WSJ Articles on Food, Drink, Cooking, and Culinary Culture

[Anna N]

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!

Would you be able to discuss its physical dimensions? Will it still work on a container that is only 6 inches deep as was claimed in early iterations? Thank you.

[nickrey]

So now that it's arrived were the theories that it had an external controller true, or is it simply a power supply as the makers said?

[Coogles]

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.

[rotuts]

we ( I ) would love to see some pics of the item itself as you put it through its paces.

many thanks!

[Coogles]

Haven't posted pics on here before, but here goes...

These are from the first set-up.

Edited October 4, 2013 by Coogles (log)

[Coogles]

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.

[rotuts]

try a beer cooler if you have one, and cover the top as you have above.

[Shalmanese]

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.

Looks like you're losing ~170W from the container which means the nomiku is only putting out 820W. Heaters are 100% efficient so that means the nomiku is not putting out a consistent 1000W that it claims.

[rotuts]

Im missing something here: if there is a loss of 170 from the container, 820 going into the water to heat it up, doent that add up to the claimed 1000 more or less?

if you expected 1000 to go into the water and stay there, you would have to use a perfectly insulated container with no external loss?

[Shalmanese]

Im missing something here: if there is a loss of 170 from the container, 820 going into the water to heat it up, doent that add up to the claimed 1000 more or less?

if you expected 1000 to go into the water and stay there, you would have to use a perfectly insulated container with no external loss?

No, 650W is going into the water and 170W is being lost to the outside environment, making 820 overall.

[Martin Fisher]

Wow, that's rather disappointing...I'm surprised!

Out of curiosity, I just performed an experiment with the FMM, which is allegedly 1500W.

It took it exactly 53 minutes to ramp-up a little bit over 14 liters from 20 C to 90 C....that's in an uncovered and uninsulated 22 liter Cambro-style polycarbonate container filled to the 15 liter line to compensate for the volume of the FMM and a tiny amount of evaporation.

Edited to add: The FMM takes up about 470ml in volume, evaporation was ~220ml and the exposed surface area at that level in the container is just shy of 100 square inches.

Edited October 5, 2013 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[Coogles]

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!

[Martin Fisher]

Yes, the SVM also pulses off and on when it nears and maintains the set temperature.

[FranzWagner]

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.

Looks like you're losing ~170W from the container which means the nomiku is only putting out 820W. Heaters are 100% efficient so that means the nomiku is not putting out a consistent 1000W that it claims.

I would also not recommend stressing the Nomiku heating a big container from 20°C to 90°C. Better fill your pot with hot tap water to heat it up to 90°C with the nomiku. The nomiku contains a component that heats a lot during the heating phase of the waterbath. Because nomiku doesn't have a ventilation to cool down this electronic component nomiku's designer had to lower the heating power to 1,000W (to be compared to 2,000 W of other imersion circulator of the market that have a ventilation).

FYI I have heated a waterbath from 25°C to 50°C in 10 minutes with a 2,000W immersion circulator. I had a non insulated metal container (approx.14 liters) that I covered with a non insulated plastic lid. If this help...

By the way, to stabilize temperature you don't need 1,000W... I can also imagine Nomiku's designer didn't set the power exactly to 1,000W but a little lower... little lies sweet little lies...

Could you send a picture of nomiku's "powerbox" to see if there is a ventilation, can you ear or feel a fan inside this box?

[Coogles]

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.

[FranzWagner]

Thanks Coogles.

For me such power box is a "no go" in a kitchen where liquids can potentially fall over it... I addition I was wondering why you can see such wide holes like for a ventilation purpose...

I think we have the answer with this message I have just seen on twitter : https://twitter.com/CoffeeGeek/status/390726075648454656

It seems there is a fan in this power box...what for? Would be cool if someone could open one of this box and take a pic of the inside. This would wave for ever my theory about the "external PID controller".

Edited October 17, 2013 by FranzWagner (log)

[Coogles]

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.

[Shalmanese]

I had a chance to test the Nomiku against the Anova side by side last night. I'll repeat what I said in the Anova thread

* Nomiku oddly does not have an off switch, you turn it off by unplugging it which is annoying. Even more annoying, if the low water sensor trips, you have to unplug the device to reset it.

* Nomiku was much easier to attach/detach from a pot but much less securely attached. If you want your device permanently mounted, Anova is better, if you're attaching and detaching for every cook, Nomiku is better.

* Nomiku's circulation was noticably weaker than the Anova's which I actually like better since too strong a circulation causes more problems than it solves.

* Nomiku, out of the box, was 0.6F low. My Anova out of the box was 3F high, apparently due to a manufacturing mistake. In any case, it looks like calibration is recommended for any of these devices.

* Nomiku was noticably slower than the Anova to heat up a bath, despite both nominally having 1000W ratings. This is in line with another poster over in the Nomiku thread who seems to have measured 800W actual heating power.

* The Nomiku is much lighter and sleeker than the Anova, but has a breakout box.

* The Nomiku dial based UI for setting temperatures is much better than the touchscreen for the Anova but lacks features like timers.

* The Nokimu had a weird problem when attempting to cook some chicken at 61C where, after the food was dropped in, the temp dropped to 58C and then slowly climbed to 60.5C but never went above that.

* Overall, the lower power is annoying but nothing else was a deal breaker for either device which makes it hard to justify the $100+ premium of the Nomiku over the Anova.

Edited October 20, 2013 by Shalmanese (log)

[rotuts]

Shalmanese

thanks for your thoughts on the two. excellent work!

[Coogles]

@Shalmanese,

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

[Shalmanese]

My friend wrote a great review of the Nomiku on Techcrunch today.

[Anna N]

Look what showed up at my house today. I am putting it through its paces and will attempt a review later this evening. Stay tuned.

[scubadoo97]

Anna, can't wait to hear how it preforms

Edited November 11, 2013 by scubadoo97 (log)

[Adam George]

"Hurry up and slow cook something!"

[Anna N]

To establish some baselines:

This is the 4th sous-vide appliance I have owned.

My first was a beta version of Sous-Vide Magic with an analog rice cooker.

The second was the Sous-vide Demi.

The third was the Anova.

And now the Nomiku.

I have no affiliation with any of these manufacturers.

From the photos posted above you can see the box the Nomiku was packed in. Perfectly adequate but lacking the classiness and sophisticated look of the Anova package (think little black dress!).

The inclusion of a printed instruction manual (so last year) versus the handy electronic instruction manual of the Anova.

Those are so petty and so subjective but wait....there is this:

A) Non-removable power cord! Ouch. Such a pain to store.

B) The power box attaches by a short, stiff cable to the unit. This is a real pain. First because it increases the footprint needed for the container. But more importantly poses a danger in the kitchen. One is warned that it must lay flat on a table or counter. In my kitchen there is lots of water which can end up on the counter and I'm pretty anal about water and electricity. Here's what I did to allay my fears:

C) The clip that attaches the unit to a container is quite slack and the unit falls to the limit of its length. I used a cork trivet to allow me to attach it without it landing on the bottom of my container.

D) Now here's another issue that will certainly arise at some point with the Anova but not nearly as quickly as with the Nomiku. The MIN/MAX water lines are SO CLOSE TOGETHER THAT ADDING A VERY SMALL AMOUNT OF FOOD MOVES THE WATER FROM MIN TO MAX IN VERY SHORT ORDER. I ended up scooping out water and I had only added a couple of small steaks. I realize physics comes into play here but it seems to call for a very shallow container with loads of surface area to overcome this.

E) There is no timer of any kind.

On the plus (or neutral) side:

A) It appeared to maintain temperature well over the three hours of my test. It fluctuated by .1C.

B) The MIN/MAX water lines are much more visible than on the Anova.

C) The package contains a Sous Vide Primer but the section on fruits vegetables is worthless. It mentions cooking them at 85C but doesn't say which fruits or vegetables are appropriate or how long the should cook. It is a single paragraph. I will have to spend time with the Primer to see if it has any added value.

D) The unit displays a "Bacterial Growth Zone" warning if you set the temperature between 4 and 52.2C. It seems to display this warning as the temperature climbs until it reaches 52.2 and then the warning disappears.