Anova Sous Vide Circulator (Part 2)

[weedy]

Ordered mine 19 Nov, and it arrived today.

Not too bad at all.

I actually was able to order it from Anova Culinary via amazon.com which made it super easy.

filled a cambro to 8 qts and set it to 134 F.

within 5 minutes of it saying it hit temperature, the temp display on the Anova agreed perfectly with the water temp taken with my Thermapen

all great news.

now, what to make for dinner?...

ps i also hand cut (just with a serated knife) the 12x12 cambro lid to fit the Anova.

It's close enough to work and can still come on and off with the circulator in place.

I have a feeling cutting the larger poly lid for my 12x18 isn't going to be a home job though.

Edited December 2, 2013 by heidih
Fix image (log)

[weedy]

oh, and one more thing!:

it came with a printed little instruction booklet.

NOT the USB manual

[alanz]

My second unit arrived today, will unbox it tomorrow. Fine product.

[Beusho]

Products should save on paper and just print on the box For Manual Go To www.ThisWebsite.com with a website with the instruction manual, it would save them money they could pass on or recoup any returns, and if you're ordering sous vide equipment you definitely have access to the internet

[hattermad]

The Anova finally arrived! Very excited, but I'm at work. Will post thoughts / final costs etc later or tomorrow when I get a chance.

[jmasur]

and now Polyscience has announced its $300 Discovery circulator

http://cuisinetechnology.com/sousvide-discovery.php

no doubt in response to Anova and Sansaire

That's not their only response.

Just before Thanksgiving, they sued Sansaire, asserting infringement of U.S. Pat. No. 8469678. The patent requires molded housings, suggesting that Anova is not a likely next target.

[gfweb]

and now Polyscience has announced its $300 Discovery circulator

 

http://cuisinetechnology.com/sousvide-discovery.php

 

no doubt in response to Anova and Sansaire

 

That's not their only response.

 

Just before Thanksgiving, they sued Sansaire, asserting infringement of U.S. Pat. No. 8469678.  The patent requires molded housings, suggesting that Anova is not a likely next target.

Sounds like neither a novel nor an unanticipated feature.

[Martin Fisher]

Ugh!!!

I'm going to stick with the SVM for now!

[jmasur]

Sounds like neither a novel nor an unanticipated feature.

It's got a lot more requirements than that, obviously. I was simply noting that it does not appear that Polyscience could read this on the Anova.

[bonkboo]

Sounds like neither a novel nor an unanticipated feature.

It's got a lot more requirements than that, obviously. I was simply noting that it does not appear that Polyscience could read this on the Anova.

Presumably a last ditch attempt to keep share in the household market while retaining margins. I'd assume they could just introduce something priced below Anova, etc. they have the know how, distribution and brand to dominate this market. Silly to worry about cannabalizing their higher price point products when they could simply sell a whole lot more product at the presumably less profitable lower price.

[johnder]

Google patent link http://www.google.com/patents/US8469678

[Unpopular Poet]

I agree as well that potential legal issues are always important -- I am super pleased by my Anova -- I couldn't ask for anything more -- and I fully intend on buying another one when my sous vide supreme dies. I think the problem here is that the potential of a lawsuit, even if it is slight, could have a detrimental effect on the future of a company -- especially a smaller, newer company. I have no idea how litigious Polyscience is -- but discussing this is still relevant to my Anova circulator...

In other news, I am preparing a beautiful chuck roast to go in my Anova tonight for 24 hours -- I have come to completely rely on it for the longer runs, as it maintains a level of perfect temperature I could never rely upon in my other setups.

it is what it is, and it speaks for itself.

That sounds like something a lawyer would say.

Edited December 5, 2013 by Unpopular Poet (log)

[hattermad]

So, the expense incurred:

199 USD for the circulator

69.95 USD for shipping and handling to the UK

I did get hit for vat on import as expected - 20%.

I did not get hit for Duty as the total value was too low, but if you're ordering multiple items, you may do, so bear that in mind - the best lookup I could do suggested this would be just above 4%. That was classing it as a water heater - bear in mind I didn't have to test that this was what customs would have applied.

Annoyingly, I also got hit by a fixed charge from the courier company for having to handle the customs clearing - I stupidly left the invoice at work, but it was around 14 GBP. The rest of the charges I understood and it's up to me to decide whether I'm happy or not to place an order, but this was a surprise and left me a little less than gruntled given that the courier was their choice and would clearly be dealing with a cross border shipment, I expected this would be included. It's small, but I will complain about this to Anova.

I'm going to leave my comments on whether I'm happy with the overall cost until I have had a chance to use it a bit more - initial impressions in use are great and temp appears to be spot on, but I am heading to Italy tomorrow and won't be using it for a week. I also have a pet peeve about amazon style reviews after owning products for a couple of hours which I don't wish to resemble.

Hope that helps those considering a purchase for now.

[Beusho]

Suing someone for competing with you: this has made me not want to support Polyscience. I don't think they can do much to Anova, it's a subsidiary of an established company that sells lab grade equipment. The patent seems to rely on the housing around the impeller and heating element; there are a ton of other lab grade thermal immersion circulators out there now. If they sued my company I'd say sure I'll take off the housing...oh and I'll sell a waterbath cage to protect, no, not the housing, but waterbath contents. Frivolous lawsuits are the way a big company competes with smaller companies

[Martin Fisher]

Frivolous?

Who has read the lawsuit?

Who has seen detailed drawings of Sansaire's design?

Looks like Polyscience has 24 patent claims.

[gfweb]

As a person reasonably schooled in the art, I have a hard time finding novelty in a heater combined with a circulator. Magnetic stirrer/hotplates have been in labs for what 40 years? Aquariums have had circulators and heaters even longer. This is unanticipated?

One of the functions of a patent in the modern era is to provide an expense barrier to small companies trying to enter the market. Not only do they have to make their product, they have to have a war chest to attack the possibly invalid patents of the behemoth when they are sued for infringement.

Edited December 5, 2013 by gfweb (log)

[rotuts]

OK then. good for them.

as Id like to lean:

why not Anova? and can you make claims on a product that not commercially available?

[Martin Fisher]

I don't know, that's why I'm asking questions, it'd be nice to know some facts instead of just making a bunch of assumptions,

[rotuts]

"" Looks like Polyscience has 24 patent claims ""

so where does this come from and how can the make suit on an item that is not in the marketplace?

[Martin Fisher]

The claims are in the patent.

As I understand it, you don't need to go to market to violate a patent.

Regardless, they're headed for market.

[Shalmanese]

You can read the actual claims of the lawsuit here. Ironically, the Sansaire came out of Nathan Myhrvold's lab and Mhyvold is widely known within tech circles as being one of the biggest patent trolls of all time.

[Beusho]

I think a lot of common sense people on here have higher standards for patents than currently happen in the US market. My common-sense idea is that you patent a somewhat new idea. Somewhat being decided by a patent office, these standards are extremely low. Heating element+impeller+temp regulator=legal, this has been used by science for a long time. I've worked in science labs that used thermal immersion circulators from many different companies.

Heating element+impeller+temp regulator+housing=patent worthy product?? I don't know about this or the details about patent law, I do know that the US has an industry for patents...the question is if you think this contributes to a common good, is our (cooking) society improved by this. My answer would be no, like I said before this has made me lose all support for Polyscience, let them compete by giving people jobs who can figure out a way to create/market a new device, this may lead to new and better devices instead of new and longer lawsuits

[Martin Fisher]

I don't agree and I don't disagree.

Polyscience was granted a patent by the U.S. Patent Office with 24 claims and there is a lawsuit to defend that patent, those are facts.

Seems to me that Sansaire could have avoided this situation by introducing something that's truly ground-breakingly innovative and unique....oh...and gotten their own patent(s.)

Anyway, I wish them luck!

[Martin Fisher]

Ironically, the Sansaire came out of Nathan Myhrvold's lab and Mhyrvold is widely known within tech circles as being one of the biggest patent trolls of all time.

From the Sansaire website......

"Is this project related to Modernist Cuisine?

Nope. Although Scott works for Modernist Cuisine, this project was underway before he joined the team. He was generously given permission to continue work on the Sansaire as an after-hours project."

[stckciv]

I ordered mine this last weekend and it shipped out on Monday. It came into my shop today and I took a quick peek, as it is a Xmas gift from my wife.

It did not have a thumb drive or card for the manual, rather it did have a paper manual. I will try to snap a pic or two before my wife wraps it this weekend.