sous-vide magic

This is a request for feedback.

It seems that sous-vide cooking is becoming more financially accessible.  After following a link on Food for Design to Wired Magazine for an article on Nathan Myhrvold to Auber Instruments and finally to Fresh Meals Solutions, I was looking at a temperature control device for $100 that converts a basic rice cooker (no fuzzy logic because it won't work) into a water bath for sous-vide cooking that is accurate to 1%.

Its called Sous-Vide Magic.  After the purchase of a cheap large rice cooker, you can begin cooking sous-vide for well under $200.  Add on a nice food-saver and you are still well in budget for home use or a small restaurant with a humble capital list.

My big question is... has anyone out there used this device, and how well does it work.  It could open the doors for a lot of possibilities when you compare it to the $900 plus list price of a Polyscience thermocirculator.  This was inevitable.  It is simply a device that measures temperature and controls power for heating to maintain a constant temperature... how difficult and expensive is that to manufacture anyway?  Add on some sort of motor or pump and you have a thermocirculator.

Comments

[heartsurgeon]

you probably have seen this thread...but just in case you haven't

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=39023

highly recommend this thread for any "home" sous vider's

[tyler]

There is a large thread on egullet about this topic, and from what people have said, they really like this controller and the results they get from it. Add on an aquarium pump and you're good to go.

This controller is what I am looking to buy over a used circulator due to the fact that they get used in labs with possibly very nasty stuff.

But like you said, an all-in-one unit would seemingly be so easy to manufacture, it's probably just a matter of time until it's done

[chadzilla]

Yes... I did fail to mention the egullet thread which features the information although I admit I have not read it. I probably passed the legal link limit on this post anyway.
eGullet does a great job with these topics... and it's mostly due to their great readership for input!

[sygyzy]

Wow, thanks for posting your link thought train. I love seeing how people end up finding things. The thing that I am most excited about is to learn that nathanm is some old jolly billionaire. I thought he was a young college kid. He definitely is "the man" when it comes to sous vide. His charts for cooking times are invaluable.

[Edaname]

I have one and like it very much. You can pick any cookers(rice cookers, crockpots, slow cookers,...etc)and plug it in, set the temperature and go, that's it. Very simple.
The best performance cooker I found is the commercial rice cooker which has a large bath and good insulation.
The only problem is setting up the PID parameters to tune for best performance.
For long term cooking, circulation is not really needed.

[simon]

wow, just checked out that thread, it's FIFTY SIX PAGES!!! Definitely a wealth of information. Thank you!

[Papin]

I have used a reptile thermostat controlling a slow cooker. My results were not what I expected. Using an infrared thermometer, I measured the surface temperature, stirred the water in the cooker, and then checked the temperature again. It had gone up! My guess is that the aspect ratio of the cooker prevents the formation of convection rolls and instead the heat is transported to the top surface by plumes of hot water that detach from a bottom layer in the pot.

Next time I will try leaving the food closer to the bottom and keeping the temperature sensor of the thermostat at the same level. Maybe it will work.

[Dave]

I just purchased a controller from http://auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8&products_id=44 and it has an auto tune that seems to work very well.

[Michael]

I have been using this for a year now and it's been great. I also have the Polyscience circulator which I bought when it first came out, comparing the two I can't tell the difference