Best vacuum sealer and tub for a sous vide?

Jcl5150

I’m thinking of getting the Anova sous vide and was wondering what those in the know would recommend for a vacuum sealer and tub to use with it.  Any suggestions are appreciated!

lkapigian

I use an ice chest , they are reasonable and well insulated , I have a food saver and VacMaster , food saver works fine, vacmaster for the wet stuff , or you can do with just a ziplock baggie 

GrateEggspectations

Forget the tub. Time to doctor an old cooler for the win. 

lkapigian

this^^^^

Jcl5150

GrateEggspectations said:

Forget the tub. Time to doctor an old cooler for the win. 

Nice!  What size cooler would I need?

Ozzie_Isaac

Jcl5150 said:

GrateEggspectations said:

Forget the tub. Time to doctor an old cooler for the win. 

Nice!  What size cooler would I need?

Big enough to fit the proteins you want to cook.  You are over thinking the situation (I know because I always do too).  Somewhere around 20 quarts should be fine.

fishlessman

I just use a big pot and use bubble wrap foating on top as a cover. So far have gotten away with just a pasta sized pot but have a bigger one if needed.

Jcl5150

Thanks, everyone!  I’m definitely excited to give it a try!

Canugghead

Stockpot with thick foam cover is my go to, also wrap the pot with flannel sheets for long cooks. The oval lid also works on a roaster oven pot.


Not wasting a perfect cooler, haven't had the need to use the cracked lid cooler yet.

RRP

You got lots of ideas for the tub...but nothing specific about a FoodSaver. After 22 years my old 1050 model FS died. I ended up buying a reasonably priced model FM2000FFP for $115 on Amazon. I could not be more pleased!!!

Ozzie_Isaac

RRP said:

You got lots of ideas for the tub...but nothing specific about a FoodSaver. After 22 years my old 1050 model FS died. I ended up buying a reasonably priced model FM2000FFP for $115 on Amazon. I could not be more pleased!!!

I got a vacuum chamber sealer from Anova.  Absolute game changer.  I use it way more now.  Quick, easy, and no mess.  Very happy.  If it dies I'll het another chamber sealer for sure.

GrateEggspectations

Ozzie_Isaac said:

RRP said:

You got lots of ideas for the tub...but nothing specific about a FoodSaver. After 22 years my old 1050 model FS died. I ended up buying a reasonably priced model FM2000FFP for $115 on Amazon. I could not be more pleased!!!

I got a vacuum chamber sealer from Anova.  Absolute game changer.  I use it way more now.  Quick, easy, and no mess.  Very happy.  If it dies I'll het another chamber sealer for sure.

To echo this sentiment, I’ve used my vac sealer on average once every three days or so the last several weeks. Tomatoes, steaks, pork belly, pulled pork. Well worth it. 

mehsrea

You don't need a lid bro. Temp is temp. The watts will cost you like $0.24. Tub came with my Anova but it's so big. Don't need it. Use a spaghetti pot. For VS I have the Nesco Deluxe VS12 and it's awesome. The Anova one sucked.

HeavyG

mehsrea said:

You don't need a lid bro. Temp is temp. The watts will cost you like $0.24. Tub came with my Anova but it's so big. Don't need it. Use a spaghetti pot. For VS I have the Nesco Deluxe VS12 and it's awesome. The Anova one sucked.

A lid (or something) is useful when doing a 48 hour chuck roast to stop evaporation - for just a 2 hour steak, not so much.

lkapigian

@HeavyG said , lids matter in long duration , that being said , evaporation is in effect even for the shortest of uses and while it may not be significant, evaporation cools the remaining water ( thus boiling water will not exceed 212@ sea level) 

Ozzie_Isaac

lkapigian said:

@HeavyG said , lids matter in long duration , that being said , evaporation is in effect even for the shortest of uses and while it may not be significant, evaporation cools the remaining water ( thus boiling water will not exceed 212@ sea level) 

Plus, when your bag comes loose and the corner floats above the surface, you have a chance of the temp still being safe for that little corner.

Canugghead

what @HeavyG and @lkapigian said, $0.24 watts is the least of my concern, for long cooks (think brisket) or short high temp cooks (think carrots) evaporation means adding excessive moisture to the indoor air, not so bad in winter but dehumidifiers have to work extra hard in the summer. I can do long cooks without adding water.

Canugghead

mehsrea said:

You don't need a lid bro. Temp is temp. The watts will cost you like $0.24. Tub came with my Anova but it's so big. Don't need it. Use a spaghetti pot. For VS I have the Nesco Deluxe VS12 and it's awesome. The Anova one sucked.

When it comes to vacuum sealer, imo the suckier the better 

fishlessman

ive used the bubble wrap for years for the longer times in the sousvide.  dont know how much it adds but its really inexpensive. couple big chip clips seem to hold things submerged, if it didnt i would look for a rock to put in the bag ir grab a piece of stainless for weight....i like the rock idea better

MasterC

Can't be any easier and Mrs.C doesn't complain about it out on the counter.

Here's a twelve dollar plastic storage container, it works. Mrs.C wasn't as happy
with that in the kitchen 


Happy Wife happy life.

Jcl5150

Thank you for all the suggestions!  To those that use ziplock bags and a stainless steel pot, do you just kind of squeeze the air out of the bag as best as you can before sealing it?

lkapigian

Jcl5150 said:

Thank you for all the suggestions!  To those that use ziplock bags and a stainless steel pot, do you just kind of squeeze the air out of the bag as best as you can before sealing it?

Just immerse the bag in the water, it will displace the air inside, then seal 

BlueRidgeSmokers

I have a counter-top 3 gallon polycarbonate tub for the kitchen, and "upgraded" to a 72-qt Coleman for large cooks. Pre-heat the water in the larger tubs. 2.5" hole saw for the Coleman lid.

I do like the Anova counter-top vacuum sealer. 

BlueRidgeSmokers

I'm serious about preheating larger tubs - the 72-qt tub takes 6hours or so to get to 130F.

caliking

BlueRidgeSmokers said:

I'm serious about preheating larger tubs - the 72-qt tub takes 6hours or so to get to 130F.

For a tub that size, you should consider using 2 Anova units. A single sous vide stick is good for about 35 qts. 

BlueRidgeSmokers

caliking said:

BlueRidgeSmokers said:

I'm serious about preheating larger tubs - the 72-qt tub takes 6hours or so to get to 130F.

For a tub that size, you should consider using 2 Anova units. A single sous vide stick is good for about 35 qts. 

With pre-heating the large quantity of water, I find the bath returns to temperature quickly after adding the proteins. As long as the bath is at temp and not running low, I can't imagine I need more wattage. It doesn't hurt I'm using an Xtreme cooler that doesn't leak heat to speak of.

Do you have a reference for the 35 quart number? 

fishlessman

BlueRidgeSmokers said:

I'm serious about preheating larger tubs - the 72-qt tub takes 6hours or so to get to 130F.

the insulated cooler itself needs to come up to temp, its slow, the yeti rotomolded coolers would really be a pain to use with all that insulation. i fill with hot tap water even though im using a spaghetti pot so no big deal anyways.

Canugghead

fishlessman said:

BlueRidgeSmokers said:

I'm serious about preheating larger tubs - the 72-qt tub takes 6hours or so to get to 130F.

the insulated cooler itself needs to come up to temp, its slow, the yeti rotomolded coolers would really be a pain to use with all that insulation. i fill with hot tap water even though im using a spaghetti pot so no big deal anyways.

^^^this
I crank up the tankless water heater to max 120 degrees before filling the stock pot, then heat stockpot on stove to bring water to SV temp. 

BlueRidgeSmokers

fishlessman said:

BlueRidgeSmokers said:

I'm serious about preheating larger tubs - the 72-qt tub takes 6hours or so to get to 130F.

the insulated cooler itself needs to come up to temp, its slow, the yeti rotomolded coolers would really be a pain to use with all that insulation. i fill with hot tap water even though im using a spaghetti pot so no big deal anyways.

Being the Walter White of BBQ, I've calculated the time it takes to heat a given quantity of water with both the 900W Anova (and 1000W Anova Pro). The first conversion is from watts to calories/hour; convertlive.com says 900W is 773,860 calories/hour. (See below on calories vs Calories).

Starting with 18 gallons of water at 65F out of the garden hose and a target of 130F, convert all the units to metric (18 gallons -> 68,130g, 65F -> 18.3C, 54.4C) and calculate total calories necessary.

68,130g * (54.4C - 18.3C) -> 2.46e+6 calories. Dividing this by 773,860calories/hour we get 3h 10m but the calculation isn't *that* precise. I haven't timed it precisely but I did check once and the bath was at temp in about 3h 30m - so I don't know how much heat went into the tub itself.

The Anova Pro would be faster, probably 2h 55m or so.

Efficiency of the Anovas - never measured it, but an immersed heating element transfers effectively 100% of the heat into the tub, so the only inefficiency is in wiring/switch losses, which are small (otherwise they'd heat up and fail).

About those calories vs Calories - food/nutrition labels use upper-case Calories, aka kilocalories, which is to say 1000 calories = 1 Calorie.

Next time I warm-up a tub, I'll run a P3 Kill-A-Watt for total power used.

fishlessman

BlueRidgeSmokers said:

fishlessman said:

BlueRidgeSmokers said:

I'm serious about preheating larger tubs - the 72-qt tub takes 6hours or so to get to 130F.

the insulated cooler itself needs to come up to temp, its slow, the yeti rotomolded coolers would really be a pain to use with all that insulation. i fill with hot tap water even though im using a spaghetti pot so no big deal anyways.

Being the Walter White of BBQ, I've calculated the time it takes to heat a given quantity of water with both the 900W Anova (and 1000W Anova Pro). The first conversion is from watts to calories/hour; convertlive.com says 900W is 773,860 calories/hour. (See below on calories vs Calories).

Starting with 18 gallons of water at 65F out of the garden hose and a target of 130F, convert all the units to metric (18 gallons -> 68,130g, 65F -> 18.3C, 54.4C) and calculate total calories necessary.

68,130g * (54.4C - 18.3C) -> 2.46e+6 calories. Dividing this by 773,860calories/hour we get 3h 10m but the calculation isn't *that* precise. I haven't timed it precisely but I did check once and the bath was at temp in about 3h 30m - so I don't know how much heat went into the tub itself.

The Anova Pro would be faster, probably 2h 55m or so.

Efficiency of the Anovas - never measured it, but an immersed heating element transfers effectively 100% of the heat into the tub, so the only inefficiency is in wiring/switch losses, which are small (otherwise they'd heat up and fail).

About those calories vs Calories - food/nutrition labels use upper-case Calories, aka kilocalories, which is to say 1000 calories = 1 Calorie.

Next time I warm-up a tub, I'll run a P3 Kill-A-Watt for total power used.

thats alot of figuring the engineer in me says heating water from 120f to 131f is quicker than the cold water in winter going from 45f to 131f with my old manual anova

Canugghead

That's a lot of avoidable wear and tear on the Anova