Vacmaster SV1
I looked at all the other immersion heaters out there on the market and chose the sv1 due to the experience I have had with other Vacmaster products I have purchased. The build Quality is excellent and it does a great job cooking food to perfection.
My Five-Star Amazon Review
While I did not purchase this through Amazon, I thought I'd share my opinion of this machine.
It's quiet, efficient, accurate, and does a great job of cooking sous vide. Using it is easy - you set time and temperature, and when it beeps - when it comes up to temp - you push the start/arrow button and it begins to count down while cooking. When it has finished cooking (according to the time you set), it beeps again. Push the stop button and you're done. Period.
I don't understand the difficulty in the negative reviews I've read here. This is dead simple to use and it's a near-professional machine. It's made by the same company that makes the commercial vacuum sealers for restaurants, so I figured they must know what they're doing. This machine allows you 99 hours of cooking (NOT 99 minutes like one person said. Sheesh) so you can experiment with the different long-term recipes with exemplary results. Very important for me is that it operates quietly.
While this doesn't have the WiFi or Bluetooth that some of the machines made for home use have, I give it five stars for pure functionality. The way I look at it is I don't have WiFi or Bluetooth for any of my other kitchen appliances - stove, fridge, mixer, garbage disposal, etc. - so why do I need one for my sous vide? Answer? I don't. There are lots of recipes that give you time and temperature, and the sous vide apps will work for this machine, too.
Just keep an eye out on the water level if you're doing a lot of cooking. It will stop if the level drops under the minimum, and you end up feeling like an idiot when you contact the company in a panic and realize it was in the manual all along.
Highly recommended. Easy five stars.
The most annoying machine in my kitchen
I have no real complaints about this machine other than that I cannot shut off DAMN ALARM! It goes off every time it reaches optimal temperature which is a about four time's a minute given the fact it will drop .1-.3 degrees. The "reset" button is put on the machine to give you the illusion of controll because as the instruction manual will tell you to "turn off the power and unplug the device. Remove the cover from the reset panel and press the reset button. Plug device in to test." If the device will not heat. Works great but I'm one more use away from destroying it.
*VacMaster Response*
If you use the SV1 correctly there will not be any continuous beeping. You have to press the "play" or start button on the machine once the water reaches the temperature you have set. Once the water temperature achieves the "set temp" it will 'beep'. To stop the beeping and start the timer the "play" or start button must be pressed. The acknowledgement will be the ":" or colon in the "set time" will begin to flash signaling the timer mode is working. Once the cook time expires, it beeps again notifying that the cook time is complete. The negative reviewers are simply not using the machine correctly. They use an external timer not realizing that the beeping of the machine is just a reminder to them to set the timer on the machine and as soon as they do so the beeping will stop.
Best way to cook meat
I studied and pondered buying a sous vide for over a year, but this is the best money you will spend if you want to cook like a professional chef
Well build Circulator
A well built product that gets to temp quick and has the capacity for a large tank. Had it 5 days and cooked ten different items. Wish the controller could be changed without shutdown, but can live with it. Like that it remembers the last settings. Have looked for a year for one before deciding on the Vac-master. Would definitely buy again.
good but worried about endurance
We have several of these units we use at our restaurant. One has a dead pump after less than ten uses over 18 months (out of warranty). Other than that, a good value.
I absolutely love this!
When I apprenticed in France in the late 80's, every single kitchen was using sous vide method. I finally got this machine last year and have to admit, I didn't open the box for a couple months. I was a bit intimidated. Then I made my cooked my first rack of ribs using a dry rub and finished them off with a little smoke on my Big Green Egg. - THE best ribs ever
I made only ribs with the sous vide for several months - they were absolutely perfect every single time. Since then, I've cooked lobster tail, miso cod, NY strip steak, tri-tip, pork butt, leg of lamb, pork chops - mostly followed with a quick browning and a little smoke on BGE. I don't know if I can ever cook meat again any other way. Not only is it consistently perfectly cooked every single time, but once I toss it in the water, I can devote the rest of my dinner prep time to my veggies, grains, dessert or whatever else is on the menu. LOVE this - 5 stars
Great Unit
I recently bought a SV1 after trying the sous vide method first with water in a cooler, then I did it with a crock pot and a themometer type unit ( like a dorkfood) and then after seeing that I wanted to do more, I decided to get a circulator as the sous vide supreme didn't seem much larger than the crock pot. I felt that the SV1 is a good blend of power, and price. It is about the same power as the more expensive ones, with a better price. The other less expensive ones didn't seem to be strong enough. I finally got the unit and it worked fine, but I checked the temperature with several different themometers, and the SV1 was consistently 2.5 degrees lower than the indicated one on the panel of the unit. I called up VacMaster and asked if there was way to recalibrate, and they said there was not anymore, but they volunteered to send me another one, and they did. This one is eithernow is either on temp or just one degree low. This is not a big deal, because I can add one more degree to the desired temp, but WHAT GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE.
This unit is powerful and can heat 4.75 gallons to 140 F in about 20 min. It keeps the temp steady within 0.5 degrees. It is very quiet, and I can just hear it when I am just 15 feet away.
Great power, great price, quiet, and great customer service.
Man-o-Man!!!
Tried the Stove top method.
Tried the CrockPot method.
Both had temperature control problems, needed continuous monitoring.
With the SV1, you can just...
SET IT & FORGET IT!!!
It is powerful, quiet, and fits in my Gumbo Pot. LOVE IT!!!
VacMaster nailed it from sealer to Sous vide!
I have used this several times so far and the family raves about the meat.