I picked up this immersion cooker the last time it was here a few weeks back. For $40 it is a good deal but (of course) I have some opinions about it. I’m not going to go on about the cooking method, but just a few observations about this particular cooker:
- Any sous vide cooker with either 1100 or 800 watts will work just fine and the larger capacity won’t cook things any faster. What the higher power is better for is either heating up your water faster or keeping a larger amount of water at a more constant temp (for example, if you were using a large cooler to cook in as compared to a pot of water).
- This cooker has wi-fi, and frankly that doesn’t add any value to it for me at all. It is not needed to make this cooker run and can actually be another layer of complication to an otherwise simple device that might turn some folks off from using this particular unit. At its most basic, all you really need is a simple sous vide circulator and an alarm clock to get excellent results.
- The design of this cooker is such that the lower part of the plastic outer shell is immersed into the water. Other units I have used have a stainless steel lower body that surrounds the heating element and impeller and sits in the water instead of plastic.
- Some other design observations: If you are not familiar with this unit, the square cross section may take up more room in the cooking vessel than you expect. The shape of the bottom is such that you may not need to clip it to the side wall of your container/pot - it can stand upright by itself if needed. And the electronic controls are fairly simple to read and understand but I would still recommend keeping the user manual handy if you don’t use it often enough to get used to them.
Overall this one is a good device. Prices are dropping and if you ever had a passing interest in sous vide cooking then this just might be a way to get into it without busting your budget.
Can you change this Sous Vide to read in Fahrenheit? I noticed in one photo it shows heat up time to 150 F but in the other pjotos it is reading 55 C.
According to the User Manual, to change from Centigrade to Fahrenheit simply press the Temperature Setting Icon. 55C and 2 Hours is the default setting out of the box.
Yes you can. It’s doable through the touch interface, but a pain. The touch interface is clunky and slow, but WiFi is easy enough to set up and the app improves every aspect of the user interface.
I bought 8 of these last time they were up, to give as gifts, and tested one so I could help the people I’m giving to in case they had any trouble. I would say the $40 price tag is reasonable for this model.
but WiFi is easy enough to set up and the app improves every aspect of the user interface.
Hard disagree right there, I haven’t been able to get the one I picked up last month online, even with setting up a 2.4ghz band on my router specifically for it.
Otherwise, for those on the fence about this, I’d say buy. It is a very good price for a nice sous vide circulator. I have only used it twice so far (got it mid October), but had great results both times.
I used it to cook 2 racks of St. Louis style pork ribs, running the unit for 20 hours straight @150F. The Souvia device kept the temperature constant and did not fail once during the cooking process.
I also used it to prepare some asparagus as a test, (just asparagus, butter and diced garlic) for 15 mintues at 185F. It came out great, though I need to work on my timing and prepare the side closer to when I intend to serve (left it out and it cooled before dinner, but didn’t want to reheat as I was testing cooking sous vide).
I got one of these last Christmas and went hoarse shouting “ALEXA!!!” at the damned thing. Not recommended.
is this worth of electricity?
Not sure where you are located but where I am, yes. Electricity is cheap and consistent, and the device isn’t a big power drain.
it should only use the full 1.1kw when initially coming to temperature. Water has a lot of thermal mass, and you should be cooking in a reasonably insulated container, so the cooker shouldn’t need to turn on to bring the water back to temp so often, meaning it actually shouldn’t use much energy after coming to temp.
Unfortunate that the app support on this sous vide dissappeared, learned my lesson wont buy from woot again, fly by night chinese junk.
So this was 4-5 years ago. Pretty sure you’re out of warranty.