ItaliaForno Famiglia Gas Pizza Oven

Description

The ItaliaForno Famiglia pizza oven is the family sized gas oven in the ItaliaForno line: a 122 pound Italian made propane oven with a 15.7 by 15.7 inch refractory floor, a 30,709 BTU burner across the back wall, and a 30 by 25 inch footprint that fits a patio table, a balcony rail or an outdoor kitchen counter. It cooks one 14 to 16 inch pizza at a time, or two small ones, and it does it at 800°F in about 90 seconds once the floor is up to heat.

What you get for $2,395 is the oven body, the propane burner, the chimney and cap, the door, the refractory floor, a thermometer in the front face and the adapter that connects it to a standard US propane tank. The price is set by ItaliaForno and is the same at every dealer, so where you buy comes down to who you would rather deal with after the pallet lands on your driveway.

The Famiglia pizza oven is gas only. It is not a hybrid; wood, charcoal or pellets in the chamber void the warranty, and the one hybrid in the line is the Grande Pro Duo. It is propane only, with no natural gas option today. And it is an outdoor oven with a two year residential warranty that asks for one thing: cover it when it is not in use. Those three facts decide whether this is the right oven before the rest of the page does.

Ordered from Crustify, the Famiglia pizza oven ships boxed on a pallet from ItaliaForno's Texas warehouse, in stock as we write this, with liftgate delivery to a home driveway for the $95 fee every pallet oven on this site carries. Chat and email go straight to the owner, and the oven is excluded from every sitewide coupon because ItaliaForno holds a strict MSRP.

The rest of this page covers how a rear burner cooks, what the 15.7 inch floor does, cooking on it, flame control and propane, where it sits and what it clears, cover and care, how it compares with the other gas ovens we carry, and buying it from Crustify. The spec table, the factory drawing, the manuals and three videos follow the description.

A Rear Burner Oven: How the Famiglia Cooks

The burner in the Famiglia pizza oven runs across the back wall of the chamber behind a curved heat deflector, so the flame climbs the back wall and rolls forward across the dome toward the mouth. That is the layout that lets a gas oven cook like a wood oven: the top of the pizza sees flame and radiant heat from the dome, and the refractory floor, once it has soaked up 30 to 50 minutes of that heat, does the crust from below. Turn the pizza a quarter at a time and the side facing the back wall browns first, exactly as it would beside a wood fire.

The control knob on the front face sets the burner from a low hold to full output, and a pilot flame with a thermocouple keeps it lit in a breeze. Low is where a preheated floor lives between pizzas; high is for the preheat and for pushing the dome back up to color after a run of pies has pulled heat out of it. The thermometer in the front face reads the chamber air, and an infrared thermometer pointed at the tile is the better guide to when the floor is ready.

There is no ash, no wood to split and no fire to manage. The Famiglia pizza oven lights in about 15 seconds, sits on low while the dough proofs, and is put away with the turn of a valve. That is what gas buys over a wood fired oven, and the flame across the back wall is what keeps it from cooking like a home oven.

The 15.7 Inch Floor: One Big Pizza, Done Right

The cooking floor is 15.7 by 15.7 inches of refractory tile, under a dome that rolls the flame forward from the back, behind a door about 13.4 inches wide. Those numbers decide what the Famiglia pizza oven will and will not do. It takes one 14 to 16 inch pizza at a time with room to turn it, or two 8 inch personal pizzas side by side, a 12 inch cast iron skillet, a half sheet of focaccia, or a chicken spatchcocked on a rack. What it will not take is two large pizzas at once; that is the Grande Pro Duo's job.

ItaliaForno's own capacity guide says 14 to 16 inch pizzas, up to two at a time. On a 15.7 inch floor, two at a time means two small ones, and we would rather you know that before the oven arrives than after. For a family of four to six, one 16 inch pizza every two minutes is more than the table can eat, which is the point of the name: famiglia is family, and this is the oven sized for one.

For comparison, the three compact ItaliaForno ovens, the Allegro, the Bambino and the Fornello, cook one 12 to 13 inch pizza at a time on a smaller floor for $700 less, and the Grande Pro Duo takes two large pizzas on a 31.5 inch floor for $2,600 more. The Famiglia pizza oven is the middle of the line: a full size pizza, a floor that holds heat between pies, and a body that one person can still lift onto a counter.

Cooking on the Famiglia

Preheat is 30 to 50 minutes with the door on and the burner on high, and the smaller floor of the Famiglia pizza oven is usually ready at the low end of that. The oven will reach 1,000°F; ItaliaForno asks that you cook at 850°F or below for the life of the tiles and the gaskets. Neapolitan style at 800°F takes about 90 seconds with two turns; a New York style pie at 650°F takes four to five minutes; a thicker pan pizza cooks at 550°F with the burner on low.

After pizza, drop the burner to low and the Famiglia pizza oven is a roasting oven for the rest of the night. Skin on chicken at 450°F, a tray of vegetables, a cast iron skillet of shrimp, bread at 500°F with a pan of water for steam. FoodSafety.gov puts poultry at 165°F and pork roasts at 145°F with a rest, and a probe is the only way to know a roast in a 600°F oven is there.

ItaliaForno's own walk through of a first pizza, from dough to the oven floor. The stretch, the launch and the turn are the same on every oven in the line.

The habit to build is the turn. A rear burner oven browns the side of the pizza that faces the flame, so the peel comes back in at 30 seconds for a quarter turn, again at 60, and the pizza comes out at 90 with an even rim. Once that rhythm is in your hands the Famiglia pizza oven turns out a pizza every two minutes for as long as the dough lasts, with the floor holding its heat between them.

Flame Control, Ignition and Propane

The Famiglia pizza oven is propane only. ItaliaForno does not offer a natural gas option today; if you need one, ask us before you order and we will check current availability with the brand. The oven ships with the adapter that mates its European inlet to a standard US propane tank, and at 30,709 BTU the burner draws about 1.4 pounds of propane an hour at full output, so a 20 pound tank is roughly 14 hours at full burn and a summer of pizza nights on low.

Ignition is a pilot flame with a thermocouple, lit by a push button spark igniter that runs on a single small battery, included. Open the tank, turn the knob to the spark mark, press and hold it, press the igniter until the pilot catches, hold the knob about 15 seconds so the thermocouple heats, and release. The main burner lights from the pilot. If the flame ever blows out, the thermocouple shuts the gas, which is why the knob is held on the first light. It is the same sequence on every ItaliaForno oven and it is shown in the setup video further down.

Gas only means gas only. The Famiglia pizza oven has no firebox and no fire separator, and burning wood, charcoal or pellets in the chamber voids the two year warranty. If a wood fire is part of what you want from an oven, the Grande Pro Duo is the ItaliaForno that does both, and the Maximus Mobile is the wood fired oven at this price.

Where It Sits: Counter, Table, Balcony, Cart

At 122 pounds and 30 by 25 inches, the Famiglia pizza oven is a countertop oven in the real sense: it sits on an outdoor kitchen counter, a sturdy patio table, a block base or the ItaliaForno cart, $495 and sold separately, which puts a tank shelf underneath it and casters under that. Whatever it sits on has to be level, non combustible and rated for the weight; a glass patio table is not.

The manual's clearances are 8 inches from walls on all sides, 20 inches clear on each side of the chimney and 40 inches above it, outdoors in the open. That is the rule that decides a balcony. Most apartment fire codes and many HOAs limit or prohibit propane on a balcony, and an overhang closer than 40 inches rules the spot out on its own, so check both before you buy an oven for one. On a townhome patio or a rooftop deck with open sky, the Famiglia pizza oven is the size that fits.

Moving it is a two person lift by the base with the chimney, the door and the floor tiles out, and only when it is cold and disconnected. On the cart it rolls; on a counter it stays put; on a table it comes off for the winter.

Keeping It Outside: Cover and Care

The Famiglia pizza oven lives outdoors, and the warranty's corrosion clause is written for an oven left uncovered through a wet season. Cover it when it is cold, with a breathable outdoor oven cover that fits a 30 by 25 inch body 44 inches tall with the chimney on, or 21 inches tall with the chimney lifted off; ItaliaForno does not list its own cover yet, and we will point you to one that fits when you order. Take the propane cylinder off for long storage and keep it upright and outdoors.

Cleaning is a brush on the floor after each cook, a vacuum around the burner every few weeks so crumbs do not block the ports, and a wipe of the stainless front with a stainless cleaner. A thin film of food grade oil on the steel after cleaning is ItaliaForno's own advice against surface rust. Heat discoloration on the stainless is normal and not covered, and the door, the floor tiles, the gaskets and the igniter battery are consumables.

Which Gas Pizza Oven

Crustify carries four ovens that run on propane without a wood fire, and they are not the same oven in different shells. Here is the set, so the Famiglia pizza oven is chosen against the others rather than in a vacuum.

The short version: the Famiglia pizza oven is the Italian made gas oven that cooks a full 16 inch pizza and stays on a counter, the compacts are the same oven family for a smaller space, the Grande Pro Duo is the one with wood, and the Kucht and the Halo are the lighter, cheaper gas ovens that ship by parcel. If two of them look right, contact us with a photo of the space and we will tell you which one fits it.

Buying the Famiglia From Crustify

ItaliaForno is a woman owned American brand whose ovens are built in Sicily by a family maker with more than sixty years of oven making, recognized in 2016 with the "Sicilians at Home and in the World" honor. Their line runs from three compacts through the Famiglia pizza oven to the Grande Pro Duo at the top, and their own line for it is "One of Italy's Finest Pizza Ovens, Now Made for Your Backyard." Crustify is an authorized ItaliaForno dealer, and every ItaliaForno oven, cart and accessory we carry is on the ItaliaForno brand page.

A private chef, on camera, on why he cooks on ItaliaForno ovens. ItaliaForno's own clip.

The Famiglia pizza oven ships boxed on a 48 by 48 inch pallet, 172 pounds crated, from ItaliaForno's warehouse near Houston, Texas, in stock and usually on the truck within 7 business days. Freight is free across the site on orders over $750, and every pallet oven carries the $95 residential liftgate fee at checkout so the driver lowers it to your driveway; delivery is curbside, so have a second pair of hands for the last thirty feet. Inspect the box before signing and report any damage to us within 24 hours, which is ItaliaForno's window.

Unused ovens in their original packaging can be returned within 14 days with return freight paid by the buyer. The oven is excluded from every Crustify coupon code because ItaliaForno sets a strict MSRP and enforces it, which is also why our price and theirs match to the dollar.

With the Famiglia pizza oven in the cart, the two things it needs are a cover and, if it is not going on a counter, the ItaliaForno cart, $495; the ItaliaForno infrared thermometer, $49.95, is the cheap upgrade for reading the floor rather than the air. All three are added by chat or email until their pages are live, and they ship on the same pallet. Everything else for outdoor pizza is in our pizza oven accessories collection. Chat and email go straight to the owner and are usually answered the same day.

In stock in Texas, ships boxed on a pallet with liftgate delivery. Strict MSRP, no coupons, and the same $2,395 everywhere; buy it from the dealer you would rather talk to afterward.

KEY FEATURES

• ItaliaForno Famiglia pizza oven, the family sized gas oven in the ItaliaForno line, made in Italy
• 9 kW / 30,709 BTU propane burner across the back wall behind a heat deflector, flame rolling forward over the dome; knob control from low to high
• 15.7 x 15.7 inch refractory floor; one 14 to 16 inch pizza at a time or two 8 inch, a 12 inch skillet or a half sheet pan
• Reaches 1,000°F, cook at 850°F or below; 30 to 50 minute preheat, about 90 seconds a pizza at 800°F
• Pilot flame ignition with thermocouple safety, push button spark on a small battery, battery in the box; thermometer in the front face
• Black steel body with a stainless front, 30 W x 25.2 D inches, 44 inches tall with the chimney, about 21 inches with it off; 122 lb
• In the box: oven, propane burner, chimney and cap, door, refractory floor, heat deflector, control knob, thermometer and the adapter for a standard US propane tank
• Propane only; gas only, no wood; no natural gas option offered today, ask us if you need one
• Countertop oven for a patio table, an outdoor kitchen counter, a block base or the ItaliaForno cart ($495, sold separately)
• 2 year residential outdoor warranty; cover required when not in use
• Ships boxed on a pallet from Texas, 172 lb crated, free freight with the $95 liftgate fee, in stock, 7 business days

SPECIFICATIONS

The factory drawing for the Famiglia pizza oven, in millimeters with inches in brackets: 752 mm (29.6 in) across the body, 565 mm (22.2 in) deep, 467 mm (18.4 in) to the top of the oven, a 588 mm (23.1 in) chimney of 120 mm (4.7 in) diameter, and a 400 by 407 mm (15.7 by 16 in) floor. ItaliaForno's published 30 by 25.2 inch footprint and 44 inch height include the knob, the rear fittings and the cap. The revision notes on the sheet record the door widened to 34 cm and the pilot and igniter updates. Handmade, so expect small variations.

INSTALLATION GUIDE & USER MANUAL

ItaliaForno's setup video: the oven on its cart, the floor tiles, the propane adapter and its dimensions, the chimney, the igniter battery, the heat deflector and the knob, through to first light.

Unboxing. The Famiglia pizza oven arrives boxed on a pallet with the chimney, the door, the floor tiles and the accessories packed separately. Cut the box away, check every part against the packing list and photograph any damage before the oven moves; the claim window is 24 hours. Lift the body with two people, by the base, never by the chimney collar or the door frame.

Assembly. No tools. Fit the four feet, or set the oven on its cart or counter. Slide the refractory tiles into the floor without forcing them. Seat the chimney in its collar on top of the oven and bend the four prongs of the cap inward to hold it. Push the control knob onto its shaft on the front. Inside the back of the chamber, hang the curved heat deflector on the two studs above the burner with its keyhole slots. Set the door onto its mounting points.

Gas. Fit the supplied adapter to the G1/2 inlet at the rear, connect a standard US propane tank through it with the tank upright and clear of the oven, and leak test every joint with soapy water before the first light. Never test with a flame. Close the tank valve after every cook and never store a cylinder, full or empty, near the oven.

First light. Knob off, tank valve open slowly, knob turned to the spark mark and pressed in, igniter pressed until the pilot catches, knob held in about 15 seconds, release. The main burner lights. Door on, 30 to 50 minutes to cooking temperature. The first firing will smell as coatings cure; that passes. If the pilot does not catch in 60 seconds, turn the knob off, wait five minutes and start again.

Care. Brush the floor after each cook, vacuum around the burner every few weeks, wipe the stainless front, oil the steel lightly, replace the igniter battery when the spark weakens, and cover the cold oven. Move it only cold, disconnected, with the chimney, door and tiles out. Never burn wood, charcoal or pellets in it.

WARRANTY INFORMATION

Term. ItaliaForno warrants the Famiglia pizza oven to the original purchaser against defects in materials and workmanship for two years from the date of purchase, for residential outdoor use.

Conditions. The oven must be installed outdoors in the open, on a stable non combustible base, with the clearances in the manual, connected to propane through a certified regulator by someone qualified to do it, and covered with a protective cover whenever it is not in use. Proof of purchase is required for any claim.

Exclusions. Burning wood, charcoal, pellets or any fuel other than propane; commercial use; installation indoors or in an enclosed space; use in a vehicle; modification of any component; overheating past the rated temperature; corrosion from weather exposure without a cover; normal discoloration of the stainless; cosmetic wear; grease fires and neglected maintenance. The door, the refractory tiles, the gaskets and the igniter battery are consumables and are not covered.

Claims. Contact us first with photos and your order number and we handle the claim with ItaliaForno on your behalf. Shipping damage is separate from the warranty: note it on the delivery receipt or report it to us within 24 hours of delivery.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS - FAQ'S

Your Questions Answered Before You Buy

These are the questions we get most often about the Famiglia 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.