Greater Goods Sous Vide Cooker, 1100W, No App or WiFi Needed (Onyx Black)

The Greater Goods Precision Sous-Vide immersion cooker is a nice addition to my kitchen. I've only given it a few runs so far (a 28 hour beef roast and a 4 hour set of pork chops), but it performed admirably both times. The device is high-powered (1,100 watts), so it brings your cooking bath up to temperature quite rapidly and can maintain the desired temperature easily. The controls are very simple (a single knob/button), and as a huge positive, it does NOT require a smartphone, WiFi network, or Bluetooth to be used effectively. While some other brands can be operated without a network, it is sometimes painful to configure cooking time, etc. without using another device (looking at you, Anova), and being able to set temperature and cook time easily from the front panel was a real joy. The device pretty much guides you through setting the temperature and cooking time, and with a final press of the control button, it starts cooking. The status display has a color indicator to show if it's bringing your vessel up to temperature, when it's cooking, and when your specified cooking time has completed. Since there is a calibration adjustment option available, I decided to check the cooking temperature against a high-quality and recently calibrated ThermoWorks instant read thermometer, and found the cooker was right on (within 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit) straight from the box. If I have to have something to quibble over, it's that once your desired cooking time is reached, the device sounds a periodic alarm to let you know it's done. Since I'm most often cooking things sous-vide that aren't going to be harmed by a little additional cooking (unlike oven baking/roasting, sous-vide cooked food isn't going "burn" if left in too long), I would have liked a way to silence or acknowledge the alarm, while letting it continue to cook (which in fact it does do, complete with a "count-up" timer showing the amount of time past your desired cooking time - so no worries about your cooked food unsafely cooling off if you're not around.) I found the easiest solution to get rid of the "done cooking" alarm was to just hit stop, add some additional cook time to the timer, then restart cooking. Certainly not a deal breaker, but it did make me have to deal with the device a little sooner than I would have if the alarm didn't keep beeping every minute or so. All in all, the Greater Goods Precision Sous-Vide cooker is a very nice product, seems to work well, is simple to operate, has enough power to bring your cooking bath up to temp and keep it there, and doesn't require other devices just to make it work. I like it! -Andrew Note: this is a true and honest review of the product after my real world testing. I was given this product by the manufacturer to review.

Let me start by saying I am a retired Quality Assurance and Laboratory Manager for pharmaceuticals and medical devices, and also taught equipment qualification and calibration in the university. This is my fourth Sous Vide machine from different manufacturers over the years. The Greater Goods Kitchen Sous Vide is far and away the best I have owned, and significantly less expensive than the A------a brand. The system is well built, VERY easy to use and attractive to boot - no more bland silver and black, this is a gorgeous teal blue :~) The system is powerful and gets up to temperature quickly, and runs nearly silently. I measured the water temperature throughout a 14 quart bath and it was dead on at every location, so the water circulation is well designed and powerful. As opposed to many others, this is the easiest system to use - the display is very large, bright and sits at a 45 degree angle, so in use you can see what you're doing without having to get on a stool to look down on the others that have a flat top. The controls are also very simple - just press the big single button to change from temperature to time, to stop and even to calibrate. Very easy to use and intuitive. For a retired lab rat and 'scientific cook' I found the calibration very easy to use and very important. I set the Sous Vide for 134 degrees in a bath that was filled with hot tap water at 124. It reached temperature in about 5 minutes and stabilized. I read the bath using a calibrated thermopen in several spots and found it was 131.2 degrees. Not bad for out of the box, but it was simple to press and hold the button to go into calibration mode and set it for -2.8 degrees (the correction factor as measured by the external thermometer). The heater immediately came on and raised the bath to 134 (as measured by the thermopen in several points). And then held it for the 4 hours cook of a frozen steak. A simple and elegant machine from Greater Goods. My only (minor) criticism is the alarm on the timer that goes off when the cooking time expires, then continues to beep (loudly) until you shut it off. For my use, the built in timer is irrelevant - sous vide cooking is measured in hours, not minutes, and there's no penalty for going overtime. I just leave the timer at 10 - 20 hours and stop it at the 3-4 hours depending on what I'm cooking. If I'm planning dinner for 6 PM, I just start it around 2ish. For some long term sous vide recipes (I'm looking at you, eye of round roast that becomes a fork tender roast overnight) that take 24 hours, again I'm not relying on the built in timer. I'm also glad they left out the bluetooth/WiFi/smoke signal controls. It takes longer to open the app than to just push the big button!!!! Don't need the buggy app or price bump for something that really adds no value - c'mon, once you put the bagged food in and hit start, you have nothing to do, monitor or change until you hit stop and take out the food. And then getting out the blowtorch to sear it off. (oh yeah, it's Ironman with a flamethrower to get that medium rare ribeye to the perfect char!!!). Simple to use, pretty to look at, nothing to hear and can be calibrated in a flash. My reviews are straight from the heart, based on my own testing and I paid full price for this unit and received no compensation from Greater Goods for this review.

I am pleasantly surprised with the quality and performance of this product. Well explained instructions, easy to use, and operated as described. I purchased it with the bin that has an insulating cover to keep the heat constant. It adds a whole new dimension for cooking lamb chops, thicks ribeye steaks, and duck breasts.

I’ve been wanting to try sous vide for a while. This cooker is easy to use, stylish, quiet and kept the water bath at the perfect temperature without fluctuating. I paired it with their sous vide container for the perfect combo.

I love the simple "twist and set" interface to assign you temperature and cooking time. No unnecessary recipes or other frills. Temperature is regulated to a tenth of a degree. Modifying your settings once set apparently is not so simple, But you can just stop the program and redo it as needed easily enough. So why only 4 stars? Well, some "manager" decided to coat the product with the sinister planned obsolescence "sexy velvet touch feel-good rubber coating" that after about 5 years adsorbs your handling oils and turns into a sticky goo most people want to throw away. Or you can spend hours scraping this crap off to try and salvage your beloved product. Not yet sure how to deal with it. But will try to routinely clean with soap and water to prevent this death spiral. So we have a wonderful but tarnished product.

Love this! We eat a carnivore diet, and making large batches of pasteurized eggs with this is easy. With pasteurized eggs, I can make a quick plain eggnog before running out the door, or I can just drink a pasteurized egg or two to finish out a meal.

I've used it once so far for cheesemaking to heat and circulate water around a 42qt kettle in a large rectangular container. While I should have preheated the water and the milk (took a long time for the milk to reach just 86°F), the heater did a good job maintaining the water (and the milk) at temperature, and this was 5-6 gallons of water. The device needs an On/Off switch on the top with the other controls, instead of having to unplug it to shut it off. The control for temperature and time is simple and easy to use, with a simple progression of pushes and twists of the large knob to select temp and time, and to select. Swappable to either °F or °C, and adjustable in 1/2 degree increments. I couldn't tell if I needed to set a time for the device to function, so I set a large timespan and progressed on with no issues. Temperature accuracy is good, I checked regularly as accurate temps are very important for culturing milk for cheese. This unit did not have connectivity (Bluetooth or WiFi) as I have no need for them in this application.

Chose this brand over Nano for quiet operation and the dial. Worked out of the box. Low whirl sound typically but turns high pitched if used repeatedly back to back, over long hours. It operated quietly again after resting 24hrs. Simply turning dial sets temperature. The dial has resistance for easily setting the exact temperature. So no hypersensitive dial making temperature setting annoying. Press down on dial to set timer hour, press again to set minutes, press again to set, and done. It will beep angrily if removed from the water during operation. It will beep if not enough water present. Minimum and maximum water level marked on shaft. Beeps to notify set temp is reached. Beeps when countdown timer completes. No on/off switch. Unplug to turn off. The temperature is accurate according to an analog candy thermometer. The holder has an adjustable clamp to accommodate different wall thicknesses. User can't manually set appliance height in holder. Where appliance rests in holder determined by container wall height. Clear plastic cap on the appliance's bottom covers the fan. For unusual situations, there is the option to lean appliance inside the container (use the holder as a brace tied together with chord if enough space for extra stability) as a workaround. Or if using various sized jars, prop up small jars using small ceramic bowls like souffle/creme brulee dish. I've used small ferment stones. Imagine steel steamer baskets would work too. Bigger than expected and has some weight like a heavy duty product. No wifi. No directions on how to clean the metal parts. It does collect water around the dial from steam rising up from container if using high temperatures. Maybe a reason to use a dedicated container with a lid for sou vides. A dish cloth draped over top of pot works is a cheap fix. The black parts, including holder is covered by soft plastic which may melt in the future. New, so durability is to be seen. Satisfied with product so far.