Commercial Pizza Oven — How To Choose and Maintain

A professional pizza maker won’t settle for anything less than the best commercial pizza oven. A lot of the cooking result relies on a high-end oven that can reach high enough temperatures and meet your establishment’s needs.

How Much Does a Commercial Pizza Oven Cost?

Pricing is going to be one of the major considerations when choosing a pizza oven. It will depend on the type of oven and fuel. Commercial pizza oven brands have different prices from $1,000 to $10,000.

Conveyor ovens can cost between $5,000 and $30,000 depending on size, capacity, and special features available.

In general, if you want a good new pizza oven that withstands the rigors of a commercial pizzeria, you’ll be spending between $5,000 and $20,000, depending on the overall size and capacity.

Types of Pizza Ovens

Most commercial ovens belong to one of the following types:

• Triple Deck — with the ability to cook up to 18, 12” pizzas at one time.
• Double Deck — with the ability to cook up to 12, 12” pizzas at one time.
• Countertop Oven. A smaller option which saves on space and is a great option for restaurants that only need to cook up to 3 pizzas at one time.
• Conveyor Pizza Oven. A popular option when pizza is the main dish. It uses a conveyor belt system to rapidly cook and move the pizza from the oven to a plate or a box.
• Brick Oven — can cook up to 2 pizzas at one time for a total cooking capacity of about 12 pizzas per hour. Many chefs believing that the brick oven produces the best-tasting pizza.

Selecting the Best Commercial Pizza Oven

A commercial pizza oven temperature is one of the most important aspects of a pizza oven. The standard industrial pizza oven will have a temperature range of 400°F to 700°F. Brick and wood fire ovens can reach temperatures as high as 1000°F.

Size

Size will be a major consideration for your restaurant. It will depend on the restaurant’s layout and demands for pizza. If you’re well-known for pizza or operating in a large city, being able to cook twelve pizzas an hour may not be enough. And other way round, you may not need the largest oven if you sell two dozen pizzas a night.

There’s also the benefit of having redundancy and a backup if one oven is out of service.

• Width. An oven’s width will range between 18” and 78”
• Depth. An oven’s depth will be between 15” and 78”
• Height. An oven’s height will range between 8” and 66”

Fuel Type

You’ll find that there are four main fuel types available:

• Electric oven is adaptable and available everywhere.
• Gas pizza oven is a cheaper alternative and has fewer problems than electrical.
• Wood-fired is a special type, which requires continually adding wood to keep the fire going. Chefs claim that the wood does provide a unique taste of pizza.
• Dual fuel oven combines gas with wood that allows easier management of the fire-starting process.

If choosing between gas and electric, there are a few things to consider. Electric and gas ovens will have different bake times. Electric ovens can take up to 30% more time to properly bake a pizza. So you won’t be able to bake the same number of pizzas per hour as you can with a gas oven.

Most Popular

A deck oven is the most popular choice. It is available for an electric model and gas oven as well. Both offer a deck made of tile or stone. The reason that so many restaurants choose the deck oven is that they offer:

• The ability to bake six, 12” pies at the same time
• Stack the ovens to increase their overall capacity

Deck ovens are a great option for a growing pizzeria that needs to be able to expand operations in the future.

Commercial Pizza Oven Maintenance

If you’re investing in a commercial pizza oven, you’ll need to know how to clean and maintain it properly. There is a list to do to keep the oven up and running:

• Have a routine technician come out to inspect the unit, make repairs and maintain it
• Clean the interior of the oven daily
• Remove crumb trays and clean if using a countertop model

Conveyor Oven

You’ll need to clean a conveyor pizza oven differently by:

• Unplugging the unit
• Remove the belt and spray with oven cleaner
• Clean the fingers
• Clean the interior of the oven
• Allow all parts to dry and replace them all

Brick Oven

Brick ovens take a long time to cool down, so you will have to make sure enough time has passed before trying to clean the unit. Then:

• Use a brush to remove off scraps and crust
• Clean out any grease or debris
• Use a scraper or long brush as necessary
• Clean exhaust stacks monthly (hire a professional)

Pizza Deck Oven

A pizza deck will be cleaned similarly to the brick oven. Avoid using cleaning solutions because the stone will absorb the solution, leaving your pizza with an odd taste.

• Use a scraper or brush to remove stuck debris
• Loosen up the ash
• Clean the oven walls
• Use an oven broom or hand brush to remove debris

Basic cleanings will keep your pizza tasting its best and allow you to maintain proper sanitization practices. Most ovens have a schedule on the one side, which should be filled in to know when an oven was last maintained.

Aside from cleaning the intake fans and exhaust stacks, there’s very little maintenance required in a pizza oven.

For more about how to choose between an array of sizes and fuel types of ovens, visit https://mcdonaldpaper.com/blog/how-to-choose-the-best-commercial-pizza-oven-and-maintain-it.