What to Look for in a Commercial Pizza Oven For Your Restaurant
It's no secret people all around the world love pizza. It's so popular that restaurants generated $43.48 billion in pizza sales in 2017 alone.
Different people have their own preferences for pizza. Whether it's the traditional Italian recipe, a vegetarian variant, a meat-filled pizza, an American adaptation, or even a dessert pizza. Knowing that you may be thinking it's a good idea to buy your own commercial pizza oven.
Before you do that though, there are a few things you have to consider when buying a pizza oven. Take a look at the list we have below to help you decide the best commercial pizza oven for your restaurant.
1. Size and Space
When you're looking for a pizza oven, the first thing you should consider is its size. A pizza oven should be able to fit into your restaurant's kitchen without obstructing your workers' routines.
Kitchens with only a small space available for an oven should opt for a convection oven. These ovens only take up to 60 cubic feet at maximum. There are smaller variants as well that only take up 15 cubic feet.
Ovens like these should leave your workers with enough space to work without trouble. There are also other convection ovens that come in a narrower, taller size. These are ideal if you plan on adding more equipment to your kitchen.
If you have a decent amount of space to spare, you may want to consider buying a deck oven. These tend to be around 100 cubic feet with larger ones being as big as 180 cubic feet. But their total size depends on how many decks you want to have.
A traditional deck can accommodate up to four trays at a time. Adding more decks mean more cubic feet occupied.
However, these tend to take up more vertical space than horizontal. It should not pose a problem if you have a high ceiling.
Large kitchens can choose between conveyor or brick ovens. Conveyors tend to take up much more space in general. They come at around 150 cubic feet and can range up to 300. Brick ovens vary in size and tend to reach from floor to ceiling.
2. Production Time
Depending on your restaurant, pizza can be the main focus or just another menu item. You should keep that in mind when it comes to selecting your own restaurant pizza oven.
Convection ovens are on the low side when it comes to how many pizzas they can make in a given time frame. One convection chamber tends to have two to five racks which can each carry two pizzas 16 inches big.
They take 20 minutes to preheat and can cook a pizza in six minutes. It's the ideal choice if pizza isn't your main selling point.
If you look to produce more pizzas within an hour, you should consider choosing between deck ovens and brick ovens. Deck ovens can hold up to six pizzas per deck and can cook them in only eight minutes. You can add more decks to increase productivity.
Brick ovens, on the other hand, can cook up to 10 pizzas at once. Although, unlike the deck oven, you have no way of increasing the number of pizzas you can cook.
A brick oven makes up for this with its stable internal temperature. Continuous hot air and fire provide no temperature drop and cooks pizzas in five minutes.
Conveyor ovens are the best choice if pizzas are your top priority. They can cook as many pizzas as you can make in five minutes. All you need to do is set the toppings and the conveyor oven will do the rest.
3. Cost and Maintenance
Starting off at $1000 and can range up to $10,000, convection ovens are the most affordable ovens in the bunch. You need to clean the inside of a convection oven every day to keep them in reliable working condition. You should also clean their intake fans to prevent them from breaking down.
Conveyor ovens and deck ovens share a more expensive price range. These cost up to $30,000 with the cheapest costing $5,000.
Conveyor ovens have many small parts and mechanisms moving inside of them. This feature may lead to many breakages in the long run and you'll need professional help to fix it.
Deck ovens are the most cost-effective investment among the three mentioned. They have a long lifespan as far as pizza ovens go. They also need little-to-no maintenance aside from scrubbing the inside and wiping down the outside on occasion.
The pizza ovens mentioned above also come in a tabletop version. These variants cost less and are much easier to clean. You can get one of them for as low as $100.
A brick pizza oven costs you a lot of money. There is no fixed price for it, it all depends on how much your contractor charges you to build it. Though it may not need a lot of cleaning besides the regular scrub down, it does need you to provide it with a constant supply of firewood.
4. Employee Skill and Attention
Each pizza oven needs a degree of skill to use. The skill isn't limited to how well they can use the oven but extends to how well they can make full use of it as well.
Convection ovens don't need much attention. All your employees need to do is place the pizzas inside to cook and take them out when ready.
Deck ovens also don't need you to do much besides cook pizzas. Although, your employees will need to have a way to keep track of the many pizzas inside, as failing to do so may lead to many overcooked and even burnt pizzas.
You'll need your employees to have knowledge of how to work a conveyor oven. They will need to know how to use its interface should they need to adjust the settings. They'll also need to make pizzas constantly to feed into the conveyor.
With brick pizza ovens, your employees need to learn how to do a few new things. They'll need to keep track of the firewood inside. Failing to renew it when it's needed will often lead to a big delay in production.
While it's true you can turn a gas grill into a brick oven, your employees will still have to learn how to use the proper tools to access a brick oven with relative safety.
Get the Commercial Pizza Oven that Your Restaurant Needs Now
With the right commercial pizza oven, your restaurant's sales will go through the roof! But to get the one your restaurant needs today, you may need to speak to a professional restaurant equipment specialist.
Do you have any question about restaurant supplies and equipment? Don't hesitate to contact us here.
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