Kevin Hansen
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Earlier this year, Gozney finally launched what they refer to as “the world’s most advanced compact oven for creating 16” pizza.” It’s a beautiful oven with graceful curves, solid construction, and a sleek, modern look. I’ve been putting mine through the paces over the last couple of months, and now I can give you all the details of what you need to know about Gozney’s latest offering.
Unboxing & Design
The Arc XL comes pretty much completely assembled inside the box. The oven is heavy, though. It weighs 58.5 lbs out of the box according to the manufacturer. And the whole thing before you take it out of the box is 73 pounds. If you’re not feeling comfortable lifting heavy objects, you’ll definitely want a friend to help get it where you’re going to cook.
There’s not much you need to do to get it ready to use. There’s a vent cover that slides right in place on the front of the unit, a guard to place over the lateral burner inside the oven, and a few rubber bumpers to remove that hold the stone securely during shipping. There’s a tool that comes with the Arc XL for shifting the pizza stone around in case it shifted too far back during shipping, but I didn’t have this issue.
You’ll also need to insert batteries into the digital thermometer, and one more battery to power the electric fuel ignitor. Finally, you just need to attach the propane hose to the back of the unit, and you’re ready to get started. All of this can be done in five minutes.
The Burner
I tested the preheating temperatures on a cool fall day, so it took a bit longer to get to full Neapolitan cooking temps than you’d need on a summer day. The oven easily gets over 900°F according to both the built-in temperature probe and my trusty infrared thermometer. But you can also easily keep the temperature lower if you’re doing other styles of pizza that call for a 600°F cook.
One thing I love about the Arc XL is the design of the lateral burner. The flame shoots straight up the left side of the interior and rolls around the top of the oven when you have it on full blast. This burner is better than any other I’ve used when it comes to cooking on a low flame and not having the edges of the pizza burn before the bottom cooks. I hope other companies adopt a similar design in future models.
Performance
When cooking a Neapolitan for this review, I was out of 00 flour, so I used standard bread flour. I still got good results, but perhaps the pizza was a shade darker than you would see otherwise. That’s not the fault of the oven, though. I launched around 850°F, and I got a great final pizza. I have to give credit again to what I mentioned earlier about the design of the burner. It’s easy to get the pizza rotated during the cook and get nice, even leoparding on the crust.
While the Arc XL makes great Neapolitan pizza, I think New York style pizza is where this oven really shines. At the risk of sounding repetitive, the lateral burner works great on low-heat settings. When I’m making a New York style pizza in an outdoor pizza oven, I like to launch the pizza with the stone around 700°F. I kill the flame for a minute while the base of the crust cooks and has a chance to firm up. Then I’ll bring the flame back at a low setting (on the Arc XL, I probably had the knob turned up a quarter of the way). And then I rotate the pizza as the crust closest to flame browns to the degree I want.
As I usually do, I used a 65% hydration dough that I let cold ferment in the fridge for at least 2 days. With each pizza, I always got a great end result. More than any other outdoor pizza oven I’ve used, the Arc XL actually delivered a low direct heat on low flame settings.
Optional Accessories
Unlike the oven itself, the optional stand has more assembly required. The stand is very similar to the stand Gozney offers with the Dome, but it’s not the same size. The assembly is straightforward and not complicated. It can easily be done by one person, but if you have a hungry friend who wants to eat pizza after, they could help you get it done a little bit faster.
Like other Gozney products, the stand is very well built. It’s certainly not cheap, though—it’s currently being sold for $249.99. But I really like how tall it is, taller than a standard table. It’ll keep your oven a comfortable 41” off the ground, giving you the ease of cooking pizza without having to bend down too far to see what you’re doing.
One other thing I think is worth mentioning if you like Gozney accessories is that they don’t offer a 16-inch peel at the time of publishing this review. The 14” metal peel they sell is perfectly fine for taking a cooked pizza out of the oven, but it’s unsuitable for launching a full-sized 16-inch pizza. Thankfully, you can easily find 16” wooden peels (or metal if you prefer), for assembling and launching your pizza into the Arc XL.
Is the Arc XL the worth the price?
If you’re like me and you’re serious about cooking a variety of pizza styles from the comfort of your home, then the Arc XL is a no brainer. This is a seriously amazing oven. At $849.99, I’m not going to pretend that this is a cheap oven. But with its high-quality construction, beautiful aesthetics, and drastically improved burner design, I’d recommend this oven to anyone who wants to get serious about making pizza, from beginners to more advanced pizzaiolos. The price is especially reasonable when you compare it to other high-end 16” models like the Dome S1.
I’ve been making a ton of pizza for family and friends alike during this college football season, and I know that my Arc XL will be getting used heavily as my primary oven of choice for the future.
