blbskue

Despite my continued concerns over issues with the APO, I’ve taken the plunge and ordered one this morning. What are some accessories I should be on the lookout for? I’m aware of the bakingsteel.com baking steel manufactured for the APO. What about pans (perforated or not) that work well? Air fryer baskets? Anything else?

Does anyone have any experience with Steelmade Flat Top Grills? Specifically, how to they do with even heat distribution considering the heat is coming from five separate gas burners? Steelmade says: I'm just curious if anyone can comment on that.

Really torn between ordering this or a BSOA. I continue to be a bit concerned about some of the ongoing APO problems, but most users seem to have few if any issues. Option 1 is to get the BSOA for now, then replace it with an APO down the line when version 2 or whatever is available. That could be years though. Or just go for the APO now, hope for the best, and upgrade to version 2 someday if need be. Help! Are those who have owned the APO for some time now still content? Any major ongoing concerns?

I also went for it. I’ve never cooked with carbon steel, but have been wanting to try it out and this seemed like a good excuse. I’ll probably forget I ordered it by the time it arrives in April or May though.

The consensus over at Reddit seems to be that the cracking tank issue is a “when” not “if” question for most, but still sorry it happened to you. Anova says it’s working on a redesigned tank, but I don’t think it’s available yet. Someone posted a few days ago that their drip tray melted where it sits closest to the steam vent, so add that to the list of issues to watch out for. That user’s tank also warped so badly the top wouldn’t fit on it anymore.

I kind of feel the same way. Ha!

My new board from LIMBA Woodcraft was hand delivered this afternoon by Adam, the guy who made it, since he’s local. Nice guy, and I appreciated the personal delivery touch (he was properly masked and chatted though our storm door). As promised, here are a few pics. I think it looks beautiful.

I reached out to John at The Boardsmith and he does indeed take custom orders. He was super helpful and good with communication, but unfortunately is running about six weeks lead time on custom orders right now which was longer than I wanted to wait if I could avoid it. I found a woodworking outfit here in Kentucky, LIMBA Woodcraft (https://www.furniturehomecraft.com/collections/end-grain) that makes some beautiful looking boards and also take custom orders. They do ship nationwide, and are making me a 20” x 20” x 3” end grain walnut board that will ship next week. Also good communication, and prices are comparable to Boardsmith, maybe moderately less expensive. I’ll post some pics when I receive it.

It’s definitely a hard wood, but softer than rock maple on the Janka scale (1450 for hard maple vs 1260 for birch). Kind of falls between hard maple and walnut (1010). Good to know. As mentioned above, I knew it falls between rock maple and walnut on the Janka scale so in that regard it seems ideal, but I wasn’t sure if there were other issues to consider since it doesn’t seem to be used as much for end grain boards as maple and walnut. Great to know! Thanks. Probably worth getting a custom quote then.

What’s everyone’s preferred type of wood for an end grain board? Maple and walnut, and to some extent cherry, seem to be recommended for being a good mix of appropriate hardness and closed pores. I like the Boos and Boardsmith boards/blocks, but can’t find one in the size I want. Catskill has a 20”x20”x3” end grain that is perfect for my needs, but I think it’s birch and I can’t find anything about whether birch is a good choice. Catskill boards/blocks certainly are more affordable than Boos and Boardsmith.

Hopefully you’re right! That’s why I wanted to gauge the situation here. It definitely seems like a more pervasive problem if you go by the comments on Reddit and the Anova community forum. BTW, the 1 in 4 stat comes from a Facebook poll referenced by the mod at r/CombiSteamOvenCooking.

Good to hear. Apparently about 1 in 4 tanks are cracking, although not all of them that crack end up leaking. An Anova rep posted that they’re working on a redesigned tank but at least through batch 8 they’re still shipping the old/original tank.

Has anyone had issues with the water tank cracking? It’s been discussed a fair amount over at the r/CombiSteamOvenCooking subreddit, but I think I only caught one comment about it in this thread. I really want an APO, but am on the fence about it because of that issue.