12 hours ago, paulraphael said:
Of course I'm making up those numbers. What I'm not making up is how big the diminishing returns are on increasing reliability. Making something twice as reliable typically costs more than twice the price—if you're dealing with something that's pretty reliable in the first place (no major, obvious flaws, etc..).
Would I pay more for a 10% failure rate instead of a 40% failure rate? No, I wouldn't buy the stupid product. A 10% failure rate (over a few years of normal use) is unacceptable and would probably be unsustainable for the company. These are made up numbers, too. I would be surprised if the failure rate has been much more than 1%, not counting their initial manufacturing run. If they've sold tens of thousands of them, that would account for hundreds of pissed customers.
No one runs to the internet to trumpet that their immersion circulator didn't break today. When things fail, owners get vocal.
I'm with you on this.
Out of all the people who bought the Anova on eGullet, how many have posted here with problems? Not many.
My sympathies are with you but this does not seem to be a high failure rate.
As people, we have something called a confirmation bias which means that we pay particular attention to things that confirm our beliefs and ignore things that don't. I was reading an article today about someone who researched the incidence of adverse police events on days with a full moon. As a police officer, the author was sure that more incidents happened on a full moon day. He was disappointed that his research showed that there was no difference to other days. Now you have had something go wrong with your Anova, you will focus on the number of complaints on the Internet (which, by the way, is not large) as a way of confirming that it is a bad product.
I bought one of the industrial strength Anovas when they were first launched. Mine had some issues with temperature control so I contacted Anova and they paid for return postage from Australia for the faulty unit and sent me a brand new one. No fuss, just replacement.
I have around five circulators of one type or another. The Anova (one) is the one that I use most often.
If this thread had heaps of complaints about the product, I'd be concerned. It doesn't so I'm not.
Sometimes if a product fails, you have to suck it up if it is out of warranty. Judging from the unstated experience of everyone else, the next one you buy may last you many years more; particularly if it is the upgraded model.
ps. a friend had horrible issues with his polyscience circulator so don't think that it is without faults -- it's just more expensive.
