A Sour Vide Supreme is $400-600, so the $400 cost of Mellow isn't lunatic as these things go.

But since I think you usually sous vide stuff for many many hours - no personal experience, just reading what others like dcarch do - I'm not sure about the utility of remote controlling the unit to start heating when you start driving home. Unless you have an intercontinental commute.

This post was edited by johnliu on Wed, Apr 30, 14 at 16:49

There is so much excitement in the cooking world. There are now many units on the market selling around or less than $200.

I am familiar with the Mellow sous vide cooker. A very interesting appliance in that it can also chill. It is, IMHO, has a lot of design issues.

I have had some conversations with the maker, including the follow, which I have yet to receive a reply:

"--- That is asking for trouble. I would not make an appliance that has the container with a sensitive thermister plug, a high power plug and a water valve attached to it. You cannot count on users being careful in plug and unplug the container. Also unless the rubber valve is spring-loaded, and cleaned often, leaks will happen.
Assuming the unit uses a SSR to control the heater, I would think there is a need for a safety cutoff in the design. When a mechanical relay fails, it opens the circuit, OTOH a SSR works the opposite. When a SSR fails, it shorts. I hate to think what would happen with a 1000 watt heater going full-time unattended."

I think the unit can be made less than $300.

dcarch

OMG!! Johnliu! You've got it! Back when I had to travel for buisness and come home alone at odd hours, I would have been so grateful for a hot meal that was prepared a week before. How long does this thing chill for? Not that we had iPhones in those days... :) So, this is the new crockpot, huh? I suppose one could stew in it, though it's not what we usually think of for sous vide. :)

With the chiller, could it not be used to make granitas? Or does that not have a temperature variation like the heating does?

Edit: I could tell from the wording that it wasn't ready for market, but Gracious! that sounds dangerous!

This post was edited by plllog on Wed, Apr 30, 14 at 17:50

I don't think it can make granitas.

It uses a Peltier junction solid state device to do the cooling, no moving parts and inexpensive. Unfortunately a Peltier device is a low power and low efficiency cooling device. It can't get the temperature down low enough.

dcarch

This post was edited by dcarch on Wed, Apr 30, 14 at 20:38

Ah well. It's fun to dream. :) My gelato freezer does them, but one has to watch like a hawk or they freeze to the bottom.

OTOH, I think a water circulating cold anticooker is an interesting notion! Do you know if there are small devices that would lower the temperature the way the ones that raise the temperature do? I don't suppose it could go below 33-34 degrees lest the water freeze, but that would still be something interesting to play with... Though I suppose the real answer is for them to make a home model antigriddle. :)

Come to think of it...I could take the beater out of the gelato freezer and use the bottom of the bowl as an antigriddle for small things, huh? Good ideas come to those who are silly!

"----Do you know if there are small devices that would lower the temperature the way the ones that raise the temperature do? ----"

Very easy to make. It will be practical and fun. Buy (ebay):

A couple of Peltier solid state cooler, Aluminum finned heat sink, a 12V DC power supply. a DPDT switch, a small 12v fountain pump and a small fan to ventilate the heat sink.

A Peltier device is the size of a square cookie. Mount it on the heat sink and cool it with the fan.

You will have a cooler to chill the water to below 40F,

Here is the fun part. Flip the DPDT switch to reverse the polarity to the Peltier device, the cooler instantly becomes a heater to heat the water.

dcarch

This post was edited by dcarch on Thu, May 1, 14 at 7:43

Cool! Er, um, I mean, that's hot!

So, would this have the constant temperature control of a sous vide device? Or would that take another regulator? Could it get the water down to 33 degrees without freezing?

You can get an aquarium digital temperature controller ($12), which has heating as well as cooling contacts to control the Peltier, You can also find PID controllers ($20) which can control cooling. They are all very accurate to about one degree F.

Yes, given good enough cooling of the heat sink it can get down to 33F.

If you need a good quality 12VDC power supply, savage one from an old PC. Your town recycle center will have plenty.

All you have to do is to connect the green wire to the black wire.

dcarch

Boy, I love the granitas idea!

Thanks! I'm saving all this info. My new grain mill came today, so I have a toy to explore, but I love the idea of making my own.