Bakerstone Pizza Oven Box -Sale, End-of-Season


 
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Rita Y

TVWBB Emerald Member
Costco is/was only selling the Bakerstone pizza oven boxes in their stores on the West Coast. Here in Atlanta and elsewhere, Bed, Bath, & Beyond was selling them for $149. They now have them on a season-end clearance for $119 and you can use a 20%-off coupon on that in addition, so you can get it for $96. Stock is getting low, so call around if you are interested.

I've been reading reviews and they have generally been pretty positive. A few negative ones, some of which are from people who either didn't have all the information or might have misunderstood it. From what I gather (and it is mentioned in the FAQs on the Bakerstone website), the flavorizer bars on some (most?) Weber 3-burner grills (including Genesis) should be removed to get the full effect of the heat from the (clean) burners. A few reviewers mentioned that they did not remove the flavorizer bars and they were satisfied - heatup time might be a little longer.

Note that the assembled unit weighs 29 pounds (without the packing materials). I would keep in mind where you are going to park it when using the grill for the purpose for which it was intended.

Rita
 
Thanks Rita-

Do you have one? Like it?

I'm looking at the Baketstone Pizza Box or the Kettle Pizza for the Performer...can't decide which.
 
Mike, I did buy one yesterday, since the price was so good and I knew I could take it back if I had to. I put it together myself - not difficult, but the self-tapping screws in the last step were quite hard to get in. I had to use a lot of pressure.

I gave it one test drive with the flavorizer bars still inserted in my 2013 Genesis 3-burner. Ambient temperature was 86 degrees. After 40 minutes, it had not gotten to the "ready to cook" mark on the dial in the top of the unit and was quite a ways from it. I expected that result because I read on the website that the bars should be removed in 3-burner grills.

For the second test, I removed the flavorizer bars. Ambient temperature was 75 degrees. After 40 minutes, the dial was almost to the "ready to cook" mark on the dial and the center of the base stone registered 500 with my infrared thermometer, so it was almost ready to cook. It's a lot faster with larger grills. I can live with that---when I have a stone in my kitchen oven, I preheat it for 1 hour and it looks as if it might be close to that on my Genesis grill. At least it will keep the heat out of my kitchen. I had to turn off the grill at that point because I got stung by a wasp.

During a Google search, I read that a few people are lowering their grill lid to the top of the pizza oven to speed things up. The Bakerstone website does not sanction that due to excessive heat that might damage the rubber or coating on knobs and other parts of the grill. They do not mention anything about warping the firebox, but I wonder about that. If anyone has any thoughts on that possibility, please chime in.

I'll be doing another test this afternoon for timing purposes and I won't be able to bake any pizzas until mid-week.

UPDATE:
86°F, partly cloudy, oven in sun with the lid open. After 45 minutes the bottom stone temperature was 530°F; not hot enough. The indicator was only about 1/8 into the ready-to-cook zone.

At 45 minutes, it was about 1/4 into the ready-to-cook zone and the stone was reading 530°F. A light breeze came up and the temp went down a little.

At 1 hour 25 minutes, the needle and temp had stalled at about 534°F so I lowered the lid gently to rest on the top of the oven (a no-no at Bakerstone, but others have done it). The front of the grill was open about 5 or 6 inches. I waited 15 minutes and the needle was at the very maximum on the cooking zone so I overshot it a bit and should have turned down the heat earlier. My infrared (I just discovered) maxes at about 534°F, but I'll bet the stone was plenty hot.

So, if I can get away with it, lowering the lid earlier would be a good option to shorten the preheating period.

I'm going to discuss my results with Bakerstone after the Labor Day holiday. I'll ask if there is any new information about lowering the lid. I'll let you know.

Rita
 
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Thanks Rita! Great information. Hope it works out for you. I wonder what they consider to be in their "ready" zone in terms of temps.
 
Their FAQs state:
"Doing this (removing the flavorizer bars) should allow you to reach temperatures in at least the 600 F to 700 F range in 20 to 30 minutes, and cook pizza in an average of 3 to 5 minutes depending upon the style of pizza you're cooking, health of your grill (burners being in good condition), external temperatures, and wind conditions to name a few of the variables that are outside of our control. Also, on some of the older Weber Genesis models (and some other grills) the burners are so far below the cooking surface that it is difficult to generate enough heat into the Pizza Oven Box, so it can take longer to heat or may not be able to reach the desired temperatures."

I'm going to discuss this with the company, since my grill is less than 1 year old. They ask that a buyer not return the unit to the store but to call them first.

They are a pretty new company and it looks as if they are trying to correct any problems that might come up. It's too soon to give up and I'm all for giving them a chance.

I don't know why I always want to test things on a long holiday weekend when I can be sure that I won't be able to get hold of someone.

Rita
 
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Clint, so far in my journey, photos won't show as much as you'll see in the videos on their website. Scroll down the page about 2/3 of the way for 4 videos.

Some users' photos might come up in a Google search. I want to search again, now that I know a little more than I did when I first looked. If I see any good photos or threads I'll pass them on.

Rita
 
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