by John Correll

The most important oven in the histo­ry of pizza is the deck oven. Our multi billion dollar pizza industry was built upon the fiery hearth of thousands of these low tech fireboxes. Of course, even though many glamorous new ovens have emerged in the last 15 years to wrest a large part of the oven market away from deck ovens, the basic deck oven is still widely used. What’s more, new technological twists have rekindled some of its former glory.

A Little History

Thirty years ago, many brands of deck ovens dotted the pizza landscape. Although I have no data to prove it, my observation is that the two most widely used brands were gas-fired Blodgett and Bakers Pride models. Bakers Pride, founded by oven pioneer Ira Nevin, gained prominence, in large part, because it was the first to produce an oven wide enough to accommodate three 16-inch pizzas, or four 12-inch pizzas, side by side. With other brands, a pizza maker could line up only two 16-inch, or three 12-inch, pies.

The first such model is known as the “Bakers Pride 451” (the electric model is E-541), which had a 54-inch-wide deck. Other brands had a maximum 48 inch-wide deck. This extra six inches was a valuable feature to many pizza makers and, as a result, is perhaps the primary reason why Bakers Pride has become a household name in the pizza industry.

Eventually, the company one upped itself by producing their classic “Y-600 series” oven that has a 60-inch-wide deck. In time, Blodgett joined the fray with a model 1060 deck oven that has a 60-inch deck, too. By 1985, many early manufacturers of pizza deck ovens had dropped out of contention, leaving relatively few brands compared to earlier years.

Types of Deck Ovens 

Traditionally, deck ovens have been categorized by size and type of heat source gas vs. electric.

Aside from a wood-burning oven, a conventional gas fired deck oven is, perhaps, the most basic type of oven in existence. Essentially, it consists of 1) a bake chamber that contains a hearth or deck, 2) a fire chamber beneath the bake chamber, which contains a gas burner, 3) a thermostat for regulating the amount of flame, and 4) a flue or stack for venting combustion gases. In addition, some models have a manually controllable damper positioned along the sidewalls of the bake chamber. With this, a pizza maker can control the amount of hot air that flows into the bake chamber, thereby controlling the ratio of top vs. bottom heat, or ambient temperature vs. hearth temperature.

Gas-fired deck ovens are about 24 inches tall and are typically stacked two units high. Although they can be stacked three high, such an arrangement would put the bottom deck at only 15 inches and the top deck at over 5 feet above the floor.

Even though the first deck ovens were gas-fired, electric models have made inroads. Electric ovens have no fire chamber and flue, since there is no fire and no resulting combustion gases. For heat, electric ovens have a bottom set of electric heating elements attached to the underside of the hearth and a top set attached to the ceiling of the bake chamber. In addition to a thermostat, they typically have a rotary control for each set of heating elements, thereby allowing the operator to determine the ratio of top vs. bottom heat. Because there is no fire chamber, electric ovens have a height ranging  from 12 to 15 inches, or about half that of a gas oven. This allows three or more decks to be stacked.

Some early makers of electric deck ovens were European companies. Their ovens featured easy to open doors that rolled upward and inward (as compared to American doors that pivot downward and outward). In some models the bake chamber height was reduced to 6 inches, which enabled them to be stacked as many as six decks high, with the lowest deck being only about a foot above the floor. Although such an arrangement created incredible output per square foot of floor space, from a practical standpoint a bake chamber for pizza needs to be about 8 inches high and the bottom deck at least 2 feet above the floor. So, this limited the number of stacked ovens to three or, stretching it, to four.

Deck Oven Innovations

Over the years a number of innovations have been made with deck ovens. For example, in the early 1980s, Lang Manufacturing introduced a deck oven with an “air door,” or curtain of air. According to product literature, the oven door can be left open without loss of heat, thereby eliminating oven ‘death’ during peak hours, lowering kitchen temperature, and enabling pizza makers to watch pizzas bake.

Another “innovation” has been in terms of new bake chamber dimensions for meeting special needs. For example, Bakers Pride has a Y-800 oven with a 44-inch-deep by 66-inch-wide bake chamber, primarily targeted for big city, slice operations that seek to bake four 20-inch pizzas side by side (or a total of eight pizzas per deck), and a “stubby” oven that measures only 33 inches deep, for installations with narrow aisles.

A third innovation in deck ovens has been the addition of forced convection to the bake chamber. It has been tried a number of ways some no longer on the market. The most recent, and apparently most successful, version is a gas-fired “air-deck” oven manufactured by Garland/Welbilt. Instead of using solid metal or cordierite, the deck consists of perforated metal. By virtue of a fan, hot air is blown upward through the perforated deck and also downward from above onto the product, reducing baking time and temperature, as well as the number of BTU required to operate the oven.

A fourth recent innovation involves an adaptation of the deck oven to simulate the appearance and baking characteristics of a wood-burning oven. This oven, marketed as the II Forno Classico and made by Bakers Pride, has a 16-inch-high, vaulted bake chamber, a small, arch shape opening to the bake chamber, and a gas flame installed at the rear of the chamber for visual impact. Combined with that, it has the basic technology of a gas fired deck oven, namely a fire chamber beneath the oven, thermostatic controls, and a damper system for regulating the ratio of top vs. bottom heat. Lastly, the oven is encased in decorative masonry to achieve the visual appeal of a wood-burning oven. The company claims that the oven has the advantages of a deck oven without the drawbacks of the wood-burning oven.

Advantages of Deck Ovens

Compared to conveyor ovens, deck ovens have some advantages. First, many owners believe that deck ovens make a better pizza. They maintain that, when baked directly on the deck, the “stone hearth” produces a crispier bottom crust and more golden brown color. Some also believe it imparts a better flavor. For those reasons, many of them remain loyal deck oven users.

The second big advantage of deck ovens is that they’re cheaper. For example, Bakers Pride claims that four of its Y-600 ovens can put out more than 150 thin-crust pizzas per hour, when properly used. To get equivalent capacity in conveyor ovens would require a substantially greater investment.

Third, deck ovens are easier and cheaper to maintain. Conveyor ovens have expensive mechanical parts and high-tech electronic controls that occasionally break down. With a deck oven, all you need to do is keep the burner clean and properly adjusted, and check the thermostat for accuracy now and then. And when something does go wrong, it’s relatively cheap and easy to replace. In addition, some conveyor ovens require an hour or more to disassemble and clean out (which should be done every few months).

Fourth, deck ovens are versatile. To accommodate a variety of pizza thicknesses, or other types of products, a deck oven is easier to use than a conveyor oven, which can require jockeying product around, or using several conveyors, each set for a different speed.

Fifth, deck ovens are quieter. There are no blowing fans (as in some conveyor models), whining motors, or squeaking conveyor belts.

Sixth, most gas deck ovens need only gas supply (no electricity) to operate. 

Drawbacks

Deck ovens have some key advan­tages. However, relative to conveyor ovens, they also have some drawbacks: 

Ø      - Deck ovens are more difficult to use, requiring higher skilled labor.

Ø      - They require more labor.

- Although I don’t know exactly why it happens, my experience is that deck ovens create a hotter  kitchen than conveyor ovens, which can drive up A/C electricity costs.

Ø      - Gas deck ovens require more ventilation, resulting in greater make-up air requirements.

Ø      - Deck ovens can result in more burns.

Ø      - More floor space is occupied for equivalent output.

Ø      - More labor movement is required, which can result in greater confusion during rush hours.

- Given the same output capacity, deck ovens require more energy (i.e., gas or electricity) to operate, resulting in higher utility bills.

- Lastly, deck ovens can “die” during an extended, heavy rush of business. If the oven-tender is inexperienced, inattentive, or very busy, deck ovens can result in less consistent quality (that is, a larger number of underdone/overdone pies).

When Deck Oven is Best

Probably an operator should give special consideration to buying — or keeping — a deck oven if one or more of the following conditions exists: 

- If in your experience, a deck oven bakes your pizza to a higher level of customer acceptance than does a non-deck oven.

- If you are working on a very limited budget.

- If you have enough skilled labor on hand to operate deck ovens properly.

- If your peak production hour is less than 50 pizzas per hour.

- If the noise of a conveyor oven would interfere with your restaurant’s ambiance.

- If you have a mixed menu with varying baking times that cannot be accommodated in a conveyor oven.