PizzaOvenRepair.center (844) 747-3662Mon–Sat, 8am–8pm Book a visit
A gas pizza oven and a wood-fired pizza oven side by side on one patio.

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.

(844) 747-3662

Mon–Sat, 8am–8pm

  • Three guides
  • Read before you book
  • Says where to stop

Book a visit

Three short steps, about a minute.

or call (844) 747-3662

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
A stainless outdoor gas pizza oven on a patio counter with a low blue burner flame along one side of its stone floor, and behind it, softly out of focus, a domed wood-fired pizza oven with embers glowing at the back, a wicker basket of split hardwood on the pavers.
5-minute read

Wood, Gas or Electric Pizza Oven: How Each Heats the Stone and What It Asks of You

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.

The back line of a busy pizzeria, a stainless deck pizza oven with its door lowered onto a stone deck holding two pies, and beside it a stainless conveyor pizza oven with finished pizzas riding out on its wire belt, warm evening light.
4-minute read

Deck or Conveyor for a Pizzeria: Stone, Moving Air and the Upkeep Behind Each

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.

A cold domed wood-fired pizza oven on a backyard stone stand with its door set aside, a thin hairline crack across the pizza oven's dome face and one cracked floor tile lifted out beside a new tile in packaging on the ledge, a steel tape measure lying next to it.
4-minute read

Fix It or Start Over: Weighing a Tired Pizza Oven Part by Part

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?

The short answerWood, 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 answerDeck 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 answerFix 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
  1. 01Gas, power and draft come first
  2. 02The cause, and its cost
  3. 03Parts that ride along
  4. 04Fired 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
A domed wood-fired pizza oven in a backyard on an overcast day, a small smoky fire of dark damp logs at the back of the pizza oven stone floor, the inside of the dome still black with soot, a pale raw pizza waiting on a peel resting on the ledge. Problem

Pizza Oven Not Getting Hot Enough to Bake a Crisp Crust

7 causes, cheapest first

 A domed wood-fired pizza oven in a backyard, thick gray smoke billowing from its short chimney, a smoldering pile of large damp logs on the pizza oven stone floor visible through the arched mouth, the dome dark with soot. Problem

Wood-Fired Pizza Oven Smoking Heavily Out of the Chimney Top

6 causes, cheapest first

 A stainless outdoor gas pizza oven on a patio counter in plain afternoon light, its door off and the pizza oven stone floor cold and empty, the burner channel along the back dark with no flame, the knob at the front. Problem

Gas Pizza Oven Won't Light: Clicks, Gas Hiss, Still No Flame

7 causes, cheapest first

 The outside of a stucco-covered domed wood-fired pizza oven in a garden after rain, a jagged crack running down the side of the dome with a dark damp stain around it, the arched mouth of the pizza oven open and its stone floor cold. Problem

Pizza Oven Dome Cracked Inside or Out After Rain or a Big Fire

6 causes, cheapest first
A family sliding a pizza into a wood-fired pizza oven on a sunny patio.
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
A pizza oven's stone floor with one scorched patch beside a pale one, seen close.
What the fire and the floor are telling you

Common problems

A hand holding the knob of a pizza oven's gas valve in the off position.
Safe checks with the oven cold

Troubleshooting

A long brass brush resting on the cold stone floor of a pizza oven.
Habits that keep an oven baking evenly

Maintenance and prevention

A thermometer gun pointed at the stone floor of a pizza oven.
Gas, flame, smoke and safe bake temperatures

Gas, fire, smoke and food

The steel flue pipe rising from the top of a pizza oven, seen from below.
Clearances, the hearth under it, the flue and the fuel

Installation and setup

Not sure which section?

Start from your question

The four questions most visits start with, each with the guide that answers it.

18 guidesWhere to start Where to start

Back to your everyday

Let’s get your pizza oven working again.

Three short steps online, or one call. Tell us what you are seeing and pick a window that works.

Schedule a repair Call (844) 747-3662
(844) 747-3662 Schedule a repair