Anova - Precision Cooker WiFi

So, I had been looking at the Joule and a couple of others for a long time, but Best Buy has a pretty limited selection of sous vide cookers. I had some rewards points to burn, though, and the Anova reviews on this site seemed very favorable, so I gave it a go. First, you'll need a good sized pot or other container for it. It doesn't look like it in the photos, but this thing is huge and heavy. Like, seriously massive. My first thought was that I had nowhere that I could easily store it, aside from the retail packaging. You'll need a container that will fill to the minimum water level and won't tip over easily. I had exactly one thing in the house that would work, which was a giant chili pot. My usual Calphalon 6 quart stock pot was way to short. But both the cooker itself and the clamp feel really sturdy and well made. The controls are simple to use and it was easy to get it connected to the app and on my wifi network. The app itself is...fine. It focuses on giving you recipes, where the actual sous vide cooking is only the first step. That's fine, but it was more of a hassle than it should have been to just find a recommended time/temp for a given cut of meat. You can still set it manually in the app without going to the recipes, fortunately. The whole app experience needs a big overhaul in terms of the user experience, IMO. But it works and kept a strong wifi connection, so I can deal with it. The first time I used it, it got up to the set temperature quickly and held it perfectly for about an hour (luckily the minimum time that I needed), but then it just stopped heating. It was still circulating water, so I just kept topping it off with hot water from the kettle to keep it close to the correct temperature until we were ready to eat. After that, it never worked again. However, it did produce probably the best pork tenderloin I've ever made at home. Well cooked and juicy, even though the temperature wasn't 100% consistent, as it should have been if it had worked correctly. If it had not stopped working, I'm sure it would have been absolutely perfect, so there is that. So, I looked for solutions online before returning it and saw story after story of people on their 3rd or 4th replacement unit. I ended up returning the Anova and just buying the Joule elsewhere, as it had glowing reviews from pretty much everywhere. If you get a good unit, I'm sure it'll serve you well and provide you with countless perfectly cooked meals. I just don't personally have time to keep trying until I get a good one.

This thing is great. I've been using it at least four times a week since I got it about a month ago. Best pork chops I have ever cooked. Best chicken breasts I have ever cooked. Best anything really. So far, I've tried Rib-Eye, NY Strip, Pork chops, Chicken Breasts, Turkey Breasts, Chuck Tender Steak, Flat Iron steaks. There are so many great things about this other than cooking at precision. One thing I love is there is hardly any mess compared to the more traditional methods. Another is the set it and forget it way of cooking. I'll take some chicken breasts, season them and freeze them. Then on weekends at breakfast time, I'll throw them in the water, go about my day, and when it's time for lunch, they are there waiting for me. For weekdays I figured that I wouldn't have enough time to cook dinner with this after work. But with the phone App I can start pre-heating the water as I'm leaving work. By the time i get home from my long commute the water is ready and I can throw my chicken or strip steak in for an hour and a half While I enjoy the rib-eye and strip steaks those can get expensive. This thing does really well at cooking those cheap tougher cuts of beef such as the mock tenders or steaks from chuck. Only issue is the time it takes to cook those. Last night at breakfast I started cooking a flat iron steak, which I've only had once before cooked on a skillet. I started the cook at breakfast, went to work and came home for dinner to the most tender steak I've ever had. It was half of a 1.58 lb steak which cost about $8. So at $4 a meal, it's much cheaper (about half) than a strip steak or rib-eye and tastes so good. I've only had it a short time, hoping it lasts a long time.

Such an easy way to turn a bad cut of meat into a tasty, fork-tender masterpiece with very little effort. For example, you can go to Kroger and get the worst-looking strip steak or even a skirt. Add salt and pepper, seal it in a vacuum bag, then put it in a pot of water with the sous vide cooker for 1-4 hours at whatever temperature you prefer your steak - and viola! The steak comes out cooked through and through at whatever temperature you desire and no more. You like rare, medium, well-done - it's perfect. You only need to finish it by searing the meat either in a skillet or on the grill for no more than a minute just to give it the look you're used to. Otherwise the steak tastes great but looks unappetizing because it was cooked to the same temperature all the way through. That means the outside comes out looking like the inside. Pork, Beef, Chicken, vegetables, whatever. Just make sure you get a Foodsaver vacuum bag sealer and have a large pot (at least 3.5 gallons). It could be a stock pot or (better) a clear, rectangular, polycarbonate container like the ones made by Rubbermaid. I believe the maximum temperature is 210F degrees, so these things are appropriate.

This thing is amazing. The app and the setup with WiFi was not a great experience. But once I got it going and cooked my first burgers in the Sous Vide, wow. I’ve had it theee days and used it 3 times. Ribeye steaks the last 2 nights and I plan on using it 4 times this week. I had never used a water precision cooker before this one, and I can’t believe what I’ve been missing. The app is cool to use but I haven’t tried pre heating the water away from the home yet. So really it’s just setting temp and time on your phone instead of on the precision cooker itself. The cheaper models will most likely do the exact same thing except you can’t control them over WiFi. So if your now looking to spend a ton of money, you could get a cheaper model instead of this one. I’d recommend getting a food saver if you don’t have one. You could use the water displacement strategy if all you have is ziplock bags, but once you vacuum seal your food days ahead of time, you’ll never go back. You should also get a cast iron skillet to sear you food. I’ve done around 45 seconds in each side of the meat and it’s been perfectly cooked. Every time.

I've had this for about 3 weeks now- and it is, for me at least, now a permanent part of my repertoire. I was skeptical at first- but so far EVERYTHING I've thrown at it- brisket, ribs, steaks, burgers, eggs- has come out absolutely perfect. I initially was using a see-through container(with lid made for the anova) off amazon, but ended up building a 'frankencooler' (google it-anova gives a walkthrough- VERY easy to make) and it shocks me every time w how perfectly the food is cooked every single time. Do yourself a favor- buy a foodsaver/vacuum sealer. You can certainly get by with ziplocs, but to me, its worth the money for the vacuum sealer. Key is, no air in the bags, and keep them submerged (so you do not have partially cooked food). If you cant afford a special container, or a foodsaver here is a tip- buy a bag of ping pong balls... that's right- ping pong balls.. they'll sit on top of the bath and keep your food submerged. So if you can spend the money(frankencooler was probably 35 bucks for the cooler+rack+hole saw drill bit) get a food saver and build yourself a sous vide cooler- you'll love it. If you CANT afford to- get a very large pot, some ziplocs, a couple of clips(to clip the bag to the side of the pot) and a bag of ping pong balls. NOTE - if you're looking for a quick meal of 10-15 minutes, this ain't it. It needs time to cook it evenly via the water bath. Burgers are about 45 minutes(but you can let them cook for upwards of 3 hours and they'll come out just as amazing- another GREAT thing about this- its very, very forgiving time wise), ribs anywhere from 12-36hours, and so on. HIGHLY recommended.

The Anova Precision Cooker at a glance when first purchased was unknown cooking device to me. The instructions were straight forward in setting it up. I even bought a water basin to complement the cooker. The food that this product produces is amazing. Precise internal temperatures for all ingredients elevates your cooking to another level. The app that comes with it, though finicky at times, is a great assistant to finding great recipes and techniques. The wifi feature is great as I can start cooking food coming from work. The Anova does require timing however. Your food does take much longer than conventional cooking so plan ahead. An example is frozen chicken breast. In the Anova cooker, it will take two hours to cook where in the stove it takes 40 minutes. The end result however is the one that matters as the anova produces an evenly, juicy, never over cooked food product. My best scenario with the cooker is, throwing chicken, lemon, rosemary, salt, and pepper into the precision cooker, going to the gym and not having to worry about an oven being on or over cooking my food when I get back home. After, the chicken is done and I'm ready to eat. Awesome. A side note, depending on your container, this product can use a lot of water. My container requires 2 gallons of water.

The Anova cooker works fine as a cooker, I guess, I've only used it once, but the selling points of it being a connected device are 100% false. The WiFi has been confirmed by their support to not work with any network using a "special character" in the password (eg. 1234!qwer will not work) and their support is making the ridiculous claim that this is common practice. It's not. I haven't run into any devices in the last decade with this bug and the reason for that is that it's against the 802.11 standards (specifically, 802.11i-2004 Annex H.4.1) which state that devices should assume that a PSK is between 8 & 63 characters, and that it can contain any characters between 32 and 126 on the ASCII table (and exclamation point is 33). The gizmo can also be connected to via Bluetooth. This is great, except that as soon as you walk more than 10ft from the cooker it loses the connection and as soon as that happens the timer immediately says your food is done. The app is nothing more than a glorified timer that can also tell you the temp of your water, and just because it can't do the latter when you wander, doesn't mean it's acceptable for the timer to also fail. This is a product with a lot of promise, but right now, it's not living up to it and that's entirely the fault of their software.

We bought this primarily as a tool for cooking steaks, although it does have many other uses. If you obsess about cooking the perfect steak, you should give a sous vide tool some very serious consideration. Be aware of a few things: 1) it's not cheap, 2) it's not fast, 3) it won't save you any steps, and 4) you still have to "finish" your meat (i.e. sear it) after using Anova. (In other words, cook steak with Anova, remove it, toss it on a ridiculously hot skillet or grill for a minute per side). This is NOT a time saving tool or something to make your life easier. It's a tool to cook things to the absolute perfect temperature, within less than one degree, every single time. I can cook my steak to exactly 131 degrees, or 135 degrees, or any other degree, with zero risk that it ever goes one degree above the number I choose. In addition to steaks, we have cooked salmon, pork chops, and chicken breasts and thighs with the Anova. Everything comes out perfect, every single time. I would highly recommend the Anova. We're seriously considering buying a second one for cooking vegetables. But again, this is not a time saving gadget; it's a tool for people seriously obsessed with cooking.