I am a restaurant chef with over 10 years of experience at my restaurant, Dequte Restaurant LironBoylston. In this article, I will compare the Member’s Mark and Deco Chef pizza ovens, since I’ve used both extensively in my kitchen. I compared them across key factors including quality and materials, temperature control, shape, first-time usage impressions, power source, size, ease of cleaning, and I also conducted a real pizza cooking test to see how long each oven takes to deliver results. If you’d like to understand my full testing process in detail, you can check the separate article I’ve written about how I test pizza ovens.
The Member’s Mark is an affordable, compact gas oven that aims to deliver reliable performance at a budget-friendly price point.
The Deco Chef is a versatile, wood-pellet-fueled oven known for its portability and straightforward design.
In this write-up, I’ve compared the Member’s Mark and Deco Chef in detail, using my testing data.
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Winner
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Loser
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Our Rating:
4.3
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Our Rating:
3.2
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Pros:
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Pros:
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Cons:
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Cons:
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- Offers good quality for its price
- Rounded top
- Lighter weight and with a smaller footprint
- Relatively easy to clean
- Slower to heat up, taking around 30-35 minutes to reach a max of about 750-800°F
- Bit more trial and error to get the temperature right
- Uses propane only
- Made of stainless steel with decent quality
- Half-circle dome design
- Lightweight and portable
- Cleaning is manageable
- Lacks premium finishing
- Maintaining a consistent temperature above 550°F can be challenging
- Exclusively powered by hardwood pellets
Disclaimer: I use referral links throughout this article. If you decide to purchase one of these ovens through my links, I’ll earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This support helps keep my blog alive and allows me to continue sharing honest reviews.
Member’s Mark VS Deco Chef: Quality and Materials
| The Member’s Mark Pizza Oven is built with aluminum, stainless steel, and a cordierite stone, which feel lightweight but decently sturdy for the price. While the stone is a bit thin, overall, it holds up well during frequent use. I found it surprisingly durable for such an affordable oven. |
The Deco Chef Pizza Oven uses stainless steel with three-layer insulation, which feels heavier and more solid. It’s well-made, but the insulation can still struggle to keep the stone consistently hot, leading to uneven cooking at times. The included accessories are nice additions.
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Member’s Mark VS Deco Chef: Temperature Control
| Member’s Mark has a simple burner that can be finicky, but once you learn how to manage it, you get steady mid-range heat. While it doesn’t always hit the advertised 900°F, it still crisps pizza nicely with practice. |
Deco Chef can technically reach 950°F, but maintaining temps above 550°F is tricky. You have to keep adding pellets to stay near top heat, and it loses heat fast when opened or in wind. It requires more effort to keep the fire consistent.
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Member’s Mark VS Deco Chef: Shape
| Member’s Mark features a classic rounded dome, helping heat circulate evenly over the pizza. Its shape is traditional and makes it easier to slide pizzas in and out without burning the edges. |
Deco Chef also has a half-circle dome, but its smaller interior limits pizza size and airflow. You have to rotate pizzas more often to avoid hot spots, and tall pizzas can get cramped.
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Member’s Mark VS Deco Chef: First-Time Usage Impressions
| The Member’s Mark was quick to assemble and felt intuitive. The rotating stone made it feel user-friendly right away, even though it took a few tries to get the crust perfect. Overall, the learning curve was short. |
Deco Chef looked great out of the box and included a lot of accessories, but it took more trial and error to get reliable results. It was harder to master the pellet feeding without dropping temperature mid-cook.
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Member’s Mark VS Deco Chef: Power Source
| The Member’s Mark runs on propane, which means no babysitting the fire or reloading pellets. You can preheat, set the flame, and focus on cooking. For ease and reliability, gas really is simpler. |
Deco Chef is strictly wood pellet or lump charcoal, delivering authentic smoky flavor. While tasty, it requires constant monitoring to maintain heat and avoid flare-ups or cool-downs.
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Member’s Mark VS Deco Chef: Size
| Member’s Mark is one of the most compact and light ovens I’ve tested—just over 28 lbs and small enough to store easily. It’s perfect for smaller patios or occasional use. |
Deco Chef is slightly larger and bulkier, though still portable. It weighs more and needs a sturdier surface to support it safely, especially if you plan to use it as a grill.
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Member’s Mark VS Deco Chef: Ease of Cleaning
| Member’s Mark is very simple to clean. Just cool it down, remove the stone, and wipe with soapy water. The rotating stone lifts out for easy access to crumbs and ash. |
Deco Chef cleans up decently too, thanks to its removable fuel tray and drip tray. But ash buildup can clog vents, and you’ll need to clean more frequently if you’re burning pellets.
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Pizza Cooking Test
To see how these ovens perform side by side, I tested each one with a classic Margherita pizza using the same dough, sauce, and toppings.
The Member’s Mark Pizza Oven needed about 30 minutes to preheat fully. While it didn’t quite reach the 900°F mark, it stabilized around 750°F, which was enough for a decent bake. Once ready, my Margherita pizza took about 4 to 5 minutes to cook. The crust turned out nicely golden with a good chew and slight crisp on the edges. The cheese was bubbling evenly, and the bottom had a light char that looked great. Overall, the flavor was satisfying, and the bake quality was better than I expected from such an affordable oven.
The Deco Chef Pizza Oven heated up a bit faster—about 20 minutes to reach 700°F—but I had to keep feeding hardwood pellets to maintain high heat. I waited another 10 minutes to be sure the stone was fully saturated with heat. The pizza cooked quickly in about 90 seconds to 2 minutes, producing a more pronounced char on the edges and a stronger smoky aroma. However, the bottom crust came out slightly uneven, with one side darker than the other. In terms of taste, the pizza had that classic wood-fired flavor with a hint of smokiness, which was very pleasant, though it required more tending to achieve consistent results.
Both ovens can make a good pizza if you practice managing their heat, but the Member’s Mark felt a little more forgiving and predictable once preheated, while the Deco Chef demanded more active attention during the entire cook.
How We Tested
To compare the Member’s Mark Pizza Oven and the Deco Chef Pizza Oven fairly, I used both in my professional kitchen at Dequte Restaurant LironBoylston under similar conditions. I prepared identical batches of dough ahead of time, portioned and proofed them equally, and used the same ingredients for sauce and toppings to remove variables.
Each oven was preheated according to the manufacturer’s instructions and allowed to stabilize before cooking. I monitored internal temperatures with an infrared thermometer and timed the warm-up process carefully. During baking, I observed how evenly the crust browned, how quickly the cheese melted, and whether there were any cold spots or flare-ups. After each cook, I noted how easily the ovens returned to target temperature for subsequent pizzas and how practical they were to clean.
This approach helped me see not only which oven delivered the best-tasting Margherita pizza but also which one offered a smoother, more reliable user experience overall.
Conclusion
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Winner
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Loser
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Our Rating:
4.3
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Our Rating:
3.2
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|
Pros:
|
Pros:
|
|
Cons:
|
Cons:
|
- Offers good quality for its price
- Rounded top
- Lighter weight and with a smaller footprint
- Relatively easy to clean
- Slower to heat up, taking around 30-35 minutes to reach a max of about 750-800°F
- Bit more trial and error to get the temperature right
- Uses propane only
- Made of stainless steel with decent quality
- Half-circle dome design
- Lightweight and portable
- Cleaning is manageable
- Lacks premium finishing
- Maintaining a consistent temperature above 550°F can be challenging
- Exclusively powered by hardwood pellets
Ultimately, it’s your choice whether you prefer the Member’s Mark or the Deco Chef pizza oven. Both have their strengths and can help you create great homemade pizza, depending on what matters most to you. If you decide to buy one, I’d really appreciate it if you use my referral links below. I’ll earn a small commission at no cost to you, which helps keep this blog alive and supports more hands-on reviews like this one:
Make time to see the top pizza ovens list.