Roccbox by Gozney Pizza Oven Reviewed And Rated

Remember the scene in the movie “Gremlins” where Gizmo gets wet and little gremlins start popping out? Or in Disney’s marvelous animation “Fantasia” where the brooms keep multiplying to the tune of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice? Well that’s what’s happening in the pizza oven world.

Not too long ago if you wanted to bake a true Neapolitan pizza you had to build or buy a massive outdoor oven for thousands of dollars. Now there are at least 100 portable units, many under $600 on Amazon alone.

Gozney is one of the industry leaders with two attractive models at the time of this writing — the high end “Dome” model for about $2,000 (click here to see our review), and the Roccbox, for only $500. Both are designed for outdoor use only.

The Roccbox is a great machine and great value. I can kick out superb pies in less than 2 minutes and it can also be used to bake breads, and broil meats and vegetables beautifully.

Gas or wood? Your choice!

It has two burner attachments, one for propane (there is no natural gas converter at this time), and one for wood or charcoal. They both work great but the propane burner is my fave. In under 2 minutes, you really don’t get any extra flavor from burning wood or charcoal so why bother? And burning them is fussier with slower warmup and cool down, and ash disposal. With the propane burner you turn a dial and it fires up. In 30 minutes, the interior can be up to 900°F, although I prefer to cook in the 600 to 700°F range. Mine hits 700°F in 30 minutes on a 60°F+ day. Either burner is relatively easy to attach, but temperature control isn’t simple since ambient air temperature plays a role, not just in the temperature of the oven, but the air used for combustion. The ignition and temperature control dial is in the rear so you need to place the unit on a non-flammable surface at least 24 x 24-inches and where you can easily reach around back, or better still, see around back, especially if you are burning wood or charcoal.

Built from stainless steel with a cordierite “stone” on the floor, it is well insulated in order to keep heat inside the oven and prevent burns from touching the exterior. It comes fully assembled with a 5-year warranty.

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The flame enters the cooking chamber at the rear, which is parabolic and just like the big commercial pizza ovens, it rolls along the underside of the curved dome to broil the toppings from above while the stone cooks the dough from below. The overall dimensions are about 21-inches wide, 16.5-inches tall, and 19-inches long. It comes with a carrying case and the legs collapse to make it portable, though at 51 pounds, it’s not lightweight for moving around. If you want to take it to the beach or the tailgater, you can run it on smaller 1-pound propane tanks with an adapter.

There is no front door and frankly none is needed for cooking, but beware, it gets hot up front and I have seen flame lick out of the front opening. Don’t get too close when peering in. The opening is only 12-inches so your pies will need to be about 11-inches across. An 11-inch pie is enough for two in my house, but for a large family, a party, or a big hungry man, you will need to cook multiple pies. The cook will have to eat standing up.

Spin the pie

It comes with a metal peel, the large spatula used to hold the pie for insertion, but it is really too large to us to rotate the pie, and you must rotate the pie every 15 to 20 seconds while it is cooking or it will immolate the side closest to the flame. Rotating is a necessity on almost all small pizza ovens, but because this one is shallow the dough is very close to the flame so try to place the pie as close to the front as possible. I use a regular spatula to rotate them. Once the pie is inserted within 30 seconds the bottom stiffens enough to use the spatula to rotate.

There is a dial thermometer on the side inserted under the stone and although it is handy, changing the stone temp once it is heated takes forever. You can change the air temp by turning down the gas, but it doesn’t respond rapidly because it is so well insulated. I strongly recommend you purchase an infrared gun type thermometer to measure the stone.

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My biggest complaint is that the stone cannot be removed for cleaning. It is easy to get cheese or sauce on the stone and on my Ooni pizza ovens, I can remove the stone to scrape and clean it and get the dust off. On the Roccbox you need to let it burn off and then try to brush out the ash. For this reason I don’t recommend using cornmeal under your dough, a common trick to help prevent it from sticking to the peel. It can burn and afterwards it must be brushed off the stone. Also, because there is no door, remember to put a cover on it so rain doesn’t get inside onto the stone. But you have to wait for it to cool before covering it and cool down can be an hour or more. By then I have forgotten.

Reviews on Amazon are overwhelmingly positive. Most of the negative reviews come from people who don’t understand pizza. They complain that the dough sticks to the peel (not the fault of the oven; the fault of the cook), that it chars (a little char is desirable), that it burns a lot of fuel (doh!), that the first pie or two weren’t perfect (it takes practice), and that it is hard to regulate heat (that’s because it is so heavily insulated). There are also complaints about customer service.

Quick tips for great pizza

There are several tricky parts to making a pizza. We discuss these in more detail in our article on pizza. Here’s a video of the process on an Ooni oven https://youtu.be/mcYvSMpeTIs and here are some tips that might have helped the complainers:

1) Get the right dough recipe. This oven works best with a simple Neapolitan-style dough. Just flour, water, salt, and yeast. No oil (see the recipe here). They encourage burning at high temps. If you can, make it the day before and let it ferment in the fridge. Let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Keep your dough balls to about 1 pound each.

2) Mise en place. Get ALL your toppings prepared and lined up so you can build the pie quickly. Not too many toppings, and not too much sauce. Sauce is water and it cools the dough slowing it from cooking. Go easy. Too many toppings weigh the pie down and help it stick to the peel. Put any uncooked meats on top of the cheese so it will cook to a safe temperature.

3) Getting the pizza on the peel. You can build the pizza on the table and slide it onto the peel, or build it on the peel. I prefer the former because the longer the dough is on the peel the more it wants to stick.

4) Getting the pizza off the peel. The launch, getting the pie off the peel into the right position in the oven is tricky. The dough is wet and it wants to stick to the metal peel. I have a wooden peel and it sticks to that too.

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Start by cleaning the stone. Form the crust by turning it like a steering wheel, and let the dough relax a few minutes or it will shrink back. Use lots of flour on the table and your hands and build the pie quickly. Not too much sauce or too many toppings. Do not get sauce or oil on the peel. Slide the pie onto the well floured peel, leave one edge right at the front edge of the peel, and move quickly to the oven.

Your natural tendency will be to rapidly push and pull the peel. DON’T DO IT! The dough will come off in the front half of the oven and droop out the door, or worse, flip over on itself. Insert the peel all the way to the rear and position the front edge of the peel an inch or two from the flame. Then yank the peel rapidly towards yourself. The leading edge should come off the peel and stick to the stone and pull the rest of the pie off the stone. Then wait about 20 seconds and start rotating the pie. Make sure the pie is not stuck to the peel by jiggling it. If it is stuck, try lifting it and blowing air under it. DO NOT TRY TO LAUNCH A PIE THAT IS STUCK OR YOU WILL HAVE A CALZONE.

5) Temp control. Getting the temperature right so the top and bottom finish at the same time. The wetter the toppings, and the more of them, the longer the cook. This takes practice.

6) There will be char. A little blackening along the edges is normal. Not too much. Light “leopard spotting” on the bottom is desirable.

To broil meats and veggies, preheat a cast iron pan in the oven and cook in that. The flame overhead browns the food beautifully. In a hurry!

Packaging and assembly

The packaging was excellent! Assembling the unit couldn’t be more simple. Remove the main body and the gas burner unit from the box. Place the Roccbox on a flat surface, unfold the legs on the main body, and attach the burner using the bayonet fitting by simply twisting it counterclockwise. If you plan on cooking with gas, simply attach the unit’s regulator to a LP tank and you are ready to roll!

Conclusion

Overall, I was extremely pleased with the Roccbox, but am giving it a Gold medal due to a couple shortfalls — the overall size which limits the amount it can feed with a single pizza and the lack of ability to remove the stone for cleaning.

Warranty

The warranty is 1 year from the date of the original purchase, extended to 5 years if you register your purchase with Gozney. Products must be registered within 60 days of purchase to qualify for the extended warranty.

We thank Gozney for providing a Roccbox for this review.