Halo Versa 16 Propane Gas Outdoor Pizza Oven with Rotating Cooking Stone | Portable Appliance for all Outdoor Kitchens

I've been using the Ooni Koda 12 for the past year and 4 months and it has made some excellent pizzas. We're a big family so I make 8 pizzas each session and we do this, on average, about twice per week. Do the math and that is a LOT of pizzas I've made with the Ooni. The following reasons are why I went looking for an alternative to my Ooni pizza oven and decided to try out this Halo 16 oven:Ooni Dislikes1) The stone does not hold its heat well enough after the second pizza. This requires blocking off the opening of the oven using a metal peel with holes in it to help force some of the ambient heat into the stone. This requires at least 1 minute extra between pizzas just to not have an undercooked bottom.2) The heat is not very evenly distributed throughout the cooking chamber. Obviously, the hottest points are at the back of the oven near the burner and at the ceiling. I cook each pizza using this method: Place pizza in the oven and let it cook for 45 seconds, use the peel to pull it out, rotate it 180 degrees then back in for another 45 seconds, then remove and turn 90 degrees for another 20 seconds then remove and rotate 180 degrees for the final 20 seconds. This results in a fairly evenly cooked pizza but there is always one half of the pizza that is puffy but a little overcooked and the rest of the pizza is flatter and very slightly undercooked.3) Semolina mess all over the floor due to the launch/remove/rotate/repeat of each pizza.4) The range of adjustment of the gas dial is very little and there are no detents that help you to set the dial to the same place each time you use it. I basically go off of the flame height and sound to get it roundabout where I want it each time I fire it up.I bought the Halo 16 solely for its second burner that is beneath the stone and the rotating pizza stone. Last night, I cooked my standard 8 pizzas in the new Halo 16 and they all turned out spectacularly! I slid the pizza onto the rotating stone and let it bake for 3 minutes and 30 seconds with the gas dial set to the Medium position's detent. The finished consistency of the first pizza to the last was exactly the same. This made the best baked crust I've ever had. No issues at all with burning the bottom. I had no problem launching the pizza or removing it while leaving the turntable running. The fact that I did not have to pull and turn each pizza during the cooking process meant there was literally ZERO mess to clean up afterwards. My whole family agrees that this was a great improvement over the pizzas we've been making with the Ooni.I want to be clear that while I am picking on the issues I see with the Ooni, I'm not bashing it either. The Ooni is a great oven that has made many, many delicious pizzas for me and my family. It certainly turns out a better pizza than we ever could get from the oven. That being said, the Halo is just full of the right improvements to make the process easier, more consistent, and less messy. The build quality is right up there with the Ooni; it feels and looks like a high quality product that will last for years.For someone interested in buying their first gas pizza oven, I would easily recommend this Halo over the Ooni as there is hardly any learning curve to it. If you can launch a pizza with a peel (easy enough to get good at) and can operate a timer, you're well on your way to making pizzas that rival the best you can buy at a fancy pizza joint.Update 01 January 2024:I contacted customer support for a motor issue (not really an issue - more on that in a moment). If you have any issues or concerns requiring customer support, use their online chat tool to get a case started. This is the fastest way to get help and I was immediately in touch with a very kind man based out of Kentucky (Halo's HQ). I had contacted Halo, thinking my new oven's motor had an issue as it would only work with the AC adapter and not on batteries. The person I worked with was very helpful to rush out a new motor to me. He even followed up several times to let me know the expected delivery date and to make sure I received it and everything worked. When I received the motor I went to install it and discovered that I had plugged in the power and switch connectors to the opposite receptacles on the motor that came with the oven. Sigh.... I have no idea how I missed that. The cables are labeled and I was paying attention to it (obviously not enough) when I put the oven together. Long story short, there was nothing wrong with my original motor, I was the problem. I replied to Halo Customer Support's inquiry into how the new motor worked, explaining to them my embarrassing mistake. I asked them to let me pay for the new motor I got under warranty but they graciously refused and told me to keep it. They wanted me to know they were more interested in my satisfaction than the cost of the motor. When was the last time you had such excellent Warranty / Customer Service? Been a long time for me and what a breath of fresh air it is to interact with a company who truly cares about their customers.

I wanted a pizza oven that could handle a 16 inch pizza and would run on natural gas versus having to fill propane tanks or mess around with bits of wood. This really fits the bill and is easy to use. I do like the rotating stone, which keeps your cook even without having to monitor and rotate the pie with a peel. This oven very quickly gets up to temperature and I have no problem hitting temps of 950 while I am stretching my dough. Cooks a pizza perfectly top and bottom in about 6 minutes or so. Really, it is so quick, I've never bothered to time it. Quick and easy assembly. AA battery for the ignitor. Couple of D batteries for the turntable (or use the ac adapter). Hook up your gas and you are ready to fly. It is a little pricey, but not as much as some other trendy ovens that don't cook as well.

I took a long hard look at several pizza ovens. After researching Gozney Arc and Ooni outdoor ovens, I began to be sold on the Halo Versa 16. Main reasons were 1) rotating pizza stone 2) clam shell design (lid opens up for easy access to oven stone and internals). 3) stainless steel "back stop" so pizza peel doesn't push pizza into burner.My Halo arrived on October 4, 2024.First, I have to give kudos to the Halo Engineers for their package and package materials. My Halo arrived in perfect condition!! It took me over an hour and a half to slowly unpack and setup. Next I heated up oven to burn off any manufacturing oils for 30 minutes. As the the oven heated up, I took infrared temperature readings at 5,10,15,20,and 30 minutes. Observations where that oven stone reached nearly 950 degrees after 30 minutes, and 750 degrees after 20 minutes. Youtube reviews indicated that the only down side to oven was that the bottom of pizzas seemed to cook faster then the top. My solution, buy another 16 inch cordorlite pizza stone. Then I placed new stone on top of the original stone raising surface up to 1 inch rather tha half inch. Again I took infrared temperature measurments at 5,10 ,15 ,20, and 30 minutes. For my pizza dough, 20 minutes was the ideal temperature for me, 650-700 degrees.Well today I made two 14 inch pepperoni pizzas. Preheated oven for 20 minutes. Each pizza took 4 minutes to cook to my satisfaction. Results were outstanding!!!Kudos to the Halo Engineers for their thoughtful design features and quality of the build and materials used in construction. This pizza oven is worth ever penny you spend on it!!GO FOR IT!!!