The Best Commercial Pizza Ovens: What You Knead to Know
Is there anything better than a hot gourmet pizza fresh out of the oven? We didn’t think so. But there’s a reason the pizzas you get straight out of a restaurant kitchen are better than the ones you make at home: commercial pizza ovens!
Commercial pizza ovens are designed to fire at high temperatures to deliver that signature crispy crust and browned cheese. Some are even made to mimic the authentic traditional pizza cooking methods.
So, if you’re trying to figure out which pizza oven is the right fit for your commercial kitchen, read on–we’ve got you covered!
You can rest easy knowing that Eleven36 only carries the highest quality pizza ovens to ensure your customers are happy no matter what you choose.
You Wanna Pizza This? Types of Commercial Pizza Ovens
Deck Ovens
If you're looking for the closest thing to wood-fired ovens without the wood, smoke, and ash, you want a deck oven! These appliances have one or more stacked cooking surfaces (decks), each of which can cook a batch of pizzas in as few as six to eight minutes. Depending on size, each deck can fit between one and six pizzas at a time, and decks can be stacked on top of each other to save space. The largest decks even go up to 80” long and nearly a yard deep, with most having a stainless steel or natural stone/porcelain cooking surface to replicate a traditional brick oven.
The big advantage of deck ovens is that they provide even cooking and excellent heat retention, which produces a delicious and authentic flavor. They can even be covered with bricks to mimic authentic brick ovens!
Because of the fast cook time and large capacity of commercial pizza deck ovens, they are the perfect choice for restaurants that feature pizza as a central part of their menu. After all, you wouldn’t want to spend the time and money to preheat these bad boys if you were only serving two or three pizzas a night. But if your establishment serves pizzas, garlic bread, calzones, or other high-temperature baked meals like fajitas, they will serve you well.
Deck ovens only come in natural gas or liquid propane models due to the high temperatures they need to sustain over time.
Countertop Convection Ovens
On the other hand, if your kitchen doesn’t need to be pumping out hundreds of pizzas a night, a countertop convection oven might be the right choice. These compact units save tons of space, are portable (even for outdoor use), and are easier to maintain. Because they are electric, they can also be more energy efficient than larger appliances, with some models even boasting an Energy Star rating.
As the name implies, countertop convection ovens can sit on your countertop. However, you can also install convection ovens as floor units. Convection pizza ovens take up as little floor space as 28” x 30” and have anywhere from one to ten baking racks.
Dough You Prefer Electric or Gas?
Commercial Gas Pizza Oven
Like most gas appliances, gas-powered pizza ovens offer quicker and more responsive temperature control, faster preheating times, and more energy efficiency compared to electric models of the same size. Most commercial kitchens prefer cooking with gas, which is why all of the standalone and deck oven options at Eleven36 are gas units!
However, since they need to be connected to a gas line, they require professional installation, can be more costly to repair, and are not portable. They also require that your kitchen staff be trained in proper oven maintenance and pizza peel technique, as the gas burners can create “hot spots” in the oven that can require pizzas to be shuffled around when cooking.
High-volume pizzerias or sit-down restaurants that focus on quality food and a curated dining experience should definitely consider gas ovens for their kitchen! Your customers will thank you when they take those first bites of crispy, chewy crust with developed flavor covered in perfectly crisped toppings and delicious, ooey-gooey cheese.
Commercial Electric Pizza Oven
Electric is the right choice for smaller kitchens with limited space, without gas lines, food trucks, catering businesses, bars, or low-volume restaurants.
Electric pizza ovens are easier to install, move, maintain, clean, and use, even for a total beginner. But that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice quality! Because electric convection ovens don’t use individual coils, they heat very evenly, produce consistent results, and offer more precise temperature control. What does this mean for you? All you have to do is put a pizza in the oven, set the timer, and get perfect pizzas every time.
All of Eleven36’s electric pizza oven options are countertop convection oven units. Models range from 14” single-rack ovens that can cook a pizza in minutes with a temperature range of up to 600 degrees to larger 10-rack ovens (floor units) that can heat to temps between 100 and 500 degrees.
These Key Commercial Pizza Oven Features Can’t Be Topped
- Temperature Control: Temperature control is the key to achieving the perfect pizza, but it’s not one-size-fits-all. For example, a Chicago-style deep dish pizza needs to cook much longer at a lower temperature than a Neapolitan-style pizza, which is traditionally cooked quickly at a very high temperature. So, if your signature pizza recipe is anything other than thin and crispy or Neapolitan-style pizzas, a gas oven is the way to go!
- Cooking Time and Efficiency: Having the right pizza oven for your needs will help your kitchen run smoothly and efficiently. For instance, if you only had a single-rack countertop oven, but five different tables ordered pizzas at once, it might be at least forty-five minutes to an hour before the fifth table got their order! On the other hand, if you’re paying to heat a deck oven all night but only have three pizza orders come through, your orders are hitting the window quickly, but it’s still tons of money down the drain.
- Size and Capacity: Knowing your restaurant’s audience, market, and volume at peak times will help you choose the right commercial pizza oven. If you’re firing five pizza orders at a time during service peaks, then a five-rack convection oven would probably be enough for you. But if you’re rotating between twenty or more pizza orders at any given moment during rush, you’ll want to have at least two large decks in your oven to keep you covered.
- Energy Efficiency: You always want to keep energy efficiency in mind, so opting for the most energy-efficient model that will still meet your needs is a must. Just remember, the higher the demand for pizza in your establishment, the more having an energy-efficient model will reduce operational costs and save you money in the long run!
Trusted Brands from a Reliable Sauce
Here at Eleven36, we operate on this simple rule: investing in high-quality restaurant equipment will save you from costly repairs, quick replacements, and unnecessary energy costs in the long run. We prioritize long-term solutions that save our customers money. That’s why we are proud to partner with trusted brands like American Range, Vulcan, and Waring!
All of these brands have proven track records to show their commitment to manufacturing high-quality equipment to meet your every need.
When it comes to commercial pizza ovens, here are some of our best recommendations:
- The Waring® WPO100 14" Countertop Pizza Oven is a single-rack countertop convection oven with top and bottom heating elements that can cook a perfect pizza in minutes every time.
- This Vulcan ECO2D Half-Size Countertop Convection Oven, 208V, Single Phase has a two-speed fan for even heat distribution, five racks, a porcelain interior, and is Energy Star certified.
- The American Range ARLM-1 Large-Capacity Single-Deck Oven with (2) Burners, Natural Gas has a stainless steel interior cooking deck that measures 42" x 33 ½" and can accommodate almost ten sq. feet of cooking space!
Any way you slice it, you can’t go wrong if you follow these simple rules:
- Choose a pizza oven that can handle the amount of pizzas you need to produce during rush service.
- Choose a pizza oven that fits well in your kitchen, both in terms of space and kitchen workflow.
- Choose a pizza oven that is made to cook the kind of pizza you want to serve.
If you’re ready to fire up your oven and start slingin’ great pizzas, then head over to Eleven36 now to select from the highest quality convection and deck ovens on the market!