Ooni Karu vs Ooni Pro Pizza Oven Review and Comparison [2023]

This is my Ooni Karu vs Ooni Pro review, two of Ooni‘s multi-fuel pizza ovens. Both run on real wood, charcoal, and gas (attachment needed) and reach the amazingly high temperatures you need for proper pizza baking.

The Ooni Karu pizza oven is the smaller of the two ovens. It’s best for portability, weighing only 26.5 lbs. The Ooni Pro oven is the perfect heavy-duty backyard pizza oven for family pizza nights.

Both come with a 3-year guarantee if you register your oven with Ooni, and they’re shipped free to mainland USA.

Ooni Pro Comparison

I’ve created a comparison table of the two pizza ovens. Tables make it easy to see the features of each Ooni pizza oven, their size, the types of fuel you can use with them, etc.

Here’s my Ooni Karu pizza oven vs Ooni Pro pizza oven comparison:

Ooni Pro Differences

Let’s look at the differences in Ooni Karu vs Ooni Pro first to determine which pizza oven suits us best.

The price difference between the Ooni Karu and the Ooni Pro is rather big.

• The Karu oven sets you back around $329.
• The Pro oven will cost you around $600.

That’s nearly double the price. Let’s look at each pizza oven’s features to see if we can figure out why.

Ooni Pro Pizza Oven Review

The video below explains the features of the Ooni Pro oven very well.

The Ooni Pro is incredibly versatile. You can cook on real wood, charcoal, and on gas with the gas attachment. You can run it at a wide range of temperatures because of the two vents.

The Pro oven has a chimney vent and a ceiling vent. Closing the ceiling vent allows the heat and smoke to billow around the front of the oven, before going out via the side channels and the open chimney.

This allows you to cook at slower, lower temperatures. For high-temperature pizza cooking, keep both vents open for maximum heat.

You can cook a vast range of dishes in the Ooni Pro oven. It has a bigger cooking surface than the Ooni Karu oven. You can cook 16″ pizzas in the Pro and 13″ pizzas in the Karu.

The Pro actually fits 2 of Ooni’s cast iron sizzle pans in it, so you can bake bread and vegetables at the same time.

The temperatures you can reach in the Pro are incredibly high. It goes up to 932F, twice as hot as a standard oven.

It has a high-grade stainless steel body with thick insulation, so you’re keeping the heat in. The chimney draws flames and heat forward and right through the oven, so you get even heat distribution.

• Check out the Ooni pizza oven bundles before you buy an oven. You can get bundles with gas attachments and peels for a great price!

The Ooni Pro is easy to transport as well.

Although it’s almost twice the weight of the Ooni Karu (Pro is 48.5 lbs and Karu 26.5 lbs), you can take the chimney off with the quick-release clip and fold the legs up. Remove the baking boards first to make it a bit lighter and easier to move or store.

Get the free Ooni pizza cooking book, “Cooking with Fire”!

Click on the image below and scroll down the page 🙂

Ooni Karu Pizza Oven Review

Let’s look at the Ooni Karu now to see if the Pro is worth an extra $300! Another video so you can see the features in “real life”:

The Ooni Karu oven is the ultimate pizza oven for portability and versatility.

You can still cook with real wood, charcoal, or gas (with the attachment), but this oven is half the weight of the Ooni Pro oven, at 26.5 lbs. That’s light enough to put in the back of the car, take camping, take it to a friend’s house, or take it with you in an RV.

Don’t miss these Ooni pizza oven reviews:

• Ooni Fyra oven vs Ooni Karu pizza oven
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• Ooni Koda 16 Oven vs Ooni Pro Pizza Oven

It still reaches exceptionally high temperatures, just like the Pro. The Karu also has a chimney vent to adjust the airflow and temperature inside the oven. It’s self-cleaning due to the high temperatures it reaches, but this is precisely the same as the Pro.

You still get that authentic wood-fired pizza flavor, and it heats up quicker than the Pro by five minutes. That’s not a lot, but every minute counts when you have hungry kids.

Pizzas aren’t the only thing you can cook in the Karu. You can use the cast iron sizzle pans in it, too, for meat, fish, nachos, wings, and vegetable dishes.

The Karu pizza oven does have a smaller cooking surface, so a 13″ pizza is the max you can cook inside. It comes with the same high-quality cordierite baking boards. A Neapolitan pizza takes 60 seconds in either pizza oven, so there’s no difference in speed.

The price difference seems to come from the construction mainly. The Pro is twice the weight, and that weight has to come from somewhere. It’d be safe to assume the extra weight comes from the quality of the construction materials and their strength.

• The Karu oven is a fantastic choice if you want portability.
• If you want a pizza oven for your backyard and you’re going to cook for hours on end, go for the Pro oven.

Which Pizza Oven Is Better – Ooni Karu or Pro?

• If you’re looking for ultimate portability with the versatility of cooking on wood, charcoal, or gas, the Karu oven is your pizza oven. You can’t beat the weight of this pizza oven, weighing only 26.5 lbs. With the removable chimney and foldable legs, it fits anywhere. In the back of the car, in your RV, or stored in the shed over winter.
• Go for the Pro oven for a more heavy-duty backyard family pizza oven. You can’t beat the extra space for cooking more stuff simultaneously and bigger 16″ pizzas. If you want to park it in the backyard for family pizza night or flame-grilled steak, this is your go-to.

Which Ooni pizza oven will you choose?

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