How to store a pizza oven in winter: keep yours protected until next summer

1. Remove and clean the pizza stone

While you don’t necessarily need to clean the pizza stone after every pizza, you should wash and clean it regularly while using it. Leaving food or burnt bits on your stone can cause it to crack or break while stored, attracting rodents and pests. 

Scrape any burnt pieces with a scrub pad or a metal bristle brush if needed. Be gentle and try not to scratch the stone too deeply. Soot is natural, and even preferred sometimes, on a pizza stone, so you’re not necessarily trying to restore it to its original color. You’re simply removing as many baked-on pieces as you can. 

After washing it, let it dry for a couple of days to ensure all the moisture is out of it, as any moisture left in the stone can cause it to crack while being stored for the winter. Once the moisture is out, wrap it up and store it inside somewhere (a garage or shed is OK, as long as it’s away from the elements).

Martin Glover, a BBQ and pizza connoisseur and owner of dadwhatcooks.com, says: “If you have a removable pizza stone inside your pizza oven, I highly recommend taking this out before any winter storage covers go on. The stone would be best kept inside or in a garage/shed to keep it clear of frosts. Sudden temperature changes on a stone can cause it to crack, split, or chip, so extra care needs to be taken. Ideally, if you can wrap them in bubble wrap to protect them from damage, this would be a bonus.”

A good way to remove any excess moisture is to fire it again in the oven, which leads us to step two.

2. Fire the oven

Most pizza ovens are made from metal or stone, which moisture can severely damage. Therefore, it’s essential to remove all moisture from your oven before storing it. The best way to do this is to fire up the oven a few times before packing it away for the winter. 

Andy Ellis, Managing Director of Posh UK, advises: “To ensure no excess moisture remains in the pizza oven, you should perform at least four firings before you store it away. It must be heated evenly to dry every area properly, as storing it away while damp can cause rust, mold, and general wear.”

You don’t have to let it run for too long, but you should let it fully heat and run for at least 5-10 minutes.

3. Remove the flue

Having undoubtedly spent several evenings cooking delicious pizza in your pizza oven, it will be filled with fantastic smells and flavors. These things appeal to rodents, pests, and other less-than-gentle creatures on appliances. As we discussed in Step 1, washing the stone will help with this, but a surefire way to keep them out is to remove the flue and cover any other openings, such as the door or vent. 

President of Coastal Luxury Outdoors Rafi Friedman says: “You'll also want to completely close up your pizza oven, including the chimney, to deter rodents and other pests from nesting in it during the winter months.”

If you store your oven outdoors, removing the flue and covering any other openings is a great way to prevent damage from winter storms. Winter storms can be rough, and some winds can break the flue off. 

Andy says, “If your pizza oven has a flue, remove it before storing it for the winter. This will prevent rain or snow from getting down it and damaging the oven. Winter storms are the worst, and it will also prevent the flue from being broken off by strong winds that could cause further damage to your pizza oven.”

Not every flue is removable, so if yours is not, be sure to cover it tightly as best you can. The main thing is to cover any openings to keep critters and the weather out.

4. Cover and store

The last step to properly winterize your pizza oven is to cover and store it safely. Some of the more popular pizza ovens, like the Solo Stove Pi Prime and the Gozney Arc, have optional covers explicitly designed for them, which are great options. Others, like the Breeo Live Fire Pizza Oven, don’t. Even though the Breeo is made of Stainless Steel, it’s still a good idea to cover and store it if you won’t be using it for a while. 

A tarp or other weather-resistant cover will work fine for ovens without one. However, you must ensure the cover is fitted snugly around the stove so it doesn’t fall off or get knocked off by an enterprising critter. 

This is even more important if it is stored outside in a harsh winter. Martin says, “I live in a particularly windy location by a hillside, and on some days, the wind can pick up. Therefore, I use bungee cords to fix the covers on my BBQs and pizza ovens. Where there is nothing to hook the cords onto, wrapping a couple of connected or tied cords together works well.”

Overall, doing your best to protect it from the elements is essential.