Stainless steel pizza ovens: it all depends on the quality
The cheap pizza ovens do not come from high-quality European production, but mostly from Asian countries. This does not always have to be a disadvantage, but it is if you are looking for a durable and high-quality solution. They are assembled according to inferior quality standards. The material thickness of the stainless steel is low, usually only 0.5mm, so the ovens are not able to maintain the temperature. This has several disadvantages. Firstly, to fire the oven and maintain the temperature, you need considerably more energy input, that is, wood. A high-quality pizza oven from the Italian manufacturer Fontana reaches a temperature of 350 degrees in 30 minutes with 2 kg of wood. A cheap oven is not capable of this high temperature due to lack of insulation - not even with very high wood input. An original Fontana pizza oven has a material thickness in the dome of 2.5mm and in the baking chamber of 4mm. This is an additional reinforcement in the baking chamber to protect the dome and ensure the longevity of the oven.
In combination with other quality features such as insulation, enormous energy efficiency is achieved here. This also leads to a very long operating time of the ovens. In a Fontana pizza oven you can bake a lot of pizza for hours with low wood consumption, nothing stands in the way of a cozy garden party. And the next morning the oven still has 200 degrees to bake bread, rolls and cakes in it or prepare a casserole for lunch. In a cheap oven from China it is not possible to bake a large number of pizzas over a long period of time, because the pizzas brought in naturally cause a drop in temperature, and the oven has to build up this temperature again over a relatively long period of time, while an oven with high-quality insulation imperceptibly forgives this short drop in temperature.
In addition, the poor or lack of insulation of the ovens. For pizza ovens produced in Asia, a very thin mat of fiberglass is used, which lowers production costs. High quality Italian pizza ovens are insulated with quality natural wool, which provides many times better insulation performance. The insulation wool is biosoluble and therefore not hazardous to health. this has consequences also for the handling of the ovens: High-quality insulated ovens do not get warmer than 50 degrees on the outside, and there is no risk of burns. Inexpensive ovens lose heat to the outside due to a lack of insulation and accordingly become dangerously hot.
Discounter pizza ovens are also at a disadvantage when it comes to baking surfaces. The stones used in cheap ovens correspond neither in the strength nor in the composition of the high-quality and as food-safe certified fireclay stones (30mm thick) of the original Italian pizza ovens of Fontana. The Asian stones are mixed together from different materials, have a low strength and do not keep the temperature for a long time. Often the ingredients of the stones are dubious and sometimes even carcinogenic. Who wants to bake his pizza on a stone, whose ingredients are possibly hazardous to health?
The shape of the pizza oven also plays a major role in air circulation. While the original Fontana pizza ovens are given a traditional and precisely formed dome shape in an elaborate process, cheap Asian productions are usually angular in shape. This is much faster and cheaper. The quality suffers as a result. In the original domes, the hot air circulates perfectly, all by itself. It is always in motion, surrounds the food and allows it to cook absolutely evenly. In an original Italian Fontana pizza oven, there is no need to rotate or reposition the dish. In cheap imitators-ovens a pizza can already burn on one side and be not yet cooked on the other.
Original Fontana ovens are robust and heat-resistant. They are made of absolutely high quality stainless steel, it is electro-galvanized and therefore even more robust than any other steel. They are pre-assembled and ready to use immediately without long assembly work at home. A Fontana pizza oven will give the customer years of enjoyment without complaint. That is why Fontana pizza ovens come with a 6-year warranty, while cheap Asian products often do not even survive the maximum two-year warranty.
We hope you have gained a good impression of the quality differences between cheap pizza ovens in discount stores and high-quality pizza ovens from Italian production in our store. We also have price-conscious entry-level models in very good quality, which you will enjoy for many years. Talk to us, we will be happy to advise you and show you our high-quality stainless steel ovens of Fontana in our exhibition.