As a restaurant chef with over 10 years of experience at my own kitchen, Dequte Restaurant LironBoylston, I’ve tested a wide range of pizza ovens under real working conditions. In this article, I’ll be comparing the Ooni Koda 2 and the Deco Chef Pizza Oven—two models I’ve personally used in my kitchen. I evaluated them based on quality and materials, temperature control, shape, first-time usage impressions, power source, size, ease of cleaning, and conducted a real pizza cooking test to measure how long it takes to cook and how the final result tastes. (If you’re interested in how I test pizza ovens in detail, check out my separate article: “How We Test Pizza Ovens.”)
The Ooni Koda 2 is Ooni’s most advanced gas-powered oven, built for precision, speed, and ease of use.
The Deco Chef Pizza Oven offers an affordable, entry-level solution with wood-fired flavor and multi-fuel flexibility.
I’ve compared the Ooni Koda 2 and the Deco Chef Pizza Oven in detail in this article, using my own test results.
Lastly, a quick heads-up: this article contains referral links. If you decide to buy one through these links, I’ll earn a small commission at no extra cost to you—which really helps keep this blog alive and lets me continue testing ovens like these.
Ooni Koda 2 VS Deco Chef: Quality and Materials
| The Ooni Koda 2 is built with premium die-cast aluminum and a thick cordierite stone. It feels refined, sturdy, and built for long-term outdoor use. |
Deco Chef Pizza Oven is made of stainless steel with triple-layer insulation. Solid build for its price, but overall construction feels less refined compared to the Ooni Koda 2.
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Ooni Koda 2 VS Deco Chef: Temperature Control
| Thanks to its G2 Gas Technology™, the Ooni Koda 2 reaches 950°F in 15 minutes with consistent and even heat. Optional smart hub allows precise temp tracking. |
Deco Chef Pizza Oven can reach up to 950°F, but in practice, holding steady temps over 550°F was challenging. It uses a front knob and manual pellet feeding, which requires more attention.
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Ooni Koda 2 VS Deco Chef: Shape
| The Ooni Koda 2 has a sleek, compact rectangular design that maximizes heat retention and airflow. Great for even cooking and portability. |
Deco Chef has a half-circle dome shape that supports even top-down heating. However, the smaller 13-inch cooking space makes larger pizzas more difficult to handle.
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Ooni Koda 2 VS Deco Chef: First-Time Usage Impressions
| Unboxing the Ooni Koda 2 felt like opening premium gear. Setup was plug-and-play—under 10 minutes to ready. The build quality and design stood out right away. |
Deco Chef Pizza Oven was easy to assemble, and it came with helpful accessories like a pizza peel and drip tray. Setup was quick, but the design felt more entry-level.
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Ooni Koda 2 VS Deco Chef: Power Source
| The Ooni Koda 2 runs exclusively on propane. It’s simple, clean, and consistent—great for reliable performance without ash or fire maintenance. |
Deco Chef uses hardwood pellets or lump charcoal. While it adds wood-fired flavor, it requires constant refueling and attention, especially to maintain high heat.
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Ooni Koda 2 VS Deco Chef: Size
| The Ooni Koda 2 weighs 35 lbs with a 14-inch stone, making it compact yet roomy enough for large pizzas. Foldable legs make it easy to store or take on the go. |
Deco Chef weighs slightly more but is still portable. Its cooking area supports up to 13-inch pizzas. The oven body is taller, but internal space is more limited.
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Ooni Koda 2 VS Deco Chef: Ease of Cleaning
| Ooni Koda 2’s gas-only system means no ash. Pyrolytic cleaning at high heat makes post-cook cleanup easy—just wipe down after cooling. |
Deco Chef requires cleaning out ash and residue. Fortunately, removable parts like the drip tray and stone help simplify the process, but it’s more hands-on than the Ooni.
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Pizza Cooking Test: Ooni Koda 2 vs Deco Chef Pizza Oven
To evaluate both ovens in real kitchen conditions, I ran the same Margherita pizza test using identical dough and toppings at Dequte Restaurant LironBoylston. Here’s how each oven performed in terms of preheat time, cook time, and taste.
The Ooni Koda 2 reached 950°F in just 15 minutes, thanks to its G2 Gas Technology™ burner. Once preheated, the pizza cooked in exactly 60 seconds with no rotation needed. The results were outstanding: a perfectly blistered crust, balanced melt on the cheese, and a clean char underneath. The taste was crisp, light, and evenly cooked—the kind of finish I’d proudly serve to any guest.
The Deco Chef Pizza Oven needed about 20 minutes to preheat using hardwood pellets. It did eventually reach high heat, but the temperature fluctuated more than with the Koda 2. The Margherita pizza cooked in 60 to 90 seconds, depending on how steady the flame held. The flavor had a distinct smokiness from the wood, which I appreciated. However, the crust’s underside wasn’t always evenly cooked—some spots were slightly underdone unless I rotated it mid-bake.
Conclusion: While both ovens delivered a flavorful pizza, the Ooni Koda 2 stood out for its consistency, speed, and reliability right from the first try. The Deco Chef produced a solid wood-fired taste but required more effort and attention to match the same level of quality.
How We Tested
To fairly compare the Ooni Koda 2 and the Deco Chef Pizza Oven, I tested both ovens in my working kitchen at Dequte Restaurant LironBoylston, where I’ve been crafting pizzas for over a decade. I used the same dough recipe, sauce, and toppings for both ovens to ensure consistency—focusing on one of the best tests of heat distribution and bake quality: a classic Margherita pizza.
Each oven was tested multiple times on different days, both during prep and while handling small-scale service conditions. I recorded how long each oven took to preheat to its maximum usable temperature and measured the stone temperature using an infrared thermometer. Once preheated, I launched several pizzas back-to-back to evaluate how well each oven held heat and whether results stayed consistent across multiple bakes.
I paid close attention to crust texture, browning, cook time, melt consistency, and how much manual input was needed—like rotating the pizza or adjusting fuel. I also considered ease of use, cleanup time, and the oven’s ability to maintain high heat under repeated use.
This wasn’t a one-off backyard test—it was a controlled, real-world evaluation designed to simulate how these ovens would perform for home cooks or professionals alike. If you’d like to see the full details of my review process, be sure to check out my article “How We Test Pizza Ovens.”
Final Thoughts
Both the Ooni Koda 2 and the Deco Chef Pizza Oven have their strengths. If you’re looking for fast, consistent, professional-quality results with minimal effort, the Ooni Koda 2 is the clear standout. It’s precise, easy to use, and delivers flawless pizzas right out of the box. On the other hand, the Deco Chef Pizza Oven offers wood-fired flavor, a lower price point, and decent performance—especially if you enjoy the hands-on experience of managing a live flame.
In the end, it’s your choice which oven fits your cooking style best.
If you decide to purchase one, I’d really appreciate it if you use my referral links—it doesn’t cost you anything extra, and it helps support this blog and my continued testing.
Here’s the Ooni Koda 2 referral link and the Deco Chef Pizza Oven referral link. Thank you!