Head-to-head comparisons
Bertello Grande vs Ooni Karu 2 Pro
Both cook 16 inch pizzas over wood. They solve the hardest problem in wood firing — holding temperature while you manage a fire — in completely different ways.
The short answer
Bertello's Grande was the choice if you wanted wood flavor without managing a fire for temperature — it ran gas and wood simultaneously, with burners above and below a square 16 x 16 in stone. Ooni if you want to actually cook over a fire — the Karu 2 Pro's glass door, 17 in cooking area and food probe make it the better wood oven. Bertello publishes 900 F; Ooni publishes 950 F.
| Oven | Fuel | Max pizza | Peak temp | Stone | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ooni Karu 2 Pro | Multi-fuel | 16" | 950 F | 0.6" | 62.6 lb |
| Bertello Grande | Multi-fuel | 16" | 900 F | not published | not published |
Every figure is the maker's own published number. Blank cells mean the maker does not publish it, which is a finding rather than an omission on our part.
Two answers to the same problem
A wood fire has to do two jobs at once and is bad at doing both. It must hold the chamber at temperature — a steady, boring job a gas burner does perfectly — and it must throw the live rolling flame that chars a rim, which is the one thing gas cannot replicate.
Bertello splits the jobs between two systems. Gas holds the temperature while a small wood fire supplies the flame, running at the same time. You stop feeding a fire to maintain heat, which is the part of wood cooking that competes for attention with stretching dough.
Ooni makes the single fire easier to manage. A full borosilicate glass door means you read the fire without opening the chamber and venting it, and a digital hub with a food probe means you know the temperature without guessing. The fire still does both jobs — you are just no longer flying blind.
Neither is a compromise. They are genuinely different engineering, and which one is right depends on whether you find fire management enjoyable or annoying.
The stone: square and heated from below, or round and larger
Bertello's is 16 x 16 in and square, with the unusual detail that its FlameThrower system puts one burner under the stone and one above it. Under-stone heating is rare in this category and it directly attacks the problem that dominates the rest of this site: a floor that gives up stored heat into consecutive pizzas and slows down. An oven that can actively reheat its floor depends less on stone mass — which is fortunate, because Bertello does not publish a stone thickness.
Ooni's is a 17 in cooking area with 5.7 in of internal height, on a 0.6 in floor. Bigger surface, published thickness, no under-stone burner. Being square, Bertello's suits Sicilian, Detroit and sheet-pan shapes that a round floor wastes space on.
Where each one is weak
Bertello publishes very little. No weight, no stone thickness, no BTU rating. Two of the four figures this site compares ovens on are missing, and that is why it sits below the Karu 2 Pro on the multi-fuel roundup despite the more interesting design. Its peak is also 900 F against Ooni's 950 F — modest in absolute terms, and it is the part of the range that does the most work at the Neapolitan end.
Ooni's gas burner is extra. The Karu 2 Pro ships wood-and-charcoal ready; gas is a separate purchase. Bertello's Grande included its gas burner in the box, so the sticker prices were never directly comparable — a point the what's in the box guide covers across the whole category.
Ooni is heavier and taller. 62.6 lb, standing 32.4 in on legs with a 32.4 x 19.8 in footprint. In practice a fixed installation. Bertello does not publish a weight, so it cannot be compared on that at all.
Both produce ash, need a chimney kept clear, and take longer to shut down than a gas oven. That is the standing cost of wood, covered in the fuel guide.
One unexpected differentiator: natural gas
Bertello sold a separate natural-gas burner for the Grande, and no such burner appears in Bertello's current store. Ooni's Karu line is propane-or-wood only — the natural-gas variants are in the Koda range.
If you have an outdoor gas point and want wood capability too, none of the ovens on this site that are on sale now offers both. The HALO Versa 16 is the 16 in oven with a maker-published natural-gas kit, but it is gas only. The whole picture is in natural gas vs propane.
Quick picks
Ranked for fit, not for hype. Every figure below is the maker’s own published number, and “n/p” means they do not publish it — which is itself worth knowing. Tap a row for the full write-up, or go straight to the listing.
| # | Oven | Best for | Max pizza | Weight | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Ooni Karu 2 ProThe biggest multi-fuel oven Ooni makes: wood or charcoal out of the box, gas with a separate burner, a fully glazed d... | Wood flavor at 16 inches | 16" | 62.6 lb | $849.00 · Check on Amazon |
| 2 |  HALO Versa 16The only oven on this site whose stone turns itself, and the only gas oven here whose maker publishes a BTU rating. | Not having to turn the pizza | 16" | 43.54 lb | $449.00 · Check on Amazon-10% |
Max pizza and weight are the makers’ published figures, sourced on each write-up below. Neither is a measurement we took, and no column here is a score — we have not cooked on these ovens and will not pretend otherwise.
Top pick · Wood flavor at 16 inches
Ooni Karu 2 Pro Multi-Fuel Outdoor Pizza Oven
Ooni · Multi-fuel
The biggest multi-fuel oven Ooni makes: wood or charcoal out of the box, gas with a separate burner, a fully glazed door so you can watch, and a digital hub with a food probe.
Published specification
- Max temperature
- 950 F (500 C) in about 15 minutes
- Cooking area
- 17 in wide, 5.7 in internal height
- Stone
- 0.6 in cordierite
- External size
- 32.4" L x 19.8" W x 32.4" H
- Weight
- 62.6 lb unboxed, 86.6 lb boxed
- Fuel
- Wood or lump charcoal as standard; gas burner sold separately
- Included
- Glass door, tray door, fuel tray and grate, digital hub with probe
What it does well
- A full glass door on a wood oven is rare and it changes how the oven is used — you manage the fire by watching it rather than by opening it
- 17 in of cooking width is the largest wood-capable surface here, and it takes a 16 in pizza
- Wood, charcoal, or gas from one body: the fuel decision stops being permanent
- The food probe makes it a genuine roasting oven, not only a pizza oven
What you give up
- The gas burner is a separate purchase, so 'multi-fuel' costs more than the listed price
- 0.6 in stone under a 17 in surface — thinner than the Gozney Arc's floor, so recovery between pizzas is slower than the size suggests
- 62.6 lb and 32 in tall on legs: this is a fixed installation in practice
- Wood means ash, a chimney to clean, and a fire to feed while you cook
Buy it if
Someone who actually wants the wood-fired part, cooks 16 in pizzas, and is willing to tend a fire.
Skip it if
Anyone whose real requirement is dinner in 20 minutes on a Tuesday. That is a gas oven.
Where these numbers came from
Pick 2 · Not having to turn the pizza
HALO Versa 16 Propane Gas Outdoor Pizza Oven
HALO · Propane
The only oven on this site whose stone turns itself, and the only gas oven here whose maker publishes a BTU rating. Both facts are unusual enough to be the reason to buy it.
Published specification
- Max temperature
- 950 F ambient, 750 F stone, in about 12 minutes
- Stone
- 16 in cordierite, motor-driven, rotates 360 degrees. Thickness not published
- Gas input
- 21,100 BTU total. HALO's own FAQ splits this as 11,600 BTU rear and 9,500 BTU infrared
- External size
- 22.44" W x 24.59" D x 14.84" H
- Weight
- 43.54 lb unboxed, 55.12 lb shipping
- Fuel
- Propane, 1 lb canisters or 20 lb tanks. Natural-gas conversion kit HZ-3001-A sold separately
- Stone motor
- 2 D-cell batteries (not included) or the supplied AC adapter
- Warranty
- Five years against defects; electrical components and paint 1 year
What it does well
- The stone rotates under its own motor, which removes the most common cause of a half-burnt home pizza without requiring you to learn the turning technique
- HALO publishes a BTU input rating. Ooni, Gozney and Bertello publish none for any oven, which makes this the only 16 in gas oven here whose burner can be compared on paper at all
- A second, lower infrared burner is aimed at the stone specifically, which is how the oven recovers heat between bakes without relying on a thick floor
- Natural-gas conversion is a published product with a model number rather than a workaround, which is rare outside Ooni
What you give up
- The stone thickness is not published, and that is the specification that normally predicts recovery between bakes. You are trusting the lower burner to do the job mass does elsewhere
- The rotation motor is a moving part in a 950 F appliance, and it needs either batteries or an outlet within reach of the patio. No other oven here has an electrical requirement
- HALO's own FAQ and its retail listings disagree about which burner is 11,600 BTU and which is 9,500. The 21,100 total is consistent; the split is not
- At 43.54 lb it is heavier than an Ooni Koda 16 and has no folding legs, so it is a lift rather than a carry
Buy it if
Someone who wants a 16 in oven and does not want to stand over it turning a pizza every 20 seconds. Particularly a first buyer, or anyone cooking while also hosting.
Skip it if
Anyone chasing the thickest possible stone for back-to-back bakes, or anyone who wants an oven with no electrics in it at all.
Where these numbers came from
Which to buy
Karu 2 Pro if wood is the point — if you want to learn to read a fire, if the glass door and probe appeal, and if you want the larger cooking surface and a published 950 F. It is the better wood oven and the better-documented product.
Bertello Grande was the answer if you wanted wood flavor while keeping a dial, and its simultaneous-fire design is still the most interesting engineering answer anyone has shipped to the wood-versus-gas trade. It is no longer sold on Amazon. If gas convenience at 16 in is what drew you to it, the HALO Versa 16 is the nearest oven on sale — gas only, with a rotating stone and a maker-published natural-gas kit.
How these picks were made
We did not cook on these ovens. Every figure on this page is the maker’s or the listing’s published specification, cited on each write-up so you can check it in one click. The ranking comes from matching those published capabilities to a stated use case — space, pizza size, fuel, and how many pizzas you cook in a row. Where a maker does not publish a number, we say so instead of estimating one.
The full version of that argument, including what we deliberately do not claim, is on our methodology page.
Questions people actually ask
+Is the Bertello Grande still available?
+Can the Bertello Grande really run gas and wood at the same time?
+Which is hotter, the Bertello Grande or the Ooni Karu 2 Pro?
+Does the Ooni Karu 2 Pro include a gas burner?
+Can either of these run on natural gas?
+What size pizza do they each take?
Sources for this page
