Can Anova post instructions on how to check if you received one of the miscalibrated units? Can you identify a bad unit based on your backer number or unit serial number? Keep in mind that many of your customers likely don’t have a thermapen, and that cooking to an inadequate temperature is a safety issue. I’m surprised there isn’t a formal recall on the early units.
You don’t need to use a Thermapen to test your Anova’s calibration. Thermapen is just like the Cadillac of probe thermometers. Cheaper thermometers work pretty darn well too and you can always check your thermometer with an ice bath or boiling water to see how well calibrated it is. Thermoworks actually has a new probe style thermometer called the ThermoPop that I’ve been hearing good things about and is a lot cheaper than the Thermapen.
I’m interested in knowing what we should do about this as well. According to my Thermapen, my new Kickstarter Anova Precision Cooker displays about 1.5 degrees F higher than the actual water temperature. Testing with my friends Anova 1, the Thermapen shows it’s bang on, so I tend to believe my Thermapen is correct. Do I only have a certain time to decide to send it back? I thought I’d wait to see how the iPhone app corrects for this, and also wait 'til support is not so swamped. And will I incur more customs brokerage/tax charges if I do? I am rather disappointment that it’s not as “precise” as the name suggests.
What if I just want some more info like I asked? Do you think I should just send it back and hope for the best instead of waiting for the iPhone app or support to be less swamped? Do I have a limited time to decide? Might it come back the same 1.5 off? I ask as Anova hasn’t really responded as to this issue as far as I know, but just says “send it back.” If they said, “yes, some are incorrectly calibrated by 1-2 degrees,” I’d have more comfort. I hate the idea of sending it back and being without over the holidays, paying again for customs/duty/taxes, and it being the exact same when I get it back…
Hmmm…maybe what I really want to know is, has anyone who’s had calibration issues like mine received a properly calibrated unit in return?
P.S. I do recognize this isn’t a support forum and I should probably contact them for this advice. Just thought I’d try to get some more info…
If you want to return the unit, you can submit a return request here: http://anovaculinary.com/pages/returns
@LostInKits, are you possibly overthinking this? If you know it is off by 1.5 degrees, you can still use it properly by adjusting your set temperature by 1.5 degrees. When the ios app comes out, you’ll be able to recalibrate it.
If you have a friend with an android device, you can download the user-made app now and calibrate it.
My suggestion would be to NOT send it back as support is obviously swamped and dealing with shipping new units and processing returns for people’s devices which don’t function at all.
Thanks @plarpco no doubt I am 
I’m fine adjusting the temp or using the iPhone app if that will work. Just trying to get a sense of what others experiences are with this problem, and my options to fix. I’ll hold off. Thanks, I very much appreciate the feedback.
@"Stephen Svajian" , it’s not an issue of wanting to return the unit. It’s an issue of knowing whether your unit is defective or not. Anova have not addressed how their customers can identify the (hopefully only early) defective units.
@plarpco, people are reporting that units are not off by a fixed offset at all temperatures. So assuming you just need to +/- a set number of degrees doesn’t solve anything. At different temperatures units are off by a different amounts.
@G Was there more than one person reporting a non-linear miscalibration? Unfortunately it looks like people will have to get a known calibrated thermometer, and test it at different temps. Do you actually think there is a batch of cookers with non-linear mis-calibrations that Anova is directly aware of?
@plarpco, yes I have seen more than one post about non-linear miscalibration. I have also seen posts about units reporting both higher and lower temperatures. It is clear that Anova’s quality assurance processes were not sufficient, they’ve admitted that miscalibrated units were sent out. Do I think Anova is aware of non-linear miscalibrated units? Yes. Do I think they know how large the problem it? Nope, nor do I think they are trying to find out or address the problem.
The thing is people shouldn’t have to buy a calibrated thermometer to use what was sold to them as a precision cooker. If they do then Anova should have included a thermapen with every unit.
@G When you asked how Anova could identify which units were defective, it sounded like you were implying that Anova has the serial numbers or batch numbers of cookers that were defective. My point was, unfortunately, that users might have to test with a thermometer to even know if their cooker is miscalibrated. Sucks, but I don’t think there is any other way for a user to know if their cooker isn’t working right.
@plarpco, Anova does know when they identified the issue and corrected it. So they do know that orders shipped after this date, or above this serial number are not affected. They should be telling customers with earlier unit that extra precautions should be taken, and ideally recalling those earlier units.
@G Yeah, I guess it’s likely that they know which ones are bad. I’m not counting on them actually revealing that information though, are you? My unit is an early production model and it is fine. I still think people should be testing with their own thermometer rather than relying on a possible product recall.
@plarpco We’re trying to figure out which systems may have the calibration issue. There’s a batch, but it will only be some of the units within that batch.