Technology

100%. They've just guaranteed that the sous vide unit that I have now is the last Anova product I will ever buy.

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The one and only time I used the app it lost connectivity and left my chuck roast in lukewarm water for who knows how long. Tossed it because I didn't want to kill my family with food poisoning. It's nice if you have a WIFI connected device, so you can put something on the counter in an ice water bath in the morning with the sous vide wand in there and flip it on before you leave work in the afternoon. Also seeing that the water has maintained an appropriate temp during a long cook is nice too. It's a niche case use, but that's why it's nice to have it connected.

I have a different brand, but I can see the value. The interface on the small screen on the device I have is very clumsy. Took me a while to figure it out, and I'm very tech savvy. I can see a mobile app being useful, also for notifications so I don't independently have to set timers.

Also as a former mobile dev, mobile apps take maintenance to keep up with OS changes over time. And developers are expensive.

What I imagine happened is that they probably outsourced their app development to a 3rd party, because they make hardware, not software. That contract probably expired, including their ongoing support agreement, and they've probably negotiated an hourly rate for support on-demand going forward, maybe with a different 3rd party dev.

So in all likelihood, they're just passing the cost for ongoing maintenance on an EOL model to the customer.

However, that looks absolutely insane from a consumer standpoint.

I don't know their Financials, but they may not be big enough to just swallow the cost for brand PR if they're not selling at a volume and profit margin to be able lose money on old products.

This is why, even as a dev that used to work in the mobile and IOT space, I tend to purchase dumb devices if there are good options. Smart devices get dumb as soon as the shine has dulled.

My partner has an Anovo affected by this and he knows the details better than me, but IIRC the app allows you to set times to change temps or things like that. The device still works without the app, but you lose the convenience factor of being able to monitor or make changes at a distance.

Size and easy to clean (and waterproof) is one, I have a ChefSteps Joule which is app control only, but it is much easier to clean, and much smaller than my old Anova (fits in a drawer with other crap)

Granted it is more annoying to use the app than the controls, but the trade off for us was worth it, if not for everyone.

It's kinda nice to just search what you are making, click cook, and all the settings are preloaded and the device starts. The manual interface is clunky.

I have one, and didn't know it had an app.

They were bought by Electrolux in 2017, and have been enshittifying ever since. Cheaper, lower quality parts, etc. They're just profiting from the brand as they turn it to shit. Never buy their products.

For steaks, they're excellent. About the only thing I haven't been able to do over a good steakhouse restaurant is an extremely crisply outer layer. There's some techniques there that I haven't learned yet that might fix that. Everything else about the juiciness and taste is easily the same or better.

You're basically taking all the art of out it that you would have to learn to become a top steak grill master, and replacing it with precision.

I was using it for steaks and it's been great - sous vide then cast iron pan - but I moved somewhere where the smoke alarm is extremely sensitive so haven't used it much lately 😞

If you're not committed, you don't actually need an appliance for it, have had great results with a Dutch oven and a programmable BBQ thermometer monitoring the water temp. One of my burners goes really low so just a matter of adjusting to keep in range. You don't get forced circulation (get some natural circulation though) and it's not set and forget, but you can do with stuff you probably already have on hand. Done with heavy freezer bags before I was gifted a vacuum sealer.

I bought one of these years ago, and took a look at it. The app let's you remote control the stick and pick recipes that will autoset the temps. That's about it. The stick has buttons on it, and it's not like you can have it add the food to the water bath remotely. It'd pretty easy to knock in the temp at the heater while you're there

Sous vide is a "set and forget" cooking method like a crockpot. You can walk away and leave the thing running long past the minimum time and have no issues because the whole point is it takes food to an exact temp and no further. So even any alerting "temp reached" it may do now isn't really useful.

This feels like a "pick the carcass" attempt to make some money at all. I expect the company is probably in a bad state if this is the game they are playing.