Coogles

The folks from Nomiku have launched a kickstarter campaign for a new version of their circulator... https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nomiku/new-nomiku-sous-vide-wifi-connected-and-made-in-th

From what I can find this circulator draws 11 amps, I wouldn't feel safe leaving it running unattended using a 10 amp cord. In the picture I'm looking at the power connector looks like it's the same thing you would find on a computer power supply, if so this one is rated for 13 amps; http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=102&cp_id=10228&cs_id=1022801&p_id=5285&seq=1&format=2 If you have a Microcenter in your area they would probably have something suitable in stock, look for a 16AWG cord or thicker.

SousVide Supreme does restart, remembers the target temperature, and continues cooking. I've read Anova has added it also as a configurable option. Other units I have or know about do not restart. I have not tested this but the Nomiku manual says that it will resume after a power outage, remember the set point and display an icon on the screen to alert you know of the interruption.

Looks like the patent issue has been resolved according to this update... http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/seattlefoodgeek/sansaire-sous-vide-circulator-for-199/posts/710977

@Shalmanese, If you hold your finger down on the Nomiku's screen for a few seconds it will turn the circulator off.

Well, I'm not willing to crack the box open but I did try to see as much of the inside as I could through the vent slits yesterday afternoon. There is a small tube which could be an axial fan sitting on top of a metal heat sink. The only sound I could hear unaided was a very faint buzzing which I assume is the transformer, I might try to grab a stethoscope from the office to see what else I can hear. I can see pros and cons to the external power supply. It could be vulnerable to spills and splashes if you're not careful, but if the those electronics were instead integrated into the circulator head then they would be exposed to steam from the bath. That was always a concern for me with my old Fisher circulator, especially when leaving it unattended during long cooks.

Below are images of the power supply, only the sides where the circulator cable and power cord are attached have vents. I can't hear any fan running in the power supply while the circulator is plugged of feel any hot air blowing out of the vents in so my guess is that it's passively cooled.

I don't believe the heater stays on continuously while heating, each time I've heated up a bath I've noticed the stove light (that's apparently on the same circuit as the wall outlet) will start to flicker when the bath temp gets to within 5C of the set point. I'm guessing that the heating element is cycling on and off when the bath is nearing the set point to avoid overheating the water. Also keep in mind that these are just test runs in my kitchen, not in a controlled environment where all variables are accounted for. I know Kenji from Serious Eats has tested both an Anova and a prototype Sansaire, hopefully he'll be able to do a side by side (by side) comparison once he gets his hands on a Nomiku. In the meantime I'm just going to play around with my new circulator and have fun!

I set up another 14 liter bath this morning in the same pot as before but had it covered with aluminum foil and a dish towel from the start. This time it only took 1 hour 45 minutes to go from 20C to 90C, the Wolfram Alpha calculation for this run shows just over 650 watts. To try and see how much energy was being lost to the environment I left the cover in place, turned the set point down to 50C and recorded the drop in bath temperature at several time points. At 20 minutes the bath had dropped 3.5C, 5.1C at 30 mins, 6.5C at 40 mins, 8C at 50 mins and 9.3C at 60 mins. Clearly there is a significant amount of energy is being lost to the environment in this set-up so the 650 watts is well below the actual output of the heating elements.

Haven't posted pics on here before, but here goes... These are from the first set-up.

The distance from the bottom of the unit to the "min" mark is about 3 3/4" so it should work in a 4" deep bath as long as the circulator almost reaches the bottom of the container. The distance between the "min" and "max" lines is 2" and when attached to a container the bottom of the circulator is 7 1/2" below the rim. I can't say whether there is any type of control circuitry in the power supply or not, the cord between the brick and the circulator is pretty thick so there could be some data cables hidden in there but I'm not willing to crack it open to find out. The increase in wattage I was remembering came from project update #31 where they mentioned that the total power range was being increased to 1150 watts, this is what is indicated on the power brick as well. The 425 watt figure does not take in to account the amount of energy that was lost through evaporative cooling because the pot was uncovered until about the 75C mark or what was radiated out the sides and bottom of the stainless steel pot. When I have some free time this weekend I'll set it up again with the same parameters except cover the pot from the start to see how things change.

According to my calculations, that means it's pumping 425W into the water. Given that it apparently has a 1000W heater, that's less than 45% efficiency which is pretty disappointing. I'd try again with covering the bath and insulating it to see if you can get it done faster. I'll have to look through my emails, but I'm pretty sure that they increased the size of the heater a little bit. 1150 watts keeps popping in to my head but I'll need to verify. I'm sure evaporative cooling had a lot to do with the long heating time, when I have a moment this weekend I'll try a run with the cover on from the start and see what happens. It would be interesting to see how other circulators perform under the same testing parameters but it would be difficult to control the variables in the real world.

I generally do use pre-heater water for the bath, but with any new piece of equipment I like to put it under maximum stress to shake out any bugs. If it's going to fail I want it to fail while covered under a warranty.

My Nomiku was waiting for me when I got home today. After looking it over for a few minutes (seems to be a solidly built piece of equipment) I set up a bath for the inaugural use. I grabbed the large stockpot I use for homebrew (I think its 28 quarts), attached the Nomiku and started filling the pot with cold tap water until I reached the "Max" line on the stem. Total was about 14 liters. To turn on the Nomiku you just press the screen, then use the green collar to set the desired bath temp. I decided to make some sous vide carrots so I set the bath temp to 90C. The starting temp of the bath was 20C, it took about 2 hours 40 minutes to get to 90C and I had to improvise a lid towards the end to help reduce the effects of evaporative cooling. Once bath temp was reached the temperature didn't deviate more than +/- 0.1C, unless I removed the lid. The temperature seems to be spot on according to my probe thermometer. There were no problems with tripping the GFCI in the kitchen like I have with my old Fisher Scientific circulator so I'll actually be able to place the bath in the kitchen where it belongs now!

Serious Eats just posted a review on the Anova circulator... http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/09/equipment-we-test-the-199-sous-vide-circulato.html?ref=title

Just received an email saying that the first group of Nomikus have cleared Chinese customs and are now en route to San Francisco for processing and shipping to the first set of backers. I was an early backer so hopefully I'll have one of these units in my hands soon!

No, they've pushed the anticipated ship date to sometime in the Fall. The Anova looks good but I haven't seen any reviews for it yet. There's also another Kickstarter campaign for a new circulator called Sansaire http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/seattlefoodgeek/sansaire-sous-vide-circulator-for-199?ref=live that might be worth a look, if you don't mind the risk of buying a product that doesn't exist yet. I have a review for the Anova in the Anova thread Thanks, I hadn't read through that thread until now. Sounds like a nice circulator.

No, they've pushed the anticipated ship date to sometime in the Fall. The Anova looks good but I haven't seen any reviews for it yet. There's also another Kickstarter campaign for a new circulator called Sansaire http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/seattlefoodgeek/sansaire-sous-vide-circulator-for-199?ref=live that might be worth a look, if you don't mind the risk of buying a product that doesn't exist yet.

According to a recent Kickstarter update they expect the first units to show up on backer's doorsteps in August. When I get mine I'll post a review.