Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First of all, a disclaimer; this is going to be a technical review for the WiFi version of the cooker. I am an IT consultant with network engineering experience. The device is great on paper. The actual part that does the immersion cooking is as far as I can tell, flawless. Unfortunately, the wifi version is hobbled by TERRIBLE FIRMWARE 1. If you have a 2.4ghz/5ghz mixed network, don't expect it to connect properly. 2. If you have any special characters in your network password (IE, a more secure password), don't expect it to connect properly. 3. If you expect these problems to be fixed in the future, don't. I've talked to Anova support and the device is not firmware flashable. This means that if you run a WiFi access point where it uses 5ghz 2.4 ghz mixed mode and does not allow you to disable the 5ghz channel, such as certain UniFi products, you are out of luck. I even tried setting the UniFi access point to it's lowest power setting for 5ghz band and taking the anova out of range of 5ghz to pair to 2.4ghz, and no luck whatsoever. I did not attempt to change my wifi password.. that's the line for me. I'm not going to lower the security of my network to accommodate a single device. Besides that, I'd have to go and change the wifi password on about 100 devices throughout my house. Not worth it. Speaking of not worth it, the WiFi version of the device is 55 dollars more than the bluetooth version. That's 55 dollars for a function that only works under certain conditions. I feel like this is an issue with a firmware developer simply writing sloppy wifi connection code somewhere in the process. Probably a few lines where the password is not encapsulated in quotes. The wifi feature has great potential with home automation software and smart home integration, and the possibility of linking to google home, while not needed, is cool. Unfortunately the same people that are most likely to use these kinds of features are the type who will have a secure wifi password and a 5ghz band. Now here's something interesting for the more technically minded people.... All of the above is based on their troubleshooting suggestions, their advice for getting the thing to connect to wifi. My evidence shows that none of that is actually the problem. The thing is, the device actually does connect to the wifi, according to the DHCP logs on my server. It connects but then will not register that it's connected. Sloppy code somewhere is keeping the connection process from finishing. I'm not sure if it's in the smartphone app, or the firmware of the device itself. See below: Dec 5 21:25:14 dhcpd DHCPACK on 192.168.5.11 to f0:fe:6b:65:f7:80 via vmx0 Dec 5 21:25:14 dhcpd DHCPREQUEST for 192.168.5.11 (192.168.0.1) from f0:fe:6b:65:f7:80 via vmx0 Dec 5 21:24:54 dhcpd DHCPACK on 192.168.5.11 to f0:fe:6b:65:f7:80 via vmx0 Dec 5 21:24:54 dhcpd DHCPREQUEST for 192.168.5.11 (192.168.0.1) from f0:fe:6b:65:f7:80 via vmx0 Dec 5 21:23:43 dhcpd DHCPACK on 192.168.5.11 to f0:fe:6b:65:f7:80 via vmx0 Dec 5 21:23:43 dhcpd DHCPREQUEST for 192.168.5.11 (192.168.0.1) from f0:fe:6b:65:f7:80 via vmx0 Dec 5 21:23:23 dhcpd DHCPACK on 192.168.5.11 to f0:fe:6b:65:f7:80 via vmx0 Dec 5 21:23:23 dhcpd DHCPREQUEST for 192.168.5.11 (192.168.0.1) from f0:fe:6b:65:f7:80 via vmx0 Dec 5 21:23:23 dhcpd DHCPOFFER on 192.168.5.11 to f0:fe:6b:65:f7:80 via vmx0 Dec 5 21:23:23 dhcpd DHCPDISCOVER from f0:fe:6b:65:f7:80 via vmx0 As you can see, the device is making it past the wifi connection process, using the correct password, and then looking for a DHCP address (Which I have statically assigned to 192.168.5.11.) The fact that the device does that, and then doesn't realize it's done it, and then goes through the wifi connection process again (and again, and again) until it errors out shows that the problem is badly designed firmware or software. I'm going to attempt to return the device and get the bluetooth version, or maybe look at another product with proper wifi integration. Such a shame! It's a great little product! Edit: I'd like to add that I offered to their support person to consult pro bono with their development and engineering department, and the request was not even acknowledged. The support department is a joke.