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Comment by scott_karana | Hacker News Reader

> An average sous-vide cooker costs $2000, with low-end cookers going for around $300

Seems a bit exaggerated, and I'm not sure why, when this article was pretty awesome otherwise.

The professional-grade, ubiquitous Polyscience MX units are around ~$1000[1][2], and the low-end cookers start at $180-200[1][2]...

1 http://www.amazon.com/MX-Immersion-Circulator-C-Clamp/dp/B00...

2 https://www.instrumart.com/products/37038/polyscience-mx-imm...

3 http://anovaculinary.com/pages/products

4 http://sansaire.com/shop/

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It is way, way exaggerated. Even the professional Polyscience (the one I see in restaurant kitchens) only costs ~$800. HN'ers shouldn't pay anything like that: the current price point for consumer home circulators (the only kind you should get, like the Anova or Nomiku or Sansaire) is ~$160.

I was on the design team for the PS machines. (I say design team, I mean it was three people in a room for the whole thing [circuits/software/mechanical design].)

The main advantages of a high end machine are more accurate control (small advantage) and circulation (big advantage). The linked article's control algorithm is primitive (to say the least), and probably only marginally maintains set temp. The PS machines are accurate to < 0.01 degree (which for food doesn't matter), but the control software is the same between the food machines, and high end chemistry equipment.

As far as I can tell, some small waterproof fans would be more than enough for sufficient circulation. Why is that a specific advantage of high-end ones?

flow is very important with the temperature gradients that can exist in fluid. When you're talking about 0.01 and 0.001 degrees, flow is really important.

Yes...the whole point of sous vide is this ....

"Average" is probably not the right word, but maybe the author is referring to full-on water baths, not immersion circulators? the Sous Vide Supreme Demi is between $300 and $350. A Fusionchef water bath is up to $2000.

Why would anyone buy either of these? Serious question.

I guess maybe it's neater and more self-contained? But the reason isn't clear to me today. They may have been reasonable alternatives to $800 Polyscience units a few years back but I don't see why the typical consumer would buy one rather than a $150-$200 immersion circulator.

I have the SVS and an Anova and I use the SVS much more often. In my experience it holds to temperature better and more uniformly, the heating element spans the entire base so it's easier to cook in bulk (without worrying too much about blocking convection), I didn't have to hack a lid together, and it looks a lot better on my kitchen counter--which is important because it never leaves the counter, I use it five to six times a week.

I'll use the Anova (which I got for free, I wouldn't have bought it otherwise) if I need a very large bulk batch of something that I'm not worried about keeping at a precise temperature, but the SVS fits me a lot better otherwise.

the SVS is accurate across the horizontal plane, but not across the vertical plane. I couldn't trust a water bath without active circulation ( I use a Sainsare at home, and at work, we use PolyScience circulators)

Absolutely, this jumped out at me as well.

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