Choosing the first oven: gas, wood or brick
Published Sep 1, 2026 · 7 min read
Three routes to a pizza oven, so different in cost and temperament that choosing between them is most of the decision.
There are three honest routes to a pizza oven in a backyard, and they are so different in cost, effort and temperament that choosing between them is most of the decision. A tabletop gas oven is ready in fifteen minutes and needs nothing learned. A wood or pellet portable gives you fire and flavour and a small skill to master. A brick dome you build yourself is a weekend project and a lifetime appliance. Here's each, with what it actually costs in money, patience and smoke — and which we'd buy first, again.
Route one: the tabletop gas oven
A steel box the size of a microwave, on legs, with a stone floor and a gas burner across the back. Connect a bottle, turn a knob, wait fifteen to twenty minutes, and the stone is at 400°C and ready. No smoke, no ash, no fire management, and consistent heat pizza after pizza. What you lose is the wood flavour (which is subtler than people claim) and the theatre of flame. What you gain is a pizza oven you'll actually use on a Tuesday. For most first buyers in a small yard or on a balcony with a gas rule, this is the answer.
Route two: the portable wood or pellet oven
The same box with a fire tray or a pellet hopper at the back instead of a burner. Real fire, real flavour, real learning curve: the heat rises and falls with how you feed it, the first few sessions produce smoke and swearing, and every pizza night starts thirty minutes before the first pizza. Pellets are easier than logs (they meter themselves); logs are the romantic version. This is our favourite oven — but it's a hobby, not an appliance, and worth choosing only if fire itself is part of what you want. Bake 02 is entirely about running one.
The two questions that decide it. One: where will it live? A balcony or a small paved yard with neighbours a fence away is gas territory — smoke goes places. A garden with space and a tolerant street opens up wood. Two: how often, honestly? If the picture in your head is "most Fridays", gas wins because it removes the friction. If it's "a proper session once a month, with friends around the fire", wood earns its learning curve. Answer both before you compare prices.
Route three: the brick dome
Fire bricks, a base, a dome shape built over a sand form or a kit of pre-cut pieces, a chimney. Built over a weekend or two, it holds heat for hours rather than minutes — enough to cook pizzas, then bread, then a slow roast in the falling temperature (Bake 06 uses this). It's beautiful, permanent and the best-cooking oven of the three, and it costs the most, takes the longest to heat (an hour or more), and cannot be moved when you move house. For a family that will use it for years and has the space, it's the destination; for a first oven, it's a lot to learn at once. Many people build one after two years with a portable, and know exactly what they want by then.
Size, stone and the mouth
Whatever the route: a 12-inch stone is the sensible size — 16-inch ovens are heavier, slower to heat and tempt you into pizzas too big to turn. Check the stone is real cordierite or firebrick, thick enough (12mm or more) to hold heat between pizzas, and replaceable. Check the mouth height: a low mouth keeps heat in but makes turning harder; a taller one is friendlier to beginners. And check the thermometer situation — most built-in dial gauges read the air, not the stone, and the stone is the number that matters (Bake 02 explains the infrared thermometer, the one accessory we'd never skip).
What we'd buy again
For a first oven: a 12-inch tabletop, gas if the yard is small or shared, wood-and-pellet capable if there's room and the fire appeals. Budget for the oven, a good peel, an infrared thermometer, a cover, and a bag of proper flour — those five things are the kit, and skimping on the peel or the thermometer is how people conclude they're bad at pizza. The brick dome is a second oven, or a first one for the patient.
Questions from the shop
Can my ordinary barbecue or kitchen oven do this?
Not at 450°C — a kitchen oven tops out around 250-300 and a barbecue with a stone struggles past 350. You'll get a decent pizza in five or six minutes, but not the ninety-second leopard-spotted crust this notebook is about. That crust needs a stone at 400°C-plus and heat coming down from a dome, which is what a pizza oven is for.
Multi-fuel ovens — gas and wood in one — worth it?
Yes if you're torn: run gas on weeknights and wood on weekends. The compromise is small (the gas burner is usually a bolt-on), and the flexibility is real. Check the swap between fuels is quick and doesn't need tools.
Second-hand?
Excellent value, because so many are bought and used twice. Inspect the stone for cracks (fine hairline is normal; a break through is a replacement), check the burner lights or the fire tray isn't rusted through, and make sure the model's spares are still sold. Our first oven was second-hand and it made two hundred pizzas.
Oven chosen — now light it: the first fire.