apw wyott vs. home oven

[Steveinid]

I am currently using my home oven. I have two round 15" pizza stones (ceramic I'm sure) that I put on the racks to cook pizzas on. It works fairly well. You can see the results in some of my other posts.

I have been keeping my eyes open for a good commercial oven at a really good price. Well, I think I'm dreaming if I expect to get a full size blodgett for a decent price. Decent would be 500 or less. So, the other day I find an APW Wyott cdo-17 for sale. 120 volts, 60hz. $350. It would work great in my home. The only question I have is... why should I buy this instead of just using my home oven?

This is not the one I'm looking at. It is just to show you the model... http://www.bdequipment.com/inventory.cgi?Item_File=inventory/1266798130/1267810026/item.hash&submit=View%20Item

Looking for pros and cons of each. I'm trying to make a decision and I don't think I know enough about it to make an informed decision.

Thanks for the feedback
Steve

[scott123]

why should I buy this instead of just using my home oven?

You shouldn't. The vast majority of countertop pizza ovens are glorified toaster ovens. The one known exception is the Sage countertop oven, but that only goes on sale on ebay once in a blue moon.

These ovens are generally very weak- if your home oven is electric, this is probably 1/3 of the wattage.  Not to mention- these kind of two stone countertops split this scant wattage between 3 burners- one in the ceiling and one below each stone compared to the two burners in your home oven, so, compared to the wattage per burner of your home oven, these burners are especially pitiful.

Sometimes these countertops have thermostats that will allow them to get hotter than your home oven, but that's only if they have the necessary insulation to keep the heat in.

If you have strong DIY inclinations, you might be able to modify this oven to get good pizzas out of it, but why go through the trouble when you have a better home oven?

Unless, of course, your home oven isn't up to snuff.  You mentioned using two stones. Does your oven have a broiler in the main compartment? What's the peak temp?

[barryvabeach]

Scott knows far more about this than I do,  but I think there can be a place for a countertop oven.  I have a regular Viking Oven Dual Fuel - it maxs around 525 to 550, IIRC. Some of the countertops can get well over 600.  I bought a similar oven,  Bakers Pride,  120 volts -  1800 watts split over 3 elements.   Due to the limited power input, it can take a long time to heat up, and it won't recover very quickly if you want to make more than 2 pies, but I like the footprint, and  I usually make 2 pies anyway.  It does a better job, IMHO, than my oven and it gets the stones to over 600 which is fine for me.  I think that is an okay deal, if you don't want to crank out a lot of pizzas at one time.  I got my BP for a little less than that price, but it had a cracked stone, so it was close to that with the new stone. 
   

[Steveinid]

I appreciate the reply. Shortly after writing my post I almost called them up and told them I wanted it. I'm an impulse buyer and it takes alot for me to be patient when I have my eyes on something shiny. I decided I would wait til morning and if I got no negative replies I would call them up and buy it. However, Scotts reply came just in the nick of time. Everything he says makes sense in addition to another post I read about the Bakers Pride counter top oven.

It seems my home oven does just as well and I already have it. You saved me some money and some frustration I believe. You can see the cooking prowess of my home oven in this post... http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,15855.msg155602.html#msg155602

Unless, of course, your home oven isn't up to snuff.  You mentioned using two stones. Does your oven have a broiler in the main compartment? What's the peak temp?

I use two stones so I can cook two at a time. It does have the broiler but I don't put it on broil. Peak temp is 550.


Thanks
Steve

[scott123]

Barry, when I talked about DIY inclinations, I was referring to you and the tweaks you've done to get great pizzas out of your BP. This all being said, you never told me you that you have a Viking duel fuel oven.  If it can hit 550, with the right stone, I really think it can run circles around the countertop.

Steve,  I'm glad it worked out for you.  While having two pizzas bake at once can feed a crowd a bit faster than only one, with your oven, the right stone and some broiler action, you can not only cut your baking time in half, but you can bake up a far superior/less dense NY style pizza.