Anova Precision Oven: Features, Accessories, Troubleshooting, and "Should I Buy One?"

[palo]

2 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

The tank is all cracked, not to my surprise.

 

Get a new one (see above - hopefully yours will take less than 4 months to arrive)

 

p

[JoNorvelleWalker]

3 minutes ago, palo said:

Get a new one (see above - hopefully yours will take less than 4 months to arrive)

 

p

 

I'm on my second oven and my third or fourth tank.  One loses count.

 

[palo]

Whoa!

 

I guess you're not signed up to be writing customer reviews

 

Tough luck or inherent flaws?

 

p

[JoNorvelleWalker]

6 hours ago, palo said:

Whoa!

 

I guess you're not signed up to be writing customer reviews

 

Tough luck or inherent flaws?

 

p

 

Original oven was replaced because the plastic below the tank had cracked.  Now the new oven is looking to crack in the same spot.  That being said I use my APO a lot.

 

[Kaido Mac]

On 10/15/2022 at 11:31 AM, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Original oven was replaced because the plastic below the tank had cracked.  Now the new oven is looking to crack in the same spot.  That being said I use my APO a lot.

 

 

Did yours have the shield?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

4 minutes ago, Kaido Mac said:

 

Did yours have the shield?

 

Not that I could see.

 

[palo]

2 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Not that I could see.

 

It's  GREAT BIG wrap around black thing - you couldn't miss it 😁

 

p

[JoNorvelleWalker]

7 hours ago, palo said:

It's  GREAT BIG wrap around black thing - you couldn't miss it 😁

 

p

 

Then I guess I didn't.

 

[gfweb]

New tutorial from anova'

 

[TdeV]

Thanks @gfweb, I now have many more experiments to do!

[BetD]

I am clearly under using my APO by just cooking bread in it!

[TdeV]

On 10/2/2022 at 4:40 PM, TdeV said:

I did it at 220©F for 12 minutes. Tasty, still has bite. Now I have to freeze it, unknown how texture will be when thawed.

 

The APO is certainly a good way to process a large number of corn cobs. I have extra shelves, so could have done 2 or 3 dozen cobs. After taking them out of the APO, they were dumped into a sink full of ice cubes and water. When cold they were easy to shell.

 

First made a tasty chickpea and corn soup with homemade stock.

 

Froze the rest. Once thawed, corn had more tooth than supermarket frozen corn. And superior flavour, 'twas indescribably magnificent!

[ElsieD]

I think my BSOA died.  Breville originally was to charge me shipping both ways plus $300  to have it fixed.  We had a little chat and I ended up with being offered free shipping both ways and a 20% off the fix-it price.  Still too much in my opinion for what we think is a 7 year old oven.  We think the air function sucks so to buy a new   BSO wouldn't cost much more than getting it fixed.

 

And then this little light bulb came on and I remembered the APO.  I started to read the thread and then saw it was 53 pages long.  So to spare me a bit of time I thought I would simply ask those of you who have one if you would buy it again and if not, why not?  There is a 25% discount right now so I would consider replacing my Breville with the APO.

 

Thank you.

[TdeV]

Yes, absolutely. When I first bought it, I thought having a 220 circuit would be better (I'd planned to upgrade if Anova ever released one). I don't think I'd be tempted anymore. The APO oven heats quite quickly.

 

Size: It's large enough to take the place of the regular oven, i.e. if you ever needed 2 ovens. It's large enough that it will hold a 7 quart cast iron Dutch oven; lid, handles and all.

 

I bought extra shelves (APO comes with 2), so it's possible to use all 5 oven racks. Thus I have dehydrated many fruits and veg.

 

Steam roasted vegetables are great.

 

Probe temperature can be set, also the oven temp, so you can roast a chicken (I have cooked by probe, but not a chicken) .

 

I know one can do many sous vide items, but I have mostly done sous vide fish this way. Put a little topping on the fish, then cook for 20 minutes at your chosen doneness (113°F for me).

 

I've got a great recipe for fish and chips (with homemade mayonnaise).

 

I only use the APO app to make toast (multi-stage). Everything else I do from the knobs on the front of the machine. (This is because I want to learn how the APO works). I have had the machine not work at all. Unplugged it for 10 seconds, replugged, the machine's brains reset and it's ready to go.

 

I like the all-roundedness of the APO, steam and broiling. If I had a busted small steam oven, I'd upgrade in a jiffy.

 

Watch the video posted by @gfweb here.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

I think my BSOA died.  Breville originally was to charge me shipping both ways plus $300  to have it fixed.  We had a little chat and I ended up with being offered free shipping both ways and a 20% off the fix-it price.  Still too much in my opinion for what we think is a 7 year old oven.  We think the air function sucks so to buy a new   BSO wouldn't cost much more than getting it fixed.

 

And then this little light bulb came on and I remembered the APO.  I started to read the thread and then saw it was 53 pages long.  So to spare me a bit of time I thought I would simply ask those of you who have one if you would buy it again and if not, why not?  There is a 25% discount right now so I would consider replacing my Breville with the APO.

 

Thank you.

 

Haha, and you have to ask!  I use my APO almost if not every day.  This afternoon was for the Toast 101 recipe from the app. But like @TdeV I seldom use the app for anything but toast.  The app allows one to create and save complex multistage recipes if that's your thing.  The app also has a convenient air-fry preset that I sometimes use.

 

My first APO developed a crack in the plastic near the water tank.  Anova replaced the APO at no charge, paying postage both ways.  Can't get much better unless they offered to carry it upstairs.  Before that the water tank plastic cracked.  Anova sent a replacement tank no questions asked.

 

If my APO failed out of warranty I would have to purchase one again.  I don't know how to live without it.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

53 minutes ago, TdeV said:

Yes, absolutely. When I first bought it, I thought having a 220 circuit would be better (I'd planned to upgrade if Anova ever released one). I don't think I'd be tempted anymore. The APO oven heats quite quickly.

 

Size: It's large enough to take the place of the regular oven, i.e. if you ever needed 2 ovens. It's large enough that it will hold a 7 quart cast iron Dutch oven; lid, handles and all.

 

I bought extra shelves (APO comes with 2), so it's possible to use all 5 oven racks. Thus I have dehydrated many fruits and veg.

 

Steam roasted vegetables are great.

 

Probe temperature can be set, also the oven temp, so you can roast a chicken (I have cooked by probe, but not a chicken) .

 

I know one can do many sous vide items, but I have mostly done sous vide fish this way. Put a little topping on the fish, then cook for 20 minutes at your chosen doneness (113°F for me).

 

I've got a great recipe for fish and chips (with homemade mayonnaise).

 

I only use the APO app to make toast (multi-stage). Everything else I do from the knobs on the front of the machine. (This is because I want to learn how the APO works). I have had the machine not work at all. Unplugged it for 10 seconds, replugged, the machine's brains reset and it's ready to go.

 

I like the all-roundedness of the APO, steam and broiling. If I had a busted small steam oven, I'd upgrade in a jiffy.

 

Watch the video posted by @gfweb here.

 

@TdeV if you are seeing knobs you've had one too many mai tais.

 

 

[palo]

Everything Tdev and Jo said as well - great customer service (from my point of view)

 

I have a BSOA that I just use for warming plates lol

 

p

[ElsieD]

Does it make good toast?  I starting reading the thread but I'm only on page 14, so have not yet come across a definitive answer.

[TdeV]

@ElsieD, it's not like the toast in a pop-up toaster. The bread surface is made dry-ish and develops  a very small amount of browning. The APO toast cycle made DH crazy, so I spent $50 and bought him a toaster. I could eat the APO toast, but often choose to use the pop-up toaster.

 

I understand APO will make great grilled cheese but I have not yet understood how that works (so I haven't tried).

 

 

 

Edited November 16, 2022 by TdeV
Grammar (log)

[palo]

Buy a toaster

 

p

[JoNorvelleWalker]

@palo is correct but the APO makes OK toast for me.  The APO app has two quite different toast recipes.

 

[ElsieD]

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

@palo is correct but the APO makes OK toast for me.  The APO app has two quite different toast recipes.

 

 

Does the toast come out differently depending on the method used?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

38 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

Does the toast come out differently depending on the method used?

 

Yes.  Toast 2.0 is noticeably crisper and darker than Toast 101.  Feel free to create your own recipe.

[ElsieD]

I do believe I may buy this thing.  Should I also be ordering the perforated pan?  I have silicone liners, is there a need to buy theirs?  Is there something special about it?  Anything else?

[ElsieD]

On 10/5/2020 at 11:00 PM, JasonsCookingAdventures said:

To comment on what Jo has noticed:

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks the pan is flimsy. I followed their Garlic Bread recipe in the app, putting the pan from ambient into the oven that had been heated...POP goes the pan into a warped zone. Their Facebook group has others with this problem. I have some pans for testing coming Thursday-Saturday supposedly of this week.

 

The oven racks do warp under weight. See my post yesterday on that. I'm glad to hear the result of the baking steel test, though I wish it was a different result. I hadn't had a chance to test with an actual baking stone yet. The challenge is on now to find a sturdier rack that won't bend under pressure. If anyone finds one, please let us know so we can all benefit. They have a recipe in the app with a 6.5 pound roast on a pyrex pan. I didn't test the weight in a pan, but I'd imagine similar warping results. They even recommend it being on rack 2, which would put it in direct contact with the descale pipe if the rack bends any. And Cole (representing the oven) says a 14 pound give or take turkey would work.

 

I would agree the app is necessary. It is the only way to control the fan speed and have top/rear burner on simultaneously. Unfortunately, if I start the oven from the oven, then try to view it from the app, it frequently crashes. And when it crashes it shuts the oven off. I need to do more troubleshooting to ensure that is the sequence that causes the problem, but this really doesn't work. And now that I've typed all this, in looking for something specific to share here, I see the app has an update. I guess I'll update and try again.

 

I'm using it on Android, so yes it does speak Android.

 

Peter Tulk posted this image in the Anova Facebook group. The pan fits in the rack slots. Unfortunately, he found it at Goodwill. I won't admit to how many pans I've looked at online, but I didn't find this one anywhere. It's here as a reference point in case someone can.

 

Did you ever find out anything more about that pan?