SideKIC: Cheap sous vide circulator.

[Txacoli]

Ours arrived over the weekend. As the owner said, the little heater won't heat a big volume of water. Right now it is working away at a 16qt unisulated bath (an old US Army squarehead) and is set for 65 Celsius. So far it looks like it can't quite keep up: the temperature dropped down to 63 Celcius. We put our old Haake circulator (no thermostat) set on 5 to give the little guy some backup. It will probably work fine at lesser temperatures, less water volume, and an insulated bath.

The design is compact, user-friendly and seemingly bullet-proof.

We will re-post when we do a lower temp project.

[Blues_Cookin]

Ver 1.1 just arrived. Now includes a grounded plug, AND now the max temp is 95 degrees C. Nice! Also, nice touch swapping the pillowed paper for the peanuts packaging material.

[Junkbot]

Wow, kudos to Duncan for listening to his customer base and implementing the changes so quickly. Less than a month for an upgrade? That is incredible.

[Blues_Cookin]

Wow, kudos to Duncan for listening to his customer base and implementing the changes so quickly. Less than a month for an upgrade? That is incredible.

Agreed

[Logan DeBorde]

I just received my SideKIC after reading the q&a here. I have version 1.1 with a grounded plug, 90.5degree limit and it appears they even added an alarm for when it reaches temperature. Duncan obviously took the feedback from the people here and got it implemented extremely quickly. I'm using it for the first time tonight for some Salmon and can't wait to see how it turns out. I put it on my SS 5qt Pot and used binder clips to balance it. I also put it on a plastic bowl with a lip where it balanced perfectly.

Edited March 1, 2012 by Logan DeBorde (log)

[ojisan]

What would the ideal cooler be - volume and shape? Is 24 qt. too big? Is taller better than shallower?

Also, what is the width of the U-shape hanging part - the max. thickness of the cooler?

[Logan DeBorde]

I can't speak to the ideal vessel but the company doesn't recommend using more than 10qts of water due to the size of the heating element. I believe Chris Hennes has successfully used it in a 16qt cooler, though initial heating will be pretty slow.

I can measure the size of the gap when I get home but it's about 1".

[Chris Hennes]

The gap is 1 1/4".

[ojisan]

Thanks, Chris - I've read this thread at least 3 times but didn't retain that info.

FYI - I just received a response from Duncan, answering one of my concerns: there are no plans to make a deeper unit at this time. I had been wondering if I should hold off buying now, just in case there was a v.2 in the works.

V.1.1 seems like a winner.

[Chris Hennes]

Can you confirm that they have added a beeper for the timer? I think that's what I understand from the post uptopic.

[Duncan Werner]

Here are some of the basic dimensions, in case it's helpful:

sidekic_dimensions.pdf

We're working on getting something on the website that will make this a little clearer, but it's taking longer than expected.

And there is a beeper in the current hardware, but it's not terribly loud. It should be noticeable but it won't wake you up if you fall asleep. It beeps a couple of times when it hits the target temperature, and it beeps continuously if the countdown timer expires.

[Chris Hennes]

Fantastic, Duncan. If you're looking for more advice, I'd suggest tracking whether the device was running or not, and checking that on power-up: if it was, there was a power-outage, and then a continuous beeping until it's interacted with would be nice. I presume you have some kind of EEPROM you are able to store a limited number of writes to?

[Duncan Werner]

I've been thinking about that, but I was worried about the case where you just unplug it when you're done cooking (without stopping it). I do that from time to time, and I don't want it to come on unexpectedly the next time.

We could make it explicit - a "power lock" setting, that you have to turn on, which then will restart it on a power failure. I think that might be safe and we could indicate it with some icon on the screen. But I have to ask, is this all that common? We used to get a lot of power outages when I lived in Nantucket, but other than that it's been pretty rare for me. I've heard that it's common in Seattle as well. (Of course it might happen if there's a serious problem, like a tornado, but then cooking would the last thing you need to worry about).

In any event, that's just software so it shouldn't be too hard at least to test. [Just incidentally, we actually don't have any EEPROM but we can write to the flash memory on the micro - program space - and that's where we store settings. If you're curious, it's this series].

I forgot to mention that there's another change, in response to something you posted - we changed the countdown timer to explicitly set hours and minutes (up to 95:59). We used to do a kind of lumpy adjustment, so it was 1 minute from 0 to 30, then increments of 5 minutes up to 2 hours, then half-hours, and so on. With this update you can explicitly set 0:31, or 0:36, and so on.

[Chris Hennes]

Damn you guys are awesome: I'm very happy that you've decided to add a beeper, and to make the timer more granular (this is especially useful for delta-T cooking, where timing is important).

In the case of a power outage I am OK with the machine not turning itself back on, I am just looking for an alert if it happens so I can see how long it was and address the problem. On a 72-hour cook there is a pretty decent chance that somebody, somewhere, is going to have some power-glitch that shuts the thing down: the handling of power-failures is one of the touted features of other SV solutions, so if you guys could come up with a simple, cheap way to "do something" about it, that's just another selling point for the device.

[Chris Hennes]

What would the ideal cooler be - volume and shape? Is 24 qt. too big?

I finally got off my butt and measured my cooler: it's a 24 qt. With preheated water and a styrofoam lid the SideKIC has no trouble maintaining the temp for as long as you want it to (I've done a couple of 72 hour cooks as well as a 36 and a 24, plus a couple dozen short-term).

[ojisan]

Thanks, Chris. I have placed my order, and look forward to posting a review.

[meicjos41]

Just placed my order after following the discussion for a while. Duncan, you may not have been intending to market your product by providing thoughtful responses on this forum, but you certainly did. I purchased it because you have taken the time to address everyone's concerns, and you seem to really want to make your customers happy. I really appreciate that, and I am looking forward to experimenting.

[Chris Hennes]

I had expressed some concern about the device's temperature stability in my earlier review, but tonight was the first chance I really got to test it out on a delicate item where that would have been an issue. I made a cod filet cooked at 41°C and once the temp settled in it stayed rock solid for the half hour or so the fish cooked. The texture was right, so the thermostat and controller seem to be able to handle that sort of task without difficulty.

[ojisan]

Chris - Are you using only your 24 qt. cooler for all your SV?

[Duncan Werner]

Duncan, you may not have been intending to market your product by providing thoughtful responses on this forum, but you certainly did. I purchased it because you have taken the time to address everyone's concerns, and you seem to really want to make your customers happy. I really appreciate that, and I am looking forward to experimenting.

Thanks, but right back at you: this forum has been great. I really appreciate all the feedback and it's been really helpful so far.

---

It's probably karmic retribution (I was a bit dismissive about this concern the other day), but this morning we had a two-hour power outage in my neighborhood. I wasn't cooking anything at the time, but it definitely brought home how much of a problem this would be if I were. After the fact I found out that our local power company (PG&E) maintains a map of power outages on their website, and they're a lot more common than I would have expected. So food for thought.

And regarding coolers: I picked up a 9 quart cooler on Amazon the other day for about $20, it works like a champ. I wasn't expecting all the interest in coolers, but now that I have one I can see why people like them.

[Chris Hennes]

Chris - Are you using only your 24 qt. cooler for all your SV?

No, only when I need the space and the higher temps; I did tonight's fish in a small stockpot.

[Paul Kierstead]

I use the auto-restart-on-power outage on my unit to hook it up to a timer and have it up to temp when I get home (without food, of course)

[kryptos1]

Just placed my order and cannot wait! Had SV hanger steak over the weekend and turned out great. Cannot wait to do a pork ham or brisket soon. Thanks to everyone for the product reviews and checking this out.

[kryptos1]

This is great! For some reason USPS had this sitting in San Fran for 2 days before sending....ahh well.

Feedback:

- Packaging: I work in telecommunications and we find the packaging arguments fun. Some think the top notch packaging is absolutely required and others think the customer will open it up and deposit into the trash. This is good packaging....I like simple and functional. Just have to make sure everything is fully dry before putting it away.

- Software Updates: Yes, this is not an easy request with the risk of folks turning the unit into a brick.

- User manual says to place the equipment on a kitchen counter when in use. I did this and it slide under my cabinets and was left on over night. In the morning the evaporated water had some contaminates which dried on my cabinets and was tough to get off. May suggest people to not do that.

- Future crazy enhancement: You can stick a CDMA or GSM modem module on there for about $22/ea with a $2/month subscription. This could send data back to a server where the UI could be emulated within a web browser/iPhone App/Android App allowing the customer to remotely manage and monitor (could be used for software updates as well). Perhaps some customers would pay a monthly reoccurring charge or a free version with advertisements to offset the module subsidy. The integration is usually a PCIe or USB interface and old school AT commands over telnet or secureSSH. Some IT integration (automation) or using a web interface with a carrier to get equipment activated. I have lots of engineering details if interested.

- Distribution: Maybe have your own online store to avoid the Amazon charges?

- I used a 28 quart cooler and seemed to work great. Perhaps offer a package with own insulated ICA Kitchen branded 10Q or larger container with a lid?

- User interface is simple and great. Surprised it was a color display (was is 220x176?). Great touch. The only think I could think of is a Help menu, but then I think you would have to code in a scrolling menu for the extra menu item.

- When I added more water which was around 120F the thermometer on the display would increase 1-2 degrees rather then decrease. Guessing the temperature sensor is close to the heater.

All I can think of at the moment....

[Tri2Cook]

Looking for a place to buy in, or that ships to, Canada. It's not turning up on amazon.ca. I want to check it out. At that price, and based on the reviews here, it could be a nice solution for the catering work I do. Two for the price of one of the next most economical solution and I don't do enough catering (not much time for it after my hours at the restaurant) that it being a home-use targeted device would be a problem.

Edited March 18, 2012 by Tri2Cook (log)