5.0 out of 5 stars It does meet the 800F spec if the measurement is understood correctly. During the burn-in process I thought I’d check the stone temperature with my IR gun and found that it only reached 660 F when it was set at 800 F, even after 50 minutes. So I thought I’d characterize the stone temp across the range of temperature settings. The attached plot shows the average final stone temperatures versus the set temperatures (taken 1 inch from the front edge of the stone). As you can see the final stone temperatures are always lower than the set temperatures and the difference gets larger the higher the temperature setting. The final 800 F temperature setting only reaches 660 F, or 140 F lower that the set temperature. The final temperatures vary by +/- 10 F around the average which is actually quite good.I’ve submitted a support request so I’ll see what they say and post an update.Update (7/16/25):Here is Chefman’s response to my inquiry:***”The unit is designed and advertised to reach a maximum of 800 F in the internal cooking cavity. The stone is not expected to reach 800 F. The unit has internal sensors which gauge the temperature in the cooking cavity, but the sensors are again not on the stone. Additionally, when opening the door the heat goes out and cold air comes in and the resulting temperature reading is not accurate. The overall cooking environment does change when the door is closed. The unit appears to be operating as expected. We will keep this information on file in the even there is and issue and you need our assistance.”***I found no place in the cooking cavity that came close to 800 F and the few seconds it takes to measure hardly affects the temperature of anything with thermal mass. The best I ever saw after preheat times in excess of 30 minutes was 700F near the stone’s center.Note the wording on the 800 F spec, “up to 800°F temperature settings”. So you can SET temperatures up to 800 F, but the stone will never reach that temperature. That just indicates that their temperature sensor, which is 1/2″ below the center of the stone for the lower temp reading, gets to 800F, or at least that’s what they claim, though you can’t ever measure it.Update: 7/19/25I did a little more digging and found a video on Youtube by ilFornino in NY showing how to measure the temperature of a pizza oven with an IR gun. Surprising to me, he states that the temperature of the pizza oven is 100 F above the highest measured stone reading. If that is correct, then their stated internal temperature is correct at 800F, you just can’t measure it directly.One more observation, I found that the oven did not cook the pizzas uniformly but that you do have to rotate them to get an even bake. The first pizza I baked is shown in the photo and was not rotated. You can see that one side is burned while the other is just finished. The burned side was near the back of the oven. I have subsequently made a few more pizzas, rotating them periodically, and they have come out beautifully. I have also seen this observation made on some Youtube videos of reviews of this oven.I’m overall quite happy with this oven and hope to improve my bakes as I ascend the learning curve.Variation: Size: 12 inchesColor: Stainless Steel
LegoDude
on Nov 13, 2025
★★★★★
EXCELLENT 👍
5.0 out of 5 stars Works pretty well but is loud Even as a kid in the 70’s I’d make my own dough, toss sauce and cheese and whatever on it, put it in a cookie sheet, and bake pizzas at 425. I’m still not sure if this is making as much of an impact or not other than a shorter cooking time, but I do like the simplicity of this versus a full sized oven.The dough I’m using recommends 10 minutes at 550 degrees, so it takes the oven about 9 minutes to come to temp, which gives me plenty of time to take my already proofed dough, shape it, top it and be ready for the oven.Biggest pain is dusting the peel enough so that the dough doesn’t stick to it when I try to get it in the oven. At least so far I’ve managed to not lose toppings in the process, and so far I’ve broken no dough trying to get it in there.It’s noisy. That’s a bit of an annoyance. But I knew from other reviews before I got it that it would be. And it’s not difficult to toss the pizza in then go in another room for a while.The controls seem to work fine, it gives me all the information I need to know, such as preheating, when it comes to temp, and cooling down afterwards. I’m surprised that it isn’t outputting more heat during use. I have it tucked under a cabinet that overhangs the back half of this when it’s in use, and I have very little heat out of the top of it, and not much off the sides or back as well. Of course, so far I’m only doing dough recipes that call for 550 so once I find something else that calls for higher temps, then that will be the real test.I can say I’m glad I got it though. There’s just something SATISFYING of using a peel to toss a raw pizza into an oven compared to just sticking a frozen pizza in my toaster oven.Still working through recipes though so not sure what I’ll end up on. This weekend I’ll be doing yet another recipe with all my 00 flour I have for testing…Got mine on sale, and if you manage to get this on sale, it’s definitely worth it.Variation: Size: 12 inchesColor: Stainless Steel
Amazon Customer
on Feb 22, 2026
★★★★★
EXCELLENT 👍
5.0 out of 5 stars It's a Really Great Machine, but Only If You're Competent Enough to Use It Properly! OK. so I’ve given this product FIVE STARS, but realize I’m doing so with the very stern proviso that, unless you’re the sort who’s really going to put the effort into learning how to properly prepare and bake a solidly good pizza, this is not the sort of machine that’s going to work out well for you because there’s definitely a steep learning curve involved and hopeless slackers aren’t going to be very happy with whatever they can manage to wring out of it; however, if you’re willing to put some time into studying the various elements involved in the process and possess the necessary amount of cookery skills and dexterity to create a good working dough, shape it into something resembling a circle, top it with the proper proportion of ingredients and eventually work out how to get the pizza in and out of the oven without making a big flaming mess out of it all, then I think you’ll be just as happy with the results as I was. Here are some notes you might find useful if you’re going for a New York style pizza:1) I followed the Basic Dough recipe as given in the cooking guide and used an inexpensive Bread Machine to prepare it, but made sure to WEIGH OUT the Flour, which was good quality “00” Pizza Flour – you can get away with using cups and spoons to measure out the other ingredients, but weighing out the flour is the best way to achieve excellent results. I sprinkled a little Semolina Flour onto the paddle before putting the dough on top of it and made sure the completed pizza was capable of easily sliding off the paddle and onto the stone by giving it a little shake beforehand;2) I used good quality crushed San Marzano tomatoes to make the sauce, mixing them up with a just a few pinches of salt, sugar, pepper, oregano, olive oil, tomato paste in a tube and garlic powder (if you don’t want to go through the hassle, I find Don Pepino’s to be the best prepared sauce, but you’ll often get dented cans which is why I decided to go this route instead);3) I used good quality Full Fat Mozzarella (low moisture works best if you can get it because it’s easier to grate) and some decent Parmesan for the cheeses, plain ol’ Hormel Turkey Pepperoni and some sliced mushrooms I’d previously sauteed in a bit of olive oil with a little salt, pepper and garlic powder;4) The pizza took only a little over the recommended Six Minutes at the pre-set temperature with a 180 degree turn of the pizza halfway through the cooking time (they do tell you to do this in the manual for even browning, and it can be accomplished by partially pulling the pizza out on the paddle and turning it with a pair of tongs).The results were, to say the least, astonishingly good – better, really, than many other pizzas I’ve had elsewhere, even in New York!So, if you’re not the type to be daunted by the many challenges trying to use a machine like this necessarily imposes, I think you’ll be very satisfied with the quality of the product you can eventually turn out. It may not be as good as the finest wood-burning ovens out there and it may not turn out the sort of top-notch Neapolitan a pizza snob might demand, but damn if it doesn’t make a truly excellent New York pizza all the same! And if you check out some of the videos regarding its usage on YouTube, you’ll get a pretty good idea of what you can expect in attempting to master it yourself. Good luck, then, and Bon Appetit!As for the product’s durability, I can’t really speak since I’ve only had it a short time, but if I can get even a year’s use out of it, I’ll consider it a good purchase. If anything happens in the meantime, though, I’ll be updating this review accordingly.Variation: Size: 12 inchesColor: Stainless Steel
museken
on Mar 13, 2026
★★★★★
EXCELLENT 👍
5.0 out of 5 stars Dude, like excellent! Totally! This is a great purchase. My experience is this, I make pizza dough, ummm… I make pizza sauce…ummm…I like pizza.I saw a Ooni volt 2 which was $699.99 in action just incredible and expensive. So I research other pizza ovens and was surprised there where others out there. I settled on purchasing the Chefman because of Youtube videos and price. My price was $199 bucks. When I saw that this could go as high as $400 it was a no brainer. Lets go.1. The Chefman comes with it own peel, a good one.2. The packaging was excellent3. The Chefman is built really good and has a cooking stone.4. The ease of use is great it has preset for Neapolitan ,New York and thin style pizza just set and forget and has a manual function. I use the manual the most.5. Once the unit heats up about 18 minutes it will cook every pizza you put inside in about 4 minutes. Then you wait about 2 minutes to reheat and make more.6. The Chefman will make only up to 12 inch pizzas7. You can use it for other things Cookies, Bread, use your imagination just make sure you use a pan when cooking those.8. This is very important, make sure you put it in a ventilated area. Why? This unit heats up to 800 degrees if you get a hole, in your dough that gets on your pizza stone and you get cheese or sauce on the stone you got smoke a lot of it. This happened the first time I tried to put the pizza in the oven with the peel. I, Me, a MORON, did not check good enough if the pizza on the peel was sticking to it. When I went to put the pizza in the oven the sauce went,the cheese went, the pepperoni went, but the pizza dough did’nt. Let me tell you there was smoke, and I don’t know if you ever tried to pull a heavy 800 degree pizza stone out of an oven and get it outside before someone calls the fire department but it wasn’t fun. So cleaning the stone was not fun. That said I got it clean. This is a true story.9. Make sure your pizza slides around on the peel before you put it in.10. Once I, or you, got that down The Chefmans makes unbelievable pizza11. Don’t think your just gonna make a dough, throw cheese on it, pop it in and wola! PIZZA,Easy breezy its not.This thing works but You have to put the time in. Before you buy this you have to learn.12.The Chefman works as good as any pizza oven out there, with the price of pizza going up everywhere, you can save money by making your own if your willing to put the time in.This is what I was looking for, this works, and don’t listen to all the talk about the top light not coming on and stuff. I use the manual and the only drawback is you wait a little after the first pizza done to cook a second one.I love it and if you know what your doing this thing kicks serious butt. If you could get it for $199 my opinion its a steal. When I was considering shelling out the money for the Ooni volt 2 seriously, I’m glad, I didn’t. So go make some pizza.Variation: Size: 12 inchesColor: Stainless Steel
Justin
on Sep 15, 2026
★★★★★
EXCELLENT 👍
5.0 out of 5 stars Love it For $200 this thing is awesome. Very good quality, cooks evenly, heats up relatively quickly. Compared to my outside Ooni this is so much easier and seems to cook just as well. Would easily recommend.Variation: Size: 12 inchesColor: Stainless Steel
5.0 out of 5 stars It does meet the 800F spec if the measurement is understood correctly. During the burn-in process I thought I’d check the stone temperature with my IR gun and found that it only reached 660 F when it was set at 800 F, even after 50 minutes. So I thought I’d characterize the stone temp across the range of temperature settings. The attached plot shows the average final stone temperatures versus the set temperatures (taken 1 inch from the front edge of the stone). As you can see the final stone temperatures are always lower than the set temperatures and the difference gets larger the higher the temperature setting. The final 800 F temperature setting only reaches 660 F, or 140 F lower that the set temperature. The final temperatures vary by +/- 10 F around the average which is actually quite good.I’ve submitted a support request so I’ll see what they say and post an update.Update (7/16/25):Here is Chefman’s response to my inquiry:***”The unit is designed and advertised to reach a maximum of 800 F in the internal cooking cavity. The stone is not expected to reach 800 F. The unit has internal sensors which gauge the temperature in the cooking cavity, but the sensors are again not on the stone. Additionally, when opening the door the heat goes out and cold air comes in and the resulting temperature reading is not accurate. The overall cooking environment does change when the door is closed. The unit appears to be operating as expected. We will keep this information on file in the even there is and issue and you need our assistance.”***I found no place in the cooking cavity that came close to 800 F and the few seconds it takes to measure hardly affects the temperature of anything with thermal mass. The best I ever saw after preheat times in excess of 30 minutes was 700F near the stone’s center.Note the wording on the 800 F spec, “up to 800°F temperature settings”. So you can SET temperatures up to 800 F, but the stone will never reach that temperature. That just indicates that their temperature sensor, which is 1/2″ below the center of the stone for the lower temp reading, gets to 800F, or at least that’s what they claim, though you can’t ever measure it.Update: 7/19/25I did a little more digging and found a video on Youtube by ilFornino in NY showing how to measure the temperature of a pizza oven with an IR gun. Surprising to me, he states that the temperature of the pizza oven is 100 F above the highest measured stone reading. If that is correct, then their stated internal temperature is correct at 800F, you just can’t measure it directly.One more observation, I found that the oven did not cook the pizzas uniformly but that you do have to rotate them to get an even bake. The first pizza I baked is shown in the photo and was not rotated. You can see that one side is burned while the other is just finished. The burned side was near the back of the oven. I have subsequently made a few more pizzas, rotating them periodically, and they have come out beautifully. I have also seen this observation made on some Youtube videos of reviews of this oven.I’m overall quite happy with this oven and hope to improve my bakes as I ascend the learning curve.Variation: Size: 12 inchesColor: Stainless Steel
5.0 out of 5 stars Works pretty well but is loud Even as a kid in the 70’s I’d make my own dough, toss sauce and cheese and whatever on it, put it in a cookie sheet, and bake pizzas at 425. I’m still not sure if this is making as much of an impact or not other than a shorter cooking time, but I do like the simplicity of this versus a full sized oven.The dough I’m using recommends 10 minutes at 550 degrees, so it takes the oven about 9 minutes to come to temp, which gives me plenty of time to take my already proofed dough, shape it, top it and be ready for the oven.Biggest pain is dusting the peel enough so that the dough doesn’t stick to it when I try to get it in the oven. At least so far I’ve managed to not lose toppings in the process, and so far I’ve broken no dough trying to get it in there.It’s noisy. That’s a bit of an annoyance. But I knew from other reviews before I got it that it would be. And it’s not difficult to toss the pizza in then go in another room for a while.The controls seem to work fine, it gives me all the information I need to know, such as preheating, when it comes to temp, and cooling down afterwards. I’m surprised that it isn’t outputting more heat during use. I have it tucked under a cabinet that overhangs the back half of this when it’s in use, and I have very little heat out of the top of it, and not much off the sides or back as well. Of course, so far I’m only doing dough recipes that call for 550 so once I find something else that calls for higher temps, then that will be the real test.I can say I’m glad I got it though. There’s just something SATISFYING of using a peel to toss a raw pizza into an oven compared to just sticking a frozen pizza in my toaster oven.Still working through recipes though so not sure what I’ll end up on. This weekend I’ll be doing yet another recipe with all my 00 flour I have for testing…Got mine on sale, and if you manage to get this on sale, it’s definitely worth it.Variation: Size: 12 inchesColor: Stainless Steel
5.0 out of 5 stars It's a Really Great Machine, but Only If You're Competent Enough to Use It Properly! OK. so I’ve given this product FIVE STARS, but realize I’m doing so with the very stern proviso that, unless you’re the sort who’s really going to put the effort into learning how to properly prepare and bake a solidly good pizza, this is not the sort of machine that’s going to work out well for you because there’s definitely a steep learning curve involved and hopeless slackers aren’t going to be very happy with whatever they can manage to wring out of it; however, if you’re willing to put some time into studying the various elements involved in the process and possess the necessary amount of cookery skills and dexterity to create a good working dough, shape it into something resembling a circle, top it with the proper proportion of ingredients and eventually work out how to get the pizza in and out of the oven without making a big flaming mess out of it all, then I think you’ll be just as happy with the results as I was. Here are some notes you might find useful if you’re going for a New York style pizza:1) I followed the Basic Dough recipe as given in the cooking guide and used an inexpensive Bread Machine to prepare it, but made sure to WEIGH OUT the Flour, which was good quality “00” Pizza Flour – you can get away with using cups and spoons to measure out the other ingredients, but weighing out the flour is the best way to achieve excellent results. I sprinkled a little Semolina Flour onto the paddle before putting the dough on top of it and made sure the completed pizza was capable of easily sliding off the paddle and onto the stone by giving it a little shake beforehand;2) I used good quality crushed San Marzano tomatoes to make the sauce, mixing them up with a just a few pinches of salt, sugar, pepper, oregano, olive oil, tomato paste in a tube and garlic powder (if you don’t want to go through the hassle, I find Don Pepino’s to be the best prepared sauce, but you’ll often get dented cans which is why I decided to go this route instead);3) I used good quality Full Fat Mozzarella (low moisture works best if you can get it because it’s easier to grate) and some decent Parmesan for the cheeses, plain ol’ Hormel Turkey Pepperoni and some sliced mushrooms I’d previously sauteed in a bit of olive oil with a little salt, pepper and garlic powder;4) The pizza took only a little over the recommended Six Minutes at the pre-set temperature with a 180 degree turn of the pizza halfway through the cooking time (they do tell you to do this in the manual for even browning, and it can be accomplished by partially pulling the pizza out on the paddle and turning it with a pair of tongs).The results were, to say the least, astonishingly good – better, really, than many other pizzas I’ve had elsewhere, even in New York!So, if you’re not the type to be daunted by the many challenges trying to use a machine like this necessarily imposes, I think you’ll be very satisfied with the quality of the product you can eventually turn out. It may not be as good as the finest wood-burning ovens out there and it may not turn out the sort of top-notch Neapolitan a pizza snob might demand, but damn if it doesn’t make a truly excellent New York pizza all the same! And if you check out some of the videos regarding its usage on YouTube, you’ll get a pretty good idea of what you can expect in attempting to master it yourself. Good luck, then, and Bon Appetit!As for the product’s durability, I can’t really speak since I’ve only had it a short time, but if I can get even a year’s use out of it, I’ll consider it a good purchase. If anything happens in the meantime, though, I’ll be updating this review accordingly.Variation: Size: 12 inchesColor: Stainless Steel
5.0 out of 5 stars Dude, like excellent! Totally! This is a great purchase. My experience is this, I make pizza dough, ummm… I make pizza sauce…ummm…I like pizza.I saw a Ooni volt 2 which was $699.99 in action just incredible and expensive. So I research other pizza ovens and was surprised there where others out there. I settled on purchasing the Chefman because of Youtube videos and price. My price was $199 bucks. When I saw that this could go as high as $400 it was a no brainer. Lets go.1. The Chefman comes with it own peel, a good one.2. The packaging was excellent3. The Chefman is built really good and has a cooking stone.4. The ease of use is great it has preset for Neapolitan ,New York and thin style pizza just set and forget and has a manual function. I use the manual the most.5. Once the unit heats up about 18 minutes it will cook every pizza you put inside in about 4 minutes. Then you wait about 2 minutes to reheat and make more.6. The Chefman will make only up to 12 inch pizzas7. You can use it for other things Cookies, Bread, use your imagination just make sure you use a pan when cooking those.8. This is very important, make sure you put it in a ventilated area. Why? This unit heats up to 800 degrees if you get a hole, in your dough that gets on your pizza stone and you get cheese or sauce on the stone you got smoke a lot of it. This happened the first time I tried to put the pizza in the oven with the peel. I, Me, a MORON, did not check good enough if the pizza on the peel was sticking to it. When I went to put the pizza in the oven the sauce went,the cheese went, the pepperoni went, but the pizza dough did’nt. Let me tell you there was smoke, and I don’t know if you ever tried to pull a heavy 800 degree pizza stone out of an oven and get it outside before someone calls the fire department but it wasn’t fun. So cleaning the stone was not fun. That said I got it clean. This is a true story.9. Make sure your pizza slides around on the peel before you put it in.10. Once I, or you, got that down The Chefmans makes unbelievable pizza11. Don’t think your just gonna make a dough, throw cheese on it, pop it in and wola! PIZZA,Easy breezy its not.This thing works but You have to put the time in. Before you buy this you have to learn.12.The Chefman works as good as any pizza oven out there, with the price of pizza going up everywhere, you can save money by making your own if your willing to put the time in.This is what I was looking for, this works, and don’t listen to all the talk about the top light not coming on and stuff. I use the manual and the only drawback is you wait a little after the first pizza done to cook a second one.I love it and if you know what your doing this thing kicks serious butt. If you could get it for $199 my opinion its a steal. When I was considering shelling out the money for the Ooni volt 2 seriously, I’m glad, I didn’t. So go make some pizza.Variation: Size: 12 inchesColor: Stainless Steel
5.0 out of 5 stars Love it For $200 this thing is awesome. Very good quality, cooks evenly, heats up relatively quickly. Compared to my outside Ooni this is so much easier and seems to cook just as well. Would easily recommend.Variation: Size: 12 inchesColor: Stainless Steel