Karma Pizza Oven

[-Chris-]

Can we talk about pizza ovens here?

https://www.wppo.us/products/karma-42-professional-304-ss-wood-fired-oven

Any experience with the Karma 42" pizza oven? The size and cost seems to be better than the Italian-made ovens.

I like making pizzas in my BGE, but I think this would take my pizzas to the next level.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[SonVolt]

Where is the Karma made? China? If so I'd save my money. China is notorious for making crap steel. For that price I would stick with a reputable Italian-made oven where you know the quality will be high.

All that said, i'm a bit biased b/c I work in the Steel industry and own an Italian Fontana Forni pizza oven.

 

[pmad]

You have to worry when the specifications sheet does not specify where it is made.
https://image.riverbendhome.com/ProductInfo/Karma-42.pdf

They also have a 32" version for $600 less.

 

[Mikhail]

$2600 is a pretty steep price. You can get an Oooni for what, $400? Maybe I don't know enough about them.

 

[SonVolt]

$2600 is a pretty steep price. You can get an Oooni for what, $400? Maybe I don't know enough about them.

These "mid-sized" ovens are a big step up from the Oonis & RoccBoxes. They're more akin to true masonry ovens in that you burn full-size splits, plus the larger cooking area. The cook chamber alone on my Marinara weighs 650lbs+.

 

[robertm]

Recommend getting on pizzamaking.com forum. There is a wealth of pizza EVERYTHING knowledge there.

 

[Mikhail]

I'm on there too, and there is a wealth of information.

 

[-Chris-]

own an Italian Fontana Forni pizza oven.

How do you like the size? Would smaller have been fine as well? I guess when you are turning out pizzas every few minutes, you can cook them one at a time.

On my XL Big Green Egg I can turn out a large 16" pizza every 15 minutes at 450 degrees.

Chris

 

[SonVolt]

How do you like the size? Would smaller have been fine as well? I guess when you are turning out pizzas every few minutes, you can cook them one at a time.

On my XL Big Green Egg I can turn out a large 16" pizza every 15 minutes at 450 degrees.

Chris

I absolutely love it. I got the biggest one they had (Marinara) b/c I wanted to cook lots of roasts 'n stuff other than just pizza, but I'm sure their smaller sizes work just fine.

I love my BGE XL but the physics just don't work in its favor when it comes to pizza. No amount of tricks produce the top-down heat needed to excellent pizza.



Btw, Fontana's youtube channel is fantastic. It'll give you an idea of all the cools things you cook in these ovens.

https://www.youtube.com/c/FontanaForniUSA/videos

 

[robertm]

How do you like the size? Would smaller have been fine as well? I guess when you are turning out pizzas every few minutes, you can cook them one at a time.

On my XL Big Green Egg I can turn out a large 16" pizza every 15 minutes at 450 degrees.

Chris

I cooked pizzas on my BGE for years. Made great pies but I hated that it took 10 minutes per pie then needed time to get stone back up to temp.

I got a koda 16 for Christmas and am loving it now. It was a big learning curve with quite a bit of frustration in the beginning but I've got it down pretty good. The pizzas coming out of that cooker absolutely blow away what I was able to make in the BGE. Best part is they take less than 60 seconds to make and only takes a couple minutes to get stone back up to temp.

If you can swing something bigger then that will only make things easier. It takes a bit of skill/technique to perfectly launch a big pie in the koda 16. I've dropped down to 12" pies to give myself wiggle room. With how quick it cooks it's not that big a deal for us. A larger cooker would make things easier.

I am by no means an expert and still have a long way to go but man the pizzas are tasty!

 

[jkief]

The ALFA pizza ovens aren’t crazy expensive as compared to others in that size.

 

[-Chris-]

I think I found the one I am going to buy.

https://www.ilfornino.com/ilfornino...ired-pizza-oven-with-adjustable-height-stand/

pizzamaking.com does not have much traffic in the oven section, unfortunately.

 

[-Chris-]

I love my BGE XL but the physics just don't work in its favor when it comes to pizza. No amount of tricks produce the top-down heat needed to excellent pizza.

For others playing along at home I have solved that issue I think. I place the place setter with the top up and place the pizza stone directly on top of that. I run the egg around 500 degrees and let it heat up for 30-45 minutes. This works great on my XL BGE, I had less success with my large BGE using the same technique. The coal bed on the XL is much larger than on the L egg which may have something to do with it.

I put my dough on a pizza screen and once the top starts to finish cooking, around 8-10 minutes, I pull it off the screen to brown up the bottom. My stone is running around 400 degrees.

What I am trying to solve for is the speed of making pizzas, plus I want a new toy.

Chris