I got my APO in Dec’ 21 and have been learning the Pros & Cons of this oven. I am sharing some tips that I have learned since. Hopefully, someone might find them useful.
APO does not have a crumb tray.
This is a pain if you air fry or bake that generates crumbs. Solved that by purchasing the Prepd Sheet Pan from www.getprepd.com. It fits perfectly into the rails of the APO. I lined mine with foil and placed it in the bottom rail. Easy clean up with this.
What other alternative trays work well?
I found this Jelly Roll Pan with a steel baking rack insert.
It serves well as an alternative to Anova perforated pan. It fits well but you still need to use one of the racks since the width does not fit the rails (neither does the Anova perforated pan). It also works well as an air fry tray. I still hate having to clean the insert rack after roasting meat but beyond that it works well.
Do your best to get the App on the phone working for the PreSets.
Despite Anova claims, much of the APO capabilities cannot be accessed without the App. IMHO, the 7 presets that are only available on the App should have been made available on the front panel. The APO defaults to the last used settings which can cause strange results if not careful. My wife’s cookies became small cakes since she used the oven after the last time I steamed on APO. The presets are the fastest way to change the previous settings.
The APO WiFi is poor.
Given that the oven is all metal, I suspect the WiFi antenna is in the handle. It really could use an external antenna port. Most kitchens are already weak WiFi areas in the house due to microwave ovens that impacts the APO’s 2.4G WiFi. Consider adding a cheap WiFi extender near where the APO is placed. You can also splurge with a Mesh type WiFi network as well.
Working as a Steamer.
My principal justification for getting an APO was for steaming larger numbers of Chinese buns (Bao). My first effort using the Steam pre-set was a total failure. It turns out the default setting for Rear heaters in the pre-set was not correct. Multiple trials showed the correct method is 212F using the Bottom heater @ 100% steam and Sous-vide mode OFF. I have not yet tested if that settings works just as well for steaming a whole fish. I believe the Bottom heater has a limited temperature compared to Rear.
Emptying the Steam exhaust tray.
Getting the steam tray out on my APO is difficult and it does fill up fast from the exhaust. I ended up keeping a rubber bulb around to suck out the water periodically when I am steaming a lot. Baking at higher temperatures with steam seems to have less exhaust. I don’t think APO was designed principally to be used as a steamer.
Activity in APO App.
The Activity tab in the APO App keeps a history of the recent activities in the oven. It keeps both Manual (from front panel) and settings via the App. So far, I only have 2 weeks of history; I don’t know how far it goes back. While this is useful for often-used settings, I wish it allowed saving them permanently as My Recipes. You can create your own My Recipes but you have to start afresh. I wish I can share those recipes with other users on the same account but that is still a promise.