Could the Ooni Volt pizza oven be the best thing since takeaway pizza? We take a first look
It can cook authentic stone-baked pizzas inside your house - but it comes at a price
To get authentic pizza at home, you ordinarily need two things: a large amount of money to spend on one of the best pizza ovens, and a sizeable outdoor space. The launch of the Ooni Volt 12, which we’ve had a first look at, means that while you don’t need a garden or balcony, you will need a bigger budget than ever.
That’s because the Ooni Volt, the first ever indoor and outdoor pizza oven, comes with an astronomical RRP of £799. Yes, it’s a lot of money, but it is an innovation that could be a total game-changer for pizza lovers, who won’t have to battle with the elements in order to enjoy a stone-baked Margherita at home.
Ooni Volt 12 - £799 at Ooni
Love making pizza at home, but it always comes out more than a bit disappointing? The new Ooni Volt is designed to make cooking authentic style pizza at home more achievable.
A first look at the Ooni Volt 12
We’ve tested out plenty of pizza ovens in the past few years, with our five-star Ooni Fyra review topping our round-up of the best you can buy. It’s impressive then that the Ooni Volt looks to be even more versatile, with the Ooni Co-Founder and Co-CEO Darina Garland saying that the brand has ‘spent years developing an oven that brings the pure pizza power of outdoor ovens indoors’ with the Volt.
So what’s new, and what’s different as opposed to the existing Ooni lineup? Well, the first is that this oven is all-electric, as opposed to the gas, wood or even multi-fuel oven options (we awarded the brand's multi-fuel oven five stars in our Ooni Karu review, too). And the Volt can reach 450 degrees safely indoors in just 20 minutes, which is practically unheard of.
Our Head of Reviews, Millie Fender has already had a try with the Ooni Volt at home, and called her first try ‘the smoothest pizza oven experience’ she’s ever had.
‘My immediate first impression was that this is a massive oven. It's probably the largest countertop appliance I've tested, so finding a place to store it will be a struggle’, says Millie.
‘Once I got it running though, I was wowed by how easy the whole thing was. As promised, it got up to 450 degrees in just under 20 minutes, and cooked my thin-crust Neapolitan bases in about 2-3 minutes. The crusts puffed up nicely and I got some of the charring I'd associate with a wood-fired oven, although admittedly less of that wood-fired flavour.’
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As our former Small Appliance and Cookware Editor and now our in-house expert on everything relating to reviews, Millie knows her way around a kitchen appliance, and she was happy to bring her testing know-how to several of the bestselling pizza ovens, giving the Ooni Volt a run for its money in this first look.
While the huge pricepoint is a somewhat controversial talking point online, those that already have their hands on the oven are pretty impressed.
@mushypeazzz ♬ original sound - Ben
With one fan on TikTok sharing that they were ‘blown away by how the oven came up to temperature’, as he took the Volt out for a spin. He also commented on the ovens talent at retaining its high temperature between bakes, which can be a downfall of wood-fired alternatives.
Another user, who was lucky enough to win the Volt during one of Ooni’s launch competitions, shared a picture of his professional-looking burrata and pepperoni pizza, adding that they were both ‘very, very tasty.’
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Our full review of the Ooni Volt is underway, meaning that we can get back to you on exactly what it’s like to invest in this oven for yourself, potential pitfalls included.
Molly is Ideal Home’s Kitchen Appliances Editor, the Ideal Home Certified Expert on Appliances and an all-around baking and cooking enthusiast. She joined the team in September 2022 as an Ecommerce Editor after working across Real Homes, Homes & Gardens and Livingetc. She's been reviewing products for 4 years and now specialises in weighing up kitchen essentials' pros and cons, from air fryers to bean-to-cup coffee machines.
She's always been a keen reader, so after graduating from the University of Exeter in 2020 she was thrilled to find a way to write as a full-time job. Nowadays, she spends her days at home or the Ideal Home test facility trying out new kitchen innovations to see if they’re worth a space on your worktop. Her most beloved and hard-working appliance is her Sage coffee machine though she also takes the title of Ideal Home’s in-house air fryer expert after writing about them religiously over the past few years.
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