Blackstone E Series Pizza Oven Air Fryer Combo review: fast pizza cooking that takes up a lot of space

Pizza ovens are the latest must-have kitchen flex for those who already own every appliance known to man but still want more. And to be fair, I get it. There’s something oddly satisfying about using a sleek gadget that’s been made specifically for one job, rather than forcing your regular oven to do everything.

Clearly, I’m not the only one that thinks this. We’ve seen quite the boom in pizza ovens lately, from outdoor gas monsters built for garden parties to electric indoor models for anyone chasing that authentic pizzeria-style base. The problem is, the market’s brimming with these gadgets all promising slightly different versions of the same dream – faster cook times, better crust, and less faff.

Blackstone’s angle with its new E Series Pizza Oven Air Fryer Combo is simple – it's not just for pizza, you can do chips and nuggets, too. It’s a rotating 14-inch electric pizza oven with extra modes for fresh pizza, frozen pizza, bake, reheat and air frying, all wrapped up into one chunky countertop box.

I’ve been using Blackstone’s new pizza oven for the past month to see how well that combo idea actually holds up in real life. Here’s what I found.

Blackstone E Series Pizza Oven Air Fryer Combo review: price and availability

The Blackstone E Series Pizza Oven Air Fryer Combo was launched in late 2025 and is available to buy now in both the UK and the US.

In the UK, Blackstone lists the pizza oven as available “in store only” on its official website, with no mention of price. Thankfully, you’ll find it sold via big-name retailers online, although prices vary a lot depending on who’s got stock and what week it is. At the time of writing, you could pick it up at Currys for £349 whereas BBQWorld has it listed for £299.

In the US, pricing is a bit messier because listings vary by retailer, but its RRP stands at $395. Nevertheless, I’ve seen it on sale for as little as $215 on some sites.

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Blackstone E Series Pizza Oven Air Fryer Combo review: design and build

The first thing you’re going to notice about Blackstone’s pizza oven is how big it is. It’s pretty huge, to be honest, measuring 35 x 49 x 53 cm, and weighing a hefty 12.3kg. In other words, it’s not something you can casually tuck away in a cupboard after dinner – you'll need a proper home for it. That wouldn’t be so bad if it was a sleek, sexy box, but it’s definitely not that. Nor is it something you'll want to show off when guests come ‘round or on an Instagram story. Even in plain black, it looks a little dated, with boxy edges and a front panel of fairly dull touch buttons that don’t exactly scream “premium” the way the appliance’s price would suggest.

If you’ve seen the Ooni Volt 2, you’ll know what I mean. Ooni’s electric ovens lean into that sleek, modern countertop vibe, and the Volt 2 is priced accordingly (a whole £150 more – eek). So yes, you are really paying for that premium design with the Ooni, but still, the Blackstone equivalent just doesn’t have the same appeal.

That said, the build quality is much better than the styling. The whole unit feels solid, and the pizza plate has that heavy, sturdy feel you want when you’re dealing with high heat. Thankfully, the oven’s also surprisingly well thought-out in a couple of practical ways. The viewing window is big, and the internal light is really bright, so you can actually monitor browning without constantly opening the door and dumping heat.

There’s also a small design touch I think works really well – the opening gives you a bit of extra clearance at the top when you’re sliding chunkier items in and out. This reduces the risk of you accidentally burning your knuckles when you’re throwing the pizza into what is essentially a pre-heated hot box. Phew.

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Blackstone E Series Pizza Oven Air Fryer Combo review: performance and features

Despite its shortcomings in the looks department, there’s one thing you can’t deny about Blackstone’s pizza oven, and that’s its versatility. You get dedicated modes for fresh pizza, frozen pizza, air fry, bake and reheat, plus manual temperature and timer controls, and a rotating 14-inch steel plate designed to cook more evenly without you having to keep turning the pizza yourself.

In day-to-day use, the pizza side of things is the real reason this appliance exists, and once it’s behaving, it can be very good. But I do need to mention that my very first attempt was a bit of a disaster. I followed the guidance in the manual for a shop-bought fresh pizza, used the bake function as instructed, and within minutes I had an absolutely blackened base welded to the plate, while the toppings on top still looked undercooked. I am still not sure how this happened, but it instantly turned my pizza into bin food.

The good news is this was a one off event. After cleaning everything down and starting again, the problem didn’t rear its head, and it has cooked reliably since. I still think it’s worth flagging, though, because if you’re unboxing this fresh and doing your first pizza night, you don’t want the opening act to be an inedible charcoal disc. It may have been user error, a setup quirk, or just first-run weirdness, but either way, I’d recommend keeping a close eye on your first cook and not blindly trusting the printed timings.

Once I got into a rhythm, I found the cooking performance to be pretty strong. A shop-bought fresh pizza that claimed to take 11 minutes in a conventional oven came out in about seven minutes on bake, with a crispy base and nicely melted cheese. Frozen pizzas were similar, landing around the 7-8 minute mark even when the box suggested more like 10-12. That speed is the headline act here, and the rotating plate definitely helps with consistency especially if you’ve ever come across the issue of having one side perfect and one side pale when cooking pizzas in regular ovens.

Homemade pizza with fresh dough was the best surprise. The dough puffed up well, the cheese melted evenly, and it nailed that balance between crisp underneath and soft enough in the middle. When it’s on form, it really does deliver a better pizza texture than in a normal oven.

However, I did find that having to preheat the oven every time I went to cook a new pizza was a massive drag. You’re looking at around five minutes to get up to temperature, and even when you’ve just finished one pizza, you still have to wait for it to preheat again before the next one. If your plan is a rapid-fire pizza party, you might have to rethink this machine, as it does kill the vibe a bit.

Although this is most likely the issue with most electric pizza ovens, and not specific to this machine. If you want to avoid that entirely, you’re probably better off going with a real fire/gas-powered pizza oven.

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Next, let’s talk about the air fryer side of things. I can confirm it works absolutely fine, and it does what it says on the tin, but it’s not the kind of air frying that’s going to replace a modern dual-zone drawer machine, if that’s what you were hoping.

When air frying in the E-series Pizza Oven, you have to use the included tray and trivet/basket setup, and you’re essentially cooking one batch at a time. Chips came out nicely crisped, and it handled the usual freezer staples without any drama. But what I think here is: if you care about air frying, you probably already own a dedicated air fryer anyway, and if you’re buying a pizza oven, the air fryer bit will be more of a novelty perk than a core reason to choose this model.

I found myself wishing Blackstone had leaned harder into the “combo” idea with more modes. Bake and reheat are handy, for sure, but for something this big, it feels like it could have pushed further into other modes, such as a roast-style function or a spatchcock chicken set up, or similar.

Still, you can’t knock this oven’s pizza-cooking performance, it just doesn’t execute it in the most efficient way.

Blackstone E Series Pizza Oven Air Fryer Combo review: verdict

The Blackstone E Series Pizza Oven Air Fryer Combo is a slightly odd appliance, because it’s both better and more limited than it first sounds. It’s better in the sense that, once you’ve got your settings dialled in, it cooks pizzas quickly and consistently, and the rotating plate plus window-and-light combo makes the process feel super easy. It also feels sturdy enough that it should stand the test of time.

However, the appliance is limited in that it’s absolutely massive for what is: a pizza cooking machine. The air fryer mode works, but it’s basic, single-batch stuff, and it’s not going to replace the convenience of a proper dual-zone air fryer with sync cooking. With preheating between pizzas taking a while, you do sometimes end up wondering if it’s easier to just bang the pizza in the oven and save the kitchen worktop space.

If you’ve got the room, love making pizza regularly, and want fast, crispy results without going outdoors, you’ll definitely have fun with it. But if you’re hoping for a true “two appliances in one” superstar, it feels more like a pizza oven with an air fryer bonus than a genuine combo alternative. For me, that’s just not worth the RRP.