Hey all, loving the oven so far, I was wondering if anyone else is having an issue getting their APO to 212 degrees Fahrenheit, in sous vide mode with 100% steam? If you can get to this temp, how long does it take?
I can get to around 202-204 in 10-15 minutes, but then it sits and slowly goes up and down, ends no where near 212 even after 30+ minutes.
Anyone else having this issue? I just logged a ticket to support. I’ve tried different outlets. I’m high altitude if that matters for some reason, using distilled water. I do have the ‘flickering’ issue, although to me it’s barely noticeable.
Honestly I’m just following the recipes - I tried rice 101 this weekend and since I could never hit temp, it didn’t come out right - flavor was delicious and it was ‘good’, but you could tell the rice wasn’t as tender as it could be.
Tried lobster 101 same thing, it wants you to get to 212F to steam to make the shell open easier, couldn’t get there, although in that instance it didn’t make a large impact as far as I could tell.
I’m not sure what other recipes require such heat, maybe it’s not that big a deal? Although it says it should reach that temp even in the manual.
I haven’t tried non sous vide mode for that temp, what difference would that make? Never hurts to try.
Boiling point in Denver is 208. You might need to lower your temp to 208 or play around with it.
The oven behaves differently with normal mode. I guess that’s obvious, but sous vide mode attempts to be highly accurate and this uses finer grain heat adjustments to not overshoot the desired temp. At boiling point I don’t think it matters a lot. Sous vide mode is only good to boiling point so being right at boiling point is likely the issue with altitude due the way the wet bulb sensor works.
Ahh, that makes sense, thank you - I will try without sous vide mode, I’d imagine with like the rice recipe, it probably wouldn’t make a huge difference with that mode off? Rice is a real challenge up here so I was hoping the oven would dial it in -
Realistically if there’s no other need to reach that temp I’m not entirely concerned, that’s why I was looking to compare, I just wanted to make sure my unit wasn’t defective or there was something I was missing as far as a workaround, or maybe a defect for a future software update.
Yea, pretty sure its just the needed altitude adjustment like all cooking in Denver etc. Since the oven isn’t pressurized there is no magic happening.
The sensor senses evaporation so at altitude that is going to be lower. The problem is likely its fighting to hit your temp, but the sensor is saying no.
I think you can do sous vide close, but you need to lower to about 208 if the recipes are telling you sous vide at 212.
but you could tell the rice wasn’t as tender as it could be.
I’ve noticed the same thing. I used to steam my food with a big pan and rack setup. I would steam my rice and it turns out delicious. I tried to steam rice in the APO and it came out a bit mealy.
I just made some bread with sous vide mode off, 50% steam, and it easily got to 350F. Haven’t tried 208F sous vide mode and 100% steam but will give it a try, although it really starts to struggle around 204.
I just made hard boiled eggs, so I kept track of some data. The setting was 212 degrees, sous vide mode, and 100% steam. It took 19 minutes to heat to 212 degrees.
I placed my eggs directly on the rack that was in the oven for the pre-heat. So, just adding eggs directly to the rack with no additional cold pan inserted, the temperature dropped to 165 degrees. The oven took 10 minutes of the 15 minute cook time to get itself back to 212 degrees, which it held steady until one minute to go. Then, for some reason, it dropped to 209 and just hung out there until the beep.
I happen to be around 900 feet above sea level, if that is of any interest.
I don’t think it has any issues making 100% steam and heating through the entire range. I think sous vide mode is highly sensitive and needs an altitude adjustment due to the bulb sensor.
So I think you can hit 212 100% in Denver on non sous vide mode, but that will be 4 degrees over boiling point so perhaps less ideal for certain things.
I also notice there may be some measurement differences in the modes. I’ve toggled between sous vide and normal mode and see that the interior temp measurement adjust several degrees. Probably all relating to the bulb temp sensor that uses evaporation.
It could very well be that Anova didn’t consider altitude adjustments at all. It would surprise me, but its possible.
I guess we also have to keep in mind that an oven with 100% humidity at 200F is “hotter” for the food than a 200F 0% humidity oven. More thermal conductivity. But if you need boiling point to drive off moisture you have to get there…
Gentle cooks, there appears to be some misunderstanding of the exactitude of the Anova oven’s alleged Sous Vide Mode. Cooking in an high humidity oven cavity will not be the same as cooking in a water bath. It does cook and the results can be close, but not the same.
Different physics.
And why “SV cook” eggs at so high a temperature?. Remember when until recently SV meant low temperature cooking and no one expected their APC to boil water? We went through this exploratory process earlier with the APC trying to SV cook everything.
Sometimes it’s interesting, but not an improvement.
In the 1970’s European chefs developed SV recipes for cooking in commercial “steam ovens”, but quickly moved on to water bath cooking for its superior precision and consistency.
Eggs included.
You don’t need boiling water to hard cook eggs, unless you have a distaste for tender eggs. If you want rubbery eggs, - boil away. For a superior product you might want to cook in water using your APC at 165ᴼF for 45 minutes.
So much easier to peel too.
I own and frequently use my combi-oven, but still prefer my APC for many applications.
The APO exhibits symptoms of being rushed to market with insufficient testing and documentation proof reading, perhaps to meet a too low price point.
To compound the challenges of using unfamiliar equipment some inexperienced cooks are trying to push the APO beyond its capability.
Users might want to start their learning with just the basic oven functions, baking and roasting. Once familiar with the oven’s basics, then add the steam assisted mode to learn how to use various steam levels and oven temperature combinations according your items being cooked. Then use the steam mode to judge its usefulness in your cooking.
I would save the Sous Vide mode experiments for my post-graduate work.
As a general consumer, not scientist or expert cook, just someone who Anova got started with sous vide years ago, who can generally follow a recipe and have had amazing results, I think the oven is great, at least with what I’ve done so far, and looking forward to cooking more.
Still wanting to hear an official statement from support on the temp, but otherwise I haven’t seen other recipes that require that level of precision, and I don’t see myself experimenting with that temp much.
I agree with both of these statements. I’m an early adopter type and have worked on and delivered smart consumer products so I have some tolerance. Rev 2 will be amazing.
I wish we could see some Anova involvement in the forum.
I don’t get that vibe from Anova, actually the opposite, I’ve had some of the chefs even reply to me in the app, I’m sure they’re just slammed…plus Covid?
