I know I could go down a black hole in researching which one of these to get but I figure if I ask for the pro's input it will save me a lot of time and hassle to know I am getting a good stick. I am looking a the Amazon prime day deals and see two different ones that jump out to me. The Instant Pot SSV800 and the Anova Nano. I see there is a 50W difference but I don't believe that is a huge deal it will just take a little longer to warm up. I don't see a requirement of bluetooth or wifi so those are not really deciding factors to me. Here are links to the Amazon pages
My toys:
Weber Summit Charcoal Grilling Center (WSCGC) aka Mr. Fancypants
Pit Barrel Cooker (which rocks), named Pretty Baby
Weber Summit S650 Gas Grill, named Hot 'n Fast (used mostly for searing and griddling)
Weber Kettle Premium 22" named Kettle Kid, eager to horn in with more cooks in the future
Camp Chef Somerset IV 4-burner outdoor gas range named AfterBurner due to its 30kBTU burners
Adrenaline BBQ Company Gear:
SnS Low Profile, DnG, and Large Charcoal Basket, for WSCGC
SnS Deluxe for 22" Kettle
Elevated SS Rack for WSCGC
SS Rack for DnG
Cast Iron Griddle
Grill Grate for SnS
Grill Grates: five 17.375 sections (retired to storage)
Grill Grates: six 19.25 panels for exact fit for Summit S650
gasser
Grill Grates for 22" Kettle
2 Grill Grate Griddles
Steelmade Griddle for Summit gas grill
Fireboard Gear:
Extreme BBQ Thermometer Package
Additional control unit
Additional probes: Competition Probes 1" (3) and 4" (1), 3 additional Ambient Probes. 1 additional Food Probe
2 Driver Cables
Pit Viper Fan (to pair with Fireboard Fan Driver Cable)
Pit Viper Fan new design (to pair with Fireboard Fan Driver Cable)
Thermoworks Gear:
Thermapen MK4 (pink)
Thermapen Classic (pink too)
Thermoworks MK4 orange
Temp Test 2 Smart Thermometer
Extra Big and Loud Timer
Timestick Trio
Maverick ET 73 a little workhorse with limited range
Maverick ET 733
Maverick (Ivation) ET 732
Grill Pinz
Vortex (two of them)
18" drip pan for WSCGC
Ceramic Spacers for WSCGC in Kamado Mode: 2 sets each 1/2", 1", 2". The 2" spacers work best with the 18" drip pan. The 1+1/2 inch spacers work best with the 14 inch cake pan.
Two Joule Sous Vide devices
3 Lipavi Sous Vide Tubs with Lids: 12, 18 and 26 quarts
Avid Armor Ultra Pro V32 Chamber Sealer
Instant Pot 6 Quart Electric Pressure Cooker
Instant Pot 10 Quart Electric Pressure Cooker
Charcoal Companion TurboQue
A-Maze-N tube 12 inch tube smoker accessory for use with pellets
BBQ Dragon and Dragon Chimney
Shun Classic Series:
8" Chef Knife
6" Chef's Knife
Gokujo Boning and Fillet Knife
3 1/2 inch Paring Knife
Both the Anova and the Joule are good machines. The insta-pot is fairly new so a little harder to gauge its longevity. I personally prefer the Anova as you can run manually. The Joule requires the use of a smartphone to operate. Make sure u are buying genuine Anova on Amazon there are (or where) some warnings on the Anova website
I have a second generation Anova with Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is a neat trick, at first. Now I don't bother with it. You need your immersion circulator to 1) heat water accurately, 2) maintain temperature without fluctuation, and 3) circulate water in a container. Bells and whistles aren't required.
My gear:
22 Weber Kettle
Napoleon PRO Charcoal Kettle Grill
Broil King Keg
Traeger Pro 34
Napoleon Prestige Pro 500
Pit Barrel Cooker
Blackstone Range Combo Griddle
My gear:
22 Weber Kettle
Napoleon PRO Charcoal Kettle Grill
Broil King Keg
Traeger Pro 34
Napoleon Prestige Pro 500
Pit Barrel Cooker
Blackstone Range Combo Griddle
raven I agree. I have the Anova and I don't use the wifi at all. Luckily I got it really cheap before they got so popular. The joule has a good rep though.
Anova, hands down. Best bang for the buck. You can sometimes find the larger unit on sale for around $99, makes it a much better bang for the buck than the Joule. Joule's a fine machine, just can't justify the additional cost.
Not to mention the absolute need for another device in order to be able to use it. I've got the Anova that does both blue tooth and WiFi, and I'm a huge gadget geek. Really have never used my phone or any other device with it.
As a negative comment, I had my Anova app simply blow up on me over the weekend. I had logged probably 25-30 cooks on there. The app just went haywire. Tried to revive it but no go. Ended up downloading it again to get it to work but lost all my recipes, dang it. They need to cloud base it like the Fireboard to avoid that from occurring.
Not that this has anything to do with your choices, but buying one and using it is a game changer (gawd I hate that term, can't believe I just used it). Had a meal to make for the wife and myself on Saturday night and had nothing thawed. I opened the freezer inside the house and started to dig, I keep a log of my meat freezer in the garage but not the one in the house. Anyway I get to the bottom and here are a couple of choice ribeyes from October of 2018 looking all gnarly but still well sealed in their vacuum bag.
So I fire up the Anova in my small container and 20 minutes later I'm at 129* and I plop them still frozen into the bath. I took off and had an errand to run, came back after an hour and let them go for another hour. Went outside and fired up the Jumbo Joe, filled the charcoal basket with 1/3 chimney full of coals. At the end of the bath I seasoned, seared and those little choice steaks tasted like pure California gold. Tender, wall-to-wall perfectly medium rare pink in color with a glorious mahogany sear. Really enjoyed those little buggers.
So...the moral to the story is don't even hesitate to buy a circulator. Those who turn their noses up at SV cooking have no clue of it's potential.
Ziplocks work fine, you can clip them to the edge of the container you're cooking in. The water will push the air out of the bag by displacement pressure and you get a good result. Just want to make sure you keep the sealed end out of the water and you get a good surface area adhesion to the meat so it can cook evenly. Vac sealers aren't that expensive, I'd still advise investing in one of those instead.
I bought mine on a lark - I had read some stuff on here about the Anova, and I saw it on sale cheap and grabbed it. It is a very useful tool - right up there behind my SNS.
Another +1 for the Anova, and for Troutman's comments. My experience has been the same. SV is awesome in it's own right for things like corn, fish, and eggs. But in combination with grilling and smoking, it's an invaluable enhancement to your toolkit. Be sure to check out serious eats sous vide section for recipes and ideas. (there's also really good pressure cooker stuff on serious eats, but alas, I think Troutman has probably already seen it and remains unconvinced)
I just pulled the trigger on the Instant Pot SSV800. Looks like I was too late for the Anova Nano sale. At $55 bucks, Instant Pot seems like a good intro into world of sous vide.
I think you made a good choice. If you ever want to SV a big hunk of meat the Nano may have been a bit under-powered. Thanks for assisting the Canadian economy, eh!
SV cooking adds a whole new cooking experience and new tool to your cooking arsenal. Consider purchasing this book "Modernist Cooking Sous Vide" There is also a Sous Vide FB forum that is very helpful for beginners
I started off with sous vide several year ago by reading the Serious Eats and Modernist Cuisine web sites. I can't see the utility of buying a book, although I do admit to using a tablet in the kitchen at times when I'm trying to follow a new recipe.
@pjlstrat - No you do not NEED a vacuum sealer. However, it is nice to be able to buy meat in bulk, vacuum seal it, and put in the freezer, where is will reside for many months waiting to take a nice edible jacuzzi.
Like this use for the vacuum bagging: Costco prime strip, aged 34 days in Umai Dry bag, trimmed, cut and frozen yesterday. (photos on page 2 of this thread)
Last edited by Dr. Pepper; July 16, 2019, 06:16 PM.
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