VonShef Sous Vide Handheld Cooker with 360° Immersion Circulator – Easy To Use Temperature and Time Settings, Container Clip, 1000W, Digital Display

I set everything up as soon as everything arrived. I don’t know who wrote the manual, but the manufacturer really needs to do better on this. Their website is down, promising a new whizbang site soon. Another fail in my not-so-humble opinion.The operation is not very intuitive. You must read the poorly written instructions to suss out what they are trying to tell you. Even then you have some guessing to do. But eventually we got it to working. Life is too short for bad user interfaces. They need to work on that too.I set the temp to 140° F and it quickly ground its way up to temperature and held it reasonably close, albeit to a poorly calibrated 142° F by my meat thermometer, and 143° F by my infra-red thermometer. I didn’t expect much in the way of a cheap model, but I do think they could have at least provided a calibration feature if they aren’t going to do a good job of it themselves.But still, I give it four stars. At least you don’t need a damned telephone to operate it. That is a major plus …

I suspect these are all rebranded items made in the same factory in China somewhere, but because this one had confirmed reviews by legitimate reviewers, i weighed the options vs cost vs complaints and pulled the trigger on this particular model. I tested it for 3 hours and measured the device registered temp vs my Oneida digital temp probe that i have trusted for years and the waterbath temps were identical deg by deg Fahrenheit. One semi strange observation is your "Set" temperature of say 135 will always be 1 degree higher than your actual waterbath temp... So, i wanted 135* for 2.5 hours of working time and the actual water temp never went above 134. Checked against my Oneida temp probe, same readings. must be a factory setting. So, if you want 135* set temp needs to be 136. You get the concept. I made some Picanha yesterday and it turned out perfect. Best steak i have ever made. 2.5 hrs at 135 degrees turned out a medium set of steaks approximately 1" thick seasoned only with salt and seared with my $20 harbour freight blow torch. I think you're going to be A-Ok with buying this one if it works as well as mine did... One thing, READ the instructions! I plugged it in, it beeped and display flashed and then was blank as if dead.. Well, thats what is supposed to happen until you hold the power button down for 3 seconds, then the display lights up but in Celsius mode. No big deal, just press the power button and set button at the same time and it toggles to Fahrenheit. Ive used this about 6 times now, worked perfect every time, Made a pork loin and more Picahna. This think should get 5 stars if it lasts a year or more. I wish it had a different way of clamping though.

Crazy as it may seem, yes, this is a negative 5 star review!This was my first try at Sous Vide cooking so I wanted to keep it cheap. I found this little guy for an amazing price of only 40.00 so I said why the heck not and clicked buy. Since February I've used it MANY MANY times, I've cooked various steaks in it nearly every weekend since then and the results were spectacular. As other reviews have stated it is off by one degree for some reason (on Fahrenheit). So if you need 130 degrees, you have to set it to 131. Again perfect results every time. I cook big cuts so I use a medium sized ice chest as my cooking vessel which is likely too big lol.So now for why this is a negative review, but still 5 stars:It broke!But it was most likely my fault so I'm ok with that lol! I got really cheeky and decided I wanted to cook brisket with it, but being that I'm an overkill kinda guy I decided I wanted to throw a damn party and cooked two whole packer cut briskets in the bloody thing. To my shock, the little-Sous-Vide-that-could kept 40lbs of meat in 8 or 10 gallons of water at 155 degrees for 62 hours! The brisket turned out AMAZING! Fast forward to the next weekend, I usually start with warm water so that it doesn't have to work as hard to bring the temp up. But this time the water started at about 140 degrees (I needed 130 for NY Strips). I figured it would be ok and stuck in the cooker as well as some ice to bring it down and turned it on. It beeped and started circulating and eventually it came down to the right temp, but then the poor little thing lost it's mind and started peeping 3 times, over and over and over. It's like the temp was fluctuating by a degree but only for a second and it would have to cycle the heating element. I let it go for 2 hours, and while it said 131, it never really got above 115-ish. So alas I will have to replace him. Again it's likely my fault so I'm not going without stars. For 40 bucks, this is a great way for people to get into sous vide, and as long as you don't try cooking a whole cow in a swimming pool it should last you a while. I do plan on buying another one :)PS. Quick tip if you live in a place with hard water and don't want to have to use bottled/purified water: After a few uses a lot of scale will build up on the metal parts, a quick soak in about half a cup of vinegar and a half gallon of water will take the scale right off.

This product has several issues due to poor design. In contacting customer service, they wanted everything short of my inseam size before they would answer any questions.The maximum water level is several inches below the top of the vessel.The display text is tiny.It is very loud.It does not circulate water very well and provides more bubbles at the unit itself than actual water movement.It does heat up water in a reasonable time and was only a degree from my Thermapen. I could have lived with that if not for the other issues. With the other issues being deal breakers, I am returning it.

I have had my VonShef circulator for the better part of a year now. During that time, my family has fallen in love with this way of cooking. Steaks are perfect as well as Pork Tenderloins and other foods. The circulator had functioned without issue during this time and temperature is spot on with two other cooking thermometers that I have. For me, this item was a great value for the money and I have recommended it to friends who have the same opinion after purchasing theirs.