$137 Expert Grill Charcoal Pizza Oven from WalMart

[jleonard711]

Has anyone tried this oven from WalMart yet? Seems to get really good reviews, a few even mentioned that it makes decent Neapolitan pizza (not sure what their standards are though, lol). Seems like a great bargain at $137
 if it works even halfway decent! Would be a nice option to grab for camping at less than 1/2 the price of an Ooni, and no need to bring pellets if you're already carrying charcoal for your grill. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Expert-Grill-Charcoal-Pizza-Oven-Black/691543370

[02ebz06]

I just looked at Walmart site and it is $137 right now.

[nickyr]

Based on my experience with the Ooni Pro, I don’t think something charcoal fired in an oven this size will work great. I have found that charcoal generates heat but not much flame. The roof of such a tiny oven doesn’t retain much heat so it doesn’t radiate much downwards. You need some flame coming over the top of the oven to cook the top of the pizza. I can only get that flame by adding wood chunks on top of the charcoal.

[jleonard711]

I just looked at Walmart site and it is $137 right now.

Ah you're right, I messed up on the price (fixed it now). Even better deal than I thought!

[jleonard711]

Based on my experience with the Ooni Pro, I don’t think something charcoal fired in an oven this size will work great. I have found that charcoal generates heat but not much flame. The roof of such a tiny oven doesn’t retain much heat so it doesn’t radiate much downwards. You need some flame coming over the top of the oven to cook the top of the pizza. I can only get that flame by adding wood chunks on top of the charcoal.

True, you get more of embers & smoke with charcoal rather than flame. But I don't see why you couldn't throw a few small wood chunks on there to get some flame. The chimney is in the correct spot (front) so the airflow should bring the flame along the top of the roof.

[mosabrina]

Has anyone tried this oven from WalMart yet? Seems to get really good reviews, a few even mentioned that it makes decent Neapolitan pizza (not sure what their standards are though, lol). Seems like a great bargain at $137
 if it works even halfway decent! Would be a nice option to grab for camping at less than 1/2 the price of an Ooni, and no need to bring pellets if you're already carrying charcoal for your grill. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Expert-Grill-Charcoal-Pizza-Oven-Black/691543370

At first you mention less than half the price of an ooni. That is to be expected but it is also a 15" stone. That's quite large

If you put some wood in there to get a flame rolling over that oven seems like it would work fine and worth $137

[jleonard711]

I messed up on the price originally, I put $179 but it's actually $137. And if you compare like-for-like (this one @ 15" vs a 16" Ooni) it's actually more like 1/4th the price. I'm tempted to pick one up and give it a try!

[mosabrina]

I messed up on the price originally, I put $179 but it's actually $137. And if you compare like-for-like (this one @ 15" vs a 16" Ooni) it's actually more like 1/4th the price. I'm tempted to pick one up and give it a try!

At that price I want one too haha. And I have a karu 16

[foobar34]

There are a lot of videos on Youtube if you search for the full name, most promoting the $137 price. For example

 .

Most of the videos proudly display horribly bad pizzas, greeted by "this is the real deal pizza" most seem burnt on top, and undercooked on the bottom. Also



The thing that would worry me most, is that there's no insulation at all, not even a dual layer of steel with air in between, on the bottom below the pizza stone. So any table under it will get hot. And the bottom stone will lose heat much faster than the top, creating unbalanced cooking. Possibly the videos I saw are just examples of poor heat management, and like all ovens there is a learning curve

How cheap is too cheap? Heat distribution seems pretty bad, overall. I mean, on the one hand I can understand the "it's only $137" motive, but if with not much more you can get a much better product that can last a long time, maybe it's worth saving a bit more. After all, we are talking about a few hundred dollars for something that can wait a bit longer

[mosabrina]

There are a lot of videos on Youtube if you search for the full name, most promoting the $137 price. For example

 .

Most of the videos proudly display horribly bad pizzas, greeted by "this is the real deal pizza" most seem burnt on top, and undercooked on the bottom. Also



The thing that would worry me most, is that there's no insulation at all, not even a dual layer of steel with air in between, on the bottom below the pizza stone. So any table under it will get hot. And the bottom stone will lose heat much faster than the top, creating unbalanced cooking. Possibly the videos I saw are just examples of poor heat management, and like all ovens there is a learning curve

How cheap is too cheap? Heat distribution seems pretty bad, overall. I mean, on the one hand I can understand the "it's only $137" motive, but if with not much more you can get a much better product that can last a long time, maybe it's worth saving a bit more. After all, we are talking about a few hundred dollars for something that can wait a bit longer

Maybe you should watch the videos you linked? It's definitely double walled and thicker than even the ooni fyra.

Betello napoli revealed their cost on shark tank to be $83 shipped. That means from walmart it would be less than that which is quite good. And the bertello napoli is dual fuel (gas/wood) AND comes with a perforated peel.

The heat imbalance in those videos is simply because they are cooking with charcoal only (which does not produce a flame) so they have mostly side heat. If they used wood in there mixed with charcoal I think the oven would bake fine and definitely $137 okay.

[foobar34]

Maybe you should watch the videos you linked? It's definitely double walled and thicker than even the ooni fyra.

Betello napoli revealed their cost on shark tank to be $83 shipped. That means from walmart it would be less than that which is quite good. And the bertello napoli is dual fuel (gas/wood) AND comes with a perforated peel.

The heat imbalance in those videos is simply because they are cooking with charcoal only (which does not produce a flame) so they have mostly side heat. If they used wood in there mixed with charcoal I think the oven would bake fine and definitely $137 okay.

I did watch the videos. The dome is double walled, not the bottom. And their pizzas are burnt on the top, not the bottom, which means too much top heat, not enough from the stone. Adding a flame, if anything, would burn the top even faster. As I said, it's entirely possible that the videos I watched were still figuring things out, but those video showed a cooler deck and hotter dome than ideal

I have a Bertello, there is no way that it was $83 shipped for the dual fuel option. The gas burner and accessories have a lot of components, some like the safety control and pressure reducing valve are really good quality and not cheap. The wood burning one, I would believe at the time of the TV show: it's just bent sheet metal, rivets and a pizza stone. Today, just shipping has increased many times, let alone everything else. Incidentally, the Bertello is double walled on the bottom

My point was not that the oven is not worth $137. It was that, sometimes, in order to hit a certain price point, the result is not good enough to produce good enough results. Clearly, once you have an enclosed space a a source of heat, you can always bake, for even less than $137. How much control you have on the cooking variables defines how good the result is, though

[mosabrina]

I did watch the videos. The dome is double walled, not the bottom. And their pizzas are burnt on the top, not the bottom, which means too much top heat, not enough from the stone. Adding a flame, if anything, would burn the top even faster. As I said, it's entirely possible that the videos I watched were still figuring things out, but those video showed a cooler deck and hotter dome than ideal

I have a Bertello, there is no way that it was $83 shipped for the dual fuel option. The gas burner and accessories have a lot of components, some like the safety control and pressure reducing valve are really good quality and not cheap. The wood burning one, I would believe at the time of the TV show: it's just bent sheet metal, rivets and a pizza stone. Today, just shipping has increased many times, let alone everything else. Incidentally, the Bertello is double walled on the bottom

My point was not that the oven is not worth $137. It was that, sometimes, in order to hit a certain price point, the result is not good enough to produce good enough results. Clearly, once you have an enclosed space a a source of heat, you can always bake, for even less than $137. How much control you have on the cooking variables defines how good the result is, though

That oven looks double walled on the bottom. My ooni is not particularly thick under the floor it doesn't need to be. The older ooni models have no insulation under the floor.

The cooler deck was simply not cooking with flame. I don't see a hot dome at all. They are using dry mozzarella which browns faster and if anything the heat is just too hot on the side

[foobar34]

That oven looks double walled on the bottom. My ooni is not particularly thick under the floor it doesn't need to be. The older ooni models have no insulation under the floor.

The cooler deck was simply not cooking with flame. I don't see a hot dome at all. They are using dry mozzarella which browns faster and if anything the heat is just too hot on the side

Not double walled bottom. If you look at the first video, around 2:22- 2:32 minutes, you see it's single walled. You can see the screws for the legs as well

In this video it's even clearer https://youtu.be/b6nFqXxolDU?t=630 . There is an H-like stamped relief to strengthen the bottom, but it's clearly single walled. As you say, it might or might not be a problem, but if anything else it will heat whatever is supporting it. On the positive side, the legs are long, so more distance. On the negative, unlike other ovens (e.g. Bertello), the legs are fixed, cannot fold and to remove them requires removing 8 screws

It would be nice to see someone with more experience do a review and see what type of pizza they can get out of it. The fact that it has a door (unlike the Bertello), could help create a more uniform heat distribution along the rather big pizza stone

[mosabrina]

Not double walled bottom. If you look at the first video, around 2:22- 2:32 minutes, you see it's single walled. You can see the screws for the legs as well

In this video it's even clearer https://youtu.be/b6nFqXxolDU?t=630 . There is an H-like stamped relief to strengthen the bottom, but it's clearly single walled. As you say, it might or might not be a problem, but if anything else it will heat whatever is supporting it. On the positive side, the legs are long, so more distance. On the negative, unlike other ovens (e.g. Bertello), the legs are fixed, cannot fold and to remove them requires removing 8 screws

It would be nice to see someone with more experience do a review and see what type of pizza they can get out of it. The fact that it has a door (unlike the Bertello), could help create a more uniform heat distribution along the rather big pizza stone

Watch the video again. Looks double walled to me. You can see the hole is used to lift  the stone out of the oven. Ooni has that too and it's crimped so it appears single walled but it fans out into a double walled bottom

The H-like stamp is NOT to strengthen the bottom but to lift the stone off so all the heat does not get transferred to the bottom of the oven and escape outward. This is a conscious design decision and also the hot air flows under the H like stamp which also provides an additional layer of heat/insulation.

When he flips it over at 10:42 that's about how thick the bottom is

Ooni has always been very thin on the bottom and it really has no affect on how the pizza cooks since most heat seems to be lost through the top than anything else

[TXCraig1]

In this video it's even clearer https://youtu.be/b6nFqXxolDU?t=630 .

In the video mentioned above, it's absolutely clear that the bottom is not double wall. There is some sort of marking stamped into the bottom a bit above ant to the left of the hole for removing the stone. You can see the same mark when he flips over the oven.

[TXCraig1]

The H-like stamp is NOT to strengthen the bottom but to lift the stone off so all the heat does not get transferred to the bottom of the oven and escape outward. This is a conscious design decision and also the hot air flows under the H like stamp which also provides an additional layer of heat/insulation.

If the intention was for hot air to flow under the stone, I doubt they would have made it shaped like an "H" where the cross bar will block any air flow. Rather, I think it's simply an air gap to slow heat loss out the bottom as you first suggested.

I'm wondering if the shiny interior is a smart design feature? It may reflect a bit of heat, but it's not going to radiate much which intuitively to me seems more important in an oven with the heat concentrated at the back.

[mosabrina]

In the video mentioned above, it's absolutely clear that the bottom is not double wall. There is some sort of marking stamped into the bottom a bit above ant to the left of the hole for removing the stone. You can see the same mark when he flips over the oven.

Okay yes you're right. I assumed that hole was crimped and there are 2 pieces of metal there. But either way single/double walled not sure it makes a difference. That's how ooni is designed.

I'm not convinced it won't work without double walled because ooni ovens like Ooni Pro are such thin metal anyways and there's almost no insulation in the oven. The older models are single walled and I've seen good pizzas baked in them.

[TXCraig1]

Whether or not it will work probably depends on the buyer's expectations.

[TXCraig1]

If someone buys the oven, I'd suggest trying it as designed and also with the chimney plugged and the door off. It looks like cold air enters from below the coal pile - not from the mouth. This would also make it easier to avoid scorching the back side of the pie as seen in the video (you can see what's going on and can turn the pie more readily.

If sufficient top heat ends up being a persistent issue, I'd rub down the reflective surface with oil (like you're seasoning a pan) so it would darker and become more emissive.

[mosabrina]

Also with ooni the pattern that you see (in this case the H pattern) is exactly the same underneath as it is on top. It makes the oven appear like the floor is really thin and not double walled at all. Not sure why it looks like that. Could also be a manufacturing decision.

The draft entering from the coal pile is how all ooni ovens work. The back guard is completely hollow which is how air draws in underneath the fuel source. Same with the gas burner it's not really sealed off.

Considering ooni has done a ton of iterations of this form factor (various sizes and shapes), various stone thicknesses, varying amounts of insulation, and they've all worked to some extent, I don't see how this oven cannot work.

This one even has more insulation than most of the cheaper/older ooni models.