The best sous vide gear

By Tim Barribeau & Nick Guy

This post was done in partnership with The Sweethome, a buyer’s guide to the best things for your home. Read the full article here.

Over the past four years, we’ve tested over a dozen sous vide setups to find the best for your kitchen. We like the Anova Precision Cooker (Wi-Fi Edition) the best because it’s reliable, works with almost any container, and has a decent app that you will actually want to use. If you don’t need the range of Wi-Fi, Anova also makes a cheaper, Bluetooth-only version.

How we picked and tested

Photo: Nick Guy

There are primarily three different types of sous vide cooker: the immersion circulator that can simultaneously heat and circulate water, the all-in-one but less-precise water bath, and the bring-your-own-heat controller. For most people, in most situations, the immersion circulator is the perfect sous vide cooker. These are gadgets that latch onto the side of a vessel—be it a pot, a plastic tub, or even a cooler—and not only heat the water but also use an impeller to circulate it around the container. Among these, you want something that accurately maintains temperature, is quick to heat up, and is affordable.

This is our fourth iteration of reviewing and recommending sous vide devices for the home, and for this round, we tested five immersion circulators. We evaluated speed (to reach specific temperatures), accuracy, and noise levels. We also looked at power draw after people raised questions about how much energy is used to keep one of these things going for a long cook.

With each, we heated seven liters of water from 69 degrees to 135 degrees Fahrenheit, measuring the temperature at both points with the Thermapen and recording the time to get to temp. We continued to let the circulators run for 12 hours to check for temperature accuracy over longer periods and measure how much power the devices use—but did add hot water as necessary to account for evaporation and to keep the water above the minimum level.

Our pick

The Anova Precision Cooker (Wi-Fi Edition). Photo: Tim Barribeau

The Anova Precision Cooker (Wi-Fi Edition) is the best bet for most home cooks due to its low price, small size, and flexibility. It’s one of the cheapest ways to get into sous vide cooking, and thanks to an innovative adjustable attachment system, the Anova works with a much smaller volume of water than other devices—so now you don’t need to heat up a gallon of water just to cook a couple of chicken breasts. The Wi-Fi version of the Precision Cooker is almost identical to our previous favorite, the Precision Cooker’s Bluetooth-only version. The Wi-Fi version improves on the old design with a simpler, scroll-wheel-based interface that is preferable to the slow-to-adjust touchscreen on the original Anova. The new version also has a beep alert when water arrives at temp, circuit-saving lower wattage, and more quiet performance. The Wi-Fi Precision Cooker is made by a lab-equipment manufacturer with a reputation for accurate and long-lasting gear, which is important for precise cooking.

A less-expensive pick

Top to bottom: The Anova Precision Cooker (Wi-Fi Edition) and its predecessor. Photo: Tim Barribeau

If you want the benefits of the Precision Cooker (Wi-Fi Edition) but are willing to give up some functionality to save a few bucks, the original Bluetooth Precision Cooker is still a great buy. It does everything the newer version does (except for connect to a network) and it usually sells for about $20 less. We found the two models to be equally accurate, equally quiet, and equally power efficient. Oddly, though they seem to be identical, the Bluetooth model we tested did take about five minutes longer to heat up the water bath in our tests, but again, that issue can be mitigated by starting with hot water.

The vacuum sealer

In order to cook with a sous vide machine, you need to put your food in a bag and get out all the air from around it. Some people swear that you need a vacuum sealer to do this (and on occasion it is useful for quick marinades and such), but you could also do it for free with a simple ziplock bag and a method that’ll work just as well in most situations.

Here’s how it works: Put the food in the pouch and almost completely seal it with just a small section remaining open. Immerse the pouch in a bucket of water, leaving the opening just above the water line. Allow the air to escape, slowly pushing the entire thing under, and then seal it just before you submerge the opening. You can see some more discussion of how to do this here and here.

If you’re dead set on buying a sealer, the only major editorial review we found is from Cook’s Illustrated (subscription required). The site updated its vacuum sealer picks in 2014, and this year picked more affordable alternatives to its previous $400 recommendation. Cook’s Illustrated suggests the Weston Professional Advantage Vacuum Sealer as a powerful, heat-sealing model—though it doesn’t seem that widely available. Alternatively, for a valve-sealed model that requires special bags, the site suggests the Waring Pro Pistol Vac Professional Vacuum Sealer System, which didn’t do quite as good a job of sealing as the Weston in tests, but is far smaller and more affordable. Amazon reviewers seem to love it, giving it 4.6 stars (out of five) across more than 100 reviews. Just be sure to stock up on bags.

This guide may have been updated by The Sweethome. To see the current recommendation, please go here.