Gozney Tread Pizza Oven Review: Perfect Pizza Made Anywhere

The new Gozney Tread (AUD$899) is billed as the “world’s most portable pizza oven,” and I’ve been testing it for a month to see if it can deliver on this promise. While I predominately used it at home to compare it to the Roccbox and Dome, I also took it away camping for a weekend to try and make a restaurant-quality pizza in the wilderness.

I’ve made pizzas on cliff faces using my Gozney Roccbox, so I was excited to test an even more portable product from the brand. However, in a world where the Roccbox (AUD$799) exists, alongside many other competitors, I wanted to figure out why someone would purchase the Tread over all those cheaper options that have come to market since the brand launched just a few years ago.

If you’re unsure which pizza oven to buy, this is the review for you. I’ll explain what the Gozney Tread costs, how it compares to the competition, and why you would buy it. Then, I’ll explain how you use it, I’ll cook a pizza in it, and then answer whether or not I would buying it.

What Does the Gozney Tread Cost?

The Gozney Tread is priced at AUD$899, which makes it more expensive than the Gozney Roccbox (AUD$799) and its closest competitor the Ooni Koda 12 (AUD$649).

Here’s what you get in the box when you purchase the oven:

• Tread outdoor oven
• 1.2m gas hose and regulator
• Burner guard
• Stone adjustment tool
• Torx wrench
• Digital manual

My review unit arrived on a large pallet and came with several accessories (sold separately) that help make it even more useful, they include:

• Tread Venture Bag (AUD$169)
• Venture Turning Peel (AUD$119)
• Venture Placement Peel (AUD$149)
• Tread Roof Rack (AUD$169)
• Tread Mantel (AUD$149)
• Tread Venture Stand (AUD$349)
• Pizza Cutter (AUD$74)
• Infrared Thermometer (AUD$79)

I highly recommend the Tread Venture Bag (AUD$169), Tread Roof Rack (AUD$169), and Tread Venture Stand (AUD$349). These three accessories are considered mandatory if you plan on taking your Tread into the wilderness. Without them, you might be better off purchasing the Roccbox and placing it on a table. The main advantage of the Tread is its ability to be accessorised to the point it becomes a self-sufficient unit, but this does push the purchase price up to AUD$1,586, so consider your needs first.

The bag, roof rack, and stand, which has a die-cast aluminium construction with a quad-leg telescopic design, are all very high quality. The oven itself is made from aluminum and steel, and is also very high-quality.

Here are the size specifications for the Gozney Tread:

• External dimensions: Width 418mm (16.5”) x Depth 484mm (19.1”) x Height 320mm (12.6”)
• Internal dimensions: Width 310mm (12.2”) x Depth 380mm (15”) x Height 150mm (5.9”)
• Door size: Width 310mm (12.2”) x Height 85mm (3.35”)
• Weight: 13.5kg / 29.7Ibs (16kg/35.2lbs in packaging)

While it’s marketed as “the world’s most portable pizza oven,” it’s still quite a heavy and bulky item. It takes up quite a lot of space in the back of a car (even the Defender 130 V8 I was driving), so consider this before going away for a few weeks with it. If you’re already short on space with camping gear, mattresses, gas stoves, etc. you might not be able to fit a pizza oven.

How Does the Gozney Tread Work?

The Gozney Tread is a gas-only pizza oven and cannot be used with wood. Still, it’s just as effective at cooking restaurant-quality pizza at home thanks to a lateral gas burner, which does a good job of recreating a traditional wood-fired flame, but does struggle with high wind compared to the Roccbox.

Woodfire brings more flavour (and I typically use woodfire in my Gozney Dome), but as my pizza should prove, you can still cook an outstanding pizza at home with gas, and it’s infinitely more convenient.

To make the Gozney Tread work you’ll need an LCC27-type gas bottle (not the same as the one connected to your barbeque). I bought this Gasmate Safe Lok LCC27 4kg Propane Gas Cylinder AUD$44.79) from my local Bunnings to use with my Roccbox and it works with the new oven as well. The gas hose is included in the box.

NOTE: If this is your first time firing the Tread you’ll have to add a battery into the ignitor (included) and cure the pizza stone. This takes around 30 minutes, and the instructions are in the box.

If you plan on taking your Tread away into the wilderness there are a few things you’ll need to remember. I’ve made this checklist to make sure that you don’t forget anything before you leave:

• Gozney Tread
• Tread Venture Bag
• Venture Placement Peel
• Tread Venture Stand
• Gas Bottle
• Pizza Cutter
• Dough
• Toppings

Once you’ve arrived at your cooking location and you’re ready to set up the Gozney Tread, place the Venture Stand on the ground and level it out using the indicator on the top of the stand. Attach the oven to the stand, slot it into the groove, connect the gas bottle with the hose, and you’re ready to turn it on.

How Easy is it to Cook Pizza in the Gozney Tread?

Push and twist the dial until the ignitor ticks and a flame fires, it’s that easy to start the Tread.

Once the oven is on it takes about 8:30 minutes for it to reach temperature (and less than 20 minutes to cool down), but I recommend using an infrared thermometer to confirm the pizza stone is up to temperature before you cook.

The trick to cooking pizza at home is high temperature, and with the flame turned to maximum, the Tread has no problem reaching my ideal cooking temperature of 450°C (842°F). It can reach a maximum of 500°C, and this can be adjusted down for lower-temperature cooks with the dial on the side, but you won’t cook at this temperature very often.

Once the oven is hot, the Tread can maintain a consistent temperature quite well thanks to a thick single layer of insulation and a cordierite pizza stone. However, it’s not as consistent as the double-layered stone floor in the Roccbox, which keeps a more consistent temperature when cooking multiple pizzas. Unless you’re a professional pizza maker, this shouldn’t be a deal-breaker, but consider the Roccbox or Dome if you’re using this for a business.

When it comes time to cook, place your pizza on the peel (with plenty of semolina on the base), slide it into the oven, and pull the peel away.

The length of the cook depends on the dough you’ve made. I prefer to use an 80% hydration dough that’s light, fluffy, and crunchy (here’s a link to the recipe). However, it’s very hard to work with so I would refer to the brand’s website for recipes if this is your first time.

It takes me around 60 seconds to make a pizza in the Tread using my recipe, which is the same as it takes in the Dome, but it could take longer if you have a lower-hydration dough.

Once you’re happy with your cook, pull the pizza out of the oven, let it cool down a little bit, and slice it on a pizza board. Godere! The water in the dough would have turned to steam and created bubbles, the crust would have become leopard-like, the cheese would be perfectly melted, and the base would have cooked all the way through. If this doesn’t happen it’s not the ovens fault, it’s your dough recipe.

There are no real tricks here, and the quality of the cook in the Tread is on par with the Dome and Roccbox. The mantle accessory does make it easier to turn the pizza if you struggle with a peel, but I had no issue without it.

Maybe the only real hitch here is that you can only make a 12-inch pizza in the Tread, but that’s large enough for most people and is common for most ovens. If you want to make larger pizzas, check out the Gozney Arc XL which makes larger 16-inch pizzas. The opening could also prove to be a problem if you want to cook steaks in a cast iron pan, as most round pans are too large to fit through the 310mm (12.2-inch) opening. There’s also no door available for the Tread, so don’t expect to be slow roasting or baking.

NOTE: If this is your first time making pizza at home, look at the Gozney website for recipes. The brand’s simple pizza dough recipe takes about a day to prepare and tastes quite good but is not very light and fluffy. I recommend this recipe from Vito Iacopelli, which uses a pre-ferment (poolish) and can be prepared overnight. I like it as it’s pretty foolproof and creates great pizza at home.

Should You Buy the Gozney Tread?

The Tread is another great pizza oven from Gozney that can make restaurant-quality pizza not only at home but also out in the wilderness thanks to some key accessories that have been created specifically for this purpose.

Tread accessories cost quite a lot of money, but if you’re itching to make pizza by the beach, in the forest, or at that special hidden lookout spot, the Tread is the pizza oven for you. It’s a little heavy and bulky, but that’s only a small issue to overcome and you won’t be complaining when you’re munching on a pizza in your ideal location.

If, however, you’re simply looking for a pizza oven to put on your back deck, there are other options on the market and in the Gozney range that I can recommend from personal experience. The Roccbox is better at making pizzas than the Tread and is just as portable, but it cannot be put on a stand. Meanwhile, the Gozney Dome is the best pizza oven that I’ve ever tested, and can be put on a stand, but it cannot be moved around very easily.

What the Tread delivers is a choice. With the right dough (and a little practice) it creates the same great pizzas as the Dome and Roccbox but can be taken anywhere. Whether that appeals to you is the question, and only you know the answer!