Wood Fired Pizza Ovens Crafted by European Artisans

Evenly Cooked Pizzas

From perfectly baked 90-second pizzas with crispy edges to slow cooking over 10-15 hours, it comes down to the thermal mass of the pizza oven.

A wood-fired pizza oven with a low thermal mass can overheat easily and lose temperature quickly, leading to temperature instability and an uneven cooking experience. A poorly balanced pizza oven exhibits prolonged heating times and excessive wood consumption.

Kiwi Pizza Ovens' thermal mass is perfectly designed and manufactured for our residential and commercial ovens.

Engineered to Resist Cracking

Numerous mortar joints can increase the risk of cracking. Ovens available in the NZ market rely on bricks connected by mortar. Our innovative solution - a dome consisting of four distinct sections - reduces the risk of cracks forming during thermal expansion, which can be a concern when working with bricks due to the numerous joints involved. We manage thermal expansion through strategically placed expansion joints, minimising the likelihood of structural cracks.

Pizza ovens made of various materials may crack, as each material has different thermal expansion properties. Once a pizza oven cracks, water always finds its way in, whether you can see it or not.

With temperature increasing rapidly, water boils instead of evaporating, which creates steam. This process can cause microcracks that compromise the overall structure and integrity of the pizza oven. In severe cases, the accumulation of steam can create pressure, potentially causing the oven to rupture and posing a risk of injury or harm.

Rust Colour Pizza Oven During Snow

Our pizza ovens are built to last

Our Pizza ovens are constructed with sandwich walls of up to 10 different layers of various materials, minimising the risk of cracks forming during thermal expansion. Due to their incredible thermal insulation, our ovens are resistant to harsh New Zealand weather. 

Our insulation is enhanced by our outer shell, handcrafted from lightweight mortar. This uniquely designed outer shell ensures the perfect shape, reinforces the structure and extends the longevity of your pizza oven. A 100% ceramic fibre blanket layer is durable and provides excellent insulation.

Cook More with Kiwi Pizza Ovens

Our pizza ovens can be used to fry, grill, boil and dehydrate foods. An exceptionally long heat retention period enables customers to bake fresh bread, slow-cook a stew, toast bread or bake cakes. 

Due to their exceptional insulation, our ovens retain heat for an exceptionally long period of time. Thanks to that, you can fire our oven at noon, enjoy a pizza dinner, roast potato supper and a fresh batch of jam for breakfast. It only takes ten pieces of wood to create a variety of dishes in one day. 

The pizza oven also provides a cooking means during natural disasters such as earthquakes, power outages, or floodings. Your cosy garden pizzeria will still provide your family with hot meals.

Authentic Pizza with Kiwi Pizza Oven

When deciding on the best oven for your family, it may be tempting to consider a cheaper alternative. However, it's essential to recognise that the performance of a genuine compressed fire brick oven will provide a better experience, enable you to cook more food using residual heat, and last longer. In terms of quality, durability and performance, it's hard to find anything better.

Typically, ovens available online are designed for use in short bursts and cool down quickly, preventing people from truly enjoying a shared meal. Ours are built to last and look stunning even after years of intensive use. Because baking a pizza takes only two minutes, your friends and family eat together. You can leave our oven unattended to return and find it still ready to bake another pizza or tomato wedges.

At Kiwi Pizza Oven, we don't employ a factory or outsource the build of our pizza ovens. We maintain complete control over the construction process, ensuring that our pizza ovens meet the highest standards throughout New Zealand. This approach allows us to keep our operational costs low, providing our customers exceptional value for their investment.

Due to our dedication to delivering top-notch pizza ovens, the production process spans 2-3 weeks. In times of high demand, it may extend further. To secure your place in the queue and tailor the specifications of your pizza oven to your unique preferences, we encourage you to contact us promptly and place a deposit to reserve your order.

Pizza Oven Material matters

It's important to understand what your pizza oven is made of.

Traditional ovens typically have separate components for the entrance, chimney, and outer shell, each made of different materials like mortar, bricks, plasters, ceramics, and steel for the smoke exhaust system. This mix can often result in a common issue known as "oven cracking," and it's not uncommon to hear that pizza ovens are expected to crack.

However, with our technical expertise in managing thermal expansion and modern professional materials, this risk can be significantly reduced. Our ovens stand out with a unified structure that combines the entrance, chimney, and outer shell into one cohesive unit. All parts are crafted from the same materials, ensuring consistent responses to thermal expansion. Additionally, the entire system is fortified with anti-cracking measures and protective coatings.

What makes Kiwi Pizza Oven exceptional?

How Hot Does it Get On The Outside?

The external temperature is a key indicator of the pizza oven's construction quality and insulation. While the inside of the oven can reach 450-500°C during use, the outer surface remains relatively warm, around 40-50°C. The bottom of our ovens operates at 50 to 80 degrees Celsius, making them safe to place on any material surface. Our ovens are designed to be both efficient and safe to use.

Outer Shell

Our insulation is enhanced by our outer shell, handcrafted from lightweight mortar. This uniquely designed outer shell ensures the perfect shape, reinforces the structure and extends the longevity of your pizza oven. A 100% ceramic fibre blanket layer is durable and provides excellent insulation.

Sandwich Walls

No single material is ideal for every situation. That's why our ovens incorporate a sandwich wall system with up to 10 layers, creating a composite material that's better than the sum of its parts. Our ovens achieve exceptional thermal insulation and weather resistance, minimise the risk of cracking and offer a product better than mass-produced or homemade ovens.

Our intricate design is why our pizza ovens take 100 hours to build.

Inner Dome

The inner dome of our ovens, which can withstand temperatures over 1200°C, is truly remarkable. The inner dome is made up of four separately cast quarters held tightly together by specially designed indexing joints and fibre strips. This flexible and secure connection allows the inner dome to relieve thermal stress through these expansion joints, significantly reducing the risk of cracking. Most other inner domes, made of firebricks held together by hundreds of mortar joints, have a much higher likelihood of cracking due to their inability to relieve stresses caused by thermal expansion. Our design has minimised the chance of such issues occurring to almost zero.

Clay Floorboards

Our oven clay floorboards are custom-made strictly for our pizza oven's purpose. They are densely compressed fire bricks, and because of their large size, they are called pizza oven floorboards. Each brick weighs over 20kg.

The large size design reduces the number of joints on the floor. The tiles' high density enables them to retain significant heat for an extended period. 

During production, clay floor tiles undergo firing and temperatures exceeding 1,600 degrees Celsius, transforming them into ceramics and rendering them food-safe, similar to clay pots. 

Our pizza ovens are made at the same high-quality restaurant pizza ovens to ensure they can withstand intensive use and deliver quality pizzas every time. The quality results in a super smooth, porous surface that prevents the dough from sticking, consistently delivering perfectly baked, crispy pizza bases.

Heat Retention

The heat retention time for a well-insulated pizza oven should be at least 12 hours, and a shorter period indicates poor insulation. Thanks to that, you can fire our oven at noon, enjoy a pizza dinner, roast potato supper and a fresh batch of jam for breakfast.

The next day, your pizza oven will still be around 160+ degrees.

100 Hour Wood Fired Pizza Ovens

Our pizza ovens are one-of-a-kind masterpieces, meticulously handmade in Christchurch and impossible to replicate. We use top-quality refractory materials designed for our high-temperature cooking applications and building materials developed in-house. 

Our ovens have been crafted and refined over 12 years and engineered for durability, longevity, high heat retention, and authenticity. Our pizza ovens cannot be replicated or mass-produced, as each is lovingly handcrafted over at least 100 hours using unique methods to ensure quality craftsmanship.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

We can't wait to get it going! Thanks so much, amazing personal service from this company, these ovens are made with such passion and pride. So pleased to be able to support a local business.

-Fiona

Ensure your pizza oven is waterproof.

Whether you are buying a pizza oven from our range or exploring alternatives in the market, it's essential to prioritise waterproofing as a critical feature. 

While many ovens may appear great in the showroom, it can be challenging for an untrained eye to evaluate their internal quality. Inferior construction might result in microcracks, allowing water to seep in and significantly shorten the oven's lifespan. Kiwi Pizza ovens are the only ones in the New Zealand market that feature self-drying technology, extending the oven's lifespan. This system operates efficiently and accelerates the drying process, aiming to keep your oven looking good and performing great even years after the purchase. Our ovens are equipped with a stainless door and flue cap to safeguard against the rain.

Balanced Wood Fired Pizza Oven

A well-balanced wood-fired oven guarantees even cooking, maximises efficiency and uses wood effectively. With only a few pieces of wood, our ovens bake a delicious pizza in 90 seconds, allowing you to produce up to 60 in an hour. The meticulously designed dome will direct the fire over the food to make your pizza top crispy. The high-density floorboards will make the pizza bottom evenly cooked and create crunchy bubbles in your dough. Not only can you make perfect pizzas, it feels like they are making themselves. Your family and friends can easily learn and enjoy cooking with you.

Pizza Oven Cooking

Pizza Oven Size Matters

Through years of testing and refinement, we have arrived at the optimal pizza oven specification - our residential ovens weigh around 480 kg and are about 1mx1mx1m. These dimensions strike the perfect balance, combining high efficiency, short heating time (90 mins) and long heat retention period with minimal wood consumption.

Most residential ovens weigh only 100kg to 200kg and lack proper insulation; this limits their use due to their poor heat retention and shorter lifespan. Many of our customers bought our ovens to replace cheaper and lighter ones.

Customers often ask if our commercial oven is better than the residential one. Commercial pizza ovens take longer to heat because they work seven days a week and consume more wood, leading to a higher operational cost. They are not what you need for a pizza party with friends and family - an oven that heats within 90 minutes and stays hot until the last guest leaves. 

  • 10 Pieces of Wood

    Our pizza ovens have been designed to be as efficient as possible. Thanks to their insulation and heat-retaining hearth materials, they use a few pieces of wood over time. Ovens that are very large or improperly insulated will burn through wood quickly.

  • Service

    We are more than happy to guide you through the process and answer your calls. We provide manuals and videos on how to put together a kit set. We also offer advice on transportation and installation of our ovens.

  • Customisation

    Explore a world of customisation with options to personalise the bricks in the archway and choose from various coloured paints to tailor your pizza oven to your unique preferences.

Interested in a Custom Pizza Oven? Reach out

About-us-kiwi-pizza-oven

Handmade wood-fired ovens in Christchurch

I am Pawel, and this is my wife, Monika. We are the owners, designers and builders of Kiwi Pizza Oven. 

Our journey started 12 years ago when I made my first pizza oven, inspired by the amazing pizza quality in Italy. Our dream led us to New Zealand, where we're dedicated to creating the best pizza oven for Kiwis to savour authentic Italian pizza at home with friends and family.

Crafting each pizza oven takes us an average of 100 hours. When you purchase a pizza oven from us, you will get a one-of-a-kind authentic Neapolitan wood-fired oven. 

We would love you to visit us in Christchurch and enjoy authentic wood-fired pizza with us at a pizza lunch. 

Pizza Lunch