Anova CulinarySous Vide Precision Cooker | WiFi + Bluetooth | 900W (Discontinued)

First the good news - it cooks well - holds temp accurately has good circulation, nice results. App worked right out of the boxThe bad news - after it's 5th use, the app showed a message - Restoring Anova - which it never did. I have followed all the guidance - unistall the app, press the wi-fi logo on the unit to reset connection data, reboot Anova, phone router - etc. NOTHING HAS WORKED!It's a shame that an otherwise robust product is crippled by lousy software and an equally lousy company that can't/won't fix the software - surely they are selling enough of these to hire a decent coder or two to make this happen. Enough with the pretty pictures and glowing product descriptions - fire half the marketing department and hire some people to make it work. I may be returning mine which is about 2 weeks old. I wanted to love this thing - I can't.After considerable back and forth with tech support - the tech assigned to my case started looking at warranty options. With that I decided to return it to Amazon, which they let me do, with no charges or shipping.Not being one to give up, I ordered a new replacement unit. In the interim, I dug a little deeper in to the 5gHz-2.4gHz conundrum. Many internet routers now combine both bands by default, managed by a feature called Band Steering. It has a threshold adjustment for older legacy devices that can only work on 2.4 gHz wireless. Rather than waste another half a day on finding a value that would allow my cooker to connect consistently, I decided to create a new SSID for the 2.4 gHz login. Well, that worked out perfectly!I have to think that the reason why my first cooker worked initially had to do with the unreliability of the band steering in my router, which is why I chose to avoid messing with it.The replacement cooker appears to be able to consistently see and connect, without issues, to the lower bandwidth signal, so I need to update my rating to a 5 star - it works, does a very good job of cooking - just as advertised.A note to Anova mgmt- the task for developing marketing materials must have input and sign-off from tech support - and issues like these - while not insurmountable - need to be clearly represented in the literature and online product representations - this will help whittle down your 22% disapproval rating. It's a good cooker, and while quirky on connectivity, can be made to work just fine.

I will preface this review by saying that I typically am not wowed enough by a product to leave one, but... WOW!I was lucky enough to snag one of these off the Treasure Truck in Portland yesterday for $95. I am an avid foodie and love trying different ways of preparing food. After I got home with this sweet little treasure, I read some of the reviews on here to try and baseline my expectations. I noticed several people complaining of steam messing with the settings, and then I read the review about using a cooler in order to maintain heat and prevent steam from escaping. Seriously, it just makes sense!I did not want to wait for an Amazon order to try this little lifehack myself, so I headed down to Target and picked up a 16qt flip top Coleman cooler. This morning with a drill, jigsaw, vacuum, and about 10 minutes, I cut a hole in the top (make sure you locate the hole where the lid is thinnest!). Don't worry if the hole is a little rough, just make sure it is not too big. The collar around the Anova will seal the hole and hold the unit up.So... After prepping my custom cooker I pulled a 1.75 pound frozen sirloin out of my 20F deep freezer. I gave it a rinse and a pat dry to get some rub to stick, then I applied some smoked chipotle and bacon rub, a little salt, little pepper, and just a touch of olive oil for flavor. I have had a Food Saver vacuum sealer, so I decided to use that to customize the bag size and seal it good and proper. After that it was time to get cooking!I downloaded the app (which has terrible reviews, but I found it to be easy to set up and it worked great). After setting up the app, I filled my cooker about 1/2 way and set the unit to warm up. Once the unit was warm, I opened the lid and placed by steak inside. NOTE: The unit will shutoff and give you a warning that "you seem to be out of water" when it is no longer submerged. Additionally, the frozen steak will start cooling the water as well, so get the lid back down quickly and warm up the water again. Be sure the plastic bag will not block the intake (another reason to use custom sized vacuum sealed bags)!I set the unit for 131, and to cook for 2 hours. After the water warmed back up (only dropped to 129 with the addition of the frozen steak), the timer automatically started. After that, I plopped my but on the couch and put on a movie. Remember, no peeking! If the unit comes out of the water, it will turn off. I checked the temp occasionally and was pleasantly surprised to see that it never dropped below 131, or went above for that matter! Seriously, not even 0.1 degrees.At about 8 minutes remaining, I began to heat up my cast-iron skillet with a little veggie oil over med heat. Once the Anova timer went off, I wiped all the veggie oil out of the skillet, cranked it up to med-high and added a TBSP of EVOO. As the oil started to smoke, I cut open the bag and seared the steak for 2 minutes on each side. I checked the temp before I put it in the skillet and it was a solid 120 in the middle. after the sere and a couple minutes to rest, it came out to just over 135. Perfect med/med-rare!I gotta say, this thing is so worth it. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have waited for the Treasure Truck. I would happily pay the current Prime price for it.Seriously, do yourself a favor and pick this bad boy up! I HIGHLY recommend getting a cooler to make a cooker out of. It holds the temp perfectly, no steam issues, no water depletion issues. While the other reviewer used a 9 qt, I really like the 16 qt Coleman (only $20 at Target) I got. Sure, it takes a little more water, but once I have everything all dried up, the Anova fits inside at an angle and I can slide the cooker in the pantry.Lastly, anyone looking for a slightly used Instant Pot?? It's only going to gather dust now that I have this Anova! :DColeman 16 Quart C-Tec Excursion Cooler Red -Official cooler of the National Park Foundation