Pizzeria equipment: oven, mixer, fridge compared
Three purchases decide what your pizza is like: the oven, the mixer and the fridge. Everything else can be bought second-hand, badly, and replaced later without anyone noticing. Spend where the pizza is decided and economise everywhere else.
The oven
The single most consequential purchase, and the one where the spec sheet misleads most. Peak temperature is easy to advertise; recovery under load is what you actually experience at eight on a Saturday, and it depends on deck thickness and element or burner layout rather than the number on the front.
| Indicative price | Best for | |
|---|---|---|
| Electric deck, single | £2,500 – 6,000 | Consistency, small teams, no flue |
| Electric deck, double | £6,000 – 15,000 | Volume with a stable product |
| Gas dome | £4,000 – 9,000 | Vans, fast heat-up, cheap running |
| Wood-fired, built in | £6,000 – 20,000+ | The room, as much as the pizza |
| Conveyor | £5,000 – 18,000 | High volume, unskilled staffing, uniform product |
Indicative UK ranges, September 2026. Installation, flue and three-phase supply are frequently excluded from a headline price.
Ask a supplier one question before anything else: what is the floor temperature after six pizzas in ten minutes? Wood, gas or electric, compared properly.
The mixer
Under-specified more often than any other item. A domestic stand mixer will not do 20 kg of 60% dough, and trying will kill it within a year.
- Spiral — the default for pizza. Develops gluten without heating the dough much. £1,200–£4,000 for a usable commercial size.
- Fork — gentler, slower, excellent for long-fermented doughs, and a specialist purchase most people do not need.
- Planetary — versatile, and the wrong shape for stiff dough at volume. Fine if you also make desserts.
The fridge
The least glamorous and the most underestimated. If you ferment cold, the fridge is not storage — it is a piece of process equipment, and it has to hold temperature with the door opening constantly during service.
A dough-box fridge sized for the boxes you actually use is worth more than a larger general-purpose one. Put a thermometer inside rather than trusting the display.
What to buy used, cheerfully
- Stainless benches, shelving, sinks. They do not wear out. Never buy these new.
- Prep counters, if the compressor has been serviced.
- Peels, trays, boxes, small tools. Consumables anyway.
- Dough sheeters — if you use one at all, and most Neapolitan kitchens should not.
What not to buy used
- Anything gas, without current certification. Make the sale conditional on a certificate from a Gas Safe engineer registered for LPG and mobile catering if it is going in a van.
- Refrigeration with no service history. A failing compressor costs more than the discount.
- An oven you have not seen run. Insist on watching it reach temperature and hold it.
A sensible order of spending
- Oven. It decides the product.
- Mixer, sized properly for your worst day rather than your average one.
- Refrigeration that holds temperature during service.
- Everything else, second-hand.
Put your own numbers into the budget estimator — it is written for a van but the equipment lines apply to a unit too.