Ooni Koda 2 Max review: Big enough to feed a crowd

Prior to opening Sips & Pies, our original plan was to use Ooni or Gozney ovens, instead of a wood-fired oven. One issue we kept running into while planning was that the ovens were designed to bake one pizza at a time. As a result, we were trying to figure out how many ovens we'd need to use in order to meet demand. Not ideal, but it's part of using portable gas-powered ovens for a mobile pizzeria.

In March of 2024, I attended the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas and got an early look at what was then the unannounced $1,298 Ooni Koda 2 Max, which features a 24-inch cooking area with enough space to bake three 10-inch pizzas at a time and I was instantly obsessed.

A few short months later, Ooni sent me the Koda 2 Max to test. That was nearly two years ago now, and in this Ooni Koda 2 Max review, I'm breaking down why this dual-zone gas pizza oven is the one I fire up whenever we entertain a large group and need to bake a bunch of pizzas.

Indeed, it's a big oven with even bigger potential for what you can do with it. Let's dig in.

Image by Jason Cipriani

Ooni Koda 2 Max Pros: What I liked

A massive 24-inch cooking area

From the moment you see the Koda 2 Max in the box, to the first time you fire it up after putting it together, there's no denying just how big this pizza oven is. Seriously, it's massive.

It weighs 95 pounds and measures 31 x 28 x 17 inches on the outside. On the inside, the cooking area is 21 inches deep and has a tapered width that goes from 26 inches in the front to 24 inches in the back.

That's enough space you can make a 20-inch pizza in the Koda 2 Max. Crazy.

On the right side of the oven's housing, you'll find two control knobs, one for each gas burner inside the oven. Just below the mouth of the oven is a digital temperature gauge, which is just a fancy way of saying a screen that shows you the temperature of the oven.

The display also has two temperature probe inputs which allows you to use the included probes to monitor the internal temperature of whatever it is you're cooking in the oven (presumably some sort of meat, because using a temp probe on a pizza just seems silly.)

I don't have a pizza peel big enough to launch and turn a 20-inch pizza, so I admittedly didn't max out the cooking floor with a single pie during my testing, however, I did bake three 10-inch pizzas on multiple occasions in it. I also put a full sized baking sheet, sideways, inside the oven when making fajitas. Seriously, this oven is huge.

In the mouth of the oven, there's a removable glass partition that comes down from the top of the oven's housing. The partition allows you to see inside the oven and monitor what you're cooking while keeping heat inside the oven.

The only time I ever felt like the glass got in the way was when I had three pizzas in the oven and I needed to turn the pizza in the back.

Screenshots by Jason Cipriani

Digital display and Ooni Connect app

Gozney's Arc line was the first gas-powered pizza oven I'd tested that had a screen to show the temperature inside the oven. Ooni's Koda 2 Max takes what's great about the Arc XL and adds Bluetooth connectivity, and two temperature probe connections.

The screen is big and bold, and has multiple brightness settings which makes it easy to see in or out of direct sunlight.

By default, the display shows the average temperature across both zones in the oven. However, you can press a button on the side of the display to view the individual temperature of the left and right zones – a handy feature if you're, say, cooking meat on one side and backing a pizza on the other.

To use Ooni Connect to wirelessly monitor the temperature of the oven, you'll need to install Ooni's mobile app. Inside the app you'll also find recipes and dough calculators that are super helpful.

Once you've paired the app to the display, you'll instantly see the average temperature, and then a breakdown of the temperature on either side of the oven, then, if you have a temperature probe connected to the display, you'll also see those readings.

Connectivity and the ability to remotely monitor what's inside a pizza oven isn't the norm, but I'm here for it. I used the app to monitor the temperature of the chicken I was cooking for fajitas while I was inside cutting up the veggies that would soon go into the oven as well. It's a welcome feature.

Dual-zone gas burners

Prior to testing the Koda 2 Max, every pizza oven I've used had a single heat source on one side of the oven. The Koda 2 Max, though, has two independent gas burners on opposite sides of the oven.

Meaning, you can set one side of the oven at high flame, and have the other side on low or even completely off if you want.

Igniting the burners is done by pushing in and turning each independent temp control knob on the right side of the housing until you hear the ignition start clicking and a few seconds later see a flame. Unlike the Gozney Arc XL which requires you to hold the knob in for 30 seconds, I was able to let go of the knob as soon as the burner was lit in the Koda 2 Max.

On average, it took roughly 30 minutes to go from a completely cold oven to baking pizzas in 90 seconds. On the latest round of testing, that meant the oven went from 55 degrees to 850 degrees in 28 minutes. I used a thermal temperature gun to check the temp of the oven floor, and it was within 50 degrees or so of Ooni's digital display.

If you don't want to geek out on pizza stone temps and all of that, you don't have to – the Koda 2 Max's temp readings will suffice.

One oddity I noticed every time I used the oven was that the right side's temperature reading was always lower than the left. It didn't matter if I ignited the right side first, waited a few minutes and then turned on the left side. Sometimes it would be lower by 10 or 20 degrees, but most of the time it was at least 50 degrees off.

I cooked pizzas on the Koda 2 Max in all sorts of configurations to test the dual burner approach. I'd often cook a single pizza right in the middle, with both burners set to the same flame level, which resulted in turning the pizza once and it was done with a nice even cook.

Other times I'd leave one burner on full flame, the other on low and set up a rotation of sorts. I'd launch the pizza on the hot side, start forming the next pizza, and then by the time I had it topped and ready to go, I could move the pizza across the oven to the cooler side to let it finish.

Or, if I really wanted to get crazy, I could run both sides on high and bake two pizzas – one on each side – at the same time.

Any approach I took was manageable and produced great results.

(For those who are curious, I have no doubt my wife and I could use the Koda 2 Max for our mobile pizzeria; probably two of them for increased output. Due to health and fire department requirements, we ultimately decided to purchase a Fire Within Concessionaire trailer.)

Image by Jason Cipriani

Ooni Koda 2 Max cons: What needs work

You'll need an assembly buddy

I don't necessarily mind having to assemble a product. It gives me a chance to familiarize myself with what parts go where, and how it works should something break down the road. And I didn't mind putting together the Koda 2 Max – a process which consisted of installing the legs, connecting the igniter, running some cables to the digital display and inserting the pizza stones.

However, I'm only bringing up the assembly aspect because it's a two person job due to the size and weight of the oven. Don't attempt to put it together on your own.

Windy days need not apply

Every time I used the Koda 2 Max, be it for pizza or some fajitas, the right burner – and only the right burner – would inevitably go out due to wind.

As is the case with all pizza ovens, you're supposed to position the rear of the oven towards any wind so that it blows across the enclosure and past the opening.

At least, that's the goal. Of course, wind has a mind of its own and will briefly change directions without notice, and when that happened, odds were that the right burner was going to lose its flame. I experienced the burner going out on fairly calm days with a sudden gust, and very windy days.

Thankfully, the oven doesn't continue spewing propane, so there's no safety concern, and it only takes a couple of seconds to ignite it again, but it's annoying.

To be fair, the Gozney Arc XL also suffered from the same issue. However, Gozney's Dome S1 has yet to lose its flame on me due to wind.

Image by Jason Cipriani

It needs a beefy stand

For my testing, Ooni sent its Modular Table that appears as if it was built specifically to fit the Koda 2 Max on its top shelf. The stand has a stainless steel top, and is metal throughout the rest of the build. It looks like a sturdy stand that's sure to hold up to moving the Koda 2 Max around, but my experience has proved otherwise.

Moving the 95-pound oven around on the stand will, over time, cause the entire structure to feel very wobbly and unsteady. To remedy the instability, I have to retighten some of the screws. Admittedly, it doesn't take long and it's an easy fix, but it's not an experience you'd expect for a stand that's nearly $300. I think part of the problem is the wheels on the stand are small and easily get stuck in the cracks on my concrete patio as I move the oven around to adjust for the wind.

In contrast, the wheels included on the stands that Gozney sells for its line of ovens are bigger and easily handle the same cracks and bumps.

If you have a spot on your patio for the Koda 2 Max that will require minimal maneuvering of the oven, then Ooni's stand will work. However, if you're like me and will often need to move it around, then you may want to look elsewhere.

Image by Jason Cipriani

Bottom line

The Koda 2 Max does it all. In many ways, calling it just a pizza oven is misleading. The same can be said about most pizza ovens, but the addition of the temperature probes, two independent gas zones and Bluetooth monitoring on your phone, practically begs you to use the Koda 2 Max to do so much more than pizza.

If you're frequently hosting parties and need a pizza oven that can turn out multiple pizzas at a time, or want an oven that has all of the bells and whistles that you can grow into on your pizza making journey, then the Koda 2 Max is it.