The New Ooni Electric Pizza Oven: Tested and Reviewed

By Terri Williams

Illustration by Katarina Kovac

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Like most pieces from the notable brand, the newly released Ooni electric pizza oven is a covetable bit of machinery. The company—already well-known for their popular assortment of gas-powered, wood-pellet, and multi-fuel ovens—had always been the holy grail for me, but sadly I couldn't use any of their solely outdoor products in my kitchen. When they released the Ooni Volt 12 this past March, I was over the-moon excited to try the machine for the first time and see how it compared to the Breville the Smart Oven Pizzaiolo.

Admittedly, the Ooni Volt 12 already had a slight advantage, as it can be used indoors as well as outside. It also heats up to 850 degrees, compared to Breville’s max temperature of 750 degrees. Here’s what else you need to know about this kitchen-countertop gadget.

Specs

Accessories

I also received the following:

The Ooni Volt 12 looks very similar to other Ooni models, but it‘s just a bit bulkier and has different legs.

If you’re familiar with Ooni pizza ovens, the shape of the Ooni Volt 12 will look familiar, with the exception of the legs. It’s also bulkier, though I consider that a benefit, since the appliance is partially for indoor use and needs to safely contain a lot of heat. The glass door is also made of triple-paned borosilicate glass.

It’s relatively heavy for a portable pizza oven—and although I was able to move it by myself, I wouldn’t want to do it often. The built-in carry handles do make the pizza oven a lot easier to transport—however I only transported it from the garage to place on my kitchen countertop to make pizzas and then back down to the garage when the Ooni Volt 12 was not in use. It takes up a considerable amount of space, and since I already have a June toaster oven on the countertop, I couldn’t afford to keep the pizza oven there as well.

Accessories like the aluminum perforated pizza peel, the bamboo peel and serving board, and pizza wheel can help make the experience with your Ooni easier.

Personally I would recommend getting the accessories (12" aluminum perforated pizza peel, 12" bamboo pizza peel/serving board, and the pizza cutter wheel), since they can come in handy when “launching the pizza” into the oven. I made pizza on the bamboo pizza peel and then transferred it to the aluminum peel to launch into the oven. When the pizza wouldn’t come off the aluminum peel, I would use the bamboo peel to help push the pizza off and onto the stone. Once the pizza was done, I used the aluminum pizza peel to easily take it out of the oven and then transfer it back to the bamboo pizza peel—which was also used as a cutting and serving board.

If you’re not familiar with the launching process, it’s not the same as baking a pizza in your regular oven, which just requires you to put it on a pizza pan and place it into the oven. Instead you’re trying to slide the pizza off of the pizza peel into the oven, which takes considerably more effort since the pizza dough tends to stick to the peel.

Ooni recommends rotating the pizza while it’s cooking. As someone who is still getting used to launching the pizza into the oven, this is a major negative. I’m still at the point where I consider getting it into the oven to be a major accomplishment, and the idea that I needed to take it out again to turn it around was quite tedious, but I did it because I wanted the pizzas to cook evenly. It should be noted that Breville’s pizza oven does not require taking the pizza out to rotate it.

The on/off switch is on the side of the oven and the standby power button is on the front door. When you press the standby power button, the pizza oven turns on. Personally, I like the idea of having an on/off switch in addition to the standby power button. If you have small kids, they may be able to fumble with the controls on the front door—however, it’s unlikely they would be able to find the on/off switch hidden underneath on the side. As long as that switch is off, neither the standby power button nor any of the other controls will work.

The pizza oven has three control dials on the front. The left bottom is used to set the cooking time and the range is from 0 to 20 minutes. The middle dial is for temperature control, which goes from 250 to 850 degrees Fahrenheit. The right button is the top/bottom balance dial—although selecting a temperature automatically sets the balance, you can turn this dial to the left to make the stone hotter than the top of the oven. If you turn it clockwise, then the heat is directed to the top of the oven. The oven also has an auto shut-off feature, so it will turn off if it hasn’t been used in 45 minutes.

To get started, I plugged the oven’s cord into a wall socket, then seasoned the Ooni 12 Volt by setting the temperature to 850 degrees and letting it run for 20 minutes (per Ooni’s instructions). This seasoning process helps to create a nonstick layer. Since I wasn’t prepared to cook that day, I turned the Ooni off once I was done.

Though turning the pizza every 20–30 seconds can prove a bit tricky, the Ooni 12 Volt still cooks frozen pizza to perfection.

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The next day, I got started. I turned the machine on, set the temperature to 350 degrees, and let the pizza oven preheat. The Ooni uses a digital infrared thermometer to gauge the temperature of the pizza stone. While it was preheating (which took less than 20 minutes), I unwrapped my first pizza—a store-bought refrigerated pizza—and, when the oven was ready, I launched the pizza onto the middle of the baking stone. The company recommends using a pizza peel to take the pizza out and turn it every 20 to 30 seconds. Admittedly, I thought this was a tedious step. However, the finished result was a delicious and great pizza that didn’t taste at all like store-bought assembly-line pizza.

For the second test, I did a homemade pizza (somewhat) from scratch. I used Pillsbury Pizza dough and added tomato sauce, cheese, pepperoni, and peppers. I was grateful for the two pizza peels and, when launching the pizza into the oven, found it much easier to use the bamboo pizza peel to push the pizza off the aluminum peel. However, I still haven’t mastered the art of removing the pizza and turning it around to cook on the other side.

Ooni has a handy list of pizza styles and corresponding temperatures to determine how long you should cook your pizza. For example, for a Walmart frozen pizza, they recommended following the instructions on the pizza box (350 degrees Fahrenheit for 14 minutes). For a Neapolitan-style pizza, they recommend 850 degrees Fahrenheit for one to two minutes. For New York style, 650 degrees Fahrenheit for five minutes.

Since I’m one of those free spirits who likes to just randomly toss items on my pizza and use little to no oil, I set my pizza to 750 degrees for two minutes. The Ooni ended up cooking it very quickly, to the point I nearly burned the pie. In fact, the tops of some of my pepperoni got singed in those two minutes. However, the crust was crispy, the cheese melted perfectly, and the peppers and pepperoni tasted like they were grilled. Plus, the pizza oven never smoked, which is important in any type of countertop oven.

I didn’t attempt to use the Ooni Volt 12 outside since I don’t have an outdoor space where I could set it up. Keep in mind that, depending on your climate and the temperature, it may take longer for the baking stone to heat up. Also, the company advises against using the pizza oven when it’s raining, snowing, or windy.

One of my favorite features of the Ooni Volt 12 is that the interior does not require any cleaning. Onni says food residue will burn off when the oven is in use, and then any excess debris can be swept away. So I only have to clean the glass door with warm, soapy water and then use a lightly damp cloth to wipe the pizza oven’s exterior.

I love the Ooni Volt 12—but not quite as much as I love the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo, though that may be based on purely personal reasons. For example, I think the Breville has a more stylish look, and the controls include a style dial where I can actually select frozen, pan, New York, and more and get a wood-fired finish. It’s just a bit more intuitive to me. There’s also an option (depending on the type of pizza) to use the included pan—and I tended to make pan pizzas just to avoid fooling with the peel and pizza stone. Most importantly, Breville doesn’t require the pizza to be removed and turned to cook evenly.

By Sydney Wasserman

By Valentina Raggi

By Audrey Lee

On the other hand, the Ooni Volt 12 heats up to 850 degrees, compared to the Breville’s 750. The Ooni is also still the only pizza oven that can be used either indoors or outside. Like with the Breville, it won’t smoke up the kitchen. Another advantage of the Ooni: It heats up faster than the Breville and, because it has such a bulky shape, it also seems like a safer option for containing the heat inside (not to say the Breville does not safely contain heat). Honestly, you can’t go wrong with either choice. If you prefer to make pizza indoors exclusively, and you don’t want to be bothered rotating the pizza, the Breville is the better choice. However, if you want to use the pizza both indoors and outside, and you don’t mind taking the pizza out of the oven to rotate it, the Ooni might be the better choice.