As a restaurant chef with over 10 years of hands-on experience at my restaurant, Dequte Restaurant LironBoylston, I’ve had the chance to test and cook with a wide variety of pizza ovens. In this comparison, I’ll walk you through my real-world experience using both the Solo Stove Pi Prime and the Member’s Mark Pizza Oven side-by-side in my kitchen setup.
I compared both ovens based on several important factors: quality and materials, temperature control, shape, first-time usage impressions, power source, size, ease of cleaning, and most importantly, a real pizza cooking test to see how long it takes to make a proper Margherita pizza — and how it actually tastes.
You can also check out the detailed process of how I test pizza ovens in a separate article.
The Solo Stove Pi Prime stands out for its sleek design, fast heating, and solid propane-powered performance.
The Member’s Mark Pizza Oven, on the other hand, offers a budget-friendly outdoor pizza-making solution with surprising results for its price range.
Here, you’ll find an in-depth comparison of the Solo Stove Pi Prime and the Member’s Mark, backed by my testing.
Lastly, a quick note: this article contains referral links. If you find my work helpful and decide to buy one of these ovens, I’d be grateful if you used my links — it helps keep this blog alive and costs you nothing extra.
Solo Stove Pi Prime VS Member’s Mark: Quality and Materials
| The Solo Stove Pi Prime is crafted from high-grade stainless steel and has a solid demi-dome construction that enhances durability and heat retention. |
The Member’s Mark Pizza Oven also uses stainless steel, but its build feels lighter and not quite as robust as the Solo Stove Pi Prime.
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Solo Stove Pi Prime VS Member’s Mark: Temperature Control
| The Solo Stove Pi Prime reaches up to 950°F quickly and maintains steady heat. While it lacks a built-in thermometer, it still offers consistent performance. |
The Member’s Mark Pizza Oven can hit 900°F, but in my tests, it took longer and was more sensitive to wind and weather changes than the Pi Prime.
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Solo Stove Pi Prime VS Member’s Mark: Shape
| The rounded demi-dome shape of the Solo Stove Pi Prime allows excellent heat circulation and is easy to work with using a standard 12” peel. |
The Member’s Mark Pizza Oven has a boxier design with a smaller opening, making it slightly harder to maneuver larger pizzas inside.
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Solo Stove Pi Prime VS Member’s Mark: First-Time Usage Impressions
| The Solo Stove Pi Prime was ready to go right out of the box with minimal setup. My first Margherita pizza came out beautifully after just 15 minutes of preheat. |
The Member’s Mark Pizza Oven required more preheating and a bit of trial and error to get the dough and rotation timing just right.
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Solo Stove Pi Prime VS Member’s Mark: Power Source
| The Solo Stove Pi Prime runs exclusively on propane, which offers a steady, clean-burning flame perfect for backyard use. |
The Member’s Mark Pizza Oven also runs on propane, but its heat control didn’t feel as responsive as the Pi Prime’s during real cooking tests.
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Solo Stove Pi Prime VS Member’s Mark: Size
| Compact yet powerful, the Solo Stove Pi Prime weighs just 30 lbs and still fits a 12″ pizza comfortably. It’s ideal for both portability and performance. |
The Member’s Mark Pizza Oven is larger and heavier at around 38 lbs. It offers decent cooking space but isn’t as easy to move as the Pi Prime.
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Solo Stove Pi Prime VS Member’s Mark: Ease of Cleaning
| With the Solo Stove Pi Prime, cleanup is quick—a grill brush for the stones and a soapy cloth for the stainless steel exterior is usually all you need. |
The Member’s Mark Pizza Oven also cleans easily, though the stone stays hotter for longer, which can delay the cleaning process a bit.
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Pizza Cooking Test
To fairly compare the Solo Stove Pi Prime and the Member’s Mark Pizza Oven, I used the same Margherita recipe and followed the same testing process.
The Solo Stove Pi Prime heated up fast, reaching optimal temperature (around 900–950°F) in just 15 minutes. Once it was ready, I placed the pizza inside, and within 90 seconds, I had a beautifully cooked Margherita. The crust was evenly crisp, the cheese melted perfectly, and the tomato sauce developed a subtle smoky note without any burning. The texture was airy inside with a nice bite on the edges—exactly what I’d expect from a well-built propane oven.
The Member’s Mark Pizza Oven took about 25–30 minutes to reach its top temperature, which capped around 850–900°F in my tests. The pizza needed about 2.5 minutes to cook, and while the flavor was good, the crust was slightly underdone on the bottom unless I rotated the pizza more frequently. The top cooked faster than the base, which could be corrected with a bit of experience. It still produced a tasty pie, just not quite as balanced as the Solo Stove’s result.
How We Tested
To make this comparison as accurate as possible, I tested both the Solo Stove Pi Prime and the Member’s Mark Pizza Oven under the same real-world conditions in my outdoor cooking space. I used the same dough, same sauce, same type of cheese, and even the same Margherita pizza recipe for both ovens.
I preheated each oven to its maximum or recommended cooking temperature, using an infrared thermometer to monitor consistency. Then I cooked multiple pizzas in each oven to observe how evenly they baked, how long they took, and how easy the cooking process was overall. I paid close attention to crust texture, cheese melt, bottom crispiness, and how well each oven retained heat between batches.
This approach allowed me to evaluate not just the final pizza results but also how each oven performs in a typical use-case scenario—whether you’re making one pizza or several back-to-back.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, whether you choose the Solo Stove Pi Prime or the Member’s Mark Pizza Oven depends on your cooking style and what features matter most to you. Both ovens can deliver great results, but I personally found the Pi Prime slightly more refined in design and performance.
If you decide to buy one, I’d really appreciate it if you use my referral links. I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, and it helps keep this blog alive and full of hands-on pizza oven reviews.
- Here’s the link for the Solo Stove Pi Prime
- And here’s the link for the Member’s Mark Pizza Oven
Thanks for the support and happy pizza-making!