Precision Cooker Nano

This item is so easy to use and your meat comes out perfect at the temperature you set it at. This is what I use every time to cook my steaks with and then finish it off with a reverse sear on my grill. Whether it's steak or chicken, I lather up the meat with olive oil and my favorite rub then set the temperature and timer and let it do its thing. Great product.

Never thought I'd be using a device like this - I prefer my BBQ grill for cooking just about everything, including my mixed drinks... After learning the art of reverse searing my steaks, I heard people talk about this Sous Vide method of cooking and then searing to finish. Alright, I'm up for something new. Packaging reminds me of something Apple would do - elegant and well designed packaging, yet simplistic. Beyond the packaging, out of the box, I downloaded the app to control the device - pairing was nearly instant - took less than a second to find and pair - it sends a, presumably, random temperature reading to the device for you to verify on your phone to insure proper pairing. First up, some eggs - enjoy a nice hard boiled egg for lunch - or breakfast or anytime for that matter. I was offered a range of cooking options - the app does an amazing job of telling you the pros/cons of each setting, allowing you to quickly determine the finished result you wanted - in my case, I stayed generic at 160 degrees for the eggs - once you choose to start the routine, it immediately starts the device and heating the water - reporting in near real-time the temperature of the water - once reached, stage 2, add the eggs and it continues a precise timer countdown to completion. Also - if your water level is low - it detects and warns you to add water (or remove if too much). This evening will be the steaks - but for now, I am still enjoying amazingly perfect hard boiled eggs without having to stand over the stove for a minute. This device is a bargain for the quality and results you get - highly recommend - anyone, chef or not, can use it successfully!

I thought I had the perfect smoked chicken in my charcoal smoker. When done to the proper temperature, the breast would be moist and a dark smoky bark would form. But I experimented with the Anova cooker. All of the whole chicken sous vide recipes called for spatchcock, but I kept my chicken whole in the zip lock bag for 3 hours at 150 F. Then into the charcoal smoker for about 1 1/2 hours until a nice dark brown formed. The big difference is that the moisture does lock into the bird. Even the wings were still moist, and the breast was moist and fork tender. Also, the seasoning was more even throughout the meat. It's different from 4 hours in the smoker without sous vide. Is sous vide smoked chicken better? I would say yes for most people. If you like a strong smoky bark, then straight smoker is probably better for you. But if you want a mild smoke flavor, tender, moist and evenly seasoned, then sous vide is better. And the Anova is super easy to use and does the job well.

(Edit: The complaint I had about the micro controller locking up (and locking to the last heater coil setting), hasn't happened again, and I've used it probably a couple dozen times since. So I've added back in more stars the rating.) Got this yesterday, and last night I picked up a tri point roast. Figured this would be a good cut of meat as a first test of this cooking method. The temp and time was easy enough to set, very intuitive touch interface. Put the roast in a bag with seasoning, and set time time for 5 hours, at 130 F. Checked on it periodically, and observed that it displayed the current temp, which floated between 129.9 and 131.1 (this is normal, the processor is constantly adjusting the heating coil power based on input temp). Well, later on I noticed the temp was right at 129.9 and never moved anymore. Went to check the timer on the unit, and the display didn't respond. The water was still circulating, however when I checked the water temp with a meat thermometer, it read just above 134 F. Unplugged and plugged back in the unit, and it confirmed water was now at 134. This was around the 5 hour mark, so I took it out, and sure enough the center of the meat was at 134, a bit higher than I wanted (was wanting to keep it at 130, slightly rarer, as the temp would come up a bit when flaming it on the grill to finish it off). So this loses points for the lockup and overheating issue. I'm assuming that the coil was last set to a temp a bit warmer than the desired water temp, because the uncooked meat is constantly absorbing heat from the water -- so to keep it at 130, i needs to initially have the coil set to something like 135 or 140. So it was probably about midway through the cooking cycle that the lockup happened, and when the meat temp finally equalized, the water came up to 134 and over-cooked the meat. The roast still came out OK, I just had to be a bit more careful when finishing it off on the grill. Still mostly pink in the middle, even cook, and really tender. I highly recommend this cooking method if you like your steaks to be close to restaurant quality. But I'm going to make sure I double-check the temp every half hour next time I use it.

I’ve been using the Anova Culinary Sous Vide Precision Cooker Nano 2.0 for a few months now, and overall, it’s a great value for the price. The build quality is impressive—feels sturdy and well-made, especially considering how compact it is. For anyone looking to dip their toes into sous vide cooking without breaking the bank, this is a solid entry point. Where this device really shines is in low-temp precision. It holds temperature within ±0.1°F, which is perfect for cooking steaks medium-rare or pork around the 140°F range. The results are consistently tender and juicy, and it’s easy to set up and use. That said, there are a few drawbacks. The app integration feels underdeveloped, and Bluetooth connectivity can be spotty at times. I’ve had trouble maintaining a stable connection, which makes remote monitoring a bit unreliable. Also, it struggles with higher-temp cooks—corn on the cob and egg bites didn’t turn out quite right, likely due to slower heat-up times and limited power. If your main goal is precision cooking at lower temps, this device delivers. Just don’t expect seamless tech features or high-temp versatility. Still, for the price, it’s hard to beat, and mine has been going strong for almost 7 years now.

I got my machine on Tuesday and cooked chicken breast on Wednesday. Not just any chicken breast - the most succulent, tender chicken breast I've ever cooked. In fact, I hate chicken breast because it comes out so dry. No more!!! Perfect for batch cooking, meal prep, etc. I don't have anything special to cook my food in - I just used a large pot. I do have a vacuum sealer, which I used for the first time :-). Operation is pretty intuitive, as evidenced by the fact I didn't read the directions at all :-). The water took about 17 minutes to heat up, then I set the timer for 2 hours. I got distracted and left it cooking closer to 3 hours, with no ill effect. Highly recommended!

Works great. Temp is very accurate and keeps a constant temp very good. Has a timer if you want to use it. If you cook sous vide, you can't go wrong with this heater.

This unit is from a known quality brand, Anova, at a very affordable price. It's a 750 watt unit, which works fine for even my large plastic tub container. You may want to start with warm water from the faucet, but in my case it heated a large amount of water quickly and kept my Brisket at 155F for 24 hours no problem. There is an app available, but you have to pay a subscription fee. It's not necessary. Just use the controls on the stick to set Temp and Time. The app is more for recipies. You can get those for free on YouTube. There are bigger units with more power and bells and whistles, but this one will do exactly the same thing. Once the water is at temp, there really is not any difference in performance.