--- title: "Choosing and comparing — Pizza Oven Guides" description: "Wood, gas or electric, deck or conveyor for a pizzeria, and when an aging pizza oven is worth repairing and when a new one makes more sense." url: "https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/choosing-and-comparing/" --- Wood or gas, deck or conveyor, fix or retire # Choosing and comparing guides. Wood, gas or electric, deck or conveyor for a pizzeria, and when an aging pizza oven is worth repairing and when a new one makes more sense. ## Choosing and comparing, guide by guide. Read this section before an oven is ordered, or on the day a repair estimate arrives and a new one starts to look tempting. Each guide weighs one choice that pizza oven owners actually face: wood, gas or electric heat under the stone, a deck or a conveyor behind a pizzeria's counter, and fixing a tired oven against starting over. [All 18 guides](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/) 5-minute read ### [Wood, Gas or Electric Pizza Oven: How Each Heats the Stone and What It Asks of You](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/wood-gas-or-electric-pizza-oven/) How a wood dome, a gas burner and an electric deck each heat the floor, how long they take, what the spot needs in pipes, flues and wiring, and which parts each one wears out. 4-minute read ### [Deck or Conveyor for a Pizzeria: Stone, Moving Air and the Upkeep Behind Each](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/deck-or-conveyor-for-a-pizzeria/) What a stone deck and an air-finger conveyor do to a crust, how much each depends on the crew, the space, gas and hood they need, and the cleaning schedule and repairs that come with them. 4-minute read ### [Fix It or Start Over: Weighing a Tired Pizza Oven Part by Part](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/repair-or-replace-a-pizza-oven/) Which dome cracks makers call normal and which width deserves a visit, the parts designed to be swapped, when a new oven wins, what the limited coverage leaves out, and the facts to gather first. ## Wood or gas, deck or conveyor, fix or retire. The comparisons are between kinds of oven, not between brands. When a maker publishes a figure worth knowing, such as a curing temperature, a warm-up time, a belt width or what its limited coverage leaves out, the maker is named and its manual is cited under the section that uses it, so you can hold the claim up against the oven in front of you. We write from the service side of the counter. Crust style gets its due, but so do the things a showroom seldom raises: what has to be piped, wired or vented to the spot, how a dome copes with rain, which parts wear first, and how a technician reaches them years later when something stops heating. Your own site still has the final say. The gas or electrical service already in place, the hood over a pizzeria line, local burn rules, the space on a patio and the crew who will run the oven every night decide more than any specification sheet, and a look at the spot before buying is cheaper than living with the wrong oven. [Not sure where to start?](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/#start-here) ### The short answer Wood, Gas or Electric Pizza Oven: How Each Heats the Stone and What It Asks of You Choosing a wood or gas pizza oven, or an electric deck, is a choice between three ways of heating a stone floor. ### The short answer Deck or Conveyor for a Pizzeria: Stone, Moving Air and the Upkeep Behind Each Choosing a deck oven or conveyor oven for a pizzeria comes down to crust, labor and volume. ### The short answer Fix It or Start Over: Weighing a Tired Pizza Oven Part by Part Whether to repair or replace a pizza oven depends less on age than on which part has failed. ## When reading is not enough. If the checks in these guides did not settle it, the visit picks up from there, stop by stop. [What repairs cost](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/cost/) 1. 01 Gas, power and draft come first 2. 02 The cause, and its cost 3. 03 Parts that ride along 4. 04 Fired up before we go ## The problems these answer. Each has a page of its own, with the causes in the order worth checking. [All 17 problems](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/problems/) Problem ### Pizza Oven Not Getting Hot Enough to Bake a Crisp Crust 7 causes, cheapest first Problem ### Wood-Fired Pizza Oven Smoking Heavily Out of the Chimney Top 6 causes, cheapest first Problem ### Gas Pizza Oven Won't Light: Clicks, Gas Hiss, Still No Flame 7 causes, cheapest first Problem ### Pizza Oven Dome Cracked Inside or Out After Rain or a Big Fire 6 causes, cheapest first For the heart of your home. ## Questions about choosing and comparing. ### Is one pizza oven maker favored in these guides? No. They compare designs and fuels, and makers appear only where their own manual supplies a number or a rule worth quoting. ### My oven is already built in. Is this section still useful? Yes. Knowing how your oven's fuel makes heat, what its warm-up really looks like at the stone and which of its parts are meant to be replaced explains a lot about how it behaves and how it gets repaired. ### Can you look at a pizzeria before we choose between deck and conveyor? Yes. A visit covers the gas and electrical service, the hood and flue, the floor space and the menu, and ends with the kinds of oven that fit the room, from any maker. ### Will a guide tell me whether my own oven is worth fixing? It lays out the deciding points, such as crack width, a rusted body or controls no longer made. Settling it for your oven takes someone in front of it who can see which part failed and whether a replacement is still sold. ## The other sections. Split by what you are trying to find out rather than by which part of the appliance it concerns. [All guides](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/) What the fire and the floor are telling you ### [Common problems](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/common-problems/) - [Why a pizza oven will not heat: short preheats, cold cylinders and wet masonry](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/why-a-pizza-oven-will-not-heat/) - [Why the bottom burns and the top stays pale, and which heat to turn up](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/why-the-bottom-burns-and-the-top-stays-pale/) - [Why a dome cracks: normal crazing, trapped steam and fires too big](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/why-a-dome-cracks/) Safe checks with the oven cold ### [Troubleshooting](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/troubleshooting/) - [Pizza oven troubleshooting in half an hour, with the fire out](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/pizza-oven-checks-before-booking/) - [When the pilot will not stay lit after you let go of the button](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/when-the-pilot-will-not-stay-lit/) - [Find the pizza oven rating plate: under the tray, round the back or behind the panel](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/find-the-pizza-oven-rating-plate/) Habits that keep an oven baking evenly ### [Maintenance and prevention](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/maintenance-and-prevention/) - [Curing a New Pizza Oven: Slow First Fires on the Maker's Schedule](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/curing-a-new-pizza-oven/) - [Cleaning the Pizza Oven Floor and Chimney Without Water on Hot Stone](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/cleaning-the-floor-and-the-chimney/) - [Keeping a Deck Oven Baking Even: Dampers, Stone Care and Where the Pies Land](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/keeping-a-deck-oven-baking-even/) Gas, flame, smoke and safe bake temperatures ### [Gas, fire, smoke and food](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/safety-and-food/) - [A gas smell at the pizza oven: burners off, supply closed, everyone back](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/a-gas-smell-at-the-pizza-oven/) - [Chimney fire or smoke in the room: closing the door on a pizza oven flue](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/a-chimney-fire-or-smoke-in-the-room/) - [Burning the right wood in a pizza oven: dry hardwood, under 20 percent](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/burning-the-right-wood/) Clearances, the hearth under it, the flue and the fuel ### [Installation and setup](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/installation-and-setup/) - [Clearances and the hearth under a pizza oven: walls, roofs and the insulated floor](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/clearances-and-the-hearth-under-an-oven/) - [Venting a pizza oven: chimney height, offsets, hoods and makeup air](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/venting-a-pizza-oven/) - [Gas and power for a pizzeria oven: what the rating plate asks of the building](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/gas-and-power-for-a-pizzeria-oven/) Not sure which section? ### Start from your question The four questions most visits start with, each with the guide that answers it. 18 guides Where to start Where to start --- **[Read on the site: Choosing and comparing — Pizza Oven Guides](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/guides/choosing-and-comparing/)** **[Book a visit with PizzaOvenRepair.center](https://pizzaovenrepair.center/schedule/)**