KettlePizza Deluxe USA 22.5 - Pizza Oven Kit for 22.5 Inch Kettle Grills. Includes Pizza Stone and Aluminum Peel

I've been looking at the various pizza oven kits off and on for a few months. Of the options available, KettlePizza looks to be the most complete kit with the most reviews and how-to guides and videos online. I'm a DIY kind of guy and really considered making my own KettlePizza clone using flashing, but not owning a plasma cutter, couldn't figure a way to make the necessary cuts. I finally bit the bullet and ordered the Deluxe USA Kit from Amazon for same day delivery.The KettlePizza box arrived late in the evening. I was too excited to wait until the next day to put everything together, so I assembled the KettlePizza under my house's outdoor floodlights. No tools were required, and the kit went together easily (even under less than ideal lighting conditions). The KettlePizza looks great and really sets off the Weber Grill. The wooden handles are untreated, and I plan on staining them in the near future so that they will be protected from rain and the sun.The next day, on the way home from work, I stopped at a big box sporting goods store and purchased bags of Pecan and Oak hardwood. I also bought a couple bags of Kingsford briquettes. (The normal briquettes -- not the quick starting ones and not chunk charcoal.) I also stopped at the grocery store and bought various pizza toppings, a couple different jars of sauces, and several bags of pizza dough. (My grocery store sells prepared pizza dough in 1-pound bags.) Note that I forgot to buy corn meal...The first thing I did when I got home was to load my Weber Fire-starter Chimney with briquettes and fire lit. I loaded the fire-starter completely to the top. When the glow from the fire reached about half-way up the chimney I dumped it out into the grill and arranged the briquettes in a C-Shape at the back of the grill. Note that at this point only about 1/3 to 1/2 of the briquettes were actually burning. I next opened a bag of oak wood and added three chunks directly on top of the coals in the grill; again in a C-Shape. The wood chunks were about 8 inches long and 6-inches around. I was surprised at how large they were, but didn't have a way to cut them up right then. (This probably worked out for the best...) After placing the wood in the grill I put the KettlePizza on top and the lid on top of that.While the grill heated up, I went inside to help the rest of the family assemble some pizzas. That's when I realized I forgot to buy the cornmeal, which I had planned on using to prevent the pizza from sticking on the peel. Looking through the pantry I saw I had some Jiffy cornbread mix and decided to use it.I put a lot of Jiffy cornbread mix on the peel and spread out half a bag of dough (about 8 ounces) on the peel. I was able to get the dough roughly pizza shaped and added sauce and pepperoni (the first pizza was for the kids). At this point both thermometers on the grill were pegged Unfortunately I could not find my spot thermometer, so I don't know what the temperature was inside the grill, but it was HOT!I took the pizza outside, threw some more Jiffy cornbread meal on the baking stone, and tried to shake the pizza off of the peel onto the stone. No go. Using a combination of shaking, scraping with a spatula, and several muttered oaths I was finally able to get the pizza onto the stone. After less than a minute I rotated the pizza and, after less than 4 minutes, I removed it from the grill. (I ended up rotating the pizza several times during the 4 minutes. You cannot put the pizza in the oven and then walk away from the grill -- cooking the pizza is definitely hands-on.) The pizza came out of the oven looking a little like the Elephant Man, but everyone "oohed and aahed" when I took it in the house.We ended up cooking 6 pizzas. One more using the peel method (which worked much better the second time around as I used a LOT more Jiffy cornmeal mix on the peel), and four pizzas using various pizza pans -- the pan that came with the pizza, a pizza "air" pan with little holes in it, a pizza pan with big holes in it, and another solid pan similar to the one that is included in the KettlePizza kit.In all cases the pizza was excellent. The pizzas had a smoky flavor, "crunchy" tops where the cheese and ingredients had charred and caramelized, and nice chewy bread. The pizzas cooked directly on the baking stone were the best, although the pan that ships with the KettlePizza kit did surprising well. I'm probably going to retire my other pizza pans, as the didn't let enough heat go through to the bottom of the pizzas to get that nice, golden/crisp crust.Surprisingly, the Jiffy cornmeal gave the pizzas a sweetness that most of us loved. (My 11 year old son said that he would prefer the pizza without the sweetness.)The dough did not rise/bubble-up like I expected, but I believe that was due to me using store-bought dough. Next time I'll make my own dough.I ordered a wooden peel. I read that the metal peel is better for rotating the pizza, but the wooden peel is better for preparing the pizza on as it doesn't stick as bad.The grill and KettlePizza stayed super hot for a long time. I could have made 10 more pizzas, easily. After some of the reviews I read I was expecting the temperature to start dropping after a few pizzas, but that was not the case. I suspect that the temperature stayed so high for so long because of the size of the oak chunks I used.Making the pizzas is very hands-on. I constantly (every 45 seconds to a minute) had to rotate the pizzas and, at the end of the cooking cycle, lift the pizza up into the top of the grill's dome which added a quick blast of extra-hot heat to the pizza's ingredients. I don't consider either one of these activities as bad, and are part of the fun of making the pizzas.I did not cook a couple of the pizzas long enough. It's real easy to pull a pizza out early when one piece of the crust begins to burn. The pizzas that were everyone's favorite (there were eight of us) were the ones that were cooked the most and had some extra char on them.I have no real complaints about the KettlePizza, and have already recommended it to several family members and friends. I see myself using the KettlePizza a lot in the future, but mostly for group gatherings, as it's quite a bit of work for one or two small pizzas.Regarding the KettlePizza's cost... It is expensive, but I am perfectly comfortable paying extra for something American Made. I'm sure a Chinese knock-off could be bought for a quarter of the KettlePizza's cost, but I would rather that money go to pay for salaries and to reward ingenuity in the USA.

We got this Tuesday and setting it up was a snap. We fired it up on the 4th and began with some recipes from the CPK cook book. I made the ThaiChicken, the wife had Japanese eggplant veggie, and the kids had simple cheese. This device worked exceptionally well. I was worried about if it would indeed get hot enough, well, let me tell you there was absolutely no problem getting up to temps exceeding both the thermometers ranges. In fact, I think I will remove the Weber lid thermometer next time I use this because it totally spiked and I thought it broke as when the lid cooled, the thermometer stayed on the limit pin, but eventually sprung loose. So, in addition to making sure you get the peel "lubed", think about removing the Weber lid thermometer.Now, on to the peel. I watched plenty of video's about how to do this, but the wife insisted that she is queen of the kitchen and I was not allowed to enter. Fair enough I guess. But, when she showed me the fabulous results she accomplished with the ThaiChicken pizza I was floored, it was beautiful. But she did not have enough flour on the peel so it would not slide off. As a result, our first pizza kind of globbed onto the hot stone. And while it cooked fine ultimately, it was frustrating as the pizza degenerated into a blob of dough and stuff on the stone. I managed to bring it out, and it was a pile-o-pizza on my plate. I ate it any way because I am basically a goat when it comes to food. It was delicious.On the next round, I forced my way into the kitchen and went to the other extreme on the flouring of the peel. It did slide off, and it did cook wonderfully, and it was a beautiful thing to behold. But maybe a wee too much flour on the bottom. However, in a few more attempts I think we got the hang of it. Bottom line, we had a great time but the first pizza was a bit of a frustration due to the peel issue.Generally speaking, this thing is way cool. It will require you to add charcoal a time or two, and I feel that temperature control, as is always on a grill, is a study. CPK says pizza temp should be 500'F, others have said 700'F. I had no problems getting the device to either temp, but I really think 500'f to 600'f would suffice. I actually think I well exceeded the thermometers range and was probably running closer to 800'f or higher. So, it's an art I think in terms of temp control, but what isn't with grilling on the Weber, after all, that's part of the fun.If you want to have a great time with the family, and you like your Weber, then get this device. It's a bit pricey, but worth it. And as a side, we had some unexpected guest arrive and the absolutely loved the pizza!Have Fun!PS: I definitely think the pizza spinners, which are currently available only on KettlePizza's site, would be a good investment and I will probably make it. In addition, an additional peel may help in order to prep one pizza on one peel, while you cook with the other. But the jury is still out on that one.

Definitely a learning process required. Need significant charcoal and hardwood to achieve temps 700 degrees +. Pizza's do taste great!Looking forward to gaining more experience with this pizza oven for my weber.