Video: Setting the timer and switching from Celsius to Fahrenheit

A quick video on how to set the physical timer and switch the temperature from C to F

If you have any questions, please ask them below!

Check out these other helpful videos!

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There is almost nothing I hate more than an unobvious feature that is explained in a poorly produced video with a soundtrack playing over the speaker to make her inaudible that I need to watch in its entirety to find out how to do something simple that could have been explained to me in a single sentence. ( hold |> until the timer icon appears, then hold the timer icon for an additional 3 seconds to set the duration) What is it that makes you think your customers are illiterate?

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Hi @godverdegodver, welcome to community! Sorry you didn’t like the video. I made it and I know it is not the best, just wanted to put something up to help people who were having issues setting the timer.

For a written explanation:

  1. Press and hold play button for 10 second for timer button to appear (during this after 6 seconds, the temp will change from F to C or vise versa)
  2. Then hold the timer button for three seconds
  3. You will hear a little beep and then you can set the time using the scroll wheel
  4. Then press the play button to start timer and heating

Hope that helps, some people just like to see a visual. Thanks for the feedback :slight_smile:

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I hope you don’t take it personally. You have not been given the resources to produce professional quality videos by your employer. I worked for a company where I was told by my management to produce videos in stead of writing instructions because “our customers are visual learners”. That was a lie, of course, it was all just to cut costs by saving on a technical writer and illustrator. People wrongly think video is an effective teaching tool. My 20-year old nephew has decided to learn how to drive a truck with manual transmission from a Youtube video. Youtube is no replacement for a manual or proper in-person instruction. The issue with videos versus text is that it takes 20 times longer than text to convey the same information, video is not searchable, difficult to hear, hard to pause and re-read, and takes up orders of magnitudes more data. 300 bytes for your text vs 12 Mb for a one minute of 1080p video. That is more than 40,000 times as much data to transfer. In summary: Please use written words. Thank you.

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That’s just YOUR opinion/personal preference to read rather than watch. A great number of educational companies use videos for instruction. I can convey information far quicker by using my voice and some drawings on a white board (and, hey, any employees that aren’t there can get the presentation over a video!) :scream:

Take the venom out of your tone. You had absolutely no call attacking HunterC like that.

If you can’t say something nice…

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The video didn’t seem that bad to me. While I don’t feel the soundtrack was necessary once the instruction started, I was able to understand the directions clearly anyway.

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Video production aside. It seems backwards to me. The timer feature should cut in at 6 seconds and the F/C temperature be at the longer duration. Most people, once they have set the temperature unit on their device are not going to want to switch constantly between F and C. They are, however, going to want to set the timer each time they cook something manually.

Bad function design there.

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I’ve been trying to figure out how to adjust the timer from the device itself since I first started using it a few weeks ago. Thanks, @HunterC for posting that video. It’s helpful, but it’s not enough. It shouldn’t be necessary to watch a video to learn how to change the timer. I mean this statement a few ways. First off, this information should be readily available in writing. It’s not. It’s not in the Quick Start Guide. It isn’t in your oddly-named Wi-Fi Manual (I’ll rant at a later time about the logic of providing device instructions in a vertically-formatted phone app by embedding a landscape-formatted PDF). It wasn’t even in your knowledgebase until just last week.

The other meaning is that performing such a basic function on the physical device shouldn’t be so complicated that it requires a demonstration (or even written instructions, for that matter). Why isn’t changing the timer as simple as pressing (or maybe pressing and holding) the timer button and then adjusting the time with the scroll wheel? The required press, hold, and chant sequence is obscenely non-obvious!

All too often, companies making connected devices forget the need for analog or physical controls, and though you make it possible here, the timer control sure feels like an afterthought. You can’t expect everyone in the household to download your app to use this device. So the basic functions of the device need to be inherently available on the device itself. Easily. This would be a non-starter situation in many households.

I’m hoping you take the negative feedback you’re getting here and in the knowledgebase to heart and rethink how this works. And I’m hoping it’s possible for you to change this with a firmware update.

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Hey @rgunther, I completely understand what you are saying. It is not ideal to have to make a video to explain something that should really be very simple. I assure you though that I have received this feedback from multiple sources and I have passed it on to all the right people and stressed it’s importance. I completely agree with you that it needs to be fixed, and thank you for your feedback.

I hope the video helps for now, and if you have anymore feedback at all we would love to hear it!

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Exact, hope to have a software update to improve that.

Right on!
Video did not need music and functionality would be improved by placing the timer before the f/c change.

I just got my new Anova this week and plan to use it for the first time today. I looked here to answer my first question and in only 52 seconds knew everything I needed to know from a video. My wife who only heard it also figured it out. Thanks HunterC.

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Thanks for the written instructions. As a member of the sizable DEAF/deaf/HOH (hard of hearing) community, without at least a minimum of words on the image (i.e. press ___ seconds) I am not going to understand a video, even a short, clear one such as this and if my hearing was a little bit better, the sound overlay would distort the actual words.
Again, thanks.

The first post wasn’t complaining about the nice lady in the video. He/she was complaining about the UN-Obvious function AND no mention of it in the quick start manual. I could have read that in five seconds instead of having to search the internet and watch a video. I do have a basic complaint about the new Anova that the functions are not obvious. The old one gave me a screen when I turned it on to toggle between C and F. This one, ??? who knows if you can even do it until you use google or bing to search the subject and find it in a forum. What would be wrong with just having a sepearate button for timer and C/F?

By the way, the old one had an on-off power switch in the back. Does this one have a power switch or is it just supposed to be on all the time?

There is no need for a music track in an instructional video. But, as the first poster complained this is not an intuitive feature, it’s almost like they tried to hide it from us, and then they didn’t put it in the quick start guide so you have to go try to find it on the web. I liked the old one that gave you the C/F choice when you turned it on. Right now I have to run another search to find out if this one even can be turned off and on without unplugging it.

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Yep, no power switch - if it’s plugged in, it’s on.

Yes, they didn’t make the interface on the APC the most user friendly. Most people are only going to toggle it between Celsius and Fahrenheit once. :slight_smile: That they didn’t actually tell you how to do that in either the getting started guide or the user manual is a pretty significant oversight.

We can see that the “Pro” version they’re planning on coming out with will have a full touch screen - likely be more intuitive than the controls on the APC (rumoured that the Pro has all of the app features).

But, for most people, the interface is fine (I think most people use the app to kick off any timers). Me, I just use the calendar in my phone for scheduling cooks…I don’t use the timer feature at all. Has the added benefit of making sure I’m actually home to enjoy my meal. :slight_smile:

Hi,

I switched the Anova to Celsius and the app also switched to Celsius on its own.
BUT if the app cannot find the Anova it reverts back to Fahrenheit.
I have seen screenshots of the app where you had an option menu but the app I have has no such thing.
Is there any way to setup the app? If I want to browse recipe and get an idea of the temperature I always need to be home with the Anova switched on?

Thanks!

Can’t say I’ve had that issue and my app spends a lot of time searching for the Anova.

In the app, below the status bar at the right end is an elipsis. You should be able to set the temperature units from there.

The video is not running properly on my iOS device. I have updated the device and it is showing iTunes has an invalid signature. Is there anyone who has faced this?