Gozney Arc XL vs Ooni Karu 2 Pro: How the Karu 16's Successor Compares

Ooni’s US page for the Karu 16 now redirects to the Karu 2 Pro, and Ooni’s UK listing calls the Karu 2 Pro “the next generation Karu 16”. So if you searched for the Karu 16, this is the comparison that matters today: the Karu 2 Pro against Gozney’s Arc XL.

Two names are easy to mix up. The Arc XL is Gozney’s 16-inch Arc; the plain Arc is a smaller 14-inch oven with its own price and dimensions. Everything below is a research comparison from each maker’s product pages and manuals, checked October 14, 2026, not a test of either oven.

The two ovens at a glance

What changed from the Karu 16

Ooni describes the Karu 2 Pro as keeping the Karu 16’s strengths while adding cooking space and newer technology. That’s the maker’s description, not a comparison we ran, and Ooni’s pages don’t itemize the differences, so we won’t guess at them. What Ooni lists for the Karu 2 Pro itself:

• a cooking area 17 inches wide, for pizzas up to 16 inches
• a large borosilicate glass door with what Ooni calls ClearView technology, meant to keep soot off the glass
• the Ooni Connect Digital Temperature Hub, which shows the air temperature inside the oven and sends it to your phone
• rear and chimney baffles for controlling airflow

Some Karu 16 gear carries over. Ooni sells one gas burner listed for both the Karu 2 Pro and the Karu 16, and a cover listed for both. If you’re upgrading, check Ooni’s compatibility notes for anything else before you assume it fits.

Fuel is the real difference

Arc XL: gas only. The Arc XL runs on propane through a lateral burner along one side of the oven. There’s no wood or charcoal option. On the first firing, Gozney’s manual recommends a medium-to-low flame for about 30 minutes to cure the oven before turning it up, and repeating that cure if the oven has sat unused for a long time.

Karu 2 Pro: your choice of fire. Wood and charcoal go in the supplied fuel tray. Ooni’s manual calls for dry, untreated hardwood in pieces up to 9 inches (23 cm) long and 3 inches (7.5 cm) across, no more than 1.1 lb (0.5 kg) added at a time and no more than 2.2 lb (1 kg) in the tray. Ooni’s Karu 2 Pro overview page asks for kiln-dried hardwood logs no longer than 8 inches (20 cm), so pieces no longer than 8 inches and no thicker than 3 inches satisfy both, within the manual’s load limits. For charcoal, use a cooking grade (the overview says lump charcoal, not briquettes) and wait until it has a coating of ash before cooking. Before the first bake, Ooni says to keep the fuel red hot for at least 30 minutes. For gas you need the separate gas burner, which Ooni says attaches to the back of the oven; follow its own manual. Don’t use pellets as a substitute for wood or charcoal.

A live fire takes more attention. Modernist Pizza warns that no two wood fires are alike, so the oven’s temperature varies and takes considerable skill to manage, and its authors recommend gas-fired pizza ovens over wood-fired ones for Neapolitan pizza. The same book finds that wood smoke doesn’t flavor the pizza, because it rises and leaves through the vent. Choose the Karu 2 Pro because you enjoy cooking over fire, not for a smoky crust. More on that in wood-fired vs. gas pizza ovens.

Heat, preheat and turning

The flame itself does very little of the baking. Modernist Pizza measured this: whether gas or wood, the flame is “optically thin”, and the pizza is baked by the hot floor, walls and ceiling, plus, in a wood oven, the glowing embers. In a gas oven the floor near the burner is the hottest place and the area near the door varies most. That’s why you turn the pizza in either oven, and why the readings that count are on the floor where the pizza sits.

The oven guide plans both ovens with the same outdoor-oven recipes:

Its preheat window for these ovens is 25 to 40 minutes. That’s a planning window, not a maker’s figure; the oven is ready when three readings across the floor are in range. The Neapolitan-style range is our own narrower starting range inside the wider window in Ooni’s Koda 16 cooking guide, which has the stone back at 715 to 850°F (380 to 450°C) before each pizza. Using it in these two ovens, or on wood or charcoal, is our adaptation, not a maker’s instruction.

The built-in readouts measure something else. Gozney’s manual marks 800–900°F on the Arc XL’s display as the Neapolitan zone, and Ooni’s hub shows the air temperature inside the Karu. Neither is a reading of the floor under the pizza, so it doesn’t contradict the floor ranges above. Use an infrared thermometer on the stone for that.

Door, wind and weather

Arc XL. There’s no door, and Gozney says none is needed. Don’t add one: Gozney’s manual says not to modify the appliance, and our oven guide’s Arc XL profile says not to add a door, baffle or anything else that changes the airflow. Gozney also says not to run the Arc in strong winds; in open areas use a windbreak kept more than 45 cm (about 18 inches) from the oven.

Karu 2 Pro. The glass door is part of the oven’s design. Ooni’s manual says not to remove it while the oven is lit and warns that it gets hot when you launch and retrieve pizzas. Don’t carry rules from Ooni’s doorless Koda ovens over to the Karu, or the reverse.

Size, weight and setup

Both makers advertise 16-inch pizzas. The Arc XL’s opening is 16.8 inches wide, so a 16-inch pizza leaves only 0.8 inch of nominal total width at the opening (calculated from Gozney’s dimensions); check your peel’s actual width and handling clearance. Gozney gives the opening as 3.7 inches tall.

The Arc XL measures 20.9 × 24.8 × 13.5 inches (53 × 62.9 × 34.2 cm) and weighs 26.5 kg (about 58 lb) unboxed. It needs a sturdy table, stand or booster, plus the clearances in its manual; the body dimensions don’t include them. Ooni’s US spec table gives the Karu 2 Pro as 32.4 × 19.8 × 32.4 inches (825 × 502 × 824 mm), length by width by height, and 28.4 kg (62.6 lb) unboxed. Its overview page gives slightly different figures, 31.9 × 19.7 × 32.7 inches (810 × 500 × 830 mm) and 28.5 kg, so allow a little margin when you plan the table. Ooni doesn’t publish the mouth size in either place. Ooni’s manual asks for a flat, stable, non-flammable surface. Both ovens are for outdoor use only.

Which one to choose

Choose the Arc XL if:

• you only want gas, with no burner to add (you still need propane, a peel and an infrared thermometer)
• you like a single dial and a supplied digital display
• you’d rather not manage a fire, ash and fuel sizes

Choose the Karu 2 Pro if:

• you want to cook over wood or charcoal, at least some of the time
• you might add gas later; the burner is an extra purchase
• you want a glass door, which comes with the oven

Both are buys you’d make for Neapolitan-style and other fast, high-heat pizzas. For New York-style pizza, our recipes use gas in either oven. Current listings: Gozney Arc XL on Amazon and Ooni Karu 2 Pro on Amazon. Check that the listing names the exact model, and compare it with the maker’s own price.

If you’re also weighing a 12-inch oven or your kitchen oven, see Ooni vs. Roccbox vs. home oven.

Sources

• Gozney: Arc XL US product page (fuel, pizza size, stone, weight, dimensions, opening, door, price), Arc US product page (14-inch model and price) and the Arc and Arc XL US/Canada manual (do not modify, wind and windbreak, first firing, display temperature zones). Checked October 14, 2026.
• Gozney: Dome Gen 2 Series US/Canada manual, safety page (never use gas and wood together). Checked October 14, 2026.
• Ooni: Karu 2 Pro US product page (fuels, cooking area, door, temperature hub, airflow, price, accessories listed for both Karu ovens; spec table for weight, stone and dimensions), Karu 2 Pro US overview (logs no longer than 8 inches, lump charcoal not briquettes; overview weight and dimensions), Karu 2 Pro UK product page (“the next generation Karu 16”), “5 Reasons You Need the New Ooni Karu 2 Pro” (comparison with the Karu 16) and the Karu 2 Pro oven manual (fuel sizes and amounts, door, first use, surface). Checked October 14, 2026.
• Ooni: Koda 16 cooking guide (the 380–450°C stone-recovery window that the oven guide’s narrower Neapolitan-style starting range sits inside) and New York-style pizza dough, behind the oven guide’s New York range; DeliVita, Romana Tonda, behind its Roman tonda range. Checked October 14, 2026.
• Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya, Modernist Pizza (2021), volume 1, printed pages 354–356 (flames are optically thin; how heat varies in gas and wood ovens), 380 (gas-fired ovens recommended for Neapolitan pizza; wood fires vary) and 388 (wood smoke and flavor).