Gozney Tread pizza oven review: The most portable pizza oven

Of the three pizza ovens currently in rotation in my backyard (I know, I know, how much pizza can one man eat?), Gozney’s Tread is easily the smallest. It’s also limited to the smallest pizza — it can handle only a 12-inch pie. Yet it’s just as capable, if not more, than the others.

That’s largely due to the host of purpose-built accessories that work with the Tread, as well as its compact size. It’s meant to travel, and it weighs just 30 pounds. Take it with you to the park, or on a camping trip, and open up tons of cooking options far away from the home kitchen.

I’ve enjoyed using the Tread more than I thought I would given its size. But it does take a lot of attention to cook with this small, powerful, and rugged unit, lest you burn your meal before it leaves the oven. If you’re looking for the best pizza oven for your next camping trip or family outing to the park, the Tread is a solid bet.

Gozney Tread review: Price and availability

The Gozney Tread costs $500 and is available for sale starting March 11, 2025. You can purchase the Tread on Gozney’s website, and finance through Shop if you want to split the purchase up into multiple payments. If you prefer to buy in person, Gozney also includes a dealer locator on its website.

The Tread comes with a one-year warranty that you can extend to five years at no charge once you register the product.

Gozney Tread review: Design

While the Tread is smaller than other ovens in my arsenal, it’s still built stoutly and can handle some impressive cooking duties. The aluminum and steel construction make it rugged, and you can rest assured it will survive the drive in the back of a tightly-packed SUV trunk.

Within the Tread, you’ll find a Cordierite cooking stone. Upon first use, you’ll need to season the stone, which basically means heating up the oven and letting it run on high for 45 minutes to an hour. Easy peasy.

Since the oven is small and well insulated, it’s easy to get the Tread up to 950 degrees very quickly. You can heat up the oven in as little as 15 minutes, though you’ll probably end up around 650 degrees instead of the full-blast temperature.

Once you’re done cooking, the oven cools down in around 20 minutes, so you can pack it up and move on pretty quickly once the food is cooked and eaten.

Much of that impressive heat comes from the lateral gas burner, which lives on the left side of the cooking chamber. It shoots a flame vertically up that wall, and then across the top of the oven, to cook food evenly. Since the oven chamber is very small, this powerful flame heats things up quickly (which is both a benefit and a concern. More on that in a moment).

The Tread is designed to cook pizza, but you can also cook other meals in this oven. Cast-iron pans filled with meats, veggies, and whatever combination of the two that you can dream up broaden the Tread’s cooking capabilities.

My test unit came with a lot of accessories that don’t come stock with the Tread. The marquee accessory is the Tread Venture Stand, which allows you to set the oven up just about anywhere and level it to ensure it’s stable. It’s not necessary to use the stand in order to cook with the oven, but it does open up a lot more placement opportunities.

Gozney Tread review: Performance

The first time I fired up the Tread oven, I seasoned it for about 45 minutes. This took just about no effort: simply hook up the included hose to a propane tank, install the starter battery into the oven, and turn it on. The auto-start feature gets the flame going in no time at all.

Once the oven was up to around 900 degrees, I let it sit for a while to give it a little more seasoning time, while I went inside to get my first pizza ready for the oven.

Then, I forgot to turn the temperature down. So I burned the first pizza pretty easily. Using other ovens, my process usually involves turning the temperature down right before I put the pizza in. But since the Tread’s chamber is so small and its flame is so powerful, the stone will be extremely hot, even if you turn the temperature down.

Be sure to use the infrared thermometer (sold separately) to check the temperature of the stone before you put your pizza in. The pizza was salvageable, but the bottom was black and came away with an overwhelming ashy flavor. I used a pizza peel from another brand, which isn’t vented like the Gozney peel is. Had I used the Gozney peel, a lot of the flour that was on the bottom of my pizza would have shaken off before I put it in the oven, perhaps reducing the burnt flavor.

The pizza also cooks in seconds, quite literally. That first pizza took all of 45 seconds, if that, to cook through. You’ll need to keep a close eye on the pizza once it’s in the oven and turn it frequently to prevent overcooking your pie.

My second time using the oven was more successful. The key here is to get the stone hot, then turn down the temperature to get it balanced enough that you don’t burn the bottom or the top. It’s tough because the oven is so small, but if you pay attention carefully before tossing your pizza in, the results are fantastic.

The lateral gas burner is really an impressive design. Other gas-powered ovens I’ve used, like the Ooni Koda 16, employ an L-shaped burner that wraps around one side and the back of the oven chamber. The Tread’s flame instead starts on the left hand wall, shoots upward, and then follows the curve of the oven roof to heat from above. That leads to more even cooking.

Once I got my pizza cooking method down, I wanted to try the oven out with other meals. So I grabbed some chicken thighs and potatoes, put them in a small cast-iron pan, and got the oven up to temperature.

Once again, it’s best to heat the stone quite high, then turn the temperature down to your desired cooking temperature. Let the stone cool a bit, then pop your food in.

The chicken cooked evenly, and the meal was delicious. But I also learned to be careful with oils in the pan. Since the flame is quite close to the food being cooked, that oil can pop and splatter upwards, causing smoke. I don’t know if it’s a fire hazard honestly, but it definitely had me checking everything very often.

It takes a bit longer to cook chicken than it does to cook a pizza, but you’ll still be dealing with reduced cooking times here. If you wanted to cook a steak, for example, this is a great way to sear it. But leave it in too long and you’ll have some tough meat to chew through. Again, this is not a set-it-and-forget-it cooking method. You’ll need to pay close attention.

I used the Tread Venture Stand on my back patio. It has four legs instead of the typical three you’d see on a tripod. It’s pretty easy to set up the legs, though once they’re extended and the oven is in place, it is cumbersome to move the entire unit.

The stand features a level on top, so you can get your legs situated properly before putting the oven on. It’s easy to slot the oven in place, and a pull handle secures the oven on the stand so it won’t fall off. The oven does wobble a bit when it’s on the stand, which I found a little disconcerting. It can also rotate on the stand, which can come in handy if you’re moving around the unit a lot during the cooking process.

One thing I wish The Tread had is a place to hang the various cooking tools you’ll need to cook pizzas. A small hook to hang the pizza peels, for example, would be super useful. I often found myself searching for a place to put these tools down so I could immediately focus my attention on the rapidly-cooking food.

Gozney Tread review: Accessories

Gozney kindly sent me several of its accessories to test out, beside the Tread Venture Stand ($250) I already mentioned. For storage, the Tread Venture Bag ($100) features a hardshell on top and bottom and lots of room within for the oven and accessories.

I also used the Tread Mantel ($90), which slots into the front of the oven and gives you a deck on which to check your pizza, or leverage peels and other tools.

Speaking of peels, Gozney sent me two: The Venture Placement Peel ($80) and the Venture Turning Peel ($70). Both are well-made and attractive, and I found the turning peel especially useful, since you’ll be turning your pizza frequently and quickly.

Gozney also sent me the Tread Roof Rack with removable cutting board ($100) that mounts to the top of the oven; an Infrared Thermometer ($50) to check the temperature within the oven safely; and a Pizza Cutter ($45) which is super-well-built and attractive.

One accessory I wish they had sent me was the Dough Tray ($50), which lets you safely store your dough and monitor it for freshness.

Gozney Tread review: Competition

Home pizza ovens have cropped up all over the place in recent years, so the competition is big. Ooni is perhaps Gozney’s prime competitor; the Ooni Koda 12 costs $400 and also maxes out at a 12-inch pizza. The other specs are also similar to the Tread, but the Koda 12 weighs just 20 pounds.

But users have complained about uneven heating with the Koda 12, since the heating element is in the back of the oven. And it’s very susceptible to effects from even light winds.

Other competition includes the Solo Stove Pi Prime Pizza Oven ($350), which weighs 30 pounds and is fairly portable. It also features burners on multiple sides of the oven for more even heating.

Gozney Tread review: Verdict

I ended up liking the Gozney Tread a lot more than I thought I would, given its size. I was pleasantly surprised by its versatility and even cooking temperatures, despite the steeper learning curve and having to pay very, very close attention while cooking. Still, everything cooks so quickly that a bit of extra attention isn’t exactly a painful sacrifice.

The Tread Venture Stand definitely opens up a lot more opportunity for stable placement of the oven, though I found the connection between oven and stand to be disconcertingly wobbly. All of the other accessories are stout, well-made, and very useful.

Overall, the Tread is ideal for campers, families looking to spice up the picnic at the park, or backyard pizza lovers who want a quick way to cook pie any evening. It’s a no set-it-and-forget-it cooking solution, so look elsewhere if you’re not willing to give the Tread the attention it needs.