NutriChef Ultra-Quiet Sous Vide Cooker, 1200 Watt Thermal Immersion Circulator, Accurate Time / Temperature Digital LCD Display, Stainless Steel, Use with Ziplock Bags, White (PKPC120WT)

I've been looking at sous vide cookers for some time now. The questions I had were: "How big is big enough"? "Where am I going to store it?" "How much is my wife going to complain about another appliance"? and "Where am I going to get the money"? I had pretty much decided against sous vide when I discovered that I didn't need a huge dedicated appliance, nor did I need to spend hundreds of dollars just to try a new (to me) form of cooking.I got this little gem, attached it to a small pot, and tried cooking a steak. Two hours later (plus a couple minutes on the grill to sear) I had a couple of perfect steaks, medium from edge to edge. Even the thinner part was medium. Next, I tried our standard loin pork roast. Seared it in a convection oven at 425 for 10 minutes and got a rave review from the family. [Have since repeated, with similar success.] Finally, using a bigger stock pot, I cooked a 5 pound rib roast (140 deg for 6 hours, finished in 425 deg oven for 10 minutes). Beautifully done from edge to edge with just the right amount of sear. The family and guests thought it superb. As an extra, I cooked some fresh asparagus by sealing it in a bag with a little butter and then cooked it 10 minutes @ 180 degrees. Bright green, tasty, and crisp. [I hate mushy asparagus.]By the way, most of the the food I've cooked so far was already in a vacuum bad (Food Saver) and in the freezer. It's a simple matter to thaw and cook in the same bag, although in the future I'll need to consider adding cooking spices before freezing.The only negatives I see is that the controls are not intuitive (the instruction sheet is clear, but you need to keep it handy) and the unit is a bit noisy unless you adjust the water level to the optimal point. Then, it's no worse than an aquarium. [Maybe I'll cook some fish next.]Update: I've been using this for over a year now, averaging three times per week. Still works great. I keep learning new uses. For example, we love 2 inch thick pork chops, but they are hard to cook properly on the stove or grill. Yesterday, I got a great deal on 8 of them (Kroger sell-by date discount). I seared them all on a hot grill. After sealing them in individual bags, I sous vide'd them for 3 hours at 150 and 1 hour at 170 (we like the taste better). Served one for dinner (tender, juicy, great flavor). Cooled the rest and froze them. Seven great meals that will be ready in minutes. Another tip: If you cool the cooked meat before freezing it, it will re-absorb most of the juices that cooked out.Update: Almost 2 years have passed and after using the unit 3 or 4 times per week, it is still working like new. I reread my review and would like to change my advice on cooking a prime rib roast. I did another one about a week ago. Five pounds, frozen in a vacuum bag. Dropped it, still frozen, in the pot and set the temperature to 130 degrees. Left it for 7 hours (6 plus 1 for defrosting). Removed the roast and put into a 375 degree over for 15 minutes to sear. It was a beautiful sight to behold, although not for long. Perfectly medium rare and could be cut with a fork. Served it to family and brother-in-law, who just now emailed me to ask what make/model I had (I'll send a link).Update: I've now been using this little gem for over 3 years, 3 or 4 times per week (it's cooking a ribeye roast right now) and it's still running great. A new recipe that has become a standard here is shaved roast beef for sandwiches. Take a whole (or half) eye of round. Trim all fat and membrane. Coat with olive oil, kosher salt (Diamond Crystal's "fluffier" salt), onion powder, and garlic powder. Rub it in and roast in a 500 deg oven for 20 minutes. This will really sear the crust. Let cool (won't take long). Place in a vacuum bag and sous vide to rare for about four hours. Refrigerate (in the bag) until cold. Shave the roast into a large pile and season it with the juices from the bag to taste (it may be too salty). Freeze in convenient portions. [I include a photo of the finished pile.]

So, I'm reviewing two units: the first that died a fairly quick death and then it's replacement.The first one I bought on a great deal from Ebay. It worked perfectly the first time, the second time it was making a racket like there was a screw or part loose inside the pump. The third time (I had a dinner party and wanted to show off my new machine so there was no time to get a replacement), it died within 2 minutes presumably because the piece that was loose finally jammed the pump.The design of the controls is idiotic. Why are there only two touch controls on top and why is there a scroll wheel and why is it located down on the body of the unit? It is like someone who's never been in the real world and actually used something like a human designed this interface. Or maybe they were trying to be "artsy" and "think outside the box". Honestly, it seems more like there wasn't enough thinking done here. The smarter play would have been to add a third touch control to the top panel or, at the least, put the thumb wheel near the top of the unit horizontally. Next, why do I have to set °C to °F every single time? It keeps all the other settings (time, temperature) in non-volatile memory but somehow there just wasn't room for ONE MORE BIT!!??? These quirks along with trying to remember if this mode requires a long press, a single tap, a key combo, sheesh. I don't think it's possible to make it more inane if one actually TRIED.The replacement arrived from Amazon for several ducats more than the first but it arrived much quicker (thanks, Prime). Second, instead of the gold body unit I got with the great deal on Ebay, I decided on silver since the prices for each color are identical on Amazon. Guess what color I actually got. Yup, gold. The box is marked silver but some color-blind idiot in China put the wrong mark on the box.When I first plugged it in, the display was garbled; basically you could see about two thirds of all the characters across the screen. Since I had used the prior unit and was familiar with the set up and operation, I was able to guess my way through the start up and cook my steak. After a few minutes of running, the display was 100% readable and I could confirm that I had the setting correct. If this unit continues to challenge me, I will update this review.

I used this unit once and really loved the results. This is a great way to cook tender juicy meats.BUT:The second time I used it, the pump would lock up after two seconds and wouldn't operate. I would get an E05 message. I tried multiple times to get this to work and it wouldn't.Since it was past the 30 day Amazon warranty policy, I was left to deal with Pyle Support. For their warranty repair, I was required to pay shipping both to and from them ($30 total) for them to repair or replace. I coughed up the money and returned the unit.The unit I received back looks like it was my original unit. It worked fine the first time. But the second time it did the same thing again; E05 errors because the pump would not continue to operate.WARNING FOLKS: DO NOT BUY THIS UNIT. RUN from this product! Why are you looking at customer reviews, if you don't heed our advise? (That is what I should have done, because there are many other unhappy "victims" that purchased this "Made in China" piece of junk.I am waiting to see how Pyle Support decides to handle this.Oh by the way, you can now buy Sous Vide Cookers at Sams now, much cheaper, and couldn't be much worse than this.