We've gotten used to paying subscriptions for the best streaming services and cell phone plans, but what about sous vide machines?
Yes, that's right. Anova, which makes some of the best sous vide machines, has announced that it will start charging a subscription to use its app to control its sous vide machines — meaning you'll be taking a bath right along with your meat.
Fortunately, there is a way around the subscription.
Anova announced today (August 15) in an email that starting August 21, users will have to pay a monthly fee of $1.99 or an annual fee of $9.99 to access the following features of its app:
- Anova Sous Vide Guides: Learn the basics with guides created by our experts. Choose your preferred doneness level and press Start to begin cooking.
- Manual control: Customize cooking settings such as time and temperature.
- Cooking notifications: Remote updates on your cooking status.
- Discovery of recipes: Find recipes from award-winning chefs, #anovafoodnerds and more.
- Saving the recipe: Add your favorites and share your recipes with your friends directly on the app.
In the email, co-founder and CEO Stephen Svajian wrote: “As our community has grown, so have the demands on our resources. Our community has literally cooked hundreds of millions of times with our app. Unfortunately, every connected cook costs us money. That’s why, to continue to deliver the exceptional service and innovative recipes you expect, we’re introducing a small subscription for our app. The new Anova Sous Vide subscription will allow us to maintain and improve the app, ensuring it remains a valuable resource for all of our users.”
There is one caveat, though: if you buy an Anova sous vide machine before August 21st and are already a user of the app, you will get this lifetime protection and will not have to pay a subscription. So if you have ever thought about buying a sous vide machine, now is the time.
Earlier this month, the company also announced that some of its older sous vide machines would lose app support on September 28, 2025. While you'll still be able to use the sous vide machines, you'll no longer be able to use them with the app, meaning you won't be able to control them remotely or monitor their status on your smartphone.
Affected models include the original Anova Precision Cooker and the Precision Cooker 2.0. Affected model numbers (located on the back of your appliance, under the power cord) include:
- United States, Canada, Japan and Taiwan
- PCB-120US-K1 Or A2.2-120V-US
- PCW-120US-K1 Or A3.2-120V-US
- Analysis of variance on PC
- Anova PC 2.0
- A2 or A3
- International / Rest of the world
- PCB-220UK-K1 Or A2.2-220V-UK
- PCW-220UK-K1 Or A3.2-220V-UK
- PCB-220EU-K1 Or A2.2-220V-EU
- PCW-220EU-K1 Or A3.2-220V-EU
- PCB-220AU-K1 Or A2.2-220V-AU
- PCW-220AU-K1 Or A3.2-220V-AU
As someone who has been using an Anova sous vide machine for nearly a decade—and whose original sous vide machine still works great—I'm a little disappointed that not only will it stop working with the app next year, but that all new customers will have to pay a fee if they want to take advantage of it like I did.
I understand that the company needs to make money, but with something as mundane as a kitchen appliance, such a move could force consumers to look elsewhere.