Well I'm not sure if you're interested in a homemade cooker, but that's what I have. With dcarch's help I put together a system that includes a cooler, digital temperature controller, and aquarium heater and circulator. I can dig up some pictures if you'd like.

Am I satisfied with it? Yes, insomuch as it works. I'm not yet convinced of the results though. Certainly there's no easier way to get consistent and repeatable doneness, but with few exceptions (notably meat like beef short ribs which you wouldn't normally consider serving medium rare) I've not particularly liked the texture of the meats I've cooked sous vide, or, found that it produces beneficial results that I cannot acheive with traditional cooking methods. And I'm not alone - the last time I cooked something sous vide it was a USDA Prime sirloin steak, and my wife - who rarely criticizes my food - gently hinted that she really prefers when I just prepare steaks "the regular way." She made some funny mouth and tongue movements to describe what she doesn't like about sous vide.

About my sous vide, anyway. In googling negative reactions to sous vide, I've not found a whole lot out there. Complaints that I have found are invariably followed up with myriad responses like "a lot of places just do it badly." Honestly my negative experiences have led me to not experiment too much with the method, and I'm open-minded enough to accept that perhaps I'm just another one who is doing it badly.

I'm still interested and curious though, in fact just this weekend I ordered Nathan Myhrvold's "Modernist Cuisine at Home" with the thought that following some of his recipes should give me a better idea of whether my problem is the cook or the method. I'll certainly be posting a review once I've had a chance to play some more.

Back to equipment, one thing I'd recommend is to get a closed system such as the Sous Vide Supreme versus a circulator such as the Polyscience that's designed to hang on the edge of an open tub unless you'll be using it outdoors or under an exhaust fan, because hot water lets off A LOT of steam.

This post was edited by foodonastump on Tue, Feb 19, 13 at 10:57

In the following narrative, do keep in mind that I am NOT an accomplished cook. A year ago I remodeled my kitchen and for the first time in my many decades long life have room for toys.
I happened on a brand new Sous Vide Supreme with vacuum sealer for $350 on ebay. It has been in my kitchen for six months or more. At that price, I am delighted with it.

I use the vacuum sealer for many things, and I really like the Sous Vide for most things I have used it on. I agree with a previous poster that some meats had a texture I did not like. I suspect I cooked these tender-ish cuts too long in the sous vide.
Within the last week, I cooked two semi-boneless legs of lamb that a local supermarket had on special for $1.99 a pound (I couldn't resist, bought 3, gave one to a friend) medium rare (not at the same time), froze one and blasted the other in a very hot oven to brown it. It was, as have other lamb roasts have been, delicious. I have also used it often for beef cuts when I wanted rare, medium rare, or medium. As others have said, I can cook beef to the doneness my guests or my husband and I will want, sear it with a blow torch at the last minute, and easily please everyone.
I do like to use Molly Stevens' (All about Roasting) pre-roasting seasoning and ''aging'' in the fridge before I sous vide nearly anything.

I haven't yet used the sous vide on seafood, but that is in my To Do list.

Overall, I really like the Sous Vide Supreme. It is easy to store (fits on my corner susan), easy to use, and absolutely consistent.

This post was edited by Bellsmom on Tue, Feb 19, 13 at 17:53

At the time I was going into sous vide cooking, the lowest cost cooker was $600.00. Taking advantage of the availability of low cost high quality components, I configured my setup using the following:

Digital temperature controller - $14.00
Electric heater - I use a 2,000 watt 220v heating element running at 110v. ($7.00)
Circulating water pump - aquarium pump ($8.00)

I have been using the system almost non-stop for a couple of years, never a problem. Since the components are so inexpensive, I do have backups for everything just in case.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

At this point I cannot imagine cooking without a sous vide cooker. It has so many advantages.

Absolute control of how you like to have your meat cooked. Very important if you are cooking a $140 piece of beef.

Ability to enjoy tough cuts of meat medium rare.

Meat cooked at high temperature shrinks. At sous vide cooking temperature there will be less shrinkage, which means juicier meat and money savings. I did a comparison using identical corned beef. The sous vided corn beef shrank much less.

Reheat leftover meat without overcooking.

Precision hard boiled eggs.

Pasteurizing eggs for making ice cream.

The list goes on.

dcarch

So, what do you use for holding the water in the homemade setups? I would want to be able to cook large roasts.

Cooler. The size I use depends on what I'm cooking.

My system is portable. I use different size containers depending on what I am cooking, from a couple of eggs to a whole frozen turkey.

Speaking of frozen turkey, you don't need to thaw food for sous vide cooking. Save a whole weeks of thawing in your refrigerator.

dcarch

Well, duh!
Dcarch, I know you have said this before, but it just didn't sink in. You are my go to guy for info on sous vide cooking.
But I NEVER considered that the DIY sous vide could use container sizes to fit what was cooking. Very very neat.
If I could , I would retroactively NOT buy the Sous Vide Supreme and do a set up like this.
Easy to store it all in the biggest cooler, nesting others as needed with the mechanics inside. Much lighter than mine, I bet.
Great way to determine if one likes sous vide or not.

Here's my setup. Like dcarch I put together a control box but that's not necessary, just neater. This is the only cooler I "converted" to be specifically for sous vide. It gets questions at the beach!

Dcarch and Foodonastump--

Can you sous vide in a smallish saucepan with your setups?
Like for cooking eggs?

(I just have never been able to justify hauling out the SVSupreme to cook a few eggs.)

Well the aquarium heater won't fit in anything too small but you could use a cheap hot pot, or a lot of people use crock pots... Basically any heat source can be plugged in, as long as it doesn't have a thermostat or other electronics that would limit you from using the controller as the on/off switch.

As dcarch points out, these are cheap to make. The most expensive part for me (other than the cooler) was the heater at around $40. I wanted to use an aquarium heater but my choices were limited because I didn't want to take it apart and try to override the internal thermostat. And I wanted a heater ready to simply plug into a three prong outlet.

You could probably even get away with a pan on an electric coil plate.

This post was edited by foodonastump on Wed, Feb 20, 13 at 10:34

dcarch and foodonastump: Where did you get your inexpensive digital temperature controllers? I made a setup similar to yours (although I have only used it to control a crockpot). However, I couldn't find a digital temp. controller for the kind of money you two cite. I happened to have had a lot of the parts for my control box sitting around, but otherwise it would have cost me nearly the same as an Auber Instruments rig. If I could find a supply of controllers at your prices, then maybe I could make a few more converts!

eBay ... STC-1000

Angie, a digital aquarium temperature controller is less than $14.00 on ebay. You should also look into a PID temperature controller, which is also less than $20.00.

A PID temperature controller (Proportional-Integral-Derivative controller ) is intelligent. It has a self-tuning feature which learns the characteristics of your total system from the heater to the quality of your pot/vessel and make the adjustments to stay on set temperature (within one degree). All other thermostats in you roaster, oven, convection oven, crock pot, slow cooker can be off by 30 to 50 degrees F.

I have a system using a PID controller to do cold smoking.

Bellsmom, making a few sous vided eggs is easy with a portable system.

dcarch

Oh yeah, I forgot about immersion heaters. Dcarch, is the STC 1000 a PID controller? I find my setup stays within +/- 1 deg C, as verified with a Thermapen.

Well, you've convinced me. I'll be making my own set-up, rather than purchasing the Supreme. I would like to be able to do large roasts, pasteurize eggs, and do small amounts as well. Now I have to figure out exactly what components to gather. Such helpful information, esp. the part about dumping out the water and Auberinst.com.

This post was edited by kitchendetective on Thu, Feb 21, 13 at 12:28

Any questions just ask. Dcarch helped me with mine, and I'll be happy to answer anything I can.

I used a Cal 9300, which is PID, but was not cheap. I will have to take a look at ebay for cheaper ones.

I have actually built PID controllers from op-amps, but decided that I wanted the ease and the display of a commercial controller. Plus, by the time you are done buying the hardware and power supply, etc., it just wasn't worth it.

FOAS, the the STC 1000 is not a PID controller. I think it is just a digital thermostatic controlled relay. It can control a heater and a refrigerator at the same time and it has some delay logic in turning the heater/refrigerator on/off.

For the heater, I use a stove heating element or a domestic hot water heating element. They are very cheap and they last a long time. In general, they are high wattage/220v heaters (2,000W to 4,000W). However, you can run them at 110V and the wattages become about 1/4.

Angie, yeas the Cal 9300 is expensive and they don't even give you the thermocouple sensor with it. I like the cheap PIDs because they have dual displays, set themperature and real time temperature.

I am very impressed that you have done Op-amp work. Programing op-amps require real electronic know-how.

Anyone else who may be reading this thread, FYI, a sous vide cooker cannot make crepes. LOL!

dcarch

Wow, I cannot believe how cheaply you can get PID controllers on ebay! There were packages with controller, thermocouple, and (external) solid-state relay for about $25! That would help make a budget SV machine! (Although the Cal 9300 was expensive, I had one lying around collecting dust.)

IsnâÂÂt it amazing? All this sophisticated complex electronics for less than $25.00!

Just one thing, many of these PIDs do not have output power to energize the SSR, but thatâÂÂs no big deal. Typically the driving voltage for the SSR is anything from 3VDC to 32VDC, any little DC wall adapter will work.

I actually have taken apart one of those PIDs just to see whatâÂÂs inside.

It appears to have very quality made components. The main control is a AT89C52 microprocessor. Basically it has an input magnetic transformer powering a regulated DC power supply for the circuit boards. That's why you can run it either on 110VAC or 220VAC.

Using a volt meter, I did find a low voltage DC point where I can solder a DC output to power the SSR.

dcarch

This post was edited by dcarch on Fri, Feb 22, 13 at 18:13

Using a volt meter, I did find a low voltage DC point where I can solder a DC output to power the SSR.

Now that's clever! :-)