Authentic Pizza Ovens Maximus Prime Large Portable Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Description

The Maximus Prime pizza oven is the large one in the Authentic Pizza Ovens portable range: a 39 inch wide wood fired oven with a 35.4 inch square floor, a 20 inch mouth, and about 400 pounds of stainless steel, aluminum, and cast stone, handmade in the same workshop north of Lisbon as the brick domes. It is the oven APO sells to food trucks, caterers, and small pizzerias, and to families who cook for a crowd. Two colors: Black and Red.

This portable wood fired pizza oven reaches pizza temperature in about 30 minutes, cooks a pizza in under three, and APO rates it at up to 150 ten inch or 80 twelve inch pizzas an hour. It sits on a rolling cart, an outdoor kitchen counter, a block base, or a truck counter, and it needs no masonry, no crane, and no curing schedule.

The Maximus Prime pizza oven shares its body, its door, and its cooking method with the smaller Maximus Mobile, so if you have read that page you already know the construction. What changes is scale: more than twice the floor, a taller ceiling, a wider mouth, and twice the weight. You can set the Prime beside every APO oven on our Authentic Pizza Ovens brand page, or read on for what it adds over the Mobile, how it is built, how it cooks, where to put it, what a food truck has to do before it goes on the road, and what to order with it.

Every Maximus Prime pizza oven ships free because it clears our $750 free shipping threshold on its own. The one delivery charge is the $95 liftgate fee every freight oven carries at checkout, and the cover, the cart, the spit, and the tools ride free on the same order.

What the Prime Adds Over the Maximus Mobile

Start with the floor, because that is what a Maximus Prime pizza oven is for. The Maximus Prime pizza oven cooks on a 35.4 by 35.4 inch refractory tile floor, about 1,250 square inches, against the Mobile's 23.5 by 23.5 inch floor at about 550. That is more than double the tile, and it is the difference between one 12 inch pizza at a time and three or four on the floor with the fire at the back. APO rates the Prime at up to 80 twelve inch pizzas an hour, and the Mobile at 30.

The mouth grows with the floor. The Maximus Prime pizza oven's door opening is 20 inches wide and 11 high, which takes a half sheet pan, a full size roasting tray, or two pizzas side by side on the peel. The false ceiling sits 12.5 inches above the floor rather than 9.5, so a whole chicken, a Dutch oven, or the rotisserie spit fits under it with room for flame. Outside, the oven is 39 inches wide and deep, 30.3 inches tall to the top of the dome, and 44.5 with the chimney and cap fitted.

The trade is weight. APO quotes the Maximus Prime pizza oven at about 400 pounds, twice the Mobile, and a Maximus Prime pizza oven does not go in the back of a hatchback. It goes in a pickup bed or a trailer, on a pallet or with four people on the base, and then it stays where you put it. The owner above set the Prime on a block base against the house with the wood stacked below, and that is the typical home installation: portable in that no masonry was poured, permanent in that it does not move on a Tuesday.

Set it beside the brick domes and the picture flips. A Pizzaioli is the same 39 inches square, about 1,250 pounds on a slab, and needs an hour to come up to temperature and a masonry base to sit on. The Maximus Prime pizza oven gives you more floor than that dome at a third of the weight, on any base rated for 400 pounds, hot in 30 minutes. What the brick dome keeps is stored heat that lasts all night; the Prime holds cooking heat for an hour or two after the fire. That is the whole decision.

Construction: Stainless Chamber, Aluminum Skin, Cast Stone Front

The body of a Maximus Prime pizza oven is three layers, the same three as the Mobile. The inner chamber is a double wall of 304-2B stainless steel, two skins of half a millimeter each. Around it sits a high temperature ceramic fiber blanket and a bio soluble safety blanket, both asbestos free. The outer skin is 1.4 millimeter aluminum, powder finished in Black or Red. Heat stays in the chamber, the sides stay cool enough to stand beside, and nothing in the wall rusts, cracks, or needs curing.

The floor is refractory tile rated to 1,200°C, laid in a frame so a single tile lifts out and a spare drops in; one spare ships in the crate for that reason. The front is stacked cast stone molded in Lafarge refractory cement over a forged iron frame that reinforces it, in gray and charcoal tones on the Black and sand and reddish tones on the Red. The stone is what makes a Maximus Prime pizza oven look like an oven rather than a steel box, and on the black APO stand above it reads as one piece of equipment.

The door of a Maximus Prime pizza oven is a flat plate of 304 stainless with a wooden handle and a row of air holes along the bottom. It lifts off completely rather than hinging, so for pizza service you set it aside and work through a fully open 20 inch mouth. Set it back in place and the holes meter air to the fire for roasting and bread. The dial thermometer reads 0 to 500°C and sits in the stone beside the door where you can read it from the peel.

The chimney on a Maximus Prime pizza oven is a 5.9 inch stainless flue with a cap, mounted at the back of the dome rather than over the mouth. Because the chamber is stainless rather than brick, a Maximus Prime pizza oven is also the APO oven for a coastal deck or a beach house: 304 stainless resists salt air in a way that iron door frames and untreated steel do not, which is why it is the standard for commercial kitchen equipment.

How the Prime Cooks: The False Ceiling at 12.5 Inches

A brick dome cooks by radiating stored heat down from a curved ceiling. The Maximus Prime pizza oven has no dome inside; it has a flat false ceiling with a channel above it. Build the fire at the back of the floor. Flame and hot gas roll forward under the ceiling toward the door, because the door's air holes are the only way in and the chimney at the back is the only way out. At the front the gas turns up behind the door, climbs over the false ceiling, and travels back along the channel to the flue.

Every bit of heat in a Maximus Prime pizza oven passes over the cooking chamber twice, once under the ceiling on the way to the door and once above it on the way to the chimney. The ceiling becomes a hot plate over the pizza, the tiles soak heat from the fire beside them, and the whole chamber comes to temperature in about 30 minutes on a fire of three or four splits. It is why a Maximus Prime pizza oven burns five to seven pounds of hardwood an hour rather than fifteen: nothing goes straight up the flue.

The Maximus Prime pizza oven's ceiling is 12.5 inches over the floor, three inches higher than the Mobile's, and that changes how it cooks in two ways. Pizza gets a little less top heat from the ceiling and a little more from the flame, so a loaded pizza with a wet center finishes evenly rather than scorching on top. And roasting gets a real chamber: a whole bird on the spit, a Dutch oven with the lid on, a rack of vegetables over a tray of potatoes. To understand the numbers on the dial, our post on pizza oven temperature covers what each range does to a pizza.

Choose Your Prime Color

Two colors, one Maximus Prime pizza oven. Body, floor, door, chimney, and cooking are identical; the difference is the powder finish on the aluminum skin and the tone of the cast stone front. Pick the color from the drop down above the Add to Cart button and the gallery follows your selection.

Maximus Prime Black

Black is the Maximus Prime pizza oven for a gray, black, or stainless outdoor kitchen, and the one most commercial buyers choose because it disappears into a truck's equipment line. The body is a satin black, the stacked stone front runs gray to charcoal, and the stainless door, chimney, and thermometer bezel are the only bright parts. On the APO stand beside a pool, as above, with two pizzas cooling on the shelf, it looks like what it is: a serious oven that happens to have wheels under it.

Maximus Prime Red

Red is the color APO photographs the Maximus Prime pizza oven in, and it is the Maximus Prime pizza oven you notice from across the yard. The body is a gloss red, the stone front shifts to sand and reddish tones that warm the whole oven up, and the Maximus logo sits on the flank. The side view above shows how much Maximus Prime pizza oven there is behind the stone: the dome is 39 inches deep, and the red skin is one unbroken curve from the front to the chimney collar.

Red suits a timber deck, a garden, or a rental patio where the oven is meant to be the centerpiece, and it suits a truck wrap that wants to be seen. The owner above built a cabinet base for a Red Maximus Prime pizza oven in a deck outdoor kitchen, with the door cut in the front for wood, and set stainless cabinets either side. Same oven, same price, same cover, same cart as the Black; only the paint and the stone tone differ.

Pizza by the Dozen on the 35 Inch Floor

Light a Maximus Prime pizza oven with three or four splits of dry hardwood and let it run for about 30 minutes with the door off. When the dial reads past 400°C and the ceiling has burned clean, rake the coals to the back and one side, keep one or two splits burning on top of them for flame, and the Maximus Prime pizza oven is ready. A 12 inch pizza goes in beside the fire and comes out in two to three minutes with a quarter turn halfway through, the crust blistered from the tile and the top colored by the flame, as above.

What the 35.4 inch floor changes is the rhythm. With the fire at the back you have room for three or four 12 inch pizzas at once, launched in sequence and turned in sequence, so a Maximus Prime pizza oven runs a queue rather than a single ticket. APO's 80 pizzas an hour figure assumes exactly that: a steady fire, a peel in each hand, and pizzas going in as others come out. A family pizza night for twelve is one fire and forty minutes of cooking. A market stall with a line is the same oven working all afternoon.

Two things to know before the first pizza in a Maximus Prime pizza oven. The dial reads the air near the front and lags the tile during the heat up, so go by the clean ceiling rather than the needle, and the HPC Fire infrared thermometer tells you the real floor temperature that the dial cannot. And the floor near the fire runs hotter than the floor by the door, so rotate pizzas between positions as well as turning them. The Maximus Prime pizza oven's wider mouth makes that easy; the Mobile's 15.5 inch door does not.

Wood matters more in a Maximus Prime pizza oven than in a gas oven because the flame is part of the cook. Kiln dried oak, hickory, or maple in 8 to 10 inch splits gives a clean, steady fire; softwood, treated wood, and anything green smokes the chamber and the pizza. Our guide to the best wood for a pizza oven covers species and moisture, and a bag of dried hardwood runs a full pizza night in this oven.

Roasting, Baking, and the Prime Rotisserie

After the pizzas, or instead of them, the Maximus Prime pizza oven is a roasting oven with a live flame and a chamber big enough to use as one. Put the door back on, leave the air holes open, and the chamber settles to a steady 250 to 300°C with the coals at the back. A half sheet pan of vegetables goes through the Maximus Prime pizza oven's 20 inch mouth flat; a spatchcocked chicken roasts in about 40 minutes with a skin no kitchen oven gives it; a pork shoulder takes the afternoon on the coals with the door on and the fire fed hourly.

For a whole chicken, a duck, or a rolled roast turning over the fire, APO makes a separate Maximus Prime rotisserie spit, a free standing stainless frame with its own drip pan that sits on the tile floor and turns by hand from a handle outside the mouth. It is sized for the Prime's 12.5 inch ceiling and 20 inch door, and it is a different product from the Maximus Mobile rotisserie spit.

The 10 by 14.5 by 3 inch Portuguese ceramic baking dish that comes with every Maximus Prime pizza oven goes in with room on every side. Fish over lemon and asparagus, a casserole, a bread pudding, a pan of roast potatoes: the dish sits beside the coals and comes out with the glaze a wood fire puts on everything. Season it before first use by soaking it in water and baking it dry at low heat, and it will outlast the oven.

Bread wants the Maximus Prime pizza oven on the way down. Once the coals are dying, close the door, wait for the dial to fall to around 230°C, and two or three round loaves bake on the tile floor in 30 to 40 minutes with a crust that comes from the stored heat in the tiles and the ceiling. A Maximus Prime pizza oven will not hold heat overnight the way a brick dome does, but an evening of pizza, then a roast, then bread on the falling heat, is a normal Saturday for one, with more of each than the Mobile can hold.

Carts, Counters, and Bases for a 400 Pound Portable Oven

The Maximus Prime pizza oven has no legs of its own; it sits flat on its base plate, and you choose what goes under it. The first answer is the Bello, APO's own cart for the Prime, a powder coated steel frame with a lower shelf and wheels, built for the 39 inch footprint, which puts the floor at working height and rolls across a patio. The owner above parked a Black Prime on its cart beside the built in grill of a stone outdoor kitchen, and that is the easiest installation there is: no base, no masonry, and the oven moves if the layout changes.

The second answer is a counter or a base you build, and because the Maximus Prime pizza oven weighs about 400 pounds rather than 1,250, the base can be a block wall with a paver cap, a poured counter, or a framed and tiled outdoor kitchen like the one above, with the oven set into the run beside a plancha and the firewood stored underneath. Any level, non combustible top rated for 400 pounds will do. The base plate is 39 inches square, so plan a top of about 42 by 42 inches to leave a lip for the peel.

The third answer for a Maximus Prime pizza oven is a cart you already own or build. The Red Prime above lives on a timber cart with casters on a deck, a fine solution if the top is non combustible and the casters lock. Clearances from APO's guide are 2 inches at the sides, 16 inches above the chimney cap, and a non combustible landing in front of the door, because the mouth and door plate get hot even though the sides do not. Under a roof or a porch, plan a flue run above the 5.9 inch chimney the way you would for a wood stove.

Height is worth a minute. The cooking floor sits a few inches above the base plate, so a base of 30 to 34 inches puts the floor between about 34 and 40 inches, where most people want it for a peel. Lower than 30 means bending to the oven all night; taller than 40 makes it hard to see the back of a pizza. If the Maximus Prime pizza oven is going on a counter beside a grill, match the grill's cooking surface height and you will be close.

The Food Truck Pizza Oven: Trucks, Trailers, and Catering

This is the use the Maximus Prime pizza oven was built for, and the one APO puts first on its own page. A food truck pizza oven has to heat fast, burn little, and keep up at the window, and a Maximus Prime pizza oven in a trailer, as above, heats in 30 minutes before service, burns a few pounds of wood an hour, turns out 80 pizzas an hour, and costs a fraction of a purpose built pizza trailer. The oven is the easy part of a mobile pizza business; the permit is the hard part, so here is where the oven fits into it.

Most state and local health departments write their mobile food unit rules from the FDA Food Code, which is the model behind retail food regulation in every state, and they inspect the unit rather than the oven. Ventilation over the mouth, fire suppression, clearances to the walls of the truck, and the flue through the roof are the questions your inspector will ask, and a truck builder who has mounted a wood fired oven before will have answers. A Maximus Prime pizza oven has no gas line, no electrical load, and no moving parts, which simplifies most of that conversation.

Catering and events are the Maximus Prime pizza oven's other trade, and here the weight matters. A Maximus Prime pizza oven does not travel like the Mobile does; it travels on a pallet or a trailer, with the chimney and door out and the tiles and dish packed separately, and it takes four people or a lift gate to get it down. Caterers who use one tend to leave it on a small trailer or a purpose built cart and tow the rig, which solves the base question at every venue. Let the oven cool fully before it moves, and lift by the body, never by the stone front.

At home the same portability means something simpler: the Maximus Prime pizza oven went where a brick oven could not. The Red Prime above sits on a stone slab table at the edge of a wood, put there without a pour, a hoist, or a mason. A large portable pizza oven at 400 pounds is still a two hour job to move with the right help, but it is a job you can do, and that is not true of any brick dome on our site.

A Commercial Wood Fired Pizza Oven for a Small Pizzeria

The pizzeria above runs a Red Maximus Prime pizza oven as its main oven, with the boxes stacked beside it and the fire lit for service. That is not unusual. At 80 twelve inch pizzas an hour, a Maximus Prime pizza oven covers a small pizzeria, a pop up, a brewery kitchen, or a restaurant that wants a wood fired section on the menu without a 3,000 pound masonry oven and the engineering that comes with it. It sits on a stainless stand, vents through a hood like any solid fuel appliance, and one cook can run it.

Two honest notes for a commercial buyer of a Maximus Prime pizza oven. Indoor installation of any wood fired oven is a local code question, hood, flue, and clearances first, and the oven does not answer it; your fire marshal and hood installer do. And a Maximus Prime pizza oven holds heat for an hour or two after the fire, not all night, so a restaurant that wants a bread program on stored heat should look at a brick dome. For everything a pizza service needs, a Maximus Prime pizza oven does it at a fraction of the weight and cost, and owners run it in trucks, cafes, and pizzerias.

If the business case is what you are weighing, our post on whether outdoor pizza ovens are worth it runs the numbers for a home buyer, and for a food business the math is simpler: one Prime, one fire, and a sixty dollar bag of hardwood is a night of service.

First Fires, Care, and the Cover

There is no five day curing schedule on a Maximus Prime pizza oven. Its walls are stainless and aluminum, not mortar and cement, so there is no water to drive out and no shell to crack. What it wants is two or three small first fires, each an hour or so, before the first full heat. The refractory tiles and the cast stone front hold some moisture from manufacture and shipping, and a gentle start lets it leave without spalling a tile. After that, fire it as hot as you like, up to the 500°C mark on the dial.

Care on a Maximus Prime pizza oven is what you would do for any stainless grill. Sweep the ash out when the oven is cold, lift a tile now and then to brush the frame, and wipe the aluminum skin with soapy water; the powder finish is tough but it is paint, so no abrasives. The stainless door and chimney will discolor with heat, which is normal and cosmetic. Hairline cracks in the cast stone front are cosmetic as well and do not affect a Maximus Prime pizza oven.

The one condition on the warranty is weather. APO requires an all weather cover on every Maximus Prime pizza oven whenever it is not in use, rain, snow, leaves, and sun included, and it makes a cover cut for this oven: heavy duty polyester with a PVC backing and a drawstring hem that slips over the body once the chimney and cap are lifted off, sold as the Maximus Prime cover. Order it with the oven and it rides free on the same delivery. The Maximus Mobile cover is cut for the 27.5 inch body and does not fit the Prime.

Who Should Buy the Maximus Prime, and Who Should Not

Buy the Maximus Prime pizza oven if you cook for eight or more on a regular basis and want three or four pizzas on the floor at once, if you are starting a food truck, trailer, market stall, or catering business and need an oven that heats in 30 minutes, or if you run a small pizzeria or cafe and want a wood fired oven without a masonry build. The outdoor kitchen above, with the toppings laid out for a party and the Prime lit behind them, is the home version: an oven that feeds a crowd without a base being poured.

Choose the Black if the kitchen is gray or stainless or the oven is going commercial; choose the Red if it is going in a garden or on a truck that wants to be seen. If the oven has to go in the back of a car, or you cook for four most nights, the Maximus Mobile is the same oven at 27.5 inches and 200 pounds, and it costs less; the Maximus Prime pizza oven is the right call only when the floor is the point.

Look at the brick domes instead if the oven is a permanent centerpiece and you want heat that lasts all night: the Pizzaioli for the fastest brick pizza floor, the Lume Largo for the same dome in gray cast stone, or the Lisboa for the tall dome that takes a rotisserie. Look at our countertop pizza oven collection for the gas ovens, the ItaliaForno line among them, if you want to turn a knob rather than light a fire; the Maximus Prime pizza oven is wood only, with no burner and no conversion.

And do not buy a Maximus Prime pizza oven for an overnight brisket or bread on stored heat at dawn. It holds cooking heat for an hour or two after the fire, not eight. The brick domes in our wood fired pizza oven collection are the ovens for that, and every oven on this page sits in our pizza ovens $2,000 and up collection if you want to compare it against the other serious ovens we carry.

What to Order With It

The Maximus Prime pizza oven crate already holds more than most ovens ship with. Every Maximus Prime pizza oven comes with the stainless chimney, flue, and cap, the Portuguese ceramic baking dish, a stainless steel pizza peel, the dial thermometer, an ash and wood holder, and one spare floor tile. What the crate does not hold is the cover, the cart, the spit, and the tools, and all four ride free once the oven is in the cart.

Two things belong on the same order with a Maximus Prime pizza oven. The first is the Maximus Prime cover, which is a warranty condition and not a suggestion. The second is the five piece starter pack, because the included peel launches and retrieves but a turner, a wooden peel to build on, a brush, and an ash shovel are what a three pizza floor needs, and they come as one set.

If the oven is not going on a counter or a base you already have, add the Bello cart for the Prime; it is built for the 39 inch footprint, and the Maximus Mobile stand is not, so do not order that one for this oven. If roast chicken is on the menu, add the Maximus Prime rotisserie spit. The BBQ grill rack stands over the coals on the tile floor for steaks and vegetables through that 20 inch mouth, the HPC Fire infrared thermometer reads the real tile temperature, everything else is in our pizza oven accessories collection, and a bag of kiln dried hardwood in 8 to 10 inch splits gets you through the first night.

Buying the Maximus Prime From Crustify

Every Maximus Prime pizza oven ships direct from the brand's Texas warehouse in a slatted wood crate on a pallet, as above, by freight carrier, curbside. The freight is free because the oven clears our $750 threshold on its own; the one charge at checkout is the $95 liftgate fee every oven over 150 pounds carries, for the hydraulic gate the carrier needs to lower a 400 pound pallet at a home address. Shipping to a business with a loading dock or forklift? Contact us and we refund it. We do not ship to Alaska, Hawaii, or Puerto Rico, and a remote or mountain address may carry a carrier surcharge that we confirm with you before the oven ships.

Plan the move of a Maximus Prime pizza oven from the curb before delivery day. The crate comes off the truck onto your driveway; from there the oven goes to its base on a pallet jack, an appliance dolly with straps, or with four people on the base plate. Take the chimney, door, dish, and spare tile out of the crate first, and never lift by the stone front. Lead times are confirmed when you order, since APO builds in Portugal and stocks in Texas, and we tell you the honest date before your card is charged rather than after.

Inspect the Maximus Prime pizza oven crate before you sign for it. Note any damage on the delivery receipt, even a cracked slat, because a signed clean receipt gives up most of your protection. Concealed damage found after opening has a five day reporting window. Unused ovens still in their crate can be returned within 14 days, with the return freight paid by the buyer, which is why we would rather answer every question before you order than process a return after.

The warranty on a Maximus Prime pizza oven is three years on the structure, materials, and craftsmanship, on two conditions covered above: keep it covered when it is not in use, and if it goes on a truck or trailer, do the modification first. What separates dealers on this oven is delivery included, the cover and the cart on the same order, and who answers the phone afterward.

Here, chat and email go straight to the owner, and a real answer usually comes the same day, including help choosing between the Maximus Prime pizza oven and the Mobile, or between this and a brick dome, before you commit. Financing is available at checkout through our financing page, the pizza oven buying guide walks through wood against gas, or contact us directly.

Maximus Prime, Maximus Mobile, and the Brick Domes

Order the cover and the starter pack with the oven and they ride free on the same delivery. The Maximus Prime pizza oven clears the $750 free shipping threshold by itself.

KEY FEATURES

• Authentic Pizza Ovens Maximus Prime large portable pizza oven, handmade in Portugal, north of Lisbon, in Black or Red with a stacked cast stone front
• Double wall body: 304-2B stainless steel inner chamber, high temperature ceramic fiber and bio soluble safety blankets, 1.4 mm aluminum outer skin that stays cool at the sides
• 39 W x 39 D and 30.3 inches tall, 44.5 with the chimney and cap; about 400 lb, on any base rated for the weight
• 35.4 x 35.4 inch refractory tile floor rated to 1,200°C under a 12.5 inch false ceiling; three or four 12 inch pizzas at a time, up to 80 an hour, or 150 at 10 inches
• False ceiling flue path: heat rolls forward under the ceiling and back over it to the rear chimney, so the oven reaches pizza temperature in about 30 minutes
• 20 x 11 inch lift off stainless steel door with air holes and a wooden handle; work through the open mouth for pizza, door on for roasting and bread
• 5.9 inch stainless chimney with flue and cap, mounted at the back of the dome
• Cast stone front molded in refractory cement over a forged iron frame; gray and charcoal tones on the Black, sand and reddish tones on the Red
• Bimetallic dial thermometer, 0 to 500°C, mounted in the stone beside the door
• Includes stainless chimney with flue and cap, 10 x 14.5 x 3 inch Portuguese ceramic baking dish, stainless steel pizza peel, thermometer, ash and wood holder, and one spare floor tile
• Sits on APO's Prime cart, an outdoor kitchen counter, a block base, or a truck counter; no masonry, no crane, no curing schedule
• The food truck pizza oven in the APO range: trailer and truck use with APO's after purchase securing modification, catering on a trailer or cart, and small pizzeria service
• Two or three small first fires, then full heat to 500°C on the dial; wood only, about five to seven pounds of hardwood an hour at temperature
• Three year structural warranty from Authentic Pizza Ovens, with an APO cover required whenever the oven is not in use
• Free freight shipping direct from the brand's Texas warehouse, with a $95 residential liftgate fee at checkout; accessories ride free on the same order

SPECIFICATIONS

APO's drawing for the Maximus Prime pizza oven is in centimeters: A 99 cm (39 in) wide and deep, B 77 cm (30.3 in) to the top of the dome, C 113 cm (44.5 in) with the chimney and cap, D 15 cm (5.9 in) chimney, E 90 cm (35.4 in) cooking floor, and a door of F 50 cm (19.7 in) wide, G 28 cm (11 in) high, and H 27.5 cm (10.8 in) along the angled side. The inch figures in the tables below are APO's published rounding of the same oven. Every oven is handmade, so expect small variations.

By color

Shared specifications

VIDEO

Nine videos. The first three are Authentic Pizza Ovens' own films for the Maximus family: how to build and manage the fire, how to cook pizza in a Maximus, and a walk around the oven. They cover both the Prime and the smaller Mobile; the body, the fire, and the cooking are the same on both sizes. The six short clips below them are from customers cooking on their ovens: pizzas at the window, roasted vegetables, a bone in strip steak, and a Friday night in the backyard.

INSTALLATION GUIDE & USER MANUAL

Site and base. Choose a level spot with 2 inches of clearance at the sides of the oven, 16 inches above the chimney cap, and a non combustible landing in front of the door. Set the oven on a surface rated for 400 pounds, about 42 by 42 inches and 30 to 34 inches high: a block base, a poured or framed counter, a stainless stand, or the APO Prime cart. Under a roof, run a flue above the chimney as you would for a wood stove.

Unpacking. The Maximus Prime pizza oven arrives crated on a pallet at the curb. Open the crate in place, lift out the chimney, door, dish, peel, thermometer, ash holder, and spare tile, and move the oven to its base on a pallet jack, an appliance dolly with straps, or with four people on the base plate, never by the stone front. Set it on the base, fit the chimney into its collar at the back of the dome, fit the cap, and screw the thermometer into its hole in the stone beside the door.

First fires. Two or three small fires of an hour each in a Maximus Prime pizza oven, a few small splits of dry hardwood at the back of the floor, before the first full heat. This dries the tiles and the cast stone gently. Never use softwood, treated wood, charcoal lighter, or any accelerant, and never exceed 500°C on the dial.

Every fire. Build the fire at the back of the floor with the door off. In about 30 minutes the ceiling burns clean and the dial passes 400°C. Rake the coals to the back and one side, keep one or two splits burning for flame, and cook pizzas through the open mouth, rotating between the hot side and the door side. For roasting and bread, set the door in place; its air holes feed the fire. Sweep ash out once the oven is cold, and lift a tile to brush the frame now and then.

Moving it. Let the Maximus Prime pizza oven cool completely. Remove the chimney and the door, pack the dish, tiles, and tools separately, and move the oven on a pallet, a dolly, or with four people. For a food truck or trailer, complete APO's securing modification (added bolts from the dome into the face, adequate suspension, oven tied down to the counter) before the first trip; ask us for the instructional video.

After cooking. Let the oven cool fully before covering. Cover it whenever it is not in use, in every season. Wipe the painted skin with soapy water only. Season the ceramic dish before first use by soaking it in water, then baking it dry at low heat.

We send APO's setup guide, clearance diagram, and dish seasoning instructions with every order confirmation.

WARRANTY INFORMATION

Term. Authentic Pizza Ovens warrants the Maximus Prime pizza oven, in both colors, for three years against structural defects in materials and craftsmanship, from the date of delivery, to the original purchaser.

Conditions. The oven must be protected from weather with an APO cover or equivalent all weather protection whenever it is not in use. An oven that is left uncovered is not covered. Never use accelerants, never exceed 500°C, and never mount the oven in a truck or trailer without APO's securing modification; an oven used on the road without it is outside the warranty.

Exclusions. Heat discoloration of the stainless door and chimney, and hairline cracking of the cast stone front, are normal, cosmetic, and not defects. Broken floor tiles from thermal shock or dropped pans are wear items; a spare ships with the oven and replacements are available. Damage from moisture or freezing water in an uncovered oven, from accelerants, from road use without the modification, or from misuse is excluded. The complimentary ceramic dish carries no warranty.

Claims. Contact us first. We handle the claim with APO on your behalf, and we will ask for photos and your order number. Shipping damage is a separate matter from warranty: it must be noted on the delivery receipt at the time of delivery, or reported within five days for concealed damage, for a claim to succeed.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS - FAQ'S

Your Questions Answered Before You Buy

These are the questions we get most often about the Maximus Prime pizza oven, answered straight. If yours is not here, chat or email goes to the owner and you will usually hear back the same day.