Protecting your cook with a UPS

Anova Precision® Cooker
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We had this topic come up a few times previously. In case people are unaware, in order to protect you from potentially unsafe food, the PC does not restart your cook after a power outage. Having the alternative could be very dangerous (and just offering a notification that power was lost without a duration wouldn’t help you much to mitigate risk).

The best workaround for this (and, actually, protect your cooks against short duration power outages) would be to get a UPS (interruptible power supply).

There are a number of sites that can help you size your UPS (eg. APC UPS Selector/Calculator - Find the Correct Battery Backup) - but, typically, you’re just looking at protecting against an intermittent / short duration outage.

For the 800w/900w 110/120v PC’s, here’s a couple good options (for the US):

APC Power Saving Back-UPS XS 1500 (rated for 1500VA/865W), currently on sale for $149 (reg $199) at BestBuy

CyberPower CP1500AVR 1500VA 900W Intelligent LCD Series UPS, $140 on Amazon.com
Amazon.com

Canadians (and others that utilize 110/120v can look at local resellers for the same models.

An example for those in areas that utilize 220/240v:
Trust Oxxtron UPS Power Supply Unit for PC, 1500 VA, 230 V, £99.99

For those on a budget - yes, you could purchase a UPS with a lower VA rating (I’ve run my PC off of a 500VA UPS that I had laying around and it worked fine) - but you don’t want to do this routinely - you’re over-tasking the UPS beyond the load it was engineered for and won’t last the duration specified in the documentation.

You definitely want to make sure that your UPS can take full advantage of their management software - so you’ll receive alerts both when power is lost as well as when it’s returned. (typically accomplished by connecting the USB port to a nearby Computer).

One of the older threads here: Self restart after power outage

Yes, from an engineering standpoint, Anova could make future versions of the PC with the capability to store needed information in non-volatile memory and alert on duration of the outage and what the temperature of the bath had dropped to.
Perhaps even learning the behaviour of your favourite vessels to determine when foods entered the “danger zone” for bacteria growth. Something they should consider for future development. :slight_smile:

One more possibility: if you can reboot your UPS remotely, you could use that for turning the PC on remotely (as it turns on when it first receives power). Save you having to buy a smart plug to support that functionality. :slight_smile:

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Thanks so much for the tip @fischersd!

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This is one of the reasons I like using an insulated vessel (ie. cooler). Here in Florida, power outages are a fact of life. Using a cooler mitigates the “damage” somewhat. The cooler can keep the food at a decent cooking temperature until power is restored. It also makes transporting sous vide foods very easy to family and church gatherings. Pretty handy while on the move.

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True, having an insulated vessel will mitigate some risk - but only if you get to it before the water dips into the “danger zone” (below 130F). Once it has, you have to do the rationalization of how long it was in the zone (if 2 hours or more, the food should be disposed of to ensure safety).
The PC still won’t resume the cook when power is returned…you would need to restart it.

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Very true. I think lose about 1°F every 45 minutes or so. I would hope I’d catch it in time. Otherwise, it is a loss.