Top 10 best countertop pizza oven 2022 Price and Feature Comparison

I guess I was being a little nostalgic today. Looking through my Amazon order history I had to both chuckle and cry at some of the completely useless items I’ve purchased over the years. Then I ran across the Pizzazz I bought way back on June 28, 2008 (Today is Feb 14, 2016.) I rarely write reviews but I like and use this oven so much that I’ll make an exception.Usage:I’ve probably used the oven an average of 1 to 1 1/2 times a week. Sometimes 2 – 3 times a week and then I might go 2 – 3 weeks before using it again. It’s been used almost exclusively for pizza. I used it maybe 5 times for other things and it worked well but it just doesn’t come to mind when I can finally drag myself into the kitchen and cook something.Durability:Like the title says I’ve got almost 8 years out of it so far so A+ there. The pan itself could have a better non-stick coating on it and the newer ones may have but the ’08 model leaves a little to be desired. When I first got it I made sure to wash it after every use. Now that I’m older and lazier I generally just hold it over the sink and wipe it off with a paper towel. Big deal if it’s not completely clean and has a few crumbs or burnt cheese stuck to it. That will just add texture and flavor to the next pizza. Who doesn’t like those crunchy crispies at the bottom of the french fries box? And besides, it hasn’t killed me … yet.My Frozen Pizza Prep Method:I have done “from scratch” pizzas that turned out quite well but remember in the paragraph above I mentioned that I’m older and lazier now? Anymore I usually just stick with the frozen variety that can usually turn out very good if you doctor them up a bit.I do my pizza prep on an  Oneida Commercial 16 Inch Pizza Pan  I purchased just for this purpose. (It was on sale at 2 for $6 when I got it.) It’s larger than the Pizzazz pan so it will catch most of the enthusiastically thrown toppings that are coming.1) Remove frozen pizza from packaging and place the 16” pizza pan making sure there is no cardboard stuck to the bottom (special attention needed if it’s a Tombstone pizza).2) Apply a liberal dose of pizza sauce such as  Muir Glen Organic Pizza Sauce, 15-Ounce Cans (Pack of 12)  or  Contadina Pizza Sauce, 15 Oz . I like using the Contadina squirt bottle so I rinse them out and save them for use with the Muir Glen. I’ll also water either sauce down slightly because they are both rather thick after being refrigerated. With a squirt bottle I put the sauce on in a spiral pattern and just leave it that way. It seems to spread out okay while cooking later. Otherwise, like with a freshly open can of Glen Muir, I’ll smudge it on with a tablespoon.3) Dust lightly with Garlic Salt.4) Place a pepperoni slice in every open space that did not have a pepperoni to begin with. Overlapping slices is perfectly acceptable. Any pepperoni should be okay except for maybe that Turkey or some other fake pepperoni. If you have a Publix Supermarket nearby you should really consider trying the Publix Brand pepperoni … good stuff.5) Cover entire pizza with mozzarella or your other favorite cheese. Quoting from The Huffington Post that was reporting about a pizza cheese study … “the researchers concluded in their study that mozzarella can be combined with any of the other six cheeses (cheddar, Colby, Edam, Emmental, Gruyere, and provolone) to create just the right amount of browning and blistering you prefer on a gourmet pizza — for instance, try cheddar for less blisters or provolone for less browning.”6) Transfer the pizza from the 16” prep pan to the Pizzazz pan. Pour any excess, enthusiastically thrown toppings caught by prep pan to pizza.7) Set Pizzazz pan onto Pizzazz oven spindle and if the oven is plugged in you should hear the motor start and the pan will start rotating. This can get a little tricky. I usually have to kneel down and watch the underside of the pan to make sure it sits on the spindle properly. There’s gotta be a better way of designing the oven to make this easier and foolproof.8) Make sure the heating elements switch is in the correct position. Since all I do anymore is frozen, I just leave the switch in “Dual” which heats the top and the bottom of the pizza.9) Turn the timer switch to the appropriate time. For normal crust pizzas like Tombstone I’ll use around 13 or 14 minutes. For thick, self rising crust like DiGiorno I set it for the full 20 minutes. (Side note: I used to never like the thick, rising crust pizzas because the only one I’d tried was DiGiorno. One day I was getting pizzas and Pepsi’s at Walgreens and a nice lady in the checkout line turned me on … … … (where was I? … oh yeah) to the Walgreens brand called Good & Delish Frozen Rising-Crust Pizza. I was impressed with it. I can’t say it’s my favorite but it is definitely a regular now. Also, Jack’s pizza available there and other places is quite good if doctored up properly.)10) Set some other audible timer for 4 to 6 minutes longer than you set the Pizzazz timer for.11) Go watch TV or if you like, just sit there and anticipate the yummy goodness that is coming your way.12) When the 4 to 6 minute delayed audible timer goes off the Pizzazz pizza pan may be cool enough to handle with your bare hands. With the Pizzazz in place and still rotating, push the pizza around just a little to make sure it’s not stuck to the pan. Holding the 16” prep pan next to the oven in one hand, slide the cooked pizza off the Pizzazz pan onto the prep pan with the other hand.13) Set the prep pan on a sturdy surface and slice the pizza to your liking. I’ve tried various pizza cutters and the style I like best is the  Bialetti Taste of Italy Pizza Chopper, 14-Inch . (Yes, I know you should not use a cutter on a non-stick pizza pan but that was my entire purpose for my getting the pan. I bought it July ’13 and while it does have a few crease marks on it, there is no peeling yet. The only heat it sees is from a hot pizza sitting on it. The second pan of the set hasn’t even been used yet.)14) If you must, fix up a salad so you can claim you ate healthy. Plop yourself back in front of the TV. Set your dinner on a  Table-Mate II Woodgrain Folding Table  and enjoy.

This thing is a beast… and that’s a good thing because we’re looking to cut down on using the range oven. After burning ourselves numerous times, having a drop-down door eat up available counter space and constantly fighting with getting the a tray or casserole dish out of our Waring Pro WTO450 it was time for a change. We figured if there was lost counter space it might as well be for a bigger oven than a drop down door that was bothersome. The capacity in this oven is enormous compared to a standard size toaster oven and with the added capacity we can do more with it and less with our electric range… which literally just burned through another heating element. We didn’t want convection, a drop down door, an electronic touchpad or to pay anywhere near 200-bucks so it was a limited field and this one fit our search criteria. It was a somewhat reluctant purchase and an Oster with convection heating was the alternative but we’re at a high altitude so convection wasn’t really needed and that left few choices with French doors and non-convection. This is a counter hog but since the doors swing open it’s a minor issue but my major issue is that the timer must be on for it to operate even though the pic showed a timer dial with a “Stay on” setting that ours doesn’t have so a loud timer must be on to use it and if the timer fails the oven is non-operational. I’ll likely install an on/off toggle switch to bypass the timer because I doubt returning it for this reason would result in a replacement with the timer feature I thought I was getting. The major pluses, for us anyway, is that the doors open out (and we can open just one at a time) and the upper & lower elements have their own temperature settings… or you can just use whichever one you prefer. The handle for the grill and pan is a nice touch so we no longer have to reach into the over to grab something while using bulky mitts and then fighting to get it out like we did with the Waring… which taxed our patience and that led to burns. For its size, it’s rather lightweight and we tried it on our island with a Formica countertop but it slid so easily I could see dinner going off the side and onto the floor with just a small push. I’m building a small stand to place it on to have some counter space underneath and will add some rubber feet to keep it in place. It’s hard to please everyone with a single appliance but this was relatively inexpensive compared to most of the alternatives and ours has a removable sheet on the bottom that collects crumbs so I’m calling it a crumb tray. The dials are hard to read since the pointer is just an arrow that’s the same color as the dial face. As usual, instructions are vague or nebulous (like put the rack in the center position when there’s only 4-options so there’s not one that’s in the center) and it’s not mentioned if it’s best to bake with both the upper & lower elements on for a more consistent bake. It also doesn’t heat/bake evenly but that’s the same with our stove oven but the pre-heat time is much quicker. It gets too hot to place your hand on the top but the sides aren’t too bad and it’s pretty much the same thing with most other countertop ovens/toasters we’ve had previously. At 400-degress ours showed 375-degress on two different oven thermometers but that’s close enough and since the doors have a gap in the middle and don’t seal tightly they are likely like that so the glass doesn’t overheat. It’s really not a good toaster though it’ll get the job done but it takes a long time to heat up to the point that it’s actually toasting something. My biggest peeve is that the timer dial controls the on/off process and it really should have been incorporated into the dials for the elements since it’s lacking the “Stay on” feature. Once this is on a counter there’s very little room left in front of it and what is left is pretty much unusable. The doors do stay open but the handles are not even with each other. Though there’s nothing that says “broil” on it that can be accomplished by using just the upper elements; and ours has a crumb tray (I’m still not sure what all those no crumb tray reviews meant… were they expecting a separate tray or missing the bottom inside plate) so that cuts down a lot of unfavorable reviews. I don’t “Love it” but I’ll stay with 5-stars despite my issues with the timer functioning as the on/off switch. We’ve done bread, toast, bagels, English muffins and a fruit pie in it, so far, and no complaints with the finished products.Lastly, as we grow older bending down and reaching over the door to our range made pulling out the large cast iron casserole pot not only difficult but it was hard to not burn a mitt on the upper element so this makes it a lot easier and the entire oven doesn’t lose all the heat that takes about 30-minutes of pre-heat to achieve. After all the money I’ve dropped on appliances in the past 60-years I’ll be happy if it still works in a few years and it’ll take some strain off my range oven that gets limited use but still pops an element every few years. It would be nice if it had an on/off switch and an interior light but it is what it is and there’s no reason to knock off stars for it.

UPDATE July 24, 2022. After two years and 3 months my Luby toaster oven died. Within that same time period I had previously gone through two other toaster ovens mostly due to the use of internal plastic holders for the on/off knob. After a period of heat exposure, the ovens simply would not stay off, flipping back on faster than I could turn them off. Except for the fact the temperature apparently hadn’t been calibrated (I use a oven thermometer so that worked for me) I loved the Luby oven and used it more than once a day. I even roasted a turkey in it.Some reviewers recently complained about the rack not holding dishes being baked so they fell. Even for the first Luby I inserted both racks into the same slot since I’d probably never need to use them separately and I never had that problem, not even with the heavy turkey. BTW they now pack the crumb tray for the bottom along with the roasting pan and racks since apparently some reviewers missed the place in front to lift the bottom up for cleaning in the first Luby’s shipped out.Anyway, when the Luby died, I didn’t hesitate to order another one. I always open such large unwieldy items over the bed and guess what? The entire bottom seam was smashed in along the bottom and the back. The deepest spot of the indent was 3″ deep. The seam had completely pulled apart in that spot and was sharp. I took photos which I am sending in to Amazon tonight because this oven had to be packed with that extensive damage. A whollop creating that much damage would have wrecked the box into smithereens which was pristine so yes it had to be packed with that damage. The bottom and back are also metal so that brand new Luby oven took quite an impact to sustain damage that extensive.Amazon as usual with their excellent customer service replaced the oven which I’ve now used successfully for over a week but I’ve kept the box just in case. Here’s the thing though. I read a lot of reviews and more and more often reviewers are complaining about receiving damaged and/or dirty or deceptive items. I’ve shopped at Amazon since the mid 90’s–back when everyone snickered that a book store would never work on-line. I watched fascinated as Jeff Bezos built an empire that is depended on world wide. I along with so many others happily shop here all the time.I mention this history and the reviews because it is time that manufacturers of products and retailers like Amazon that sell those products demand that damaged items like that oven are no longer shipped into the country. Putting a brand new oven of this size into a land fill should never, ever happen. There is no excuse whatsoever for packing an item with the extensive damage that Luby oven had going on. It is wasteful of materials, time, money and creates a great deal of mistrust especially of imported items. That damaged oven broke my heart for a while. Seriously.The new Luby is shiny with new knobs but otherwise works and looks the same. The temps are more accurate than on the previous oven. Hopefully this new oven will give me the good service that the dead one did and if it does, then I’d order another Luby in a nano second. Just please everyone stop packing and shipping into the country damaged items.I took off stars for the damage but the oven itself is a 5-star item. I really love it and enjoy using it!PREVIOUS REVIEW: Since I only use toaster ovens for baking and am of the opinion that most toaster ovens try to do too many things, I was happy to find this Luby. Not only is it especially built to bake, it is huge, easily holding a small turkey. What an asset this oven would be to families cooking over the holidays or wanting to bake a dish in their regular oven and a cake or dish in the Luby. Or, as in my case, to do all their baking in it since toaster ovens are a thousand times cooler to use than a stove oven especially in the summer. They heat up quicker and cool down faster as well.This oven looks nice too and actually looks more expensive than it is. The two doors open independently of each other and mine stay open regardless of position but certainly stay open when pulled totally to the side. Having them open to the side is preferable to having the door drop down which takes up counter space. I found the instruction booklet to be too skimpy since this oven is different from most. It has a knob for both the top burner and the lower burner. So, then, to bake a cake should one place the rack in the center of the oven like one would do in a stove oven and turn on both burners? Not clear in the manual so I set out to experiment.On the Luby using both burners at the same temperature means the oven is 50 degrees hotter than that chosen on both knobs. That is according to the oven temp gauge I’ve used for years. There is no way to know if it runs hot due to both burners being on or if the oven temp is off. Regardless, continuing my experiment, I’ve learned where to set the temp knobs to get the desired cooking temp. The temp gauges are marked off every 50 degrees. When I want 425, a popular baking temp, I found that spot and marked it off with a permanent marker. If that wears off, I’ll use some acrylic paint! (Yes, this oven is worth the additional effort!)To all those complaining about not getting a crumb tray, indeed there is a tray included. It fits so well that it looks like the bottom of the oven but there is a small lever in the front to lift it up and out of the oven. The roasting pan and the two racks that come with the oven are good quality especially for a toaster oven. At present, rather than storing one rack, I’m using both of them, one on top of the other, in the middle slot. They hold a lot of weight without feeling flimsy. The roasting tray is stored for future use. It is heavy anough to hold that small turkey and is nicely enameled.As to the top and sides getting hot, IMO this oven gets no hotter than any other toaster oven I’ve owned. In fact, the door to my stove oven gets too hot to touch as well so over the years I’ve attempted to only touch handles regardless of which oven I’m using (notice I said attempted LOL). I do have it sitting on glass and have glass on top for safety reasons as I have for all my toaster ovens. This oven does not have a light but few I’ve owned have had lights. Usually toaster ovens are placed on counters where there is sufficient light in the room to look into the oven so personally I do not consider the lack of a light a negative as some might.One probably could toast in this oven while it’s preheating but I can’t speak to that as I gave up years ago on trying to toast in these ovens as I was spending so much time trying to get toast “just right” that I broke down and bought an old-timey regular toaster! So far I’ve baked two pizzas, a cake, biscuits twice, a tray of cookies and cornbread in the Luby and all cooked perfecting by checking the temp with my temp gauge before placing the items in the oven. I’ve baked frozen fries and warmed up left-overs in it, also with great success.I’ve saved the best for last! There is no stay-on sticker on the oven so most of us assumed we had to use the timer when baking. That was driving me crazy and I was actually considering sending this oven back when I made a remarkable discovery! When turning the timer off one night the knob moved slightly to the left after the ding sounded. Okay. So then why did that happen? I turned the timer knob to the left so that it was pointing at the little stamp that says “timer” and guess what!! The oven stayed on. And on. For over an hour. So folks, we indeed do have a stay-on function on this oven. Thank goodness because I really liked it otherwise. Now I love itI have no idea why the manufacturer removed the stay-on sticker from the oven (some posters say they saw pics of such a sticker) and instead put a timer sticker there because having the oven stay stay on is a real asset. Using the stay-on function means I can set a personal timer and carry it to whichever room I choose to be in while the oven bakes. Otherwise, having to keep re-setting the timer every 60 minutes when baking a chicken, roast or whatever is frustrating. Hopefully, the stay-on sticker will be placed back on the oven where the timer sticker is now. Final thought, this oven is relatively light weight considering its size so that for those wanting an oven to use for special occasions then packing it up would be very doable until the next special occasion.I’ve owned far too many toaster ovens in recent years as I suspect not enough metal parts and too much plastic is being used in them now which wears down after a year or so due to the extreme heat inside the oven. So here’s hoping this oven will hold up because it fits my needs perfectly. It looks good and bakes as it should once I set up the temp. I struggled with how many stars to give it because so many qualities about it deserves a 5 but since this oven is not the traditional do-everything kind of toaster oven, I expected more from the manual. After using it for a while longer, perhaps I’ll come back and add the final star (or any additional thoughts I may have). For now though, I’m totally happy with this oven!

DO NOT accidentally put the pizza tray in worng like shown in picture it got stuck and I ended up spilling cheese on the heating element it must be on the rail it is easy to accidentally do this and It is challenging to guess how long each pizza should be in for so don’t read the box and throw it in cause it will probably burn it after about 14 min I would go 10min in the picture it was in for 14min check on very often till you figure iOut the right amount of time but it is faster than regular gas ovens so thats a plus

The only way four slices of bread can be toasted at once in this miniature device is if they are velcro-ed together at the edges.This is about half the size of the Krups it replaces. The Krups is a *real* four-slice toaster that you can bake a small cake in. What I received today is more like an Easy-Bake Oven in comparison.To be completely honest and fair to this device: I HAVE NOT YET USED IT. I do not doubt the reviews and expect it will cook very well, but the photos make it look much larger than it is. The shot of the pizza in the oven borders on deceptive advertising. I have never seen a pizza that small in any store. Even the smallest “party” pizzas are too large for this thing.It may cook just great, but it was supposed to replace a much larger “four-slice” toaster oven, as we have no full-sized oven in this house, and our beloved Krups died after 14 years of heavy use. [Foreshadowing: This will not adequately replace our old four-slide toaster oven.]This toaster was purchased to get us by until my wife can find another job. I am sure it will do that just fine. However, meals will take MUCH LONGER TO COOK seeing as this has half the capacity normally attributed to a *real* “four-slice” toaster oven. I am guessing that it legally carries this description solely because, with some force, you *can* shove four slices in there, but all will touch each other, and will likely touch the sides of the unit, too, possibly causing the crust to burn.Cooking the chicken breasts we bought for tonight will be — in reality — cooking *two* separate meals, likely making our two-person supper last all night. I am displeased, but we really need this thing — so I guess we’re stuck.CAVEAT EMPTOR: If you are in need of a rack that can fit four “adult-sized” slices of bread (or have a need to cook anything with that large of a footprint) DO NOT GET THIS; I don’t care how good the reviews are.The feeling of ridiculousness that washed over me as I pulled this oven out of the box was on par with when the Stonehenge model came down on the stage in “This Is Spinal Tap” —”I think that the problem *may* have been, that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being *crushed* by a dwarf.”

I waited along time in life to buy a pizza oven and settled on this one. It does the job very well. Pizza is cooked faster and better than a traditional oven. Okay Duh, you probably already know a pizza is superior way to bake a pizza but the first one I did was perfect for me without having to learn it. I can’t speak to its longevity as only had a couple of months and about 10 cooks. The only thing preventing 5 stars is cleanup is not always easy but that’s the nature of this type of pizza oven not a knock on this particular model. If you line the bottom with tinfoil and replace from time to time, you will avoid burnt cheese smoke issues. The rack by its nature is a bit difficult to keep clean because cheese naturally melts and hardens to the spokes. Again, not a criticism of this model, just the type in general. One quibble, It has one control knob for heat and time and sometimes it’s hard to adjust time and temp without turning the unit off by accident and having to start time/temp setting over again so it takes some practice to figure out that rhythm. But once you understand that, it’s easy. It just may require training for anyone else in the house to do it the first time or two. Other than that I live this thing and one of my favorite purchases this year. Definitely recommend!!

i made a pizza with a frozen cauliflower crust, i ton of precooked mushrooms, and another ton of vegan cheese. it came out great! the crust was nicely browned on the bottom and on the edges. the cheese actually melted! all in all a great pizza. it’s so easy to clean this pizza cooker. just wipe it down with a wet paper towel. it’s also so very attractive. i love it. there isn’t a temperature control, but it doesn’t matter. this pizza cooker knows what it’s doing … even for a vegan.

Nice, even heat for excellent pizza crust. It is not another overly bulky or heavy kitchen gadget – it fairly compact, stores easily and has many uses! Having fun trying new items.

My goals in this purchase were to have a smaller oven that didn’t take as long to preheat as my 30″ Dacor gas range oven and that hopefully was less energy. Dacor has a rock solid oven temp buuatttt is a 45-60 min preheat. It has convection.There in a bunch of good here – so I’ll be keeping it. For me, the primary bad is how hot the exterior of the oven gets – everywhere. It is NOT FOR A HOME WITH CHILDREN. At the upper temps, the outer stainless skin will literally burn you.Other than that — it’s light – my old lady self can easily move it outside in good weather or to a porch in mediocre weather. Which means that I can bake in the summer without concern about heating up the house with it’s little volcano self, but I can reap the benefits of also heating up the house in cooler times.It’s fast. Preheat for Pizza at 375 f was 5 minutes. Turned on convection with frozen pizza and pizza was done 4-5 minutes faster than the box directions. It was done “better” than same pizza, same settings in the Dacor oven – more even browning and cheese melting.The only really suckie long preheat I’ve seen is for broil – which is darned near instant in a gas oven. Broil also didn’t turn out so well. Again, that could be settings or where they tell you to put the tray (way up close) when they only have two heat bars and those are positioned towards front and back. You can’t see what is happening during the broil. Be happy to read advice about that.Bake preheats quickly and does well with convection – heating all the rack positions. I think I’m going to buy extra racks and mini sheet pans. It fits 1/4 sheet steam table pans just swell on the rack. I also have 1/4 bun pans which are also fine. Again, it seems to go faster than the Dacor oven. I’m still adjusting.The light is great. It reflects throughout the unit because of the somewhat shiney interior. I foiled the crumb tray to death, so hopefully I’ll never have the joy of cleaning it free of burned on crud.The door could use some work. The single door hinge is kinda cheezy ball. It would be nice if the door got entirely out of the way, or if the door had enough support to put a transfer plater or cutting board on it.I have not yet tried dehydrate, proof or ferment. I’m looking forward to them. Or the rotisserie, but I thank the people who posted about it’s weight limitations and general messiness.Keep warm will be very helpful – it seems to work ok. I’m enjoying being able to dial the time/temp up and down after picking a general setting.I didn’t have any faith in “Toast”, and that proves correct, but I’ll give it more tests before I give up on it.I have never owned an air fryer, so I don’t have any experience to compare. “Air fry” I tried and it worked as well as my faking “air fry” in the Dacor (convection, lotta cooling racks to lift food over a bun pan). Which is like “Bake, now with less oil!”For me, this is a good 2nd oven. I expected to do some adjustments.

This product cooks very evenly. It needs to be preheated, and it does shut off when the timer stops. The timer is also VERY quiet. You can barely hear it while standing next to it. It does take a little longer than my other oven, but it is worth it because the pizza is cooked perfectly when it is done.