High Volume Deck Ovens, Who is using Them?

[system]

Have you looked at the Montague . I just opened a new location in January and bought a new Montague double deck pizza oven. This is a very heavy duty deck oven, with the baking chamber having a stone deck and fire bricks filling the ceiling and sides, so you have a complete stone chamber. Each oven also has 4 burners rated at 40,000 BTU’s for a total of 160,000 BTU’s per deck. Bakers Pride and Marsal have 120,000-130,000 per deck I believe.
So far the oven has produced very nicely, and we bake a quality, medium thick crust pizza with generous toppings AND also do an line of 18" NY style pizza. Normal baking temp is 575 but when we hit peak times I crank the thermostat (wishistat) to the max (650) and have very little fall off in bake times. No, I don’t do the insane volume that some of the other posters, and I’m not saying it will out produce a conveyor oven, but it is another option for those looking at a quality deck oven.
Yes, you do have to rotate the pizza’s, and I test baked several times with a Marsal and had to do the same to really get an even bake.

 

[SBPizzeria]

I am curious what negative comments you have received about RotoFlex. I have one, 56" 4 deck and love it. I can hold 25 Large pizza’s at one time… Also very easy to clean and operate.

 

[dipaulos_pizza]

pgaks2:

sorry for the late response haven’t been on lately as i have moved to a new kitchen. at my old job, we were very high volume, did a crust that was a bit softer than new york style and we ran 4 Blodgett 1060s at 500, very few problems with them over all, main one being a recall on the safety valve for a bit. the trick is to have 2 oven guys one loading, and spinning one unloading, post topping and cutting. ( we were doing 500-800 pies in a day. 2 cooks at lunch, ramped up to 5 during the big rush/weekends. our sister restaurant runs 9 blodgetts, and run about 1500 -2000 pies a day. they are a constant 45 min wait for a seat. its insane, in a fun get your butt kicked every day kind of way.}

sheb

wow i’m opening up in Alaska with those #'s

 

[famouspizza]

PizzaDC:

150 to 200 18†Pies per hour

Thanks guys.

those are nice projections…good luck…we switched from decks to Rotoflex about 2 yrs ago and could not be happier…what was the knock on them?

 

[PizzaDC]

I am looking after myself and other pizza owner like me not the interest of Pizza Oven Companies. So I am sharing the information that based on my research.

I never used one Rotoflex but I have seen it and had pizza, It was good crisp pizza.

What did I hear: I researched it here in Think Tank.

*Not all decks distribute same heat.
*You miss the deck you have to wait for it to come back while it becomes extra well done. This makes me think you have watch and focus on the oven more than the regular decks.
*It is too big.
*It is only one oven.

 

[famouspizza]

PizzaDC:

I never used one Rotoflex but I have seen it and had pizza, It was good crisp pizza.

there is no perfect oven, but this was the most important thing to me as was being able to do big volume…with any oven you have to take the good with the bad but as a pizza operator that switched from decks after 20+yrs to the Rotoflex I can tell you that I am very happy with the switch and I could not be able to do the volume without it…conveyors were never an option so I do not wanna make this a conveyor pissing match

 

[pizzapirate]

PizzaDC:

I worked for a pizza shop that used deck ovens but I can almost say i never used deck oven.
Space I am looking at is big enough. Almost 2500sq

PizzaDC:

Forget about Fish too big and only one oven.

Not sure the two quotes jive but yeah, it is a big oven. I would not be too concerned about only having one of these ovens, however. We have one Fish and two other brands, of the exact same type of oven, and have only had one issue in the past five years of owning them.

One oven is 20 years old and needed a new pilot light. Was fixed by a local guy real quick. They are very simple ovens that can be fixed by most any service company very quickly with common parts.

I really like the rotating “decks” so that you don’t have to rotate the “pizzas”. Deck ovens are already a more specialized labor and having to rotate the pizzas just adds to the complexity of the operation.