Customer reviews for DURO Black Powdered Steel Wood Fire Pizza Oven forGreat pizza oven
Awesome, kept heat well. Fantastic deal.
Unboxing review
This is only an unboxing review. I wont have time to use this until about 4 to 5 days from now, but I know alot of people that are waiting to hear more about this oven because there basically is nothing about it online. I will likely do a video as well, although Im not a youtuber, I'll try my best. OK so first impressions, are quite impressive. It arrives via freight in a large box. Very cumbersome to move around, and it's impossible to get the stove out without cutting one of the long sides away. DIMENSIONS INSIDE: 26 wide, 22 deep, but only 14 from the metal grate in the center/ash collector. WHY OH WHY did they put the ash collector on the side, or just not add one at all! That significantly decreased the size of the cook. You probably could do every bit of a 14" pizza in here if you toss it off to the right side, lighting your fire and pushing the wood to the left side as should be. Even the manual tells you to do that, so why is there a darn ash grate in the back? The grate itself is pretty thin, and Im not sure if it is stainless or not. Im a bit concerned about this grate honestly, and embers falling in and popping out. So putting this in my eyes on a wooden deck is a no go, and that's what I was planning to do. If one was handy, and a welder, you could seal that back grate area underneath with a small plate, and then find a comparable stone and increase your cook surface area dramatically. The stones are surprisingly 3/4" thick. They seem chunky. To remove the stones, you remove the grate first then you can get to the sides of the stones to remove them. Under the stones are little channels where the stones fit into. The interior is stainless FYI. Which was a big concern for me. The idea of having high temps with paint around the food area would have been a deal breaker for me. The flue that comes with the stove, isnt some thin flimsy flue. It's beefy and looks like it will last for a long time. The instructions state NOT to use the over with the door closed. HMM. Well I plan to keep mine open, but not for when I first fire the oven. I will have the door sitting sideways having the stove almost closed at start up. Id also recommend firing the stove a few times and increasing the temperature to temper the stove. That's whats going to take me awhile to get to the point of cooking a pie and doing a cooking review. OH and here's the best thing I found so far about the stove. IT COMES WITH A COVER. It's not some cheap plastic cover either. It's a canvas like material with zippers. So all in all Im pretty impressed, and I think there are options for cooking space. For example, I probably could throw a large rectangle stone on top of the current stones and over the grate for more cooking area. Or like I said, get really involved and weld that grate shut and find a replacement stone to retrofit in that grate slot. Might involve the use of a wet saw but anyone that can weld can likely wet saw too. Or dont do anything and just cook max 12" pies. Like I said, I'm impressed with this unit. Knocked a star because of that really bad grate placement, but may add another star if it doesnt matter or cooks beyond my expectations.
Impressive for the price
This thing is a beast to put together... It is every bit of 200lbs and the directions show the extremely heavy dome just floating in the air (!) as you attach the legs. That's not physically possible so you have to put the legs on while on the ground and then have two people carefully move it to the upright position (or you will almost certainly break the legs trying). That said, once all the bracing is in place, the whole unit is quite stable and it does indeed roll on its wheels reasonably well. In terms of cooking, the unit heats up fast and maintains heat very well. I had the stone up to 900 degrees (measured with infrared thermometer -- built in thermometer is pretty useless). That was too hot for pizza as the cornmeal/semolina scorched almost instantly and gave the pizza a very off bitter burnt flavor. Bringing it back down to around 700 created superior results. I was able to do about ten pizzas without it cooling down very much at all... Each pizza takes only about two minutes to make... The unit is quite spacious and fits 12" pizzas nicely... The front opening is nice and large which provides ample space for maneuvering the peel (not included). There is also plenty of space for the coals in the back portion... The included cover seems pretty rugged and was a nice bonus. Ultimately, I am very pleased with this purchase especially considering the price point.