The Solo Stove Pi Prime Pizza Oven Turned Me Into a Bonafide Pizzaiolo

When I career-changed into working in food a decade ago, I was thrown right into the deep end,  working on Bread Illustrated for America’s Test Kitchen. I was an enthusiastic baker at the time, but hadn’t dabbled too much in bread, which always seemed intimidating and complicated. By working my way through recipe development for that book over many months, I learned so much about how doughs work and how to bake beautiful loaves at home. I became a confident bread baker, and bread recipes remain some of my favorite assignments to develop today.

Which is all to say: I’m no stranger to making pizzas, which is an extension of bread-baking. I’ve made lots of pies over the years, whether slapped onto my baking stone or shaped in a sheet pan, with all sorts of homemade doughs. But, to date, every pie I’d made was in the safety of the great indoors. When the editors at Serious Eats asked me to review the new outdoor Solo Stove Pi Prime pizza oven, I was excited to try it, but felt like I was right back in my beginner days. I was worried there would be a steep learning curve to this new setup and had visions of lots of misshapen, incinerated pizzas coming out of it (not to mention the nonzero chance I might burn my house down). But I picked up a tank of propane, stocked up on mozzarella, and got to work putting the oven through its paces.

The Tests 

• Speed Test: I set the pizza oven to its highest heat setting and started a timer. I used an infrared thermometer to take the temperature of the pizza stone, aiming it at the right side, center, and left side of the stone, and recorded the temperature every five minutes until it reached above 800°F.
• Neapolitan Pizza Test: I heated the oven to 800°F and prepared Neapolitan-style pizzas. I launched the pizzas into the oven, used a turner peel to rotate them, and noted how long the cooking process took. I evaluated how easy it was to throw and turn the pizzas, how the crust rose, and what its texture was like after cooking. I also peeked underneath to see if there were the desired black splotches (leopard spots) associated with this style of pizza.
• Use Test: Throughout testing, I noted how easy the oven was to set up, use, and clean. I also evaluated the included cover and how well it protected the oven from the elements.

What We Learned 

Setup Was a Snap

I was expecting a complicated assembly process to get the Pi Prime set up to use, but was delighted to find that all I had to do was take it out of the box and slip the two semicircular baking stones inside to form the cooking surface—that was it! After placing it on a noncombustible surface (I used a metal patio table) and attaching the hose to a propane tank, it lit up right away: I just turned the control knob until it clicked and whoosh, I was in business. Per the manual, I let it run for 30 minutes on high to burn off any residual factory coatings before using it to cook.

It Took a Bit to Get Up to Temperature

Though the marketing materials for the Pi Prime claimed it can preheat in just 15 minutes on high, I found it took much longer than that for the stone to reach temperatures above 800°F (our recommended target for making Neapolitan-style pizzas in outdoor ovens). I used an infrared thermometer to take the temperature of the pizza stone every five minutes as the oven preheated, recording the temperature in the left, right, and center parts of the stone. 

I found the center of the stone heated the quickest, with the right side usually about 10 to 15 degrees below it. But the left side of the stone was consistently cooler and generally lagged 25 to 30 degrees behind the center temperature. Though the center and right sides reached 810°F at the 40-minute mark, the left side needed another five minutes to reach 805°F. This is three times longer than the promised 15 minutes, but wasn’t a deal-breaker. I happened to be testing on a very chilly, windy day, so 40 to 45 minutes for a preheat still felt reasonable to me, if a tad on the long side compared to other outdoor pizza ovens.

Once it reached temperature, however, I found the oven maintained it very well and recovered quickly between cooking. Though the Pi Prime instructions recommended turning the dial to the orange marks for cooking after preheating, I found that setting it a bit below that kept the oven closer to 800°F.

It Made Excellent Pizzas Quickly

I was nervous about launching my pizzas and getting them to cook properly, especially for my first-ever attempts using an outdoor oven. Thankfully, my friend and colleague Andrew Janjigian—a renowned bread master—wrote an excellent guide to making pizza in an outdoor oven and developed a pizza dough recipe specially formulated for that use. After studying up on tips and tricks and letting my dough ferment for a couple of days in the fridge, I invited some (non-judgmental) neighbors over and made my first attempt.

I was utterly amazed by how easy it was to make beautiful pizzas in the Pi Prime, even without any prior experience. After sprinkling my pizza peel with a combination of rice flour and all-purpose flour and making sure to top my pizza quickly to prevent sticking, I whispered a little prayer and launched my first pie into the blistering hot oven. The 13-inch panoramic opening of the oven was easy to fit my 12-inch peel into, and the 3.5-inch height offered plenty of space to accommodate the pizza. The crust started puffing and bubbling right away, and there was plenty of room for me to use the Pi Stainless Pizza Turner to turn the pizza regularly as it cooked. Just two minutes and ten seconds later, I pulled out a gorgeous, bubbling pizza with a beautifully puffed crust full of signature charred black splotches (known as “leopard spots”), the hallmark of a classic Neapolitan pizza.

Honestly, I was stunned—I had expected half-cooked, amoeba-shaped blobs at best and incinerated piles of dough and cheese to scrape out of the oven at worst, and instead I was able to confidently sling pie after beautiful pie in this oven. The crusts were crisp on the outside and airy, chewy, and fully cooked inside, the cheeses were bubbling and browned, and the toppings blistered and charred but not burnt. On that first pizza night and others that followed, my dinner guests couldn’t believe these were the pizzas of a relative novice.

It’s Well-Designed and Easy to Maintain

The design of the Pi Prime is simple but very effective. It’s so well insulated that the table below it was just warm, even while it was ripping hot inside the oven. That excellent heat retention meant I could launch my next pizza mere moments after the previous one came out. It also cooled down relatively quickly after I turned it off, and I could throw the included cover on it without fear after 30 to 60 minutes. And about that cover: As soon as I set up the oven for testing, it proceeded to absolutely pour rain here for days. I was worried I might ruin the oven before I even had a chance to cook with it as it sat outside in the elements, but the cover performed like a champ, keeping everything inside perfectly dry.

As for cleaning, I liked that the pizza stone is composed of two halves, making it easy to pop them out to clean them and the oven after use. I simply brushed off any crumbs and residual flour from the stones and gave them a quick swipe with a damp towel (you should never submerge the porous stones in water) and did the same for the interior, making sure everything was well dried before using the oven again. It was quick and easy to do, and the stainless steel exterior is easy to clean with some Bar Keepers Friend if it gets dirty or sooty.

The Verdict

Solo Stove Pi Prime Pizza Oven

$450 at Amazon View on Walmart View on Home Depot

The Solo Stove Pi Prime is an easy-to-use gas-powered outdoor pizza oven, especially for beginners. It produced beautiful pizzas that cooked in about two minutes, with bubbly, charred crusts that were well-cooked and delicious to eat. Its compact size means you can only make smaller 12-inch pizzas, but this also makes the oven portable and easy to store. If you’re a serious outdoor pizzaiolo and want an oven with a larger capacity that heats up and cooks pies faster, you may want to consider an upgraded option, but the Pi Prime is a solid, relatively affordable choice that’s super easy to use.

The Pros

The Solo Stove Pi Prime is powered by propane, which is easy to source and to hook up. There’s no messing with wood or pellets here—just twist open the tank and you’re ready to go. It has one simple dial for lighting the oven and setting its temperature, which is clear and easy to use. It’s compact and only weighs 30 pounds, so it’s easy to transport and set up. Its panoramic opening is wide enough to launch 12-inch pizzas and makes it easy to see inside and monitor the pie’s progress as it cooks. It retains heat very well and produces leopard-spotted pizzas in about two minutes. It’s simple, sleek, and very easy to use, even for beginners.

The Cons

In my testing, it took over 40 minutes for this oven to reach temperatures above 800°F, so you’ll need to build in some time to your schedule to accommodate this step before you get cooking. The small size of the oven also means you can only make smaller 10- or 12-inch pizzas in it, not large pies to serve a crowd. You’ll also need to make sure your pizza peel is less than 13 inches across to ensure it will fit into the oven’s opening so you can successfully launch your pizzas.

Key Specs

• Weight: 30 pounds 
• Materials: Stainless steel exterior, rolled steel interior, cordierite pizza stones
• External dimensions: 15.5 inches x 20.5 inches 
• Opening length: 13 inches 
• Opening height: 3.5 inches 
• Stone dimensions: 13 x 8.5 inches each; total cooking surface of 13 x 17 inches
• Cleaning: For the exterior, use standard stainless steel cleaners, wiping in the direction of the grain. For the interior, remove the pizza stones and use a damp towel to wipe down the interior surfaces (do not use chemical cleaners). For the pizza stones, use a brush to scrape away debris, then use a damp towel to finish cleaning. Do not submerge the stones in water. Dry immediately and completely before using.
• Warranty: Lifetime

FAQs

What kind of fuel does the Pi Prime use?

The Pi Prime operates exclusively on propane gas. The website claims that a standard 20-pound tank of propane will last for 20 hours when the oven is set to high.

What temperatures does the Pi Prime reach?

The manufacturer claims the Pi Prime can reach temperatures above 950°F. At Serious Eats, we’ve had the best results with Neapolitan-style pizzas cooked in outdoor pizza ovens at temperatures around 800°F, which the Pi Prime was able to reach in about 40 minutes.

Where should I set up my Pi Prime pizza oven for safety?

Place the Pi Prime on a level, stable, noncombustible surface, like a cast iron patio table or on top of brick or concrete pavers. Make sure the oven is set up at least three feet away from any walls or combustible materials and that the propane tank is at least 12 inches away from the rear of the pizza oven.

Why We’re the Experts 

• Afton Cyrus is a food blogger, recipe developer, and food editor with a passion for baking and bread. 
• She spent eight years as a test cook and editor at America’s Test Kitchen before becoming a contributor to Serious Eats in 2023.
• Her recipes and food writing appear online for Serious Eats, King Arthur Baking Company, Simply Recipes, and other outlets, and in print in award-winning and New York Times-bestselling cookbooks for America’s Test Kitchen and Ten Speed Press.
• For this review, Afton made a slew of Neapolitan-style pizzas to test the oven’s usability and performance, and recorded the oven’s temperature with an infrared thermometer.
• Afton has learned from the best how to execute rigorous and objective equipment testing protocols. You can see her meticulous approach to product testing in action in her reviews of dish soap, coffee canisters, hand mixers, liquid measuring cups, fondue pots, and pressure canners.