My APO died after only 3 years - your thoughts

Anova Precision® Oven
1

I am looking for anyone’s input on what is their prognosis and what can be my next step to repair my APO?

My failed APO is out of warranty. I am exploring if repairing with component change will bring it back to life.

I am crudely sensing that my problem is somewhere on the main board or the esp32-wroom-32v chip on the board; rather than the big oven pieces like the convection fan, any of the heating elements, fuse, or thermos fuse, etc. which the main board is controlling because they appear to be sound(see below).

Short description of the event when the failure happened:
My APO was set to bake at 100% RH and it progressed to pre-heating but suddenly stopped heating.
Note: This is a lightly used oven, and used properly, as well as being well maintained therefore we can rule out abuse or misuse.

The Symptoms, test run observations and the current status on the health of my APO are:

  1. The lamp will not come when the oven is in the ‘running’ mode
  2. The rear heating element will not heat up and the convection fan will not run, when instructed manually or with the app
  3. The bottom element will not heat up when instructed manually or with the app
  4. The top element will not heat up when instructed manually or with the app
  5. In summary, any combination of top, bottom, top+bottom, rear and rear+top heating elements will not heat up, no lamp, but the box fan will stay running
  6. The display on the handle and all the touch sensitive keys behave normally.
  7. The app behaves normally to include displaying information on the ‘handle’ and sending orders to the APO, no wifi issue, no connectivity issue between the APO and the app. The App can change the setting and operate the door handle display.
  8. My phone has working connectivity with the APO and app operation is normal including displaying the reading on the APO.
  9. From my recollection, ‘steam’ was not generated/working when set on 100% RH. I assume there may be a logic that the steam system will not work unless the element is heating up.
  10. In summary crudely, I will describe my failure as none of the 110V functions/components work.
  11. No error code on the front display (door)
  12. The APO has gone through all the over-the-phone connectivity and ‘reset’ diagnosis exercise guided by Anova. The firmware is up-to-date.

Diagnosis and checking with a multi-meter for the resistance number, continuity and shorting to ground:

  1. Power cord/AC input circuit all the way to the board is sound –
    a. The continuity of the black LIVE wire from the AC plug > to the darker brown wire through the two thermal sensors/fuses ( > all the way to the ACL point on the board is sound.
    b. The continuity of the white line all the way to the ACN on the board is sound.
    c. The 16A ceramic fuse on the board is sound and not burnt. (around 0 ohms)
  2. The Lamp is not burnt and the wires are ok – lamp is pulled out & checked with an ohmmeter/multi-meter; the continuity of the wires for the lamp is ok.
  3. All the resistance measurements(unplugged):
    a. The convection fan - about 33 ohms, and not shorted to ground.
    b. Thermo fuse of rear element – 0 ohm
    c. Thermo Fuse of the boiler – 0 ohm
    d. Rear element – 18 ohms
    e. Bottom element – 20 ohms, not shorted to ground
    f. Top element – 9 ohms
    g. Evaporator element – 33 ohms
    h. Boiler – 12 ohms
    In summary, they all seem likely to be all good.
  4. The continuity of the all the blue/N(neutral) wires and the branches tied to the various elements, the convection fan, etc. all ending at the TRIACK COM point are all good (at both TRIACK COM blades).
  5. The 6 wire harness connecting between the door handle and the 6 wire connector (PWR INT, DAC, SDA, SCL, P5V0 AND GND) on the board has proper continuity.
  6. The 6 wire cable from the oven body/board to the door is not broken
2

Hey,

I haven’t had a chance to diagnose the problem is as much detail yet, but I’m having the exact same symptoms. Were you able to make any progress?

3

Iamveen, that much details? Well, it is purely out of frustration and necessity to see how it can be that ‘impossible’. (This is not a rocket scientist oven but just a baking appliance run by a ‘$2 chip on AliExpress’ according to the installed programs in response to the temperature readings of a few sensors. We pay $700 and greatly appreciate their great efforts and the great utility we get from it but don’t make us pay again and dearly, just 3 years later and not used much.

Quick answer Iamveen, not much luck with Support to get the oven repaired in any way. I had a few rounds of email with Support and asked if a replacement board preloaded with the program is an available repair part. In the second last reply, they advised it is not available. My reply to that included a remark that their reply is like a car manufacturer telling you to trash your car because the ECU( the main board ) is not available as a part. I also mentioned/asked how they could comply with the Right to Repair regulations like the one in California (they are a San Francisco based coc.). My reply and request has been escalated, and again recently. I am still awaiting their reply. That has been like 3 weeks+ already, I have lost count.

My view is, it is likely the $2-$5 Chip on that board that has failed rather than other components on that board. What a shame! This is a $700 appliance, not a cheap investment compared a full size convection oven that costs less, not that they do exactly the same job but the latter easily last over 10 year define for us what the reliability and durability benchmarks is on a American oven, and that oven is fully repairable to allow for an affordable solution when it unfortunately fails.

I suggest we all keep on pushing for making the replacement board available. Anyone be it DIYer or any tech doing appliance repair can remove the one back panel and then a small cover for the board, unplug all the wires after taking a few pcs to keep track, remove the board after a few screws and mount the new board, and plug everything back on. YOu and I probably represent the only few among many others with failures but they have not found this forum or realize this forum has a place where they can voice their struggle and talk about apo failures.

Good luck!

1 Like
4

THIS, exactly this, I echo the sentiments, after hearing how stripped out the unit is of quality from the word go, little pre testing that required lots of upgrades to the likes of water tanks due to no heat shield, the so often repeated phrase “oven died now on my 3rd & an afraid of what will happen outside of warranty.”.

Well you are right to be concerned, technically the warranty on an item should reset when a new unit is received, but that doesn’t happen with Anova, they say along the lines of “that’s your lot” no more replacements, …but surely it is down to the laws of the lands these are traded in first & foremost, i’ve been waiting for this day to happen with anova, & am glad I never gambled on the APOven, when my last warranty claim (APC wand) was put in the other week it basically resulted in anova saying “last time” …when I received this unit it locked out straight away, I was offered a replacement, for a replacement to a replacement, but said after utilising the rapid cycle (on / off) method it cleared itself, it has since done this the other week, & again I was able to resolve it (this is a year into a fresh machine) to clear the lock out, but logged it with anova anyway.
If my anova keeps locking out & needs clearing to get it to reset then that is a problem that falls under warranty, compared to having a reset pin to clear the unit, if that happens & is fixable it is no longer a problem, but without, & with the uncertainty that it will ever come out of the loop that is anovas problem that I am quite entitled to put in an advisory / claim for.

I have no idea what damage may be building up in other components by rapid cycling to clear a lock out, so to be effectively told “no more warranty” because apparantly I’ve had too many units is a farce, so what is the cut off for an expensive anova oven 4th time & Sh1t on you?

If you build better they will work longer.
If you don’t then it’s never getting better is it now!?

Right to repair, & actual technical assistance would go a long way towards maintaining working items, bearing in mind the company that now owns you is a global entity with spares coming out of its ears, the fact that the spares for the oven are so limited speaks mounds.

Keep a stock of cheap chips so at least a solder work around can be employed, I don’t junk my brewing kit when the boiler sensor sticks, & that is a 5 minute replacement for $5 too.

Create agreeable solutions to problems don’t ignore them
We know the APO is a complete dog, based on it’s reputation how much leeway will a GEN 2 fanfare release get to an already annoyed public? …fix GEN 1 or offer a way for owners to fix it themselves.

5

Oooh! I would love it were the warranty on my BMW to ‘reset’. Wotta maroon.

6

If you mean “Moron” just say it.
You clearly do not know of UK / EU warranty requirements, nor quality service standards when replacing singular or multiple product based on consistent failure.

Moronic american design who neglect to stick a bloody reset button on an APC is more like it.
IF you can stick a soft reset in a cheap bit of electronics for a couple of cents then you can save a lot from avoiding excess returns from the outset, only a “maroon” would not work that one out.

7

MrGus, Anova came out with theifr first product in 2013. 11 years later, they still have NOT shown any sign that they intend to make repair by anyone, dealer or others, possible. There is also no sign of stocking or offering spare parts support, and you can go to their so call parts screen Replacement Parts – Anova Culinary to find just 18 so called parts for all their products in the last 11 years and none are electronic parts. Don’t mention technical info. They put on some publication, and in email reply to me a couple years ago that dealers will be established in the future but that’s just talk. Recently, they confirmed there is no progress on that.

The experience of buying this APO is like buying a cheap Chinese no-brand product from Temu and you expect no service support but to discard when it quit. However, this is a very high price appliance compare to Temu distributed stuff and this is not a ‘Temu’ distributed product. (By the way, the board is very likely made in China based on the dual language markings on the board to identify each plug-in point and what 110VAC component it is controlling or related to. )

Stocking chips is not a good solution for the APO. Getting someone to de-solder and solder on a chip is very specialized and costly. Besides, I envision the chip has to have the program loaded on it afterwards. We can, rather easily, isolate the failure to the board but not to the chip when there is always a small chance that it is due to other small part on the board. Therefore, the practical solution is replace the board. They therefore should stock boards which already have the program loaded. By the way, the physical work of replacing the board is really not difficult.

8

Agree with your views MrGus. Moronic is a kind word to the ears of this American user, who will use less polite adjectives if it is out of my mouth.

The strange thing is, Electrolux bought out Anova, per Wiki, and one will think that Electrolux will at least bring over some service and parts support culture to this ANOVA. Apparently not. To my surprise, the young man from Support was not even hesitent to snap back at me with a ‘we are ANOVA and we are not Electrolux and their policies have nothing (oh, in your English: do not have anything) to do with us’ when I gently asked him if their practice of no post-warranty repair and parts support is inline with the general Electrolux practice.

This is counter to the long time American business culture of strong service and parts support, including on appliances large and small.

This is probably lost in the cellphone industry and these people probably think they are making a cellphone.] but not in most of the traditional industries.

The same comment may apply to your observation on the APC missing the no reset button. They only think of product features but not useability and customer downtime, or to keep the product running in mind.

Possibly similar to UK/EU warranty requirements, there are ‘Right to Repair’ regulations in the US which cover warranty years and post warranty years and I do not see how ANOVA is complying with that!!

This is ANOVA’s statement re sustainability: Anova's Social Impact – Anova Culinary

Quote. We are committed to reducing our impact on the planet by infusing sustainability into the core of our business. Unquote.

How is it reducing sustainability when we do not repair oven and practically asking us to trash the 50 lb oven into waste? The is like GM asking us to send our car to the landfill becasue they do not make the small ECU(‘computer’) available.

This is an exchange from the ANOVA forum:

  • Jitlada Aug 2017 Does Anova manufacture all the unit in the USA or other country?
  • AlyssaWOAH, Anova Community Manager answered in Aug 2017
    Hey @Jitlada it’s manufactured overseas - in China.

So, the Anovo brand is a US brand. It appears their products may be a US designed products but I don’t know if the product(s) after the era of the sous-vide circulator cooker is not mostly or wholly out-sourced to China; besides the manufacturing. The apparent workmanship is quite sound but what is scary is the quality of the electronics inside and they are even more critical than programming (which I think may also be out-sourced to China) because the program can be updated.

9

Well said, I agree completely it is easier to replace a board (& return the knackered one) as part of QC & continuous improvement.

However as to the “maroon” moron statement I think the old guy was calling me a moron,
thus the reply that he clearly did not have a grasp of UK / EU warranty & replacement requirements, you get a new box, you get a new warranty because it is a brand new item, only moronic sellers try & deny that, (lidl “parkside” tools warranty being 3 year with a decreasing refund status as time grinds on, the warranty is not worth the paper it is printed on , I once bought a cheap soldering station as a secondary unit from them, the soldering tips were of such appalling quality that after around 16- 30 hours use they had disintegrated (this was whilst using both their supplied solder, the tips were prepared, …the solder was “weller” (as was my other solder kit over the years) & the replacement tips priced themselves out of the market at nearly the price of the unit for some more crap tips, …I think I bought an antex (weller subsidiary) as a back up, …lesson learnt fingers burnt.

Anova service is generally no real service, i’ve got lucky over the years with sorting warranty replacements & turning down others (don’t like waste, nor poor design) choosing to fix a few on the bench.
Technical service knowledge simply does not exist from anova personnel who favour reddit before their own site community …that’s how bad.

This site? …cared so little for that the “get 15% off” perma-pop up is placed 85% over the submit button ffs! …I love the APC but the firm needs a kick up the backside, you go look at the spares for their parent brand electrolux & tell me why Anova insist on screwing their name & their customers over in so many eventualities.

Simply replacing a unit isn’t really customer service if you are simply logging a fault “ish” & not improving kit, which is in part why i’ve had too many, …the size, price & rep of the Anova Oven makes me despair as to where the brains are, esp as the APCooker has so much competition these days.
Know what you mean about “promises” I bought my APCooker early days, couldn’t use a phone for it, was told to wait for kindle compatibility that never came, eventually gave up & bought a new phone, had some years of mostly intermittent app functionality, so I typically had to refer to the website & dial in to within 0.5c

And now they are charging for that dodgy connectivity, …oh man!

Just waiting for Anova accounts to insist the APOven app becomes subscription based, it can’t be far behind.

10

I actually have the same issue lately. The oven was used for around 3 years. One day suddenly the light is not on and do not heat up at all. Should I contact Anova support to report the issue and expect them to fix it? Or just throw it away as garbage?

11

My parent’s anova oven that is about 3 years old is behaving the same as what you describe. Exact same symptoms as yours. My own oven that is about 1 year old is still doing fine (so far).

I’ve come to dig for more info before I go down the troubleshooting rabbit hole… I suppose I’ll check the simple stuff like fuses first. Though given it seems it behaves with the same symptoms, likely it’s the same issue that is not easily repairable!

I went through this video taking the oven apart to get down to the circuit board. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah-ilH4Rtb0. Seems doable for those handy and DIYers, albeit laborious. But hey if swapping the board would fix the problem, i’d find time to do it.

My concern is that Anova just came out with the 2.0 oven, which is much more expensive (with features that I nor my parents care for). Now that there’s a new generation, I’m concerned that Anova would continuously have less vested interested in supporting the original unit.

On one hand, I’d hope that internally they have lessons learned from all their returns, warranty units and discovered a persistent problem that they fixed in the 2.0 oven. But on the other hand, what are we original 1.0 owners supposed to do? We are sure as heck not buying another one, or the 2.0 to replace it!

It is a waste and not sustainable to trash the oven if all it is a bad board or even a bad chip. Seems like a bunch of people have problems showing up after 3 or so years.

Has anyone gotten down to the level of unsoldering and swapping the culprit chip with an aftermarket one? I do wonder how wide spread this problem truly is in the community - as you’ve mentioned many likely have not found their way to the community forum to seek help or vent. Does it reach a scale that it makes sense for the community to band together to fix the problems if Anova is unable to do so?