Fityou Sous Vide Cooker 1100W, Thermal Immersion Circulator with Recipe and Adjustable Clamp, Sous Vide Heater with Accurate Temperature & Digital Timer, Ultra Quiet Stainless Steel

Unless you are obsessed with controlling every device in your home w/a smartphone, THIS is the sous vide cooker for you, at least IMHO! Frankly, it is difficult at times for me to pair my phone to a friends' car! Maybe my phone isn't as smart as it should be but when I cook anything I prefer a "hands on" approach! This is simple to use. The controls are straightforward and, though I think you won't really need to read the instruction manual (which ain't such bad "Chinglish" as some others I've read) once you plug it in, the device is fairly intuitive to use. Icons that indicate temperature and cook time are both displayed with temp. icon (indicated by an old style mercury thermometer bulb- bless old school "analog" intellect) coming on first. Set to C or F (also easy to do AND once done, will always stay on what temp scale you've set it to) and then set to what number of degrees you desire, Press up or down icons (simple arrows indicating up and down--as I said, VERY INTUITIVE,....my grandchild could probably set it up if he were tall enough to reach, heh-heh) to raise or lower temperature. Once you've accomplished setting the temperature at which you wish to cook your food, it will then beep at you and the "timer" setting in hours and minutes (indicated by a small clock face icon---honestly, this is mid-tech for bozos like me) will come on. I assume you can guess the same up and down arrows will facilitate your time setting.Then just press the on button which is also the button at which you start or stop anything. However, once you've manually programmed it, it will automatically turn off (and beep) when it has reached whatever settings you put in. I've checked both the temperature settings several times with a fairly expensive folding meat/food thermometer and found it to be within 1or 2 degrees of same. I've also checked the timer of the cooker with my stovetop's timer and found it to be within 1 to 2 minutes of each other on an hour's or so cook time!Overall, the device is extremely EASY to use. Set it, forget it....and voila,.....dig in and eat.CAVEATS IN GENERAL for SOUS VIDE: Consult several sources on proper cooking times for different foods and whether or not they are fresh or frozen meat and veggies! I find that ALL seafood (with the possible exception of Frozen Shrimp) is best cooked fresh with sous vide which brings me to my next CAVEAT!I have watched and read probably in excess of 30 hours of you tube, various internet articles and several sous vide cookbooks! I won't recommend any because I am trying to tailor all of my sous vide to a Ketogenic diet for health reasons HOWEVER, I have definitely found that putting your food in a vacuum sealer is not only easier but better in the long run ONCE you've gotten your cooking times down.I have seen all the videos with the heavy duty freezer bags sucking out (actually pushing out the excess air due to the heat of the hot water and atmospheric pressure but, I like to use one of those little stainless steel racks to cook several foods at once and that is very difficult to pull of using zip loc bags. I've had and still use vacuum sealers (even the best "Foodsaver-Branded" ones only last about 4 to 5 years with moderate use) and you can really take advantage of bulk buying by putting your foods in with the appropriate seasonings and say a few pats of grass fed butter for chicken breasts, steaks, broccoli, carrots, whatever!Then, if your really lazy like me; pull out something frozen or fresh from the fridge, fill up your particular choice of sous vide cooking vessel (you can use a deep pot or buy a specially made plastic one just for sous vide---I made my own from an old see thru plastic storage box and cut a hole in it to accommodate the stem of the sous vide machine) fill it up with HOT WATER from the tap so as not to tax your sous vide cooker too much and then: insert cooker (to where the upper fill line is marked on the stainless steel tube of the cooking machine), insert food in VACUUM sealed bags either in special rack or with clothes pin on side of container {make sure its weighed down to fully submerge food} cook and EAT!I SOUS VIDE EVEWRYTHING now. Try fresh veggies vacuum sealed in a bag with a little salt & pepper, a pat of good quality butter and you will NEVER eat them any other way again! The vacuum sealer seals in all the vitamins and minerals with all the flavor of your condiments and the cooker ( I usually cook fresh cruciferous veggies @ 180 degrees F for approx. 1 hour for soft to medium crispy {not wilted or mushy} texture with incredibly good flavor.Again, watch some videos on you tube and try it. I have found that this particular cooker at around $70 w/prime CANNOT be beat! It is flawless in its performance and I have used it for at least 20 to 30 times now so that I could give a fair and accurate assessment of its ability and quality of its construction. I have sent many of its competitors back because of difficulty to use or inferior quality and frankly, I neither desire or need to remotely "program" and check status of my sous vide cooking. Odds are, if you're like me, you are going to the kitchen to check on your "haute cuisine's" progress anyway so for me, Bluetooth is irrelevant.Happy eating folks! Hope this review was HELPFUL and cleared up a few questions/concerns about this superb way to cook!

EDITED REVIEW ONE YEAR LATER:It's after 0100 in Chicago but I felt compelled to log in and update my review of this device.I am leaving my original review as-is and I am prepending the review with the update.THIS IS BY FAR THE BEST PURCHASE I HAVE EVER MADE ON AMAZON - AND I'VE BEEN ON AMAZON SINCE THEY SOLD AND DROPSHIPPED ONLY BOOKS. (Sorry for the caps but I can't do bold.)Granted, I only take this unit out of the cabient when I am preparing larger than usual volumes of proteins, but looking back, I do it pretty darned often.This cooker has performed flawlessly and without hesitation since day one - and beat the heck out of it.On day one I used it to prepare a dozen steaks, right out of the box. My sous vide pot was rather small at the time so it took me four rounds of cooking - the device was on almost non stop for nearly twelve hours.Then two weeks later we had a barbecue and I used it to cook briskett and more steaks, and even fish and some veggies. The unit was on straight for 40 of the 48 hours leading up to the barbecue, with the briskett done last and cooking continuously for more time than I will care to write (do your own research so you don't undercook it).Then there was the engagement party for a niece, the Superbowl party - I mean the Big Game party, the World Cup party, the Tour de France party, the family reunion - one on each side, and the weekly cooking of my beef for the week of dinners.In all cases, it took me close to six days of almost continuous use to cook all of the food - and I am not exaggerating. We ran the thing literally non stop for up to three days before giving it a short break, then cooking for three more days.We always use the vaccum seal bags and fully submerge the food - we don't use a rack simply because it is annoying and we have not found one that fits our pot to the point it increases capacity.Our first pot of choice was a three gallon stock pot. The cooker handled that really well so we got adventurous when cooking for larger crowds and we found an insulated tub, probably ten gallons in size and gave that a go.Surprisingly, or not, it handled the ten gallon tub just fine - I'm actually cooking ten steaks at once right now. It is 0100 on Wednesday night and this thing has been running since Monday morning.Now I'm not suggesting you do what I do and run this thing into the ground - surely I may have an outlyer that is performing above standard. But what a reliable device.After going on 15 months of use the thing is like brand new, quiet as can be, display is perfect, all the buttons work and by gosh it was only $69 -- way, way cheaper than the name brand units, especially the one I had to return twice. Sure, no bluetooth, but are you really that concerned you need to monitor your temperature or time from the living room when you are cooking something for up to three hours -- it's really that hard to get up and check the machine??? I didn't think so.Buy this and love it.But oh, you still need to know how to use it and you still need to know how to properly prepare and finish sous vide cooked meats and veggies. Once you know how to do that, this is the device that will take you where you want to be.Ciao...ORIGINAL REVIEWPurchased the Anova Nano for $99 a couple of weeks ago. The Bluetooth function was a great convenience, but the circulator stopped working after the seventh day of use.The Anova Nano was returned and this Fityou unit was purchased for $69.Although the Anova was technically advanced with the Bluetooth interface, this Fityou model is clearly more robust in every other way.The Nano circulated the water, but you had to look closely to determine if the water was moving. With the Fityou the water has a clear, strong current that circulates the water twice as fast, which in turn will allow you to use a larger cooking vessel, or add more bags to the water (my experience).The difference in wattage is also discernibly better with the Fityou. Water comes to temp more quickly (I always put "hot" water into the cooking pot) and the unit seems to run cooler, which to me means it is not working as hard to keep the water at the designated temperature.I would save the $30 that paid for the Bluetooth and get this device instead.

I received this product and was disappointed that the box just said Sous Vide on it with no distinctive brand name. There was no name on the unit either. I really like buying products from companies that have a brand that they cultivate and are proud of displaying. Also, the images online showed a product that was matt black, whereas the product came with a high gloss finish that revealed plasticky construction and seams that were not exactly high quality in appearance. I was a little dismayed. It might be a really great product functionally and it received good reviews. However, I wasn't sure that the product that others reviewed was the same brand and model that I received because the finish looked different. So, I returned it. For the price, it might be worth it if you're willing to take a chance.