BakerStone Portable Gas Series Pizza Oven Box review

Our Verdict

The BakerStone can pull double-duty every bit a standalone pizza oven or as a grilltop accessory, only it's not our favorite outdoor pizza oven.

For

Five-sided stone baking chamber reaches high temperatures quickly
Radiant estrus gives pies a prissy char
Ii gas knobs requite more than control over temperature
Height baking box can be pulled off and used on the grill
A more than affordable option

Confronting

Assembly required
Two-part oven feels less stable than others

Tom's Guide Verdict

The BakerStone can pull double-duty as a standalone pizza oven or every bit a grilltop accessory, but it'south not our favorite outdoor pizza oven.

Pros

+
Five-sided stone baking sleeping room reaches loftier temperatures chop-chop
+
Radiant heat gives pies a overnice char
+
Two gas knobs give more command over temperature
+
Top baking box can be pulled off and used on the grill
+
A more than affordable option

Cons

-
Assembly required
-
2-part oven feels less stable than others

BakerStone Portable Gas Serial Pizza Oven Box: Specs

Type: Propane
Size: 22.ii ten 21.seven x 17.vii inches
Weight (unboxed): 47.6 pounds
Cooking Surface: 15 x xiii-three/4 inches
Heating Capability: Up to 900 degrees F
Recipes: Booklet included
What'due south in the Box: Original Pizza Oven Box, portable lower "firebox" with hose and regulator
Tools Needed: Phillips screwdriver, scissors

The BakerStone Portable Gas Series Pizza Oven Box pulls double duty: Since information technology was originally designed as a box to place on a grill, you can actually detach the summit portion from the bottom and practice your pizza-cooking on a grill. The interior of the oven, composed of v sides of pizza stones, performed surprisingly well when up confronting the open-flame Ooni Koda 16 and Gozney Roccbox, our two top picks for the best outdoor pizza ovens. Considering the five stones maintain and radiate a lot of heat, the pizzas nosotros made in our BakerStone Portable Gas Series Pizza Oven Box review came out with a good corporeality of char and were cooked evenly.

We too liked that there are two gas burners within the firebox, which each have their own knob, so yous can actually experiment with the heat of each side of the oven. Gaze into a hole on either side of the firebox, and yous can see the flames flickering away, giving a skillful idea of the estrus they're generating. Plus, an piece of cake-to-read thermometer on top of the pizza box lets you keep an eye on your temperature levels while you're cooking.

BakerStone Portable Gas Series Pizza Oven Box review: Price and availability

The BakerStone Portable Gas Serial Pizza Oven Box costs $349, and is bachelor at Bakerstonebox.com. It get-go went on auction in March 2020. A kit, which includes the pizza oven as well equally a pizza peel and a pizza turner, is likewise available for $369.

BakerStone Portable Gas Series Pizza Oven Box review: Ease of setup

The BakerStone oven does crave a fair amount of assembly. You'll need a Phillips screwdriver and a pair of scissors to cutting goose egg ties that secure some items. While the lesser portion, or the "firebox" arrives fully assembled — save for a battery that must exist inserted into the ignitor and 4 legs that need to be unfolded — the top "Pizza Oven Box" (the original production launched by the company, which can be taken off and placed onto a grill) must be put together.

BakerStone Portable Gas Series Pizza Oven Box outside on table — (Image credit: BakerStone)

The 10-footstep instructions, which walk you through assembling the box and securing the v pizza stones inside, are pretty easy to follow. Only 1 pace, in which a vent is installed onto the base rock, was unclear. All in all, assembling the pizza oven box took around 15 minutes and didn't require a loftier level of mechanical cognition. In one case the pizza oven box is placed on the base, you're ready to cook. Pro tip: Y'all'll find that there are a lot of screws and washers to remove then re-attach, so having a cup nearby to agree them isn't a bad thought.

One time set and on a tabletop, to get the oven running, you simply hook the gas regulator — already attached to the firebox — upward to a propane tank. In one case it's secured and tightened, the BakerStone manual recommends that the gas connection should be tested with a soapy water solution to ensure there are no leaks. We did and then, and found no leaks.

Interior of BakerStone Portable Gas Series Pizza Oven Box — (Paradigm credit: BakerStone)

Igniting the BakerStone requires starting each burner separately by turning the burner to loftier while pressing and property the ignition button. Both lit upwards quickly, and while nosotros exercise like the double-burner function, a single ignition would accept been easier. The oven heated up to 700 degrees in about xx minutes, about the same corporeality of fourth dimension information technology took the Ooni Koda xvi and Gozney Roccbox.

BakerStone Portable Gas Serial Pizza Oven Box review: Design and functionality

The design of the BakerStone pizza oven is more than function-forward than design-minded, but nosotros appreciate its simplicity. The pizza oven box only rests atop the firebox base. Although this may not seem very stable, it didn't move around during cooking, and not attaching it makes for easy removal if you'd like to use the pizza box on a grill.

Front view of BakerStone Portable Gas Series Pizza Oven Box — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The knobs on the front of the oven that control the ii burners allow you to play with heat levels, and a built-in thermometer on top of the oven keeps rails, generally, of temperature. The thermometer is divided into cooking three ranges; information technology would exist more helpful to take an bodily numerical reading as on the Gozney Roccbox (we used a light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation thermometer to closely proceed track of temperature). You can actually peek in two holes on each side of the oven to see the level of the burners' flames, which too helps to regulate the temperature.

BakerStone Portable Gas Series Pizza Oven Box cooking pizza — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

When cooking, it'due south of import to continue in mind that the opening of the oven is narrow (at but a little over iii inches), and so it's best to pay shut attending when inserting and removing pizzas, as the exterior gets very hot. The narrow opening and compact cooking area did a bully chore of retaining heat between the oven's five pizza stones (ane on each side), though.

BakerStone Portable Gas Series Pizza Oven Box review: Cooking performance

Given that at that place isn't an exposed flame, we were skeptical that the BakerStone would get hot plenty to cook thin-crust pizzas quickly — but we were wrong! Having stones on each side meant that the oven trapped a lot of heat inside. As with most of the other models, the BakerStone is the hottest at the dorsum of the oven, and so cooking closer to the rear is recommended for the quickest turnaround time.

BakerStone Portable Gas Series Pizza Oven Box pizza — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

In our tests, fresh dough made by hand and by a local pizzeria cooked in nigh four minutes, coming out with a dainty, puffy crust, and with but as much charring on the crust as the open-flame versions. Store-bought dough (both refrigerated and frozen/thawed) burned on the outside but remained chewy and somewhat uncooked on the inside — a cooking outcome with all of the ovens we tried, not just the BakerStone. Overall, the pizzas were but equally good as those nosotros fabricated with the Ooni and Roccbox, although they took a few more than minutes to finish.

BakerStone Portable Gas Series Pizza Oven Box review: Verdict

The BakerStone is a versatile oven that, truthfully, performed much improve than expected given its lack of an exposed flame. The Ooni and Roccbox, with their open up flames, cooked pizzas faster and were easier to control, which is why we preferred them over the BakerStone. Plus, neither of those grills required more a footstep or two of assembly. Still, grilling fanatics will love how easy it is to remove the BakerStone'due south Pizza Oven Box and place it on a grill to give pizzas a smokier season.

Karen Palmer has been writing about food and dining for more than than fifteen years, covering everything from restaurants and chefs to recipes and, now, outdoor pizza ovens. Her obsession with all things pizza started when the New Jersey native lived in Milan, Italian republic for a few years equally a child, and information technology continued well into adulthood. A self-described pizza connoisseur, Karen started a French breadstuff pizza pop-upward in Los Angeles called Pain Pizza. When the Boston College and culinary school grad isn't writing almost nutrient, y'all'll find her hopping a flight at LAX, taking a trip the light fantastic HIIT class, or enjoying a pie at one of her favorite local pizzerias.