Ooni, the creator and leader of the home pizza oven market and newly christened B Corp, has earned itself the reputation of being the most stylish and advanced pizza oven you can buy. Although that accolade, along with many more awards, mustn’t have been enough for them because Ooni has just released the most stylish, versatile, and advanced electric pizza oven, and we go the first try.
The Volt 12 is an all-electric pizza oven suitable for indoor and outdoor use. Like the Karu range, the Volt 12 features a heat-retaining triple-paned borosilicate glass door to keep the heat and act as a looking window to the pizza bubbling away. A few new advancements have been implemented, including a built-in-timer, temperature control, and boost mode, which heats the stone so the next pizza you launch will achieve a perfectly cooked bottom.
That’s just the top line; let’s get into the nitty-gritty of this handy little oven.
How Big is the Ooni Volt 12?
The Ooni Volt 12 fits on a kitchen countertop, which is perhaps the oven’s most desirable aspect. Before, the Ooni range, while compact, was only available for outdoor use, so the indoor capability makes this oven more accessible to apartment dwellers. However, the Volt 12 can also withstand the elements outdoors thanks to a weather-resistant shell. It weighs just under 18kgs, so it’s easy to move, and it measures 62 x 53 x 28cm, which is suitable for most kitchen benchtops.
How Long Does it Take to Heat Up?
Despite being electric, you might be surprised that the Volt 12 only takes 20 minutes to reach the optimum temperature of 450oC. This means you can cook a stone-baked pizza in 90 seconds in your kitchen. It doesn’t get better than that.
Can Anyone Use It?
The Volt 12 is easy to use. Simply switch it on, like you would an oven, choose your temperature, and let it heat up. During the cooking process, or between launching pizzas, you can crank it up with temperature drops, or with the press of a button, you can give the stone a heat boost. There are only three dials, so you don’t need to be a professional to operate it.
Is it Just Limited to Pizza?
Thanks to the door, the Volt 12 is basically an oven. You can cook salmon, steak, potatoes, vegetables, and just about anything you can cook in a range; you can cook in the Volt 12. If you want to get creative, MasterChef winner Justin Narayan told us he makes bagels in it. Genius, right?
How Does It Compare to Wood-Fired Pizza?
This is the question on everyone’s mind, can it actually beat a wood-fired pizza oven? The idea of the Volt 12 is to cook a pizza like a professional pizza oven. Wood-fired pizza ovens work by bouncing reflective heat from a live fire off the dome and onto your food.
The Volt 12 works similarly in that the heat bounces off the dome and cooks your food, so you still get the same blistery, bubbling pizza crust you would in a wood-fired oven. You will even find that delicious char taste too.
I would argue it’s better than wood-fired. If you’ve ever had experience with a pizza oven before, you would know the temperature fluctuates a lot.
The oven can lose heat between pizzas, but with Volt 12, the temperature is much more stable. You can adjust the settings to heat up the stone or distribute the heat across the machine evenly.
What About the Smoke?
Pizza ovens are smokey; there’s no doubt about that. The Karu range has a chimney to expel the smoke, but the Volt 12 has no legs and no chimney. So where does all the smoke go? In my experience, the Volt 12 doesn’t puff smoke out like a locomotive.
You can expect some plumes of steam, so I would still suggest putting the oven under an exhaust fan or near an open window, but it doesn’t expel more steam or smoke than a pressure cooker.
With that said, if you have the temperature cranked up and the stone on the highest setting, you can expect your pizza to burn, and therefore I would imagine there will be lots of smoke. As long as you don’t burn anything, the smoke is minimal.
Is It Worth It?
It depends on you. Will you use it often? There’s no sense in buying something you’re only going to use once or twice. Take, for instance, myself. I love to cook. I throw dinner parties for family and friends regularly, so the investment is well worth it in my case.
My Ooni is well-used. I use it for pizza and my all-time favourite, cedar plank salmon. I’ve even thrown in a wheel of brie and vegetables. It has replaced my oven; therefore, for me, the cost per use was well worth it in the end.
In regards to is the oven worth it? Yes, it is. The Volt 12 is the easiest, most advanced pizza oven on the market. Whether you live in an apartment or a house with a backyard, this compact oven will fit just about anywhere.
How Much is the Volt 12, and When Will it Be Available in Australia?
The Volt 12 will be available in Australia from August and will come with a price tag of $1,499.
Does Ooni Have Other New Ovens?
Yes, it does. Ooni has just released the Karu 12G Multi-Fuel Oven, the world’s most advanced portable pizza oven, with multi-fuel versatility, an integrated thermometer, ClearViewTM technology, and a triple-paned borosilicate glass door, a first for Ooni’s 12-inch oven range.
The gas burner uses over 36% less fuel than previous models and reaches a maximum temperature in just 15 minutes, which is 29% faster than previous models, to cook pizza in just 60 seconds.
An integrated thermometer was also added, so put the heat gun away. However, despite all the newly added features and advancements, the Karu 12G comes in at a very reasonable price of $699.
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