Derek Gaughan
Having tested so many pizza ovens, you’d think I’d get tired of it. But I find it really enjoyable seeing how slight differences in design can affect the bake of a pizza. And I have a new 16” pizza oven that I’m testing today with a relatively unique set of features.
The Prokan Kano gas pizza oven not only has an auto rotating stone, but also a door. You don’t see this combo too often with gas pizza ovens. I’ve tested quite a few gas ovens with doors OR rotating stones, but only one that had both: the Blackstone portable pizza oven. And that was a complete failure.
So, I’m very eager to see this Prokan Kano pizza oven in action. Let’s fire it up and see how it performs.
VIDEO: Prokan Kano pizza oven review
Recommendation: Surprisingly solid pizza oven that matches stainless grills. Auto rotating stone and door. Cooked amazing New Yorks and excellent Neapolitans (1 minute 45 seconds bakes).
Unboxing & Design
After the condition of my last Ooni delivery, it was a relief to see this box in perfect shape. If you didn’t read my Ooni Koda 2 Max review, the oven arrived with a huge dent in the top of it. Easily the worst damaged oven I’ve received; however, Ooni is among the best companies I’ve ever dealt with for these situations. They’re really fast to send a new one out. As for this Prokan – the packaging was fantastic and provided a great unboxing experience.
After opening it up, you’ll find the biggest set of instructions you’ll ever see. Seriously, it was printed on a 3 foot piece of cardboard! After setting that aside for future reading, I immediately noticed the quality of the pizza peel. I like this more than Gozney’s new $80 balance peels. You’ll be seeing me using this in a lot more reviews from now on.
Setting Up The Prokan Kano Pizza Oven
There’s a few things to set up for this oven, but nothing over the top. Start out by tossing the chimney on (there’s no screws or anything, it just sits inside the opening, allowing you to remove it whenever you put the cover on). The digital display pulls straight out of the oven and takes 3 AA batteries. The rotation feature uses a ball bearing disk and a spindle to hold it in place. You’ll need to pull out the tray to insert these and then re-insert the tray. Turn the rotation on to test it out, and then you can insert the pizza stone.
This is all documented in the instructions, so I recommend following them particularly with the rotation tray.
Design & Specs
As for design, it pulls a lot of characteristics from your typical high-end propane grill. Most outdoor kitchens with built-ins use full stainless steel grills, which this will match really well with. Prokan also sells some high-end countertops and tables if that’s what you’re looking to do. As for me, I get by with a basic stainless steel table.
After firing it up, the burner had a very faint blue flame. Typically, these burners tend to get taller once the oven heats up.
Performance
Preheat Test
I tossed the door back on and started measuring the temp in 5 minute increments. Unfortunately, the temperature started stalling around 350 degrees, which didn’t seem right.
Then I realized I completely misjudged the design of this oven. The digital temp gauge isn’t just a thermometer – it can control the heat output by the burner. By default, it’s set to 350, which is what I had it on when I started my preheat test (image below).
You need to increase the display temp to the max of 896 to get this burning hotter. Now the temperature started to climb a lot quicker.
Test #1: New York Style
I launched a small 12” New York style to test out. Right after launching, I turned the rotation on and put the door on. After about 5 or 6 minutes, this is the result. A solid cheese melt, but look at this. This was a very crispy bottom. The edge crust was a bit light – but that’s because this is a 16” oven and I only made a 12” pizza. The crust was further away from the burner while rotating, so next, I made a bigger pizza.
I immediately noticed how much better the edge crust was looking. Launching at 600 degrees and cooking for about 5 minutes was the best to get a crispy bottom. Here’s the result – a seriously good pizza, with some blistering on the crust.
Test #2: Neapolitan
I tossed together a same-day Neapolitan dough, so I didn’t expect great results. But man, this came out awesome. I baked this for a minute and 45 seconds. I was out of fresh mozzarella, so opted for some of my Grande low moisture mozzarella, making this a bit of a hybrid pizza. But look at the leoparding on the crust, and an incredible bottom. All without having to turn the pizza.
This oven cooks a lot like the Halo Versa, which also has a rotating stone and is really good for New York styles. I personally like the stainless look of the Prokan over the Halo, the latter of which didn’t hold up too well in the elements.
