Anova Precision Oven 2.0: worth it for steam baking, and the Breville to buy if you don't need steam

The short version

The Anova Precision Oven 2.0 is the only countertop combi steam oven in its price range, and it is a genuinely different appliance from a convection toaster oven. It is also a $1,299 product whose app features sit behind a paid plan, whose July 2025 firmware update left roughly 145 ovens with a dead screen, and whose timer has never been able to switch the oven off. If steam baking and sous vide mode are the reason you are shopping, nothing in this article will talk you out of it. If you want a very good countertop oven with guided cooking and no software dependency, the Breville Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro does most of the job for a third of the money.

What owners report

The subscription story started before the 2.0 existed. In August 2024 a user on Anova’s own forum posted a warning that the company would “begin charging a monthly subscription fee” for the app that controls its sous vide circulators, and said he was returning a vacuum sealer he had just bought (Anova Community, August 2024). A reply in the same thread called the company’s grandfathering promise a “flat out lie,” and another said staff “don’t read & reply on this forum.”

When the Precision Oven 2.0 was announced in November 2024, a forum member posted the press release terms: $1,199 MSRP and app connectivity at $1.99 a month or $9.99 a year (Anova Community, November 2024). One reply objected that basic app-controlled functions would be disabled without paying, describing it as a way to “extract cash” from owners. Anova’s current product page lists the oven at $1,299, says a subscription is not required, and then lists Guided Cooking, Recipe Library, Recipe Conversion, Smart Detect and Cook From Anywhere as premium features (Anova, checked November 2026). In plain terms: the camera-guided cooking the oven is advertised on is a paid feature.

The firmware event is the more serious one. On July 29, 2025 an owner reported that a new update on a new 2.0 left the screen black and unresponsive after a power cycle; at least seven distinct owners on the first page said the same within two days, including one whose brand-new oven failed during its first startup routine (Anova Community, July 2025). Owners noted there are no physical buttons or USB port for manual recovery.

By August 5, Anova’s support email, quoted in a follow-up thread, said the July 28 update had left about 145 units unresponsive, that the company was “working on a remote fix via a new firmware update,” could not “guarantee an exact timeline,” and offered a full refund (Anova Community, August 2025). The thread opener had rejected the refund and wanted a repair. The VP of Customer Success, relayed by an owner, said confidence in a remote fix was “low,” no replacements would ship yet, and new oven shipments were paused. On August 11 an owner posted that support’s interim workaround was to tape aluminum foil over the display to keep it awake, and that he had assumed the instruction was a joke (Anova Community, August 2025).

Connectivity complaints continued after the fix. On August 25, 2025 an owner whose oven was working again still could not get the app to see it, and only succeeded after disabling WPA3 security on an Eero router, which he called “not an ideal longterm solution” (Anova Community, August 2025). In June 2025 a Reddit thread reported the app “won’t let me start my cook” above 213F after an update; the workaround was to start low and change the setpoint afterwards, and a later update fixed it (r/CombiSteamOvenCooking, June 2025). That thread concerned 1.0 ovens, but it is the same app.

Leaks are an older story that has not gone away. The first-generation leak thread from October 2020 has owners finding water on the counter most mornings, a tank that drained into a rear drip tray that cannot be emptied, and one owner reporting about half a gallon on the floor soon after unboxing; several got replacement units (Anova Community, October 2020). In August 2025 an owner using the oven twice a day reported water leaking from the rear even after replacing the tank; a December reply from a different 1.0 owner said his boiler had failed, that he had paid for a replacement tank himself, and that he had ordered a 2.0 on Black Friday expecting a shorter lifespan (Anova Community, August 2025). On the 2.0 specifically, a December 2025 thread complains that the oven will not run at all unless the water tank is inserted and above a minimum level, calls these “two new and ridiculous points of failure,” and reports a tank that arrived broken with no response from Anova for two business days (Anova Community, December 2025).

Then there is the timer. A thread opened in August 2021 asks why the oven keeps heating after the timer ends; Anova replied that the oven is “not designed to turn off after a certain time,” that the timer is for notifications, and later suggested a 77F app stage as a workaround. Owners were still posting burnt-food and fire-hazard complaints in late 2023, and the thread’s related-topics list shows activity into March 2026 (Anova Community, August 2021 onward). The eGullet thread’s November 2024 page sums up the mood among long-time owners: one poster, reacting to the subscription news, wrote there was “no way I would buy anything Anova now” (eGullet, November 2024).

Support is the thread running under all of this. In October 2026 a direct buyer reported the oven “went blank” after two months, a return rejected inside the 60-day window, calls dropping after two minutes, and unanswered emails; the one reply came from another owner whose oven arrived dead and who had also heard nothing (Anova Community, October 2026).

What actually breaks

The app, the subscription and the firmware

How common: universal, because every 2.0 oven depends on the same app and the same update channel. The July 2025 update hit about 145 units by Anova’s own count, which is a small share of ovens but a large share of the ones that happened to update that day.

When it appears: at setup (pairing failures, WPA3 incompatibility) and at every firmware push after that. The subscription is not a failure in the mechanical sense; it is a change in what you own. Anova’s current page draws the line at Guided Cooking, Recipe Library, Smart Detect and remote start.

What it costs: $1.99 a month or $9.99 a year at the announced price, plus whatever features move across the line later. The bricked-oven episode cost owners a working oven for weeks and, for those who took it, a refund rather than a repair.

Does the brand cover it: the 2-year warranty covered the July 2025 failures, in the form of refunds and an eventual remote fix. Nothing covers the subscription.

Water: leaks, tanks and the fill lockout

How common: a recurring theme since the first units shipped in 2020, with multiple replacement units issued in the first leak thread alone. On the 2.0, the complaints so far are about the tank-present lockout and a tank arriving broken rather than a flood on the counter, but the 2.0 has been shipping for under a year.

When it appears: on the 1.0, often within the first weeks, sometimes on unboxing. Later-life leaks trace to a corroded boiler, which one experienced owner described as probably not repairable.

What it costs: a replacement tank is an out-of-pocket purchase for owners outside warranty; a failed boiler means a new oven.

Does the brand cover it: under warranty, yes, with replacements documented in 2020. Out of warranty, no.

The oven does not turn off

How common: it is the design, so every owner has it. The feature-request thread has run for five years.

When it appears: the first time you walk away from a timed cook.

What it costs: burnt food, by owners’ accounts, and the habit of adding a low-temperature stage through the app, which means the one fix for a hardware behaviour requires the app you may not want to use.

Does the brand cover it: no. Anova has said the behaviour is intentional.

Where to buy it, and where not to

The Anova Precision Oven 2.0 is not on Amazon. It is sold direct by Anova at $1,299, with a 2-year warranty and a 60-day return window that at least one buyer in October 2026 says was not honoured. There is no marketplace reseller to warn you about because there is no marketplace listing. If you buy, buy direct, pay with a card that offers chargeback protection, and register the oven the day it arrives.

The alternative that carries this article is on Amazon. The Breville Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro is sold and shipped by Amazon at around $400. If you are leaning yes on either path, adding the item to an Amazon cart within 24 hours of clicking keeps the referral credited for 90 days, and locks the price you saw. The Joule has its own app complaints: ShopSavvy’s September 2024 review summary cites “frequent connectivity issues with the app” and “poor quality control,” alongside a top that runs very hot (ShopSavvy, September 2024). The difference that matters is that the Joule’s app is a convenience layer over a conventional oven with physical controls, and Breville has not announced any plan to charge for it.

If you still want one

Decide first whether you need steam. If the answer is yes, the Anova is the product, and the ladder below is not a substitute. If the answer is “it sounded nice,” the ladder gives you a connected oven without the subscription, a non-connected version of the same oven for $100 less, and the three things you will buy on day one regardless.

Verdict

The oven is a capable, unusual appliance attached to a company that has charged for features after the sale, shipped an update that killed ovens, and tells owners the timer is a notification. Pay the $1,299 only if steam is the whole point and you can live with manual mode. Otherwise the Joule does 80 percent of it with none of the lock-in.