Hi, I started this company; let me address some of your questions. Just for the record, I'm clearly non-objective here. (I would have jumped in sooner but I had to sign up). Regarding technical specs: the heater is 300 Watts, it's a fairly standard electric immersion heater. The pump is roughly 3.5 L/min (it's spec'ed at 4.0 L/min, but we run slightly under the nominal voltage). Both are rated a minimum of 10,000 hours; if you ran it non-stop, 24 hours a day that would be about 14 months. We expect that it should last 2 1/2 years in normal use. The housing is a tough thermoplastic (ABS/PC composite). We try to be pretty upfront on the website: the biggest drawback is the heater, because it can take some time to heat up the water. That's the reason we list the water size as max 10 quarts. It can actually hold temperature well at larger sizes; recently we ran a test in 16 quarts of water and it held within .1 degree F for 24 hours. However it took more than an hour to initially heat up from 85F to 134F. --- As far as our track record, and reviews (or lack thereof), frankly, we're new. We've been selling the machine for just about two weeks now, and we didn't send out review units beforehand. Naturally I think it's a good product, but I've been able to use it. I expect that user reviews will start to filter out in time, hopefully people will like it. However if you're not comfortable because it's an unknown quantity, then by all means wait - I'd rather have people know what they're getting than order it and be disappointed. Similarly, if you'd rather DIY, then by all means go ahead. That's how I started - I built a cooker out of random parts. That's the kind of thing I like to do, but it's not for everybody. I designed the SideKIC as something my mother could use (and she likes it too, but again, not objective). Thanks for your interest, let me know if there's anything else I can tell you!
