I have about 50 days left of the 100 days return period. While I am gaining respect for it’s capabilities, I am concerned about it’s long term reliability. Our Panasonic Flash Express oven has lasted over 10 years under daily and still in use. I hope to get a similar level of reliability on the APO.
The APO has only been around a couple of years so long term reliability remains to be proven. Browsing through this forum, I read the following issues may be reliability concerns. I am hoping to get feedback from longer term users and from Anova. This is a big & expensive oven. I don’t want to think about shipping it back and forth to deal with warranty problems.
Cracked water tank:
This looks like an inevitable problem but it seems Anova does replace this when it happens. I assume the APO is dead until the new tank arrives. How often does this happen & how long did it take Anova to replace it with a new one?
Deteriorating center seal gasket on the bottom:
In cleaning the APO, I noticed the center ring on the bottom does get VERY hot. I can understand the rubber gasket failing after some time. How long is this expected life cycle? What is Anova doing about it?
Cracked light cover:
Just saw that report today. Seems to be caused after a descaling cycle. I have not had to do one yet. Another process to be concerned?
Software Upgrade breaks the APO:
When I first got it, the APO did a software upgrade successfully. So far, there has been no new upgrades. I did read some people who ran into upgrade problems that froze or broke some functions. What are the user experiences on this process? Promises has been made by Anova on new requested features so this is a critical need.
Please add other issues that I may have missed. Thank you for any and all feedback.
By the sound of it my circulating fan bearing is failing. I am in discussions with customer service so we will see what happens. I have been in industrial maintenance for 29 years so this sound is very familiar.
I need to return my unit this week. After just a month of using it the fan started to make a really bad noise when it starts up and have to turn the oven on and off to get it to run right. It is only getting worse as time goes on. They want to give a replacement. I also question the long term reliability of the oven and only have had a horrible experience with the app and connecting the oven to my account. When the oven works right I love it but for the price I just might want a refund
Can’t talk about long-term, have mine only for 2 weeks…
Can’t you just seal it up with some window silicone till the new one arrives. It’s not a pressure container and it should hold.
I believe this is silicone. Should be able to withstand >260°C. But seems rather thin and maybe easy to damage while cleaning (rubbing). I would be really careful with the cleaning process.
Cosmetic error, but potentially very harmful - I don’t want glass fragments in the food! I wonder what they use? I hope not glass. Pyrex/borosilicate should handle temp shocks very well. (I would probably get a flat borosilicate rather than getting same old from Anova)
IMHO the APO is a good oven, doesn’t mean their ain’t room for improvements. Quite a few I believe.
The app has certainly also plenty of potential for improvements.
this thing is 500-600 bucks. built-in convection steam ovens cost way, way more.
for example, miele’s venerable CSO costs 4.3 - 5.9k. i have the xxl plumbed-in version of this at my other place, and while the build quality is clearly superior (and i love the plumbed water and drain convenience), it’s sure as hell not worth literally 10x the price.
i can buy 9 more APOs as they break and still come out ahead because i’ll be buying newer, updated things as time goes on.
I do thank everyone who has provided feedback. My intention is not to denigrate APO but just to collect some info. on the issues to be concerned. No intention of comparing this consumer oven against commercial ovens or even built-in home ovens.
So far, apart from noted issues of front-panel weaknesses and App flaws, the basic APO has been performing great. However, it is still a $600 investment and a huge item to get rid off if the long term reliability is not there. While I appreciate the steam function for specific needs, most of our uses treats the APO as any convection oven. it is replacing a similar size Oster countertop oven that cost me only $89 which has been reliable for years; so comparison is fair.
assuming your oster thing is a toaster oven, here are my thoughts…
APO probably has larger cooking cavity.
APO doesn’t have a powerful bottom heating element, and your toaster oven probably does.
the APO is not a toaster oven. it heats up slower than a toaster oven (but much faster than a real oven) and doesn’t have radiative cooking from both sides. it frankly sucks as a toaster.
but APO has very good temp control, so it’s good for precision cooking tasks.
it also has a roast probe. most ovens and toaster ovens do not.
in summary, i think it’s worth having:
a toaster for toasting. nothing toasts faster.
a toaster oven for toasting anything that won’t fit in your toatser
an APO for precision cooking tasks, baking, reheating food, or for other situations where steam is good
a real oven for anything that won’t fit in your APO
other reflections:
a toaster oven can almost replace a toaster
an APO can’t replace a toaster or toaster oven (can’t replace your oster! yes, really!)
an APO can replace a real oven (assuming stuff fits in there)
similarly, a toaster oven can replace a real oven assuming it’s a high end toaster oven with temp control and convection (assuming stuff fits in there)
No disagreement to your points. Thanks for the detailed response. The Oster was the extra-large version and almost the same size as APO. Actually larger for pizza due to a bulge in the back. It was still a toaster oven but did it’s job well.
Like APO, it was lousy for toast. Toast is best in our 10+ year old Panasonic Flash toaster oven. Expensive for a small oven, but great in performance & reliability.
My point was on APO reliability/cost and size. My Oster was cheap & reliable. However, getting rid of a big oven is a pain. Too big to fit recycle bins. You have to find a center for drop-off or pay for pickup.
I just hope the APO is reliable. Shipping or recycling will be a pain.
I had mine for over 18 months with almost daily use (we eat a lot of bacon) and no issues until the gasket tore (Replaced that myself with some high temp gasket material) and then the usual issues of the water container cracking (never experienced leaking and this is a common occurence with certain plastics (I have a patio drink pitcher than contains nothing but water or lemonade at best, always hand washed and it’s riddled with cracks throughout the entire surface, no leaking either). The issue of the water flooding the interior was another matter and not sure what the issue was, or what was causing the water to be tea coloured (corrosion……from what and where) I opted for a new oven when it was offered. I think the oven offers high value at its price point. It’s kind of like the Volkswagon Beetle of it’s time. Everyone with a modest income can afford to own a steam oven and that is just brilliant on Anova’s part. If it lasts 5 years it outlasts most other modern appliances. We have a 22 year old gas hotwater tank that has never been maintained or serviced and I want to create a museum for it.
Mine is 6 months old, the water tank have plenty of fissure lines and the fan just died probably because of bearing failures (made a ton of whining noise before dying). I made a support request from the app 2 days ago, they still have to get back to me, I didn’t even get an email confirming they received my request. I hope they don’t ask me to return the APO because I didn’t keep the original packaging. I would rather fix it myself or have a repair technician home. We’ll see.