Highest Temp Electric Oven? (USA)

[jblcclbj]

Hi everyone,

  I'm looking around for a high temperature electric pizza oven for 120V in the USA (> 700F ).  If there's a conveyor-style oven, that's even better!
  For now, let's pretend that price does not matter, although it of course does.  Compact (i.e. desktop, not restaurant size) is important.

1)  On these forums I've read about Baker's Pride (P18S) and Nemko (6205) ovens, but these go to 650 and 700 F, respectively.  I'm hoping for something 800 F or so, for something I'd like to try.  The Roller Grill PZ 330 has 1000 C heating elements, which is perfect except it's 230V (for the UK).  Anyone have ideas on what I should look at?

2) The conveyor ovens I've seen only go to about 500 F.  Does anyone have sources for small high temp conveyor ovens that can match the temps of the above closed ovens?  I looked into conveyor toasters, but those max out at 500 F, too.



Thanks!
Paul

[jblcclbj]

Bump   Thanks!

[scott123]

Unless you have aspirations to open your own 99 cent pizza, Dominos or Papa John's, I'd avoid conveyors like the plague, as they make notoriously bad pizza.

The only high temp countertop that I'm aware of that are built well and have a good reputation are the sage countertop ovens from China:

They're not 120V, though.

Baker's Pride countertops are garbage (unless you can find one for dirt cheap and are incredibly handy).

[jblcclbj]

Thanks Scott.  Interesting.  What makes Baker's Pride so poor?  Construction quality, heat distribution, or...?

[scott123]

Both (and more).  The parts are flimsy and cheap and the stones have no thermal mass (and are placed on shelves to make them look thicker than they really are). The wattages/heat output are generally more appropriate for pizza warming than baking.

Countertops are generally the toaster ovens of the pizza oven world.

[jblcclbj]

Ah, I see.  Is this the case with Nemko?

  I'll look into Sage, perhaps they have a 3-phase version suitable in the US.

[scott123]

I can't speak for Nemko, as I've not come across any of them.  If they're countertop, though, I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them.  It won't be easy, but, at a minimum, get any and all specs on the Nemko ovens you're looking at.  Check the stone width. Check the wattage.  If the stone is 1" or thicker and the wattage above 2.5kW, then there's hope.  It doesn't speak to the quality of the manufacture, but at least you'll know it can bake a pizza.

Here's a link to a Sage discussion:

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=12165.0

There's nothing innately European about 240v, btw. It's just a matter of running two 120v circuits from the box with a special plug.  Any powerful deck oven, countertop or otherwise, should draw at least 240v, imo.  120V should really be a warning sign, not a selling point.

[jblcclbj]

Thanks.  I saw that thread after you suggested Sage, but all the links were expired; they don't seem to be available on ebay anymore despite my searching.

  Does anyone have a working link to buying a Sage oven?  I like the fact that their temps can go higher than 750F.

[scott123]

I'm having a hard time finding the link at the moment, but one of our members recently posted that they were in contact with the ebay seller and that he was expecting a batch of ovens sometime soon.  If you are interested in one of these, I'd try sending him a message through ebay.

[jblcclbj]

Yes, I'd love to have that info, thank you.

[scott123]

I found the link from the member (DNA Dan) who's in contact with the seller.

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,13195.msg180754.html#msg180754

He said he should have ovens in May.

You can contact the seller through this page here:

http://myworld.ebay.com/ebaymotors/cn_sage

[The Dough Doctor]

JB;
The reason why you don't see electric ovens designed to operate at temperatures above 700F is because if they do they cannot be U.L. Listed. Gas ovens don't have that problem.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

[jblcclbj]

Cool, thanks.  The ebay seller is MIA, and isn't getting back to me.  So, I'm going to go with another oven.

  I've a general question though.  One one of the Nemko models, the maximum temperature of both the 1.8kW and 6kW models is the same (700F).  Why is this, and how does that make sense?  The 120V is rated to 1800W, and the 240V version is 6000W.

240V:
  http://www.katom.com/128-6205240.html

120V:
  http://www.katom.com/128-6205120.html

[scott123]

The wattage controls the rate of the transfer, not the peak temp.  A lower wattage oven may reach 700F, but it will take a lot longer to get there and it will take a while to recover after a bake. If you look at the spec sheet on the link, you'll see that the lower wattage oven takes 60 minutes to reach 500, while the higher wattage version takes 15 minutes. 1800 watts is basically a hair dryer, btw.

After perusing the spec sheet, though, the wattage should be the least of your concerns. Remember talking about stone thickness?  These stones are like tissue paper.  A 1/4" stone is worthless.

Another thing I noticed was the thermostat controller.  This has one single thermostat controller.  You need two independent controllers- one for the top element, one for the bottom.

Based on this spec sheet, I can now give you my opinion on Nemko. Nemko is equally as crappy as Baker's Pride- which, honestly, doesn't surprise me, since the countertop market, as discussed previously, is so rife with dishonesty and fraud.

Paul, what do you need this oven for?  Is this for personal or professional use? What style of pizza are you hoping to make? At the end of the day, I think a conventional home oven with a good stone will make pizzas better than any of these non-Sage countertops.

Edit: Btw, drop DNA Dan a PM- perhaps he has a more direct email for the Sage re-seller.

[norma427]

jblcclbj,

I am not sure what kind of oven you are interested in.

I forget what kind of little Italian oven Fred (SmokinGuitarPlayer) had, but it did bake fast.  I had posted about it at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,13261.0.html  Maybe you could write or call Fred at http://www.fredsmusicandbbq.com/ to find out where he purchased his oven if you are interested.  I really don’t recall how much he paid for his oven, but I think it was expensive.  I think his little oven had dual controls if I recall correctly.

Norma

[pizzaneer]

Check out this thread:  http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,274.msg2070.html#msg2070
Steve (this forum's owner) was looking for the exact same thing.

He got a Pizza Bella Deni, which is a clone of the italian-made Ferrari G3.  The oven seems worth the money with some experience.

[BrickStoneOven]

The Sage ovens are like gypses there on ebay one second then gone for a while the next. He does repost them, you just have to keep checking.

The oven Fred has looks like this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-countertop-pizza-oven-115V-/180602562261?pt=BI_Commercial_Ovens_Ranges&hash=item2a0cc066d5. The weird thing though is when you look at the picture it looks like the heating elements are inside the stone.

There are other Italian made counter top ovens but they are very expensive($2500+). They are also very hard to find, I'm still trying to find them with no luck, new or used. ScottR has one maybe he can chime in and help you out. Heres a link to the more expensive ones http://www.gourmetpizzaexpress.com/products.html

[DNA Dan]

I talked to the seller over there on ebay. Since the oven come from overseas, he has to wait until the shipment arrives. So if he sells out, he gets more on a regular shipment basis, but you have to wait for the next shipment. That's why it seems like they are gypsies.

I just checked and he has a few varieties for sale right now. (I don't know him personally nor am I affiliated with this person.)