Never buying any Anova products. Never recommending it either.

Anova Precision® Cooker
1

Anova Precision Sous Vide: A Tale of Broken Promises and Lost Trust

As a long-time smart home technology consultant and enthusiast, I feel compelled to share my profound disappointment with Anova’s recent decision regarding their Precision Sous Vide cooker. What started as a premium cooking device has become a symbol of corporate short-sightedness and disregard for customer investment.

The Bait and Switch

I specifically chose the WiFi and Bluetooth-enabled version of the Anova Precision, paying a premium for these connectivity features. The ability to monitor and control cooking remotely was not just a luxury—it was a core functionality that influenced my purchasing decision. Now, Anova has unilaterally decided to disable not only WiFi but also Bluetooth connectivity, effectively downgrading a premium product to a basic manual device.

Technical Regression

As an IT consultant, I find the decision to disable Bluetooth connectivity particularly egregious. Whilst WiFi features sometimes face maintenance challenges, Bluetooth is a local, device-to-device protocol that requires minimal backend support. This suggests the decision was driven by business strategy rather than technical necessity.

Impact on Customer Trust

This move demonstrates a fundamental disrespect for customers who:

  • Paid extra for connectivity features

  • Built their cooking workflows around these capabilities

  • Trusted Anova with their investment

Business Implications

The repercussions of this decision extend beyond immediate customer dissatisfaction:

  • Loss of customer trust in future Anova products

  • Damage to brand reputation in the smart home community

  • Potential legal questions about product functionality reduction post-purchase

A Path to Redemption

Anova still has an opportunity to rectify this situation:

  1. Reverse the decision to disable Bluetooth connectivity

  2. Provide clear communication about long-term support plans

  3. Offer compensation or alternatives to affected customers

Final Verdict: ★☆☆☆☆ (1/5 stars)

Until Anova reconsiders this decision, I cannot in good conscience recommend their products to my clients or anyone else. As someone who advises thousands of clients on home automation solutions, I will be actively steering them away from Anova products. This isn’t just about a sous vide cooker—it’s about respecting customer investments and maintaining trust in the smart home ecosystem.

Companies must understand that in today’s connected world, removing core functionality post-purchase is unacceptable. Unless Anova reverses this decision, they risk permanent damage to their reputation in the smart home community.

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Very well put.
One thing though, you’d be best off emailing anova direct with this fao the bosses, as the forum is not checked in on by Anova staff, in fact they prefer to jump onto reddit (Bill) & not even tell us here.

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LOL

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I agree the removal of connectivity is gratuitous and is certainly not driven by technical considerations of either bluetooth or wi-fi protocols. Recently I proved this to myself when I went through the process of trying to connect my phone to my Anova, I got to the screen which asked whether the device I am connecting to has this temperature setting and that current setting, so the phone app clearly can communicate with the Anova unit, it just isn’t allowed to do so. Luckily for me, it’s not a drastic impact to my usage, connectivity being in the “nice to have” category rather than a “must have.”