Selecting the right pizza oven is essential to successfully run your pizzeria. Whether your products have that original Italian pizza flavour or not mostly depends on the quality of your oven. The oven is the heart and soul to every large commercial pizza operation or family-owned business. That is why buying a professional pizza oven requires some serious thinking and decision making. Since it is probably the largest and most expensive piece from all the necessary kitchen appliances, careful and thorough research is needed to make the right decision. The following details can give you some helpful direction when you intend to buy a commercial pizza oven.
Space & Size
It is very important to pick a commercial pizza oven for your pizzeria or restaurant that can fit into your kitchen without taking too much space or obstructing the flow of movement. If you are a restaurant that cooks a big variety of dishes, and pizza is not the first thing on your menu, a convection oven is probably the right choice for you. This is the smallest type of commercial ovens that takes up around 1.5 cubic metres, with some models even less.
Modular deck ovens are a perfect choice if you have enough space and one of your main purposes is to serve excellent pizza. The size of the oven depends on the number of decks and their individual measurements. Modular deck ovens are usually available in one to four desks (some models up to six). You can choose a one or two deck model if you are not selling pizza as a main dish, having in mind that modular means you can add decks in the future if needed.
A four-deck oven can fill up to 160 cubic feet of space. Have in mind that the majority of od spaces being taken is vertical, which allows a lot of space for other kitchen supplies. The flexibility of these commercial pizza ovens in addition to the fact that their independent modules allow a different type of products to be cooked in each module speaks volumes of their functionality.
With the help of a deck pizza oven, not only good pizza, but you can cook excellent breadsticks, wings, vegetables and other dishes.
Very large operations can also choose from conveyor or brick ovens, available in sizes from 4 to 8 cubic metres.
Most conveyor ovens are wide enough to fit 10-12 large pizzas side by side, which means a lot of floor space to conceivably fit a conveyor oven into your restaurant.
Brick ovens can reach from floor to ceiling and have a base as large as 2.5 square metres. Once again, it depends on the space in your restaurant, but brick ovens can be much larger than the other three types.
Production
The time of delivering the pizza to the customer is important if you want to offer an exceptional service.
Convention ovens are usually slower than other types of pizza ovens, and they need time to preheat. This time can be around 20 minutes, while the approximate time for the pizza to be cooked in this type is 6-8 minutes. With that being said, convection ovens are only suitable for a small pizza business that doesn't have very high customer demand.
Unlike the convection oven, the deck oven doesn’t need to be preheated, so waiting time is much shorter. Another advantage is that it can fit more pizzas in one deck, meaning a bigger number of pizzas are cooked simultaneously. The modular deck model can be upgraded with more decks when increased customer demand occurs. Depending on the number of toppings, a pizza might take up to five minutes to cook in a deck oven.
Although the cooking space is probably larger (space for 10 -12 pizzas), brick ovens usually feature only one cooking platform, so if demand increases there is no possibility for adding extra decks like the modular deck ovens. With the right temperature, it can cook a pizza in less than 5 minutes.
Energy Efficiency
Wood-fuel ovens might save electricity, but require higher maintenance skills and time for cleaning. This is why brick pizza ovens are recommended for large operation restaurants.
Deck pizza ovens can be fueled by gas or electricity. Modern electrical desk ovens come with a control panel that provides easy access to exhaust settings, cooking times, and switch to economy mode to save on power consumption when business is quiet. With the parameter of auto power-off and ECU parameter that maintains the efficient temperature, modular desk ovens operate at up to 33% below nominal power.
The flexibility of not having to constantly add wood and check the temperature, electrical ovens give space for focusing on more important tasks, like perfecting the next pizza creation.
Durability & Maintenance
Since buying a commercial pizza oven is considered to be a pretty big cost, it is important to choose one with good quality that can be used for many years.
Convection ovens are known for being the most affordable, yet they are most susceptible to damage. They require regular cleaning on the inside area and their intake fans, which can be a time-consuming and exhausting task. The conveyor oven, for example, consists of many small parts and mechanism, which makes it more prone to defects. This type is the most expensive from the other option mentioned, but a higher price doesn`t always mean higher quality.
The quality of a brick pizza oven usually depends on the contractor that you hire to build it, and thus, it has no fixed price. Additionally, once a suitable temperature has been reached, you’ll need to rake the coals to the side and clean the floor of the oven. Even then, you’ll still need to add wood at regular intervals to maintain temperature. All this adds extra work in maintaining and cleaning. Wood-cooking can also take years to perfect. A burnt pizza is disappointment and looks especially bad when it comes from an authentic wood-fired oven.
Deck ovens are a very popular choice because of their exceptional durability. They don`t have moving parts inside that can damage and need replacement. Cleaning the oven is also pretty simple, occasional wiping out the outside area and scrubbing the inside from time to time (when there is accumulated grease). Modular decks ovens allow easy adjustment of the amount of heat and are a lot easier for use than other types.
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