Drew, I was talking about the Sous Vide Supreme - ie the sous vide cooker, not the vacuum sealer. I don't use their vacuum sealer, so can't comment on it (though I've read elsewhere that it's overpriced.) Alex, Where did you buy your SVS from? There is a reason I bought mine from John Lewis, though, on what you describe - sending "them" (whoever "they" are an email, getting a call in return, and a replacement couriered out doesn't sound like anything other than "good" service!) I agree that this is worrying, but I looked at various immersion circulators before buying the SVS, and in three months of scouring the Internet for everything about Sous Vide wasn't able to come up with a single instance of one failing from any customer! I wonder, therefore, whether something is "odd" about the UK (230v) machines, compared to the US (110v) ones that SVS, being an American company, presumably sell in far higher numbers. Dougal, Firstly - thank you for the link - I shall call them in the morning and see whether their bags would fit my vacuum sealer. Secondly, good point about the "secondary thermostat solution" - my first sous vide machine used a Tesco Rice Cooker, which has the same characteristics :-) Mark