REASONS TO BUY
Exceptionally convenient to use
Impressively stable in our test
REASONS TO AVOID
Not the quickest to heat up
Slightly inferior circulation
Anova Culinary Precision Cooker Nano Review
This top-notch immersion circulator has impressive heat stability, an app, and costs less than many other premium models
RELATED: Best Sous Vide of 2024
Our Verdict
The Precision Cooker Nano is a great option if you don't want to make too many concessions concerning performance and don't want to spend top dollar for a top-tier sous vide. It provides a powerful amount of circulation and did very well in our temperature accuracy tests, impressing us with how stable it held the water bath temperature throughout our hour-long test. If you are trying to limit your spending, it shouldn't disappoint, though it is a bit slower to heat up water than some of the competition you could add to your kitchen crew. To compare it to the competition, check out our review of sous vides.
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Anova Precision Cooker Nano is a good sous vide at a reasonable price.
Performance Comparison
The Precision Cooker Nano gave some of the best results in our temperature tests.
Credit: Laura Casner
Temperature
First and foremost, we rated and scored each product's temperature accuracy and heating abilities, which accounts for 40% of the final score for each product. When determining scores, we looked at how well the Precision Cooker Nano maintained a stable temperature over an hour, its accuracy, how long it took to warm the bath initially, and how quickly it regained its set temperature after adding cold food.
The Anova Precision struggled a little bit when it came to heating 9.5 quarts of cold tap water to 147°F, taking just shy of an hour to accomplish this task, with the fastest models only taking about half of that. The Anova Precision did recover decently well when we dropped three frozen burger patties in the sous vide bath, returning to 135°F after three minutes or so.
Some of these products were more accurate than others in our tests.
Credit: Laura Casner
The Precision did thoroughly impress us in our stability test, maintaining an essentially perfectly stable temperature water bath over an hour. We measured this with an iButton data logger vacuum-sealed into a sous vide bag, which measures a resolution of 0.1°F. It did well in our accuracy tests, with the temperature on its display only differing from our lab-grade thermometer by an average of 0.38°F when set to 135°F and 0.19°F when set to 147°F.
The Anova Precision Cooker Nano didn't take long at all to evenly distribute the dye.
Credit: Michelle Powell
Circulation
Our second metric focused on how well the Anova circulated water throughout the vessel, which makes up 30% of the final score for this appliance. We evaluated performance by timing how long it took for the measured quantity of dye injected into the bath to become a consistent color throughout. It has quite an impressive amount of circulation.
This product only took 48 seconds to evenly disperse the dye throughout the water bath — much faster than the two or three minutes it took some of the slower models. However, it was still considerably slower than the fastest models, which distributed the food dye in approximately 15 seconds.
The Anova Nano is very easy to operate.
Credit: Laura Casner
Ease of Use
Next, we evaluated how convenient and easy to use the Precision Cooker Nano is, which is responsible for 30% of the total score for each product. Scores were based on the interface for each sous vide — including its companion app, if there is one — and how easily each product can attach to different containers. The Precision Cooker Nano did exceptionally well.
The Precision Cooker Nano has basic manual controls — touch buttons and a digital screen — that are responsive and intuitive. They make a good backup option if you don't feel like using your smartphone to control the sous vide or someone who hasn't set up the connected features needs to adjust while cooking is underway.
The Precision Cooker Nano 3.0 by Anova can be controlled remotely through a smartphone app.
Credit: Laura Casner
The companion app is also very convenient and straightforward to use, but we occasionally found it a little glitchy if the WiFi wasn't the best or swapping networks. We liked that you can start or stop the Precision Cooker Nano remotely, look up recipes in the library, and automatically have your sous vide follow them, or even create and save custom recipes to get repeatable results once you have fine-tuned your dishes.
The clamp spins very freely, making it easy to attach to a variety of containers.
Credit: Laura Casner
It clamps to the side of the container with a screw action clamp. The screw spins freely and quickly lets you mount it securely to all sorts of vessels.
Should You Buy the Precision Cooker Nano?
The Precision Cooker Nano is one of our all-time favorite sous vide machines, pairing excellent temperature accuracy with impressive circulating power, all in a much more affordable package than many of the other top-tier models. It is compatible with the Anova app, so you can remotely start or stop your sous vide right from your smartphone. This app also offers you a handy set of pre-configured recipes that you can send right to the machine or an option to create custom recipes to make it easier to cook your favorite meals again and again. This product is a great option if you are shopping for top-tier sous vide for your kitchen and hoping to save some cash.
What Other Sous Vide Machine Should You Consider?
If you want the absolute best of the best, the Anova Culinary Precision Cooker AN500-US00 is our favorite. It offers a higher overall performance result with better circulation than its little brother.
—Hayley Thomas & Matt Spencer
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