We are a new shop opening in a few months and are looking at conveyor ovens. So far the Star 1854 is on our radar due to my partners familiarity and experience with them. Before pulling the trigger, are there any other recommendations that I should consider? Ideally, I would like to be under the current $6500 price tag for each oven.
For reference we are doing NY style, thin crispy crust pizza.
Thanks
I don’t think any major chain, nor any users here use that style/type of oven…
It looks like a re-branded Lincoln oven…
Hi ajsla
If you are planing a pizza shop I think you are vastly under equipping your self as regards pizza production.
The oven you are selecting will be lucky to produce 25 pizzas per hour.
We rarely equip a pizza shop with less than 200 pizzas per hour max pizza production per hour.
The major players are going with ovens with a maximum production of 300 per hour.
George Mills
Thanks for the info and replies. I will re-evaluate my choice now. What ovens do you recommend? Do any of your recommendations have the catalytic converter built in to forgo the need for a hood?
The Middleby, XLT and edge ovens are top notch.
There is no oven that has that feature hood eliminating feature . Further you need a hood to extract the heat from the oven. Once your oven is warmed up you will have an 800 to 2000 pound 400 degree hot chunk of steel sitting in your kitchen. If you do not get that heat out it will become unbearably hot.
Use great caution when ordering a hood and the accompanying ventilation system.
You will be required to bring back into your building all the air you exhaust out. That air will have to be no cooler than 10 degrees below room temperature. If not done correctly you can end up spending thousands every year to heat and cool that make up air. There are ventilation systems available for pizza ovens that require no make up air units.
George Mills
Another good oven to take a look at is the Avantec. Toss this one into the bag with all of the other ovens mentioned, and I’d be comfortable using the first one to be pulled out from a performance stand point. Another neat feature to consider is a split conveyor.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
So the way I understand it, the concensus here is that the Middleby, Edge, XLT, and Advantec ovens are all good ovens. None of these ovens can be directly vented out, so they must have hoods, right?
Throwing price out what criteria would you use to select a new oven?
Sevice
Parts availability
Warranty
Do you have to use disks or can pans be used?
What I’m asking is can someone tell me what steps they took to come up with their choice of ovens?
The first important thing to decide is your capacity needs. The output of a lincoln 1301 will be a small fraction of a triple stack of 70 inch ovens. If you need to regularly cook 100 pizza per hour, do not get a double stack of 40 inch ovens of any brand. You will regularly be backing them up and will not be happy. Each of the companies you mention will have a test kitchen available for you to cook your product in. For a purchase this significant, take advantage of that. Edge, and possible some of the other companies will bring their oven to you to cook on. Don’t spend $20K based on a magazine ad or a Think Tank testimonial. Cook your product in their oven, judge for yourself the build quality and ease of cleaning and see what your gut tells you about the company you are talking to.
What steps did I take to decide on my oven? I took the hard road and went with trial and error. Over the years I used Middleby, Blodegett, Eflow, Lincoln and XLT ovens. Some of these were chosen for price or convenience but I settled on Edge due to their customer service, ease of repair and size of the oven. They brought their oven to me, switched fingers out until I got the cook I was looking for, and sold me on their quality and design. A few weeks later the owner of the company was installing the ovens in my store. 18 months later, I’m still impressed with the product and service.
It seems that maybe you need a bit more information about pizza ovens in general. Here is a link to a article all about pizza ovens: Commercial Pizza Oven Types http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com/education/commercial-pizza-oven-types/bd45.aspx
I hope this helps when you are looking for what you need in an oven.
The article commercial oven types contains as much misleading information as it does good information.
Any one who would write “Best for: Conveyor ovens are ideal for small-scale pizzerias that do not experience a lot of demand.” Does not know much about ovens.
The major chains are set up with conveyor ovens with up to 300 pizzas per production.
George Mills
It seems that you might need a little more information about the different types of pizza ovens and what they can do. Here is an educational article about the different types of pizza ovens:
http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com/education/commercial-pizza-oven-types/bd45.aspx
This article goes over brick ovens, deck ovens, pizza convection, and conveyor. I hope this helps!
Geez knoble, at least pretend that you read the thread before posting :roll: