Units received, first impression and cook

Anova Precision® Cooker
1

Just got my 2 kickstarter units. One each in black and red. Had a bit of a snafu in getting them. Got a shipping number and waited several days with the FedEx status saying the number was received and awaiting the package. Sent an e-mail to Anova and it was answered the next day. All of a sudden I got a new shipping number and this time the package was actually delivered. Not sure what happened there…

So far I have only opened 1 of the units and it’s the red one. I thought the control face was scratched until I realized there is a thin protective plastic layer on it…be sure to pull it off! I am a little disappointed in the stainless barrel to plastic head mating. It takes quite a bit of force to rotate it on and off and in the process the metal ends up digging out a little bit of plastic. I hope that as time goes by it does not get too loose and sloppy. Attached it to a crock pot and fired it up to 150 degrees for a check after figuring out how to change from C to F. Went looking for the promised phone app…come on guys, how can you have thousands of units mailed out and not have the app done?

Check the temp against my pair of trusty Thermoworks units and it was dead nutz…bravo. Went up to 154.5 and made a pair of soft boil eggs. Kinda amazed how strong the water pump is…it was rolling the eggs all over the place. And that brings up my only real complaint at this time. I had no idea there was a cooling fan in the unit, and it’s louder than I would have guessed. I have built my own PID controller before and it was passively cooled, although it was never controlling 800 watts. So no, this thing is not silent.

This morning I made an insulated container out of a 20 quart Rubbermaid cooler. I cut a hole in the top that allows the Anova to slide down and stop, no collar required. I ran the water up to 135 degrees and shut the unit off. After 4 hours the temp had only dropped 10 degrees. I do like that the Anova keeps showing the water temp even when it’s not “on” and heating the water.

So now I am 2 hours into a 72 hour short rib cook at 135 degrees…we shall see if it stays on the whole time :slight_smile:

2

@celltech‌ let us know how it turns out. You picked a great first recipe!

3

So the ribs came out perfect…unit performed flawlessly.

4

about that skirt locking - http://community.anovaculinary.com/discussion/76/skirt-locking-function#latest

edit: ignore, just saw that you’ve already posted in that discussion.

5

@celltech‌ . How far below the lid do the max an min water level marks sit? Did you have to top off your water during your 72 hour run?

6

With the water just below the lid hinge line I am about an inch from the Max mark. So yeah, you kinda need to fill it all the way up when cooking. I only intend to use it for large items or long cooks. As far as I can tell I lost no water at all. The lid stayed a little warm but the sides of the container were room temp. I think it’s an awesome way to go!