coffeekev

With respect to magnetic stirrers, I think a glass beaker or some sort of non-metal container will have to be used. A mechanical over-head stirrer will solve this problem (however even on ebay, they aren't really that cheap)... Me being a total noob, and in the planning stages of my DIY sous-vide journey, I am also confronted with the circulation problem - is the problem temp variation within the water bath, and most critically for us, the local temp around the SV bag? if so, hopefully a big enough volume of water and long cooking time should mean that local temp variation will be kept at a minimum, because the SV bag would have had plenty time to equilibrate with the water bath, and the PID-controller heating element is just there to balance conduction losses from the water bath. Maybe a little experiment is in order, involving 2+ thermocouples : one PID, and rest thermocouples/probes attached to thermometers, placed at different locations inside the bath and see how different volumes of food cause any temp diff, and see whether the diff resolves over time (or not) a SV nub, well-fed but hungry for SV! -coffeekev

Very nice mod indeed Pielle, a true inspiration and being in Australia, where almost everything cost 2-3X as much (and 2ndhand equipment is definitely more scarce), I think DIY is the way to go for me. Also, working in the medical field, I REALLY cant bear the thought of using 2ndhand water baths that could have had biological agents thawing in them I had 2 questions re: your mod, First question was answered in that thread of yours, namely whether auto-tuning needs to be repeated when using different amounts of water - it is necessary it seemed, however given u always keep a lid on, is evaporation a factor at all? I can imagine myself marking the inside of the pot to make sure the same quanity of water is being heated, in long marathon sous vides i reckon... Question no. 2, you said above that you can actually use the knob to adjust the power, now, wouldn't that affect the tuning process too? and therefore needs to be auto-tuned again? I am planning to modify a slow-cooker (or a rice cooker, because it has greater wattage) in the next 1-2 months. Will definitely post my results! -coffeekev

Singapore chilli crab with sea urchin roe paella For a description