What Size Pizza Oven Do You Actually Need?

Pizza oven sizing is where most buyers go wrong, and almost always in the same direction: too big.

The reasoning is understandable. You picture a garden party, twenty guests, pizzas flying. In practice you cook for four people on a Friday, and a large oven means longer heat-up, more fuel and a heavier thing to store.

Here is how to size it properly.

Understand how sizes are quoted

Pizza ovens are described in two ways, and mixing them up causes confusion.

By pizza diameter. A 13-inch oven fits one 13-inch pizza. A 16-inch fits one 16-inch pizza. This is common on portable and gas ovens.

By internal floor dimensions. An 80 x 60cm oven has a cooking floor 80cm deep and 60cm wide. This is common on masonry and larger wood fired ovens, and tells you how many pizzas fit at once.

The practical sizing guide

• 13 inch / small. One pizza at a time, roughly 60 to 90 seconds each. Perfectly workable for two to four people. Fastest to heat, least fuel, easiest to store or transport.
• 16 inch / medium. One larger pizza, or a smaller one with room to turn it comfortably. The sweet spot for most families. Also handles a roasting dish or cast iron pan.
• 60 x 60cm. Two pizzas at once, or one pizza plus space to keep a fire to the side. The smallest size that starts to feel like a proper oven for entertaining.
• 80 x 60cm. Three to four pizzas at once. This is genuinely party territory, and also where an oven becomes useful for bread, roasts and slow cooking after the pizza is done.
• 100 x 80cm and above. Serious capacity. Worth it if you regularly cook for large groups or want to use residual heat for full meals. Overkill for most gardens.

The question that actually decides it

Not how many people you might feed at a summer party. Instead: how many people do you cook for on a typical occasion, and how often?

If the honest answer is four people, once a fortnight, a 13 or 16 inch oven will serve you better than an 80 x 60. You will use it more because it is quicker to fire, and you will not resent the fuel.

If you genuinely host large groups several times a season, size up. Cooking twenty pizzas one at a time is a long evening.

Things people forget

Turning space. A pizza needs room to rotate. An oven rated for a 16-inch pizza with no clearance is harder to work in than one rated 16 inch with a little room around it. Rotating ovens solve this by turning the base for you.

Weight and portability. Portable ovens like the DeliVita range can be carried by two people and taken away with you. Larger masonry ovens are permanent installations.

Heat-up time scales with size. A small portable oven can be ready in 20 to 25 minutes. A large masonry oven may need 45 minutes to an hour. That difference decides whether you cook on a weeknight.

What else you will cook. Larger ovens hold heat for hours after the pizza is finished, which is when bread, slow-roasted meat and vegetables become possible. If that appeals, size up. If you only want pizza, it is wasted capacity.

Next steps

Once you have a size in mind, fuel type is the other major decision. Our guide to gas, wood fired, dual fuel and electric ovens covers the trade-offs, and if you are planning to cook year-round it is worth reading do pizza ovens work in a British winter.

Browse the full pizza oven range, or call 020 7038 6255 and we will size one with you.