Gozney Roccbox review

Gozney is known for its professional-grade pizza ovens — and the Gozney Roccbox puts the pro-level know-how to use for home cooks. Its sleek, modern, almost space-age shape and choice of two exterior colors (slate gray or olive green) make it the top choice for design lovers. We found in our Gozney Roccbox review that because the oven doesn’t take up a lot of space, it’s a powerful option for those with a smaller outdoor patio and limited storage space — and because it just looks cool, it’s a great option for impressing guests at pizza parties.

By putting the gas source at the back of the long, dome-shaped oven, pizzas get a nice char both on the top and the bottom, cooking in only a matter of minutes. We also really liked the height of the dome, which made it easy to see inside without bending down, and the compact, perfectly shaped stainless steel peel made sliding pies in and out of the oven relatively effortless.

• Ooni Koda vs. Gozney Roccbox - which pizza oven wins?

Gozney Roccbox review: Price and availability

The Gozney Roccbox costs $499, and is available at Gozney.com. It first went on sale in March 2016. The Gozney Roccbox comes with its own stainless steel peel (a tool for sliding pizzas in and out of the oven), as well as a bottle opener.

Gozney Roccbox review: Ease of setup

Unlike many of the other pizza ovens we tested, the Roccbox comes with its pizza stone already secured into the interior of the oven. In order to get it ready to go, one must simply unfold the oven’s three tripod-style stainless steel legs and attach a gas canister to the back lower portion of the oven. The canister clicked into the opening easily, and took mere seconds to secure.

Once set up and on a tabletop, all you need to do is to hook the gas regulator — already attached to the unit by the gas canister — up to a propane tank. Once it’s secured and tightened, the manual recommends that the gas connection should be tested with a soapy water solution to ensure there are no leaks. We tested the connection and found no leaks.

Gozney’s manual also recommends running the oven at a low temperature for 30 minutes upon its first firing, then running it at a high temperature for 15 to 20 minutes to reach the desired pizza-cooking temperature between 700 and 800 degrees F. We followed those instructions, and found that the oven heated up to above 700 degrees in 15 minutes — roughly the same amount of time it took the Ooni Koda 16 to reach the same temperature.

Gozney Roccbox review: Design and functionality

From its domed shape to its eye-catching silicone jacket to its perforated fold-out legs, design is where the Roccbox really shines. But beyond mere aesthetics, the pros at Gozney put a lot of thought into marrying form with function. It starts when you open the shipping box: There’s a strap Velcroed around the oven to make lifting it out of the box easier, and even all of the printed materials that come with the oven have a sleek aesthetic.

Features on the oven are as nice to look at as they are effective. The gas canister, for instance, has a modern feel that matches the rest of the oven. An easy-to-read built-in thermometer uses a color palette to indicate different temperature zones, so you can glance over and know whether you’re in the right temperature range (that would be 700 and 800 degrees F, indicated by the orange zone). Even the peel feels smartly designed: It has a short grip, making it easy to maneuver and push pizzas in and out of the oven. 

We also liked that the opening of the Roccbox sits a little higher than most of the other models we tested, which meant less bending down to check on and turn the pizzas (trust us, it gets tiring after a while, especially on the lower back). And while none of the other ovens we tried had a protective covering, the Roccbox’s silicone jacket kept the oven cooler than most, an important factor if kids want to get in on the pizza-making fun.

Our only real (and very small) issue with the Roccbox’s design is that, because of its shape and the way the flame flows from back to front through the upper portion of the oven — the stainless steel front exterior of the oven — does get dirty/charred from the flame pretty quickly. However, it’s easy to clean and shine up with a little Bartender’s Helper and a rag.

Gozney Roccbox review: Cooking performance

The Roccbox’s heat source — a flame that hits the back of the oven and, by design, rolls forward — and an extra-heavy pizza stone help to achieve flame-licked, nicely charred pies on both the top and the bottom. Gozney also points to dense insulation as a plus for maintaining heat around the pie, and we did find that the oven stayed very hot, even in between pizzas, with no need to rest. If anything, we found it hard to cool the oven down if it started to get too hot, but it wasn’t a major concern. During one of our tests, the oven did get up over 800 degrees, so we simply let it rest at a low temperature to come back down, but it took a while.

In our tests, homemade dough and fresh dough from a local pizzeria were completely cooked in two minutes. Both puffed up very nicely to expose a good crumb in the crust (more a reflection on the quality of the dough) and came out with even leoparding (speckled charring) on the crust and a little bit of browning on the cheese.

As with other ovens, store-bought dough (both refrigerated and frozen/thawed) got very browned and hardened on the outside, but didn’t quite cook all the way through on the inside after a couple of minutes. They did, however, still get a good level of browning on the cheese, because the Roccbox’s flame reaches so far into the oven.

Gozney Roccbox review: Verdict

Among the best pizza ovens we tested, the Gozney Roccbox was in a near-tie with our favorite model, the Ooni Koda 16. While the Ooni is more expensive and lacks a thermometer — and you have to buy the pizza peel separately — we preferred its L-shaped burner, which made baking pies a simpler affair, and its larger size meant we could make bigger pizzas. 

Still, the Gozney Roccbox is a stone-cold stunner that gets piping hot. It’ll definitely wow guests with its design and with its ability to char pizzas in a couple of minutes.