Derek Gaughan
Alongside Ooni, Gozney revolutionized the outdoor pizza oven market. And they’re back with another gamechanger.
Low-heat pizza ovens are easy to design, and can be great for New York style pizzas. But hot pizza ovens – those capable of easily reaching over 900F – are much more difficult, especially when abiding by US regulations.
But after testing over 30 pizza ovens, I’ve used ovens that reach over 900F but are simply lackluster compared to Gozney’s products. Heat isn’t everything; there’s a huge difference in performance due to overall oven design.
The performance of the Roccbox is unbelievable when considering the cost. And on the opposite end, the Dome is like the Rolls Royce of pizza ovens – but it comes at a cost. What’s missing? An offering in the mid-range that competes with the Ooni Karu 16.
Enter the Gozney Arc. A new 14” gas-only pizza oven with a unique high-flying, thin flame that’s able to produce pizzas like the best of them. Let’s unbox this beast of a pizza oven and see how it performs.
VIDEO: Gozney Arc pizza oven review
Recommendation: Buy it. It’s the easiest pizza oven I ever used and performs exceptionally well. I still can’t believe the price of this. Hey, if any of you find this Gozney Arc review helpful and plan to purchase it, this is my referral link; if you click the link before buying, I’ll get a small commission which helps me buy more ovens to review. Thank you guys.
Gozney Arc Features
- Fuel type: Propane only. No natural gas or wood option.
- Lateral Gas Burner: A thin burner on the left rolls flame across the top dome, nearly touching the other side of the stone.
- Huge Cooking Space: The thin burner design really opens up the usable cooking space inside.
- Two models: Arc and Arc XL. The Arc will cook 14″ pizzas whereas the Arc XL can accommodate full 16″ pizzas.
- More Portable: The Arc weighs 47 pounds (21.5kg) and the Arc XL weighs 58 pounds (26.5kg). These are more than half the weight of the Dome lineup (Dome 128 pound; Dome S1 105 pound.
Unboxing & Setup
The standard Arc ships through FedEx, which is quick and easy, whereas the bigger XL version comes through freight.
The packaging is excellent; it offers a really great unboxing experience and I’d be surprised if you end up with something damaged. The instructions ask you not to lift the oven by the mouth opening (woops). To avoid this, you’ll probably want another person nearby to help get it out of the box and onto your table.
The only setup for the Arc itself is to remove the packaging materials, remove the stone clips, slide in the flame diverter shield, insert the top vent, and install some batteries in the temperature display.
Arc Booster
I also have the Arc booster, which is designed to increase the height of the oven for easier baking. ?It takes a bit of time to set up, but the build quality of this is excellent. It’s really heavy duty, so I like it a lot for the $99 price. The added height feels and looks great when placed on top of your pizza oven table. Once it’s put together, just center the Arc onto the stand and one bolt holds it down in the middle.
Gozney also sells a stand for $250 which matches the look we all know and love from the Gozney Dome. Both the Booster and Stand are interchangeable between the Arc and Arc XL, but not the Dome.
New Accessories
Along with the launch of the Arc and Arc XL lineup, Gozney released a few new balance peels. There’s no question these are my favorite now, so you’ll probably see them in more reviews in the future.
And this new proofing box is crazy. It has a built in temperature gauge, pressure release, and silicone molds that help hold the shape and makes it easy to pop your dough out. It’s hard to believe nobody thought of making this before.
Design
I love the amount of space in this. The oven is so deep without a burner in the back. It’s like the complete opposite of the Roccbox in terms of ease of use and maneuverability. It’s a 14″ oven but somehow feels bigger.
The updated temperature display is beautiful. But one issue I noticed is that the gauge tends to read a lot lower than the real temp, at least when preheating. For example, I checked the stone temp with an IR thermometer and it read above 300F, where the display only showed ~75F.
Once it’s been running upwards of 40+ minutes, the gauge begins to level out and read closer to the true temp. The sensor is located in the back of the oven near the stone; this is an attempt at creating a gauge that measures stone temp instead of ambient. But I have yet to find a built-in temp gauge on any oven that is accurate enough to forego an infrared gun.
In the photo below, you can see the size difference between the Arc and the Dome S1. Overall, the appearance is very similar between the two, and apart from a significant weight reduction in the Arc, the build quality is just as good.
You can even tell the quality in the gas dial when turning it on – it’s really smooth and the flame ignites instantly rather than waiting for gas to build up first. The new burner design is also amazing. It completely curves around the ceiling, nearly touching the other side of the stone.
Preheat Times
I decided to test the stone temp to see how beneficial this was, and the right-side of the oven registered about 60 degrees hotter than the center. This is phenomenal and will really help with consistent bakes.
Check out the graph below which shows the preheat times in 5 minute increments. I tested this on a particularly windy day, so I’m impressed with these results. The Dome S1 was tested right next to it on the same day as a comparison. I’m even more amazed at how close these are together. This shows how fine-tuned Gozney’s designs really are, considering these have entirely different burners. Amazing stuff.
Performance
Neapolitan Test
I launched my first pizza at 813 degrees when measuring the center of the stone, and cooked for 76 seconds on high flame. Fantastic results for my first pizza. I’m loving the amount of leoparding on the crust without overcooking the cheese. The bottom was very light in color; I’ll go a bit hotter for my next one, but honestly, I’ve been chasing less-scorched bottoms lately, so this wasn’t bad.
My next attempt I let the stone get up to 864 degrees, and cooked it again for 75 seconds. An excellent bottom this time, and check out this cross section.
I don’t think there’s an easier pizza oven out there. You would really have to go out of your way to burn a pizza in this thing. I’m betting that other manufacturers will start using this new side burner design… it’s just too good.
New York Style Test
And New York styles are incredible too. The burner design keeps direct flame contact away from the crust which is great for this style’s slower bake. But, I did have the burner go out on me twice while making 3 pizzas. Granted, it’s a windy day here, but the large mouth opening could be a drawback depending on weather.
Check out how crispy this is though. Hey, if any of you found this Gozney Arc review helpful and plan to purchase it, this is my referral link; if you click the link before buying, I’ll get a small commission which helps me buy more ovens to review. Thank you guys.
Overall, the price of this oven seems excellent for what you get. The burner design is simply incredible, and the amount of room makes this one of the most beginner friendly ovens I’ve used. I’ll need to use it more this summer to see if the mouth opening is too large for windy weather or not, but it has no issues with heat loss. Big thumbs up and I can’t wait to test the XL.
