Mold in Tank

Anova Precision® Oven
1

I left on a trip for 3 weeks and came back to a bug that had gotten into the tank and died and had some kind of fuzzy white fungus growing on it and floating on and in the water.

I had a spare tank, so I replaced it entirely, did a light cleaning of the inlet on the oven with bleach, and ran through all the cleaning steps indicated on this site (Easy Off and descaling with solution purchased here). I filled the new tank with distilled water (as always), and continued using the oven.

However, this strange mold has come back after leaving the water disused for some time. It is like small hazy clouds floating in and on the water. Much less than before, but concerning. I do not use the steam function of the oven often, so the water does sit around. Let’s be honest, the lid isn’t exactly a hermetic seal; it’s quite cheap, like the tank. But, I never had a problem before, even leaving the water tank untouched for quite some time.

Does anyone have any advice on preventing this from coming back? I’m thinking it is now in the unreachable components within the oven that are contaminated. I am considering running a descaling cycle with bleach at a 200ppm concentration (food contact surface safe), since it seems like it doesn’t vaporize the solution, but I don’t know if that’s entirely the case. Then, I’d run a descaling cycle with distilled water, then run the oven for a while at a high temp with the tank disconnected. Finally, just swab the water intake with some white vinegar.

I’m asking for any advice or suggestions. Thank you.

2

I would suggest only filling the tank when you want to use the steam function.

3

Yes, that’s a good idea, and one I intend to implement going forward.

That said, I was more asking for advice on using a 200ppm bleach solution with the descaling function. If it was a good/bad idea. I actually do not remember if the process vaporizes any of the water or just pumps it through the interior plumbing.

4

I think it would be OK, however, I would look for directions in the manual about cleaning or contact customer service.

5

sounds to me like this has little or nothing to do with the oven at all, more with your environment
I would do a test with another (semi closed) vessel filled with distilled water and see if the strange mold appears on the surface