After I bought the APC I bought a coleman cooler and cut a whole in the lid. During my first overnight cook of 8 hours I woke up in the middle of the night to hear a loud steady beeping coming from the machine. I checked it out and the APC was cover with mist from the steam. There was droplets of water underneath the LCD and the scroll wheel was quite unresponsive. What I imagined happened was that the hole I cut was so tight fitting that the condensation that would build on the lid was leaking into the vent holes on the back of the APC. Since then I dried the APC in a bag of rice. Now the bluetooth doesn’t work and the APC wont cook anything roughly above 130F. I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem with steam and if I get another one do I abandon the lid all together and buy ping pong balls?
My first long cook was in a cooler that I cut out much like I see in your pic. I too had a lot of condensation on the Anova so I wrapped a small piece of foam around the circulator to cut off the steam. I felt that there was too much clearance around the circulator, not too little. I have since gone to a polycarbonate container and lid that is cut out in a circular pattern to cut off the steam. On long cooks I do not get condensation on the circulator. All the vapor stays inside and I get virtually no water loss, even on a 72 hour cook.
Has anyone from Anova responded? My unit went dead tonight. I don’t think my unit has a fuse. So I am following your post. I also posted to “How to Change the Fuse”. I was hoping to use my Precision tonight. But it ain’t happening!
@atvik and @Dan13 - Pop over to this link here: Returns – Anova Culinary and fill out the info - just mention youre looking for an exchange and the returns team will absolutely take care of it for you.
Yeah, Dan someone responded from anova and said i exchange it for another unit or a refund.
My first long cook was in a cooler that I cut out much like I see in your pic. I too had a lot of condensation on the Anova so I wrapped a small piece of foam around the circulator to cut off the steam. I felt that there was too much clearance around the circulator, not too little.
How did the foam work for the cooler chewbaka? I think the problem was that the lip of the cover was so close to the little slits they have cut into the back of the anova, that the condensation formed into droplets which dripped into the machine. The thing is I don’t have that much money and this thing was kind of a luxury purchase for me at the moment so I don’t want to have to go out and buy a whole new container. I know its just 20 bucks or so but gaaaah.
Hi @atvik, if you have a spare silicone cooking sheet laying around you might want to give this a go. Works like a charm for condensation issues.
I use a clear cambro container with my Anova. To prevent any evaporation or steam, I cut a hole in the lid and finished it with a piece of rubber foam tubing that you would use to insulate pipes. I cut a track down the middle of the piece of tubing with a Dremel and then glued the track, with waterproof glue, around the hole. I am 3/4 of the way through a 48-hour cook and I have had almost zero evaporation and no steam.
I just wanted to say thanks to Simon_C and TheCulinaryFanatic for their pictures. I’ll probably copy the foam method since I have that material available. Anova contacted me and are shipping me a replacement. Their customer service was wonderful. They sent me a prepaid fedex waybill to send my broken unit to them and shipped me a new unit…and it just showed up now!
Wow, I’m impressed by the innovation and construction techniques mentioned. Well done gang! I’ve had great luck with the absurdly simple approach of just covering the bath (either a stockpot or large plastic food container) with a length of plastic wrap. Evaporation is almost eliminated, and I’ve not had either of my APC units steam up over 2-3 day cooks. I’ve lost less than an 1/8" of water over 3 days and I can still stick my Thermapen into the bath for comfort verification if I want to.
Am I overlooking something?
@atvik said:
Yeah, Dan someone responded from anova and said i exchange it for another unit or a refund.> chewbaka said:My first long cook was in a cooler that I cut out much like I see in your pic. I too had a lot of condensation on the Anova so I wrapped a small piece of foam around the circulator to cut off the steam. I felt that there was too much clearance around the circulator, not too little.
How did the foam work for the cooler chewbaka? I think the problem was that the lip of the cover was so close to the little slits they have cut into the back of the anova, that the condensation formed into droplets which dripped into the machine. The thing is I don’t have that much money and this thing was kind of a luxury purchase for me at the moment so I don’t want to have to go out and buy a whole new container. I know its just 20 bucks or so but gaaaah.
-------------------------The foam worked well for the cooler. It was necessitated by the square cutout I made in the cover. If I did it again I would cut a circle. I just use a piece of packing foam that came with an electronic shipment. Really, this is only a stopgap solution. The foam pipe insulation looks like an awesome fix.