Had a few oppertunities to work with one at work, since my parents want to through a huge bbq for Christmas (don’t ask me why either) and I’ll inevitably end up doing most of the prep and working the grill, I thought I’d make it somewhat easier of myself and get a sous vide.
I’m willing to spend somewhere in the $100-150 range. There are just so many options out there that all seem to do the exact same thing.
Thought I’d ask you guys as to what you are using. So, what are you guys using and why?
The Anova is fantastic and rock solid. And the motor it has means there’s a ton of circulation, the heating unit does a good job, and it’s accurate to a couple tenths of a degree. I had a unit , years ago, that would control the temp in a crockpot, but man, this thing gets hot pretty fast and the water movement seems to help keep everything even. Looks like they’re $95 right now.
But if you’re talking BBQ, look at an actual smoker. I smoked turkeys for years in an electric bullet smoker, and while the heating element craps out after a couple of years, smoked brined turkey is the only reason to have turkey.
I use an Instant Pot with a sous vide function. I bought it because I wanted the pressure cooker and slow cooker functions, but the sous vide function is a nice bonus.
I use the pot of my pressure cooker for sous vide, never knew they had it as an option!
The newfangled computer-controlled electric appliances sometimes do. Mechanical pressure cookers that you heat on the stove definitely don’t.
I’d recommend getting a stovetop pressure cooker and separate immersion circulator mainly if what you’re actually wanting is a pressure canner (i.e. a really big pressure cooker) since I don’t think they make the computer-controlled gadgets in that size.
I have an Anova I use for sous vide but I also have an Instant Pot that has a sous vide function. Do you find the lack of circulation causes any hot/cold spots? Also is it very accurate since it can’t sense the water temp directly?
Honestly, you’re in a much better position than I am to answer those questions, since you can directly compare the two machines. All I know about my Instant Pot is that I put stuff in and hit the sous vide function, and it seemed to turn out okay. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Got an Anova from oiferup for chdap. Love it.
I have 2. One was a SanSaire (from a kickstarter before Sous Vides became popular) and the other is built into an InstaPot. The latter is super convenient and you get the benefit of it being useful in other non-Sous Videy ways.
I can’t give you a recommendation unfortunately but I can tell you one to avoid.
Do not get the Gourmia GSV140.
Mechanically it works perfectly fine. The high wattage heating element brings the bath up to temperature very quickly and seems to be able toaintain a fairly large volume of water.
The problem is the user interface. It is absolutely garbage. It uses these touch sensative buttons that alternate wildly between reacting to barely any touch and require the force of Thors hammer to respond. Usually it take the hammer. It also will not operate unless you set a timer. You cannot just set a temp and let it go… we’ll technically you could but it will beep a couple of times every 10 seconds to let you know it’s pissed off.
Hopefully someone else chimes in with a recommendation because I am interested in a replacement for this stupid thing.
