Gozney Arc Lite

Gozney is a brand on a mission. Last year, it expanded its successful Arc/Arc XL family of pizza ovens by adding the Tread, the self-proclaimed ‘world’s most portable pizza oven’. This year, with the new, cheaper Arc Lite, it’s turning its attention to flat dwellers (at least the ones with balconies), and those blessed/cursed (YMMV) with teeny gardens. It’s fair to say that Gozney likes to cover all the, ahem, bases…

What is the Gozney Arc Lite?

Featuring a single, lateral rolling flame-type burner, similar to that used in the rest of the range, Gozney claims the new model possesses the same DNA as its upmarket brethren, but made available at a much more affordable price point.

Make no mistake, at £349.99, the Lite still isn’t quite an impulse purchase – there are several ovens available that undercut it. But given the ‘go anywhere’ Tread – the next model up in the Arc family – is £499.99, this new arrival is clearly going to have much wider appeal.

Design

Aside from fixing the already attached gas pipe to your cylinder, placing the stone inside, and slotting in the  burner guard, there’s no other set up required… the Lite is mondo easy to get up and running. 

But while the overall standard of construction is admirably solid, and the curvaceous lines and trademark dome still scream ‘I’m an Arc’, it’s clear that some compromises have had to be made in order to hit the uber-low price point.

Unsurprisingly, for instance, there’s only a single layer of insulation in this model as opposed to the two layers in the full-size Arc. And instead of the Tread’s battery-powered electronic ignition, the Arc Lite makes do with a manual, entirely reliable, piezo-electric ‘push and click to start’ version. 

Flip it upside down, and you also discover that there’s no protective plate covering the exposed venturi and internals, as is there is on the underside of the Tread. Arguably, that shouldn’t matter as much since this is an oven that’s clearly not designed for a life on the move.

When it comes to the internal oven space, the Lite essentially has got the same amount of room as the Tread, albeit with a stone surface that’s about an inch deeper and fractionally wider. Incidentally, 12in pies are the maximum you can go to with the Lite, but turning them could be a bit messy so beginners will want to stick to smaller ones.

Features

OK, the Tread’s built-in temperature display is ditched here; instead, you get an adjustable, colour-coded flame dial that lets you switch between two heat zones: High flame (red zone) for Neapolitan-style pizzas and Low flame (blue zone) for thicker New York-style pizzas and deep-dish Detroit/Chicago styles.

The arrangement is, shall we say, a little more approximate than that found on the pricier Gozney models, but using an IR temperature gun alongside it completely levels the playing field. Which, ideally, is something you should be using anyway, unless you happen to have a peculiar penchant for guesswork when cooking.

Gozney usually goes big when it comes to add-on accessories – the Tread has an extensive selection available for it, including a tripod stand – but the Arc Lite has relatively few. You can use the (expensive) booster and stand originally designed for the Arc and Arc XL, plus there’s a dedicated cover, but that’s pretty much your lot. 

Most people, I daresay, will just end up putting it on a wooden garden table or similar; it’ll work just fine there.

And lest there be any doubt, be assured the Lite has no real pretensions to portability. Other than a couple of shallow recesses for fingers on the underside, there are no handles to help move it around.

Add in the fact that the supplied gas hose is fixed, as opposed to terminating in a quick-connect fitting at the oven, and it’s obvious this is definitely a model that’s designed to be hooked up to gas, and then left in place.

Performance

The nominal gas output through the burner is a little lower than for the Tread – 3.4kW vs 3.7kW – and that’s reflected in the fact that the Lite generally requires a longer pre-heat time (about half an hour, on average). By way of further comparison, the original Gozney Arc outputs a much higher 4.5kW, though it’s best to remember that gas output is just one factor in the overall performance of the oven.

What else does that lower output mean in practical terms? Well, when you pull back on the temperature control after you’ve launched a pie (to allow it to evenly heat through from above and below, without burning the toppings), and then crank it up again after you’re done, you’ve got to wait fractionally longer than you would with the Tread, before you’re back at the ‘right’ temperature and ready to cook again.

The other, rather wonderful consequence of the Lite’s lower output and burner design is that that it’s way less prone to churning out soot than the Tread. Where the pricier model has (and needs) a dedicated vent up at the top, the Lite happily makes do without. Given that the Lite is intended for more space-constrained environments, situations where clouds of smoke might raise greater objections from neighbours, I think that’s a clever call and an inspired design decision.

It may not quite have the warm-up times of the Tread, but the Lite has plenty of other charms in its favour.

Starting up the oven using the piezo-electric starter proved fuss-free though, as I said, you’re best off using an IR temperature gun to monitor things. After the recommended half an hour, I was at 420 degrees at the front of the 12mm thick cordierite stone, which is good to go for most thin pizzas.

Being an oven aimed particularly at beginners, it seemed appropriate to forgo home-made doughs so I went for the most likely novice option… Neapolitan-style pizzas using a few packs of Pizza Express’s ready-made, sheet dough, available at most larger Tesco stores.

Logic would suggest that I should have started off with something simple, like a margherita. Nah, boring…

With sliced mushrooms and pepperoni duly added, in went the first (square) pie. Just for fun, I tried turning using my Gozney Venture placement peel for turning, as well as launching, but I soon swapped back to my fave Venture turning peel. I am nothing if not predictable.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s no issue with pulling out a pie on a large peel, in order to turn it a quarter with your fingers – in fact there’s a fraction more clearance either side in the Lite compared to the Tread.

But using a turning peel allows your pie to stay both in the heat for longer, as well as keep the pizza’s base on the stone. Which is a good thing.

Use a turning peel and there’s also less likelihood you’ll inadvertently push the pie to the back wall of the oven while you’re scooping it up, a pet hate of mine.

So how did it go? Well, after the usual pre-heating, I only had to wait two minutes to find out.

The result was, in a word, fab; a really nicely, leopard-spotted base, with the bare minimum of charring to the toppings. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting the first attempt to be that good but crikey, the Lite knocked it out of the park.

As I – and the family – motored through the rest of the Pizza Express dough, the Lite carried on as it started off, delivering consistently high quality, evenly baked results. At times I had to remind myself that this was a budget-priced oven…

Another bit of good news. While most beginners are advised to focus on thinner Neapolitan-style pizzas, I later found the Lite did equally well with longer-cook, deeper-dish pizzas, albeit using home-made dough, rather than pre-made.

But again, it’s critical to get the Lite’s stone fully heated through before you place your pie and get going; you’ll get a soggy bottom if you don’t. The big takeaway here is that the Lite isn’t a one-trick pony; it’ll rise to the challenge as your outdoor cooking skills improve. 

From a beginner’s perspective, I think what will be most appreciated is how the field of view through the high opening means that you’re never in any doubt as to how cooking is progressing, and so can easily judge when the pizza needs to be turned.

VERDICT

I’ll be honest, I had my doubts about the Arc Lite. Cost-cutting often results in whatever made a device unique being somehow lost in the process. Not this time. While Gozney has made some minor compromises, they’re really well-judged ones that don’t fundamentally detract from what is an excellent performing and easy to use device; it looks and feels like it deserves a place in the Arc line-up.

The company’s stated aim with this latest model was to expand its range’s appeal to space-constrained pizza novices, folk who might be daunted by the investment/room required for an Arc or, who didn’t need the portability and optional gee-gaws of the Tread.

Based on my experience, I’d say Gozney can consider its mission accomplished, and then some; the Arc Lite stands out as one of the best starter pizza oven options I’ve come across so far.