The timer function on the Anova is botched. Accept it, and move on. Use a kitchen timer, an alarm clock, or your phone to tell you when cooking is done. That works, and doesn’t suffer from all the unreliability problems of the Anova. No need for Bluetooth, no need for Wifi with a password that meets certain arbitrary criteria, no need for a phone that has a battery with some juice, and no need to be in range of whatever Bluetooth or Wifi deem acceptable. And no need to press and hold a button for eight seconds in order to set a timer while unintentionally changing the temperature unit.
That way, you won’t annoy anyone else either… I had a 48-hour cook going last week. Brisket. Fine anywhere between 36 and 60+ hours, so timing definitely isn’t a critical factor. I had the pot with the Anova on my deck outside. Two days later, the cook was ready, but I was delayed in town on business. Eventually, when I got home, I heard the Anova before I had even unlocked the front door. It was sitting there, beeping every few seconds. Not only was I not there to hear, but all my neighbours were there to hear. For an hour and a half until I finally got home. I’m sure I was really popular with my neighbours that day…
Whoever wrote the code for this thing is clueless, has never used the device in a real-world scenario, and has never learned even the most basic insights of design.
Hello Anova programming team!
I’d like to let you know that the Anova is not the one most important thing in my house. I’d like to let you know that beeping at me incessantly forever is not acceptable. I’d like you to know that, if I’m sitting there in the middle of a phone conversation or holding my grandmother’s hand while she is on her death bed is more important to me than a piece of brisket than can keep cooking for another hour or five. I’d like you to know that your appliance’s need to let me know about the brisket is well and truly secondary to other things in my life.
I’d like you to know that I’m capable of turning my cooker off myself at the correct time, without it beeping at me even once. I’d like you to know that I really don’t like being beeped at without having given prior consent. I’d like you to know that beeping at me until, finally, there is a blackout in my area is something I do not appreciate.
I’d like you to know that your appliance is only one of twenty or more in my home. Fortunately, only a few of those beep at me; otherwise, I would have committed suicide long ago.
I’d like you to know that thinking that you have the right to beep at me as many times as you like, in perpetuity, is arrogant. I’d like you to know that anyone with a half-decent degree in design or computer science will have learned all of the above as a matter or course.
So, my advice is to toss the timer, use any alarm clock you have handy, and move on. The Anova does a really good job at keeping water at a set temperature. At anything else, it does a really poor job. Ergo, use it for what it’s good for, and ignore what it isn’t good for. That way, you’ll have an appliance that is usable.
Michi.