Review: Expert Grill Pizza Oven from Walmart

[rogerdeltabravo]

Being on SS only now, OOni, Roccbox, and the others are out of my league, but for $97, I couldn't resist. I watched some youtubes about it, but all their demo pizzas came out burnt to a crisp. I figured it was just a matter of the workman knowing his tools. Anyhoo, I picked it up yesterday, assembled this morning. I wasn't ready at all to make pizza, so, instead I just picked up some grocery store dough,and  a small can of crushed tomatoes for a test. Low moisture mozz, some oregano, PecRom, oil and in a few minutes I threw it in. I turned the pizza every 20 secs, that worked perfectly. I used lump charcoal, and in 15 minute it hit 700 degrees. The stone however was only 475, so I gave it another 10 minutes. Soon it was 800 degrees in the air, and 650 on the stone. Here's a small pic and vid.                       

[kbrede]

Looks like it worked well   How did the crust turn out?

[foreplease]

That a good first bake in your new oven!

[rogerdeltabravo]

Looks like it worked well   How did the crust turn out?

Not being my dough or sauce, I was pleasantly suprised. The crust was slightly crispy, and nicely chewable. "Soft and cronchy" as they say...lol. Experimenting will be fun again.

[rogerdeltabravo]

Well, as I learn this oven, you'll see the ups and downs and in betweens. I still have a great deal of faith in it. It's me we should worry about! I made up some sourdough yesterday. This is 24 hrs later. Tonight was a rush pie, so in my scurrying around, I burned it a little, but overall the taste/and texture was 10 time better with my dough and sauce. What I did learn is to let it heat up longer. The stone is the weak point. Takes longer to heat up evenly than what I gave it tonight. I was trying to get the bottom crust better, but it never got there, so the pie was in too long. 375g ball/14"pie, 64% hydration. LMWM mozz, and parm. Nina whole tomatoes from Costco with oregano, salt, pepper. In about 20 minutes it reached 600 in the oven air, but the stone only ran to 450 in the front, and 600 in the back. The first pie the other day had a better bottom and crust, but the stone was much hotter, and the pie wasn't in as long (under 2 min). Today was maybe 3 minutes. So much to learn, but it's got me back into it. So far it looks like quick cooks. Later I'll experiment with longer heatups, then let the fire come down so I can do longer cooks. We'll see. If nobody is interested, that's fine, but I'm going to keep adding to this thread, just for my own record keeping.

[foreplease]

I have an oven of that type (another brand). I rarely attempt Neapolitan. For everything else I make, I struggle to get the bottom as brown as I would like. I may try a panned pizza in it just for kicks. I bought a steel for that oven but have only tried it for smash burgers (on a gas grill) so far.


Thanks for posting your progress.

[rogerdeltabravo]

I have an oven of that type (another brand). I rarely attempt Neapolitan. For everything else I make, I struggle to get the bottom as brown as I would like. I may try a panned pizza in it just for kicks. I bought a steel for that oven but have only tried it for smash burgers (on a gas grill) so far.
Thanks for posting your progress.

We only do one or two pies at a time here, so the stone heat is important. I'm betting, another 20 minutes of preheat will get the stone more even. I am not trying for a neo, I'm just accepting I don't know how to give it a NY style baking time yet....

[Timpanogos Slim]

I have one of these, and there are a few more on this site.

It's not my primary pizza oven, but i have been impressed with the top browning i can get by throwing some hardwood sticks into the firebox before or just after launching. In my case, it's short sticks of silver maple -- deadwood from trees that grow in my yard.

My suspicion is that they suffer from a lack of insulation. Perhaps primarily below the stone.

My general plan with mine is to figure out what the spec is for the rivets that hold the thing together, and then take it apart and add insulation to the arch, and cut a piece of sheet metal to match the plate under the stone with cutouts for the front legs, and stuff some insulation in there as well.

[rogerdeltabravo]

My suspicion is that they suffer from a lack of insulation. Perhaps primarily below the stone.
My general plan with mine is to figure out what the spec is for the rivets that hold the thing together, and then take it apart and add insulation to the arch, and cut a piece of sheet metal to match the plate under the stone with cutouts for the front legs, and stuff some insulation in there as well.

Bingo. Great minds think alike.

[rogerdeltabravo]

Tried one with sauce over cheese. Kind of NH style, I guess. The idea was to allow the bottom to cook up a little longer without sauce soaking in. It seemed to work.

[global_dev]

I have an expert15 also, and it's been a great learning WFO that I think just needs patience. I agree that there are so many poorly executed YouTube videos about this oven, but there have been some better ones recently by onlypizzafans .

I've posted some pies that have come out of mine over the past 4 months here.

I swapped out the OEM stone for a thicker one 17mm, I think it was an improvement, I was planning on adding the 10mm back on top soon to try it out. not sure it was 100% necessary though. I think my dough making and stretching skills had been the better aspects of success..

I think like slim mentioned, a quick small bit of wood will get the oven plenty hot for a launch and though the cook for me..


 

[rogerdeltabravo]

I've used it enough now to see its flaws (legs, bottom insulation, etc.) I'm pretty good with my hands, so the modifications are sure to follow soon. Thanks for the link to the other thread, definitely learned a few things there.

I have an expert15 also, and it's been a great learning WFO that I think just needs patience. I agree that there are so many poorly executed YouTube videos about this oven, but there have been some better ones recently by onlypizzafans .

I've posted some pies that have come out of mine over the past 4 months here.

I swapped out the OEM stone for a thicker one 17mm, I think it was an improvement, I was planning on adding the 10mm back on top soon to try it out. not sure it was 100% necessary though. I think my dough making and stretching skills had been the better aspects of success..

I think like slim mentioned, a quick small bit of wood will get the oven plenty hot for a launch and though the cook for me..

[Timpanogos Slim]

I have an expert15 also, and it's been a great learning WFO that I think just needs patience. I agree that there are so many poorly executed YouTube videos about this oven, but there have been some better ones recently by onlypizzafans .

I've posted some pies that have come out of mine over the past 4 months here.

I swapped out the OEM stone for a thicker one 17mm, I think it was an improvement, I was planning on adding the 10mm back on top soon to try it out. not sure it was 100% necessary though. I think my dough making and stretching skills had been the better aspects of success..

I think like slim mentioned, a quick small bit of wood will get the oven plenty hot for a launch and though the cook for me..

I don't think i was the one who thought of that, but yeah, a few ounces of wood gives a good rolling flame that produces excellent top browning.

I wish i could get as good of a top-side cook out of my pellet fired oven as i get out of the expert 15, which i haven't messed with in a couple months now.

I also have 300lb of mizzou castable plus refractory concrete in the back of my land cruiser that i bought for $120 from a local business that bought a whole pallet of it before discovering it that it was entirely the wrong *kind of refractory concrete for their application, owing to the fact that it's a heat absorbing rather than heat insulating refractory. They make custom concrete stuff for rich guy's back yards and wanted to make something called a "fire bar". I understand that this was maybe 25 cents on the dollar if you could even buy it locally, god help you if you wanted to have someone ship it to you.

I'm thinking about a 28x36-ish WFO, sand dome casting, shaped as a steinmetz bicylinder. But lord knows if i'd actually use it much.

[rogerdeltabravo]

I'm leaning towards wrapping it in high heat batt insulation and chicken wire, then a 2" coat of lightweight concrete ( concrete, and perlite with fibers), except around the firebox.. Basically creating a small clay oven.  Strengthen the legs. We'll see.

I don't think i was the one who thought of that, but yeah, a few ounces of wood gives a good rolling flame that produces excellent top browning.

I wish i could get as good of a top-side cook out of my pellet fired oven as i get out of the expert 15, which i haven't messed with in a couple months now.

I also have 300lb of mizzou castable plus refractory concrete in the back of my land cruiser that i bought for $120 from a local business that bought a whole pallet of it before discovering it that it was entirely the wrong *kind of refractory concrete for their application, owing to the fact that it's a heat absorbing rather than heat insulating refractory. They make custom concrete stuff for rich guy's back yards and wanted to make something called a "fire bar". I understand that this was maybe 25 cents on the dollar if you could even buy it locally, god help you if you wanted to have someone ship it to you.

I'm thinking about a 28x36-ish WFO, sand dome casting, shaped as a steinmetz bicylinder. But lord knows if i'd actually use it much.

[Timpanogos Slim]

I'm leaning towards wrapping it in high heat batt insulation and chicken wire, then a 2" coat of lightweight concrete ( concrete, and perlite with fibers), except around the firebox.. Basically creating a small clay oven.  Strengthen the legs. We'll see.

I'm a little more ambitious about that but so far have been too lazy to determine what the dimensions of the rivets are. I have a rivet gun, and would like to install insulation between the walls and then close it back up. Also some insulation under the baking floor.

[Paulyl61]

Don't worry about the rivets, I opened mine up this weekend.  It turns out the top is fully insulated at least down to within a half inch from the bottom edges of the arch.  I replaced the rivets along the bottom edge with 8-32 bolts since I had a package already and the bottom edge allows access.  If for any reason, you take out any of the rivets on the arch, you will need 5/32(D) x 1/8(L) steel pop rivets. I am planning on building a pan to add 1" of ceramic insulation below the floor.  While I am at it, I will create a new set of legs to eliminate the original wobbly ones.  I will post pictures when I get time in my shop.

[Timpanogos Slim]

Don't worry about the rivets, I opened mine up this weekend.  It turns out the top is fully insulated at least down to within a half inch from the bottom edges of the arch.  I replaced the rivets along the bottom edge with 8-32 bolts since I had a package already and the bottom edge allows access.  If for any reason, you take out any of the rivets on the arch, you will need 5/32(D) x 1/8(L) steel pop rivets. I am planning on building a pan to add 1" of ceramic insulation below the floor.  While I am at it, I will create a new set of legs to eliminate the original wobbly ones.  I will post pictures when I get time in my shop.

Interesting - what sort of insulation is it?

[Paulyl61]

The cavity was filled with a white batt insulation, I assume ceramic based on the expected heat

[global_dev]

The cavity was filled with a white batt insulation, I assume ceramic based on the expected heat

Saved me a step, thx for the info.

[Timpanogos Slim]

You know, I realized today that i could just cut a 15" square of this 1/2" thick ceramic insulation and put it in the oven under the original stone. Maybe wrap it in aluminum foil to control spread of fibers.

Of course, it's cold and raining, so i don't want to use any outdoor oven right now