coming from both sides it changes the way we cooked, since we’re used to single points of flame from almost every other oven.
I remember on of my college roommates leaving pizza on the table overnight most weekends, and it was pizza for breakfast on Saturday morning for whoever woke up first.
@@Aaron-L no, these are propane only. And honestly, when cooking at these high temperatures wood doesn’t really impact the flavor anyway, in my opinion.
Sorry can't take any reviewer that uses pre-made grocery store dough. Also when you're cooking at such high heat, in such a confined space, it's entirely unrealistic you'd be able to have 2 things cooking simultaneously in any sort of manner where you can attend to them adequately
As long as "brought to you" means that both Ooni and Gozney sent us these units to have on our channel. Neither brand asked us to shoot this video nor were we compensated by either brand to make this content.
Best review out right now on the Koda max 2. Surprisingly not a lot of videos on it.
I am absolutely not going to buy a pizza oven any time soon but your videos are so relaxing that I can't help but watch all your reviews.
Once again, a pro-level video. The best grill/bbq channel in the biz.
Easily the best outdoor cooking TH-cam channel. Thank you for the in-depth reviews!
Thanks for the kind words and I'm glad our videos are helpful! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I have the Arc XL that I absolutely love. If I were building an outdoor kitchen I'd love to have something like the the Koda, but I don't really see the extra real estate being worth the additional cost. I suspect prices will come down on both units next year, but for now I would recommend the Arc XL as most users aren't going to be able to juggle multiple dishes in the oven concurrently. Just getting pizza dialed in can be a challenge for even experienced cooks.
I’d like to see you lower the stone temperature down to around 620 for New York style pizza and see what the results are between the two ovens. I’d also like to know how consistent the temperature is across the stones from left to right and front to back, and how difficult it is to get equal temperature on both sides of the oven in the Ooni since it has two separate temperature controls. Thank you, this was a very well done video.
Thank you for this great comparison between the 2 ovens! Fuel consumption vs pizzas cooked would be a very important statistic to know before making the final decision
Seems like the Koda 2 has the potential to get the closest to a real brick style pizza oven in pizzerias because of the additional space. It seems like you can make a large pizza and still have a large area to use for maneuvering to dial in the bottom crust or the top cook, which as I’ve been doing my research on compact pizza ovens to buy, there seems to always be a trade off between top cook and bottom crust that makes the learning curve steep.
In my opinion, the tops on the Koda pizzas looked perfect, while the bottom was slightly underdone for what I would prefer. What I’ve seen folks do in “real” pizza ovens is move the pizza to a new spot on the stone to absorb that untouched heat (to more brown the crust), or lift the pizza up to finish the top if the bottom outcooks it.
What I’d be interested in hearing is whether or not it feels like you have more control over the pizza cook in the Koda Max, and overall whether that additional control (if there is any) results in a “perfect” cook more often?
Also, do you feel like it has the temperature range to tackle any kind of pizza a person might like (Neo, Detroit, New York, Grandma, etc.)?
What’s the time to get to max temp? What’s the heat loss on a Neo pizza, and how quickly can it reset for the next pie?
Do a full Ooni review!. A suggestion, please review stone temps versus temp gauge. Include times for the full heating, and the stone temps as it heats up. Also, please note how the stone recovers after a pizza cooks. I run a small pop up pizza operation and am seriously considering this oven. Thanks a bunch!
Awesome comparison video! I'm planning on selling pizza at my local farmers market starting in spring so I'm looking into what would be best for me and I think the Koda 2 is the way go now. To be able to fire 2-12in neapolitan style pizzas at the same time in 1 oven makes way more sense than buying 2 gozney arcs.
That was a brilliant review! You did not miss a single detail that I wanted to know.
Appreciate the review. Thank you. For the OONI Koda 2 Max I would be interested in any tests you may do with vs without the glass shield. I like the idea of being to take advantage of the larger opening (with shield removed) but am curious to know what impact it may have on time to reach temperature and/or maintaining temperature. Thanks!
I just ordered the koda 2 max. Can wait. Already have the koda 16. Cant wait to make a 20 inch pizza's hosting just got alot easier
David I would like an individual review of the ooni koda max 2, please.
I ended up buying the Ooni Koda 2 Max and absolutely love it!!
I’m looking forward to picking one up next year. Do you find you’re able to get good leopard spotting on the base? The few reviews I’ve seen of this oven don’t seem to let the stone get hot enough before baking, so the bases always come out looking slightly underdone.
I'm a big fan of the Halo versa pizza oven. I have 2 of them & can't say enough about them. That being said the size of the ooni Koda 2 is pretty cool. I come from the Philadelphia area and 20" pizza is what I'm used to. I'm not taking away from the 16", but it is cool to be able to cook a 20", but I would never give up on my halo versa pizza ovens. They're just to good.
I’m amazed at the features for the price on the Halo Versa.
Better leoparding on the Gozney xl and I like the burner on one side for more control without worrying about 2 sides with burners. Also the controls should be in front, not the side. Personal choice but I like more crispness and that ooni bottom was too soft. Your reviews are excellent however. I am torn between the Alfa Portable and the Gozney arc xl. More gadgets means more problems later on and the Gozney could be a problem later on while the Alfa should give you better long term satisfaction. I actually have the Arc xl paid for and need to pick it up and got it for $729 so the price is hard to pass up on.
Nice, fair, and informative comparison review. If I was in the market for this kind of pizza oven, I would be able to make an informed choice. You guys do this really, really well. I have a Gozney Duel Fuel oven and use wood 99% of the time. I think wood is the most fun way to cook, but I have the space, wood source, etc. If you had to use gas only or if you just don't want to bother with wood, I would go with the Gozney.
That 20" pizza looks PERFECT, bravo !
Thanks for watching! I think it’s time to get a bigger peel and try a 22” or 24” soon.
Good video. My Koda 2 Max is coming any day now. I would like to see if you could do a Prime Rib Roast in it!
Great video. What are your views on doing batches of burgers or whole chicken spatchcock raspy skin salmon or a nice chunk of beef? Thanks a lot!
Your reviews are top-notch! I use them to make purchase decisions. I wonder on this one, though, if the Ooni Karu 16 would be a better comparison? It almost feels like this MAX is sort of alone in the market for the price range. Just a thought. 👍 Love the content!!
Thanks for watching, and I think it's my first ever comment from a Jedi? The Force is with me.
I might run a comparison with this and the Koda 16 in the future. There's just a lot of people trying to decide between Ooni and Gozney, so we wanted to show the newest products from each brand.
@TheBarbecueLab By the way... watching your pizza dough prep and launch videos last night solved the problems I was having getting started with pizza baking. First really nice pizza came out this evening. 😁👍
Been looking for a pizza oven that can do 19 inch. So happy right now
GOOD INFORMATION, DAVID CAN YOU SHARE HOW TO BAKE AND COOK VARIOUS ITEMS IN THE KODA 2?
I love my Arc XL. It has been getting heavy usage since late March with no problems. I'd be worried with the wiring inside of the ooni. Even if it's rated for a high temp if you leave those burners going to burn off melted cheese/stuck dough who knows how long that shielding will hold up.
LOL! Number of Cicadas in the yard!
Couple points of contention. Gozney will send you a stone removal tool for free. I know this because I just received mine in the mail. Also the temp on the gozney is measured under the stone so it's the stone temp.
What about the Alfa one Moderna portable oven ?Comparison will be good with the other 2 ovens
Impressive 20" home cooked pizza. Good technique with the super soft dough. I would Cook 2 smaller pizzas on the ooni with different toppings. But the problem for us is it is always windy here. The flat tops are not viable most days with the open sides to the flame. We have problem getting our regular grill up to temp on cold days. 30 min to temp is a no go also. Did I miss if they can be hooked up to Nat Gas? Both seem to waste lots of heat.
Thank you, it would be so helpful to know the box’s dimensions from the unpacked brand new oven for the ones who are willing to get them shipped
Great job David and Melissa
They need a New Haven dough calculator 😂 Great review!! Thank you.
Apizza!
Koda 2 review please! Cooks for something other than pizza (chicken, fish, roasts...) the versatility of the oven would be great to showcase, specially given that the flame seems to go quite low? Thanks in advance!
Thanks for doing this. Very informative!
How hot does the outside of both of these ovens get when cooking? Great reviews. Thanks.
Novice here: Demonstration of cooking steak or wings would be great. Do you turn the steak? the wings? when? I love the big Koda!
That's a great idea. I would for sure turn any protein in these ovens, since the heat is almost all coming from the top down. Depending on how hot you're running the over, it'll be more broiler than grill, so flipping is almost a necessity.
Great review as usual ❤
Thank you!
Love your content. Well done. With the extra space of the Ooni, I would like to see you cook tandoori chicken on flat metal skewers.
I have the breeo pizza oven and the flat metal skewers with wood handles and can't use them in my breeo oven because the fire from below burns the handles.
Also, I think I can hear your cicadas at my house too! 😂
I'd love to see you do a review on the Breeo pizza oven please! I've watched the available videos online and they are limited and don't get into the detail that you do when you review products. I'm really researching on the gozney and the breeo. Thank-you love your channel
Noted!
In addition to what @MrGonzoron said, it would also be interesting to see how you are actually using the Oooni Koda 2 Max with the grill plate on one side and making pizza on the other side. How well does it work with the grill plate? Is it anyhow comparable or usable as a grill replacement if you don't want to have both, pizza oven and separate grill?
Gozney for the win. The final cook on those pizzas was fantastic. This is coming from an “Uuni” Pro and Gozney Dome owner. People always talk about make bigger pizzas like pizza shops. Honestly a 14” pizza is the perfect size. You get a decent slice and you can make many more pizzas with different toppings. People love to try different things but not if they are eating 16-20” slices.
I also prefer the Gozney. I took a pizza class that allowed me to use/cook on both and I like the Gozney better. And you are spot on about the 14" pizza.
Gozney crust looked better
I would like to see the Koda 16 compared to the Koda max 2.
With a pizza cook. Temp recovery time.
Amazing review, thank you!
What is reheat time? I’m looking at doing 30-40 pizzas per hour.
Great/useful to see them side by side. Cheers
Get a calzone on that oonii bad boi! Awesome review cant wait to get my koda 2!
I would like to know what it is like to grill in the Gozney Arc XL or what other options there are for preparing food besides pizza
I don't know what Gozney has for steak cooking options when it comes to pans or griddles, but I like the Ooni Grizzler plate. You can certainly cook steak or chicken or fish in these ovens, you just want to minimize grease splatter if possible to keep the stone clean. Other than that, they work like a restaurant Salamander in my experience.
I love the review, it was informational. I have an Ooni 12 inch multi fuel . I Use it all the time. The Gozney looks like it had better crust on the bottom, and also it puffed up more on the sides than the koda Max. Does the insulation in the arc make a difference?
Where are both ovens manufactured?
I didn't add that to the review since I was having a hard time locating each factory. Pretty sure they're not made in the US since I'm sure that would be a part of their marketing campaigns.
I've never actually designed a pizza oven from scratch before and I don't know the hinderances to it, but I have the blackstone which I absolutely love, but I'm looking for something to do 20" pies and bigger and I feel like what i would want from a pizza oven is what most people would want from a pizza oven. Things I hate about ooni and gozney, top heat, so it takes FOREVER to heat your stone, and by forever I mean 30 mins. My blackstone can be upto temp in 10-15 mins (700F roughly for my new york pizzas). Bottom heat just makes so much sense, and then the blackstone has a stone on the top that heats so you have top heat, which is great but sometimes I also dislike because you can't control top heat so I'm in there with a metal pizza peel shielding my pizza from the top heat. But ideally for these pizzas oven? You want a way to control bottom heat and top heat, and in fact HAVE a bottom burner, have a 20 inch surface, have fast recoup time (i've cooked on an ooni and they have time to reheat the stone in between pizzas), Nothing beats my blackstone on 16 inch pizzas making like 6-10 pizzas for friends or if I'm doing like 15-20 pizzas for a friends party. It has everything I basically need except for the 20 inch size, and its bulky and difficult to take with my anywhere has a large footprint. I would pay in excess of 999.99 for a pizza oven though that met all the above criteria. Control top and bottom heat, 20 inch cooking surface, fairly portable, and it irritates me that the ooni above has tapered pizza stones. I can have pizza stones cut as replacements as I have a pottery shop near by that does custom corderlite shelves fairly cheap, but its annoying that they would taper it so it would be more difficult to replace the stones. I've been using the screen method for years simply because i hate cleaning up the mess of having flour or semolina all over the place. Starting on a screen, peeling it off and then relaunching it just saves so much time cleaning burning flour and junk all over the ground.
Can’t speak for the Ooni but the temp on the Gozney isn’t reading the ambient. The temp prob is touching the bottom of the stone so in theory it’s telling you the stone temp once it’s heat soaked through.
That said, the top of the stone and the bottom of the stone has a 200-250 degree difference
Came here to say this. With my Arc XL I haven't noticed as great of a difference between between the Arc temp and my Thermoworks IR gun. I usually only see about a 50°F difference (Arc being lower.) You would think a review channel would do better homework, but maybe just overlooked.
It's probably just that the dude filming this forgot a detail on camera, and can accidentally get things wrong from time to time. Sorry guys.
Grea8 review - would love to see a comparison between koda 2 max and pizza party models (Emozione Large outdoor gas fired oven 2 pizzas)
Sounds like a fun video to me. I haven't worked with an Emozione oven yet, but you never know.
I was interested in the Arc XL until I found out it is propane only. Maybe next years model will have natural gas option.
the pro of the seam and being able to take it out of the ooni is the possibility to switch to a biscotti stone
Biscotto makes one for XL and Gozney will send you a stone removal tool for free.
Great review. I am sold on Ooni just not sure if I should go with Koda 2 Max or karu 16; perhaps stretch the budget and go with the Alfa one. Besides making a good pizza, which either Ooni will do just fine, I would also like to use it to sear the steak and for that I’d prefer the wood. This leaves me with Karu 16 or Alfa one, but max 2 has so much more space for a nice NY style pizza. Your input would be helpful.
Cheers
I mean, you’ve pretty much outlined the criteria in your comment. I love the extra room in the Koda 2 for everything, so I’d pick the Koda 2 over the Koda 16. Since the Karu 16 can be wood as well, that becomes a bit more of a toss up, but if I had to choose between the Koda 2 and the Karu 16, I’d go Koda 2 all the way. I’ve never had too much space in a pizza oven where I felt I had too much. It’s always the opposite.
@@TheBarbecueLab thank you for the reply. I guess I could always do a reverse sear (smoke part only) in my Weber kettle for the wood charcoal flavour and finish it off in koda 2.
Cheers
Great video! Can you use these ovens on a screened back porch? Thanks!
@@dannymigliaccio5435 regardless of whether a porch is screened in or not, what material is above the oven (and how much clearance there is between) is the most important thing to consider.
Great video. Bravo
Standalone review for the max!!
Do either of these ovens have an option for injecting steam or moister? Great video, by the way. Well done.
I haven't seen moisture injection or steam options for pizza ovens at this price point. When you get to around the $2,000 US price point is where I generally start seeing those options come into play.
@@TheBarbecueLab After I asked this, I did a little research and found that the Dome has a little hole on top that is used for moisturizer injection. They sell the accessory on the Gozney website for $34.99. It’s called the Dome Steam Injector. It’s great for baking breads! Extra point to Gozney. I was unable to find any info about the same for the Koda 2.
great ! awesome review, the best, almost perfect ; ). So sad for me ( and the rest of the world),that you didn’t take the time to mention it in centimeters or kilograms. No sweat, I’ll convert.
I wouldn't bake two pizzas simultaneously in the Koda 2, I would just find the sweet spot on the stone and bake one pizza perfectly versus trying to play pizzaiolo with two.
My dude, the bottom of that Ooni 2 pizza was not cooked enough. Neither was the 1st Gozney. The temp was not hot enough.
Any thoughts on the Prokan Kano 16? Is rotation a gimmick?
Haven’t seen the Prokan in person, so can’t really comment on it.
I would like to see a sheet pan meal on the Koda. mine are usually chicken and veggies, more veggies than meat.
I like the ability to use probes.
@@MontanaMountain that’s an interesting idea; we hadn’t thought of that!
Nice incognito placement of the RFX Probe 🤣
With the extra space I could do 2 gma pies at once depending on the pan
I’m not sure how sound it is to test ovens with that large of a discrepancy in price and cooking space between them, even if they’re new offerings from each company.
You provide thorough reviews and insightful details; however, it becomes frustrating when you engage in politicking and refrain from choosing a clear winner.
I could choose a winner…. For me. That doesn’t mean it’s the winner for you or for anyone else. I just run the tests, show you the results and let you decide which is best for you. There’s plenty of other channels who just declare a winner and then get complaints in the comments about how they bought the winner and hate it. No grill or smoker or oven is perfect for every person, so no winner I pick would be accurate for everyone.
Nice review. How long does it take to get back in temperature for the next pizza? And does it have or can you get a door to close it and reach faster the temperature? ( Ooni Koda 2 Max )
No door that I'm aware of, and I don't know that there's one planned by Ooni. I don't work for them, so I'm not in the know. As to getting back to temperature, as soon as I could get another pizza stretched and topped, it was back up to temp. 90 seconds max for me in reality, but I didn't test that since I didn't have any problems with deck temp in my tests.
How much gas does it take
Superb review - thanks so much for doing this 👌🏻🍺🏴🏴
Try the salad lab
What size dough ball in grams was your 20” pizza?
It was two of the refrigerated dough balls from Trader Joe's supermarket. I kneaded them together to form one giant doughball, and I think it was around 800-900 grams.
Could you do bread in the Ooni? You would need a door. The larger size means you could do 4 loaves maybe?
Why ask and answer your own question...?
I think the real challenge in bread is you'd have to take out the glass half door to get any real height, and then you'd lose so much heat it's impractical. I don't know that they have any door planned, but I don't work at Ooni, so I could be wrong. I think bread would be tough on this oven, but I'm sure someone will try it and accomplish it.
@@TheBarbecueLab Thanks for the reply David.
I make bread in the Arc. Heat oven. Shut off. Launch dough when surface of stone is around 600 F. Use third-part door to seal. After 20 minutes flame on to finish crust.
@@bstreetbistro Thank you
Arc XL can if you change the hose with new fittings. Best pizza wheel ever!
2 12 inch neapolitan pizzas or 2 small Detroit
Nice through Review of both... ;-D
Thanks!
I want pizza now!
Grilling wings, or cooking breadsticks
I need to brush off my breadstick recipe. Thats a great idea.
I make excellent pizza in a regular oven with the rack on the lowest level on a thin steel pizza pan with the oven set to 500 to 525, get excellent crust rise and crispy bottom crust. preheat the oven if you can put the pan in as well and transfer the pezza from a peel, no peel no problem the steel pizza pan is so thin it heats up in 1 minute or less and starts the crust browning. In about 6-8 minutes perfect pizza. make you own Pizza doe, or walmart, lidle sell decent ones. no need for a pizza stone,/steel or 45 minute pre heat times the minute the oven comes to temp, pizza in all under 20 minutes for first pizza and additional pizzas out in 10min. ovens with exposed elements work better.
get a custom 18inch by 24 inch rectangle pizza peel and cook rectangle pizzas, precook toppings like mushrooms, onions etc, also use tongs if you need to rotate smaller pizzas, no need to take it out of the oven and stall the cooking process.
Cast-iron I put a 9 inch cast iron pan make a buffalo chicken dip or Italian dish you name it with cast-iron
Great video!! My wife said hell no on the Ooni, it’s “too ugly, looks like some sort of alien thing”.
No use for such a large Ooni. 12-16 is for me and probably most is the goldielock size.
I would could a siciliana style pizza 20 by 24 rectangle
I suppose it would be possible, but that’s using the entire floor of the oven, and to turn the pizza you could only pull it all the way out, rotate it 180 degrees and that’s it. I think you’d have two underdone sides, but just a theory.
@@TheBarbecueLab Well as you know , the pie comes out of the pan half way . But the cooking tecnic would have to be trial and error . It may be pan full cook time
I'll add that based on my experience with xl pizzas in the max, I generally have to turn multiple times to get a super even cook.
That makes sense. Running really close to the burner, I'd have to turn quite often to keep it from too much char.
It's never a one turn oven like they say come on tell the truth u still have to monitor and turn or your going to. Burn either base or sides
You do have to monitor your pizza, but we were able to get some 1 turn cooks in the Ooni oven. With flames coming from both sides it changes the way we cooked, since we’re used to single points of flame from almost every other oven.
What I do with the extra space.
I cook a large pizza with two different flavors half/half 😊
This oven is a must ❤❤❤❤
now im hungry😁
Pizza for breakfast is okay, right?
@@TheBarbecueLabpizza is good any time!
I remember on of my college roommates leaving pizza on the table overnight most weekends, and it was pizza for breakfast on Saturday morning for whoever woke up first.
Can you add wood to these propane ovens for smoke flavor?
@@Aaron-L no, these are propane only. And honestly, when cooking at these high temperatures wood doesn’t really impact the flavor anyway, in my opinion.
@@TheBarbecueLabpropane and wood fired taste the same to you?
Sorry can't take any reviewer that uses pre-made grocery store dough. Also when you're cooking at such high heat, in such a confined space, it's entirely unrealistic you'd be able to have 2 things cooking simultaneously in any sort of manner where you can attend to them adequately
Lee Brenda Robinson Robert Clark Eric
$1300 and you have to stand there and spin it. Fuck that. I’ll save $800 and get a blackstone
Pretty dumb comparison a oven designed for two or a massive pizza v one for a standard pizza. What a waste of space cooking a 12inxh in the Koda
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Brought to you by Ooni…
As long as "brought to you" means that both Ooni and Gozney sent us these units to have on our channel. Neither brand asked us to shoot this video nor were we compensated by either brand to make this content.
😂 Having a cry there Robert
Thanks for a great review!!