Anova Updates Their Sous-Vide Device For The Smartphone-Toting Cook

Another day, another sous-vide cooker. Anova, a company I’ve covered before, has announced the next generation of their platform, a precision circulator/heater that uses your phone to cook delicious sous-vide meals in a hot water bath. They’ve surpassed their Kickstarter goal of $100,000 and are already at $500,000.

The original Anova was a self-contained device with temperature and time settings right on the machine. The new system will let you fine-tune them on a phone and also schedule cooking times so it can get started when you’re not at home. Unlike, say, the Mellow, the Anova clips to the side of any standard pot and allows you to cook things in plastic zipper bags instead of vacuum-sealed plastic.

The new Anova will cost $169 – far less than fully-featured sous-vide machines. The creator, Jeff Wu, has been building circulators like this one for years and launched his first device in 2013. This update adds some much-needed smarts to the standalone appliance and looks to be as usable as the previous version.

This market is still wide open. While you would expect to see sous-vide machines in retail from major makers, I haven’t seen a single one so far and it’s great that these guys are filling that gap. As a guy who loves a nice sous-vide steak, I’m happy they’re here.