PolyScience® Sous Vide DISCOVERY $299.95.....

[Martin Fisher]

I think I'll hold off for a while before I commit to an immersion circulator to let the reviews flow in.

http://www.cuisinetechnology.com/sousvide-discovery.php

Edited October 3, 2013 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[Robenco15]

That's interesting. The specs don't seem to be on par with the Anova or Sansaire, and it's yellow, but I'd be interested in hearing what people think. I'm curious as to why they are so adamant about household use only. Is it because it can only handle 5 gallons and they assume no restaurant would be using a 5 gallon tank?

[EMG]

That's interesting. The specs don't seem to be on par with the Anova or Sansaire, and it's yellow, but I'd be interested in hearing what people think. I'm curious as to why they are so adamant about household use only. Is it because it can only handle 5 gallons and they assume no restaurant would be using a 5 gallon tank?

It's for household use only because no self-respecting restaurant would own a yellow submarine for a circulator

[lesliec]

That is one horrible-looking device!

Only 750W (Anova 1kW), only a 120v version (Anova 220v sometime this month, Sansaire at production time), ugly as ... a very ugly thing, $US299 vs $199. All it seems to have going for it is the Polyscience name.

I get an impresssion of 'There's some cheap circulators out there. Put something together, QUICK!'. Not for me.

[gfweb]

Not yellow...avocado. Right out of 1970. Oy!

[EMG]

The "for household use only" has me worried. Is this the synonym of "Not for every day use"? That's the way I read it anyways. It kind of makes you wonder what kind of lifespan or usage you can get out of this model.

Really disappointed in Polyscience!!! This is their answer to the emergence of the Anova, Sansair and Nomiku?

Major FAIL from Polyscience IMO...

[piyoman]

Seems like Polyscience has made a good strategic decision to create a lower priced unit just as sous vide for the home user is becoming more popular. This way they're able to leverage their well established name while directly competing with new entrants like Anova, Sansaire and Nomiku. I think by labelling it for "home use", coloring it yellow and putting a lower powered heater in it they're trying to protect their higher priced professional units. Good for them. I'm glad some healthy competition is finally breaking through. Next step is to come out with cheaper chamber vacuum sealers. Well established brands such as Ary and Minipack have cornered the market and kept prices high. Sansaire, Nomiku, Anova, anyone?

[Martin Fisher]

I'm not so sure it was a smart move....the specs are disappointing, the color is unappealing and the price isn't especially competitive given the specs.

Cheapening a top-of-the-line brand name can be a very damaging strategy.

Remember the Cadillac Cimarron?

[rotuts]

however: the game has changed:

Home Use: the price point is $$ USA 199.00

thats it.

however based on Marketing, etc many might not know this

should Anova get their product into :

Bill Sonoma

Sur la table

Bed and Bath

done !!!!

FD: I dont have one YET

Edited October 5, 2013 by rotuts (log)

[Docrjm]

At $299 they are competing with Nomiku and using their name. However, when I recommend a unit, currently recommend the Anova. I have both an Anova and a polyscience chef series. Anova is quieter, significantly so and every bit as accurate, just handles a slightly smaller bath size. Both are 1KW. Think that a 750W unit is under powered. Would have been better cutting the price on the creative series. IMHO

Also note that they perhaps have been reading the Anova thread, they have specced it with an auto restart. A feature not available on the higher end units.

Edited October 8, 2013 by Docrjm (log)

[Beusho]

At $299 they are competing with Nomiku and using their name. However, when I recommend a unit, currently recommend the Anova. I have both an Anova and a polyscience chef series. Anova is quieter, significantly so and every bit as accurate, just handles a slightly smaller bath size. Both are 1KW. Think that a 750W unit is under powered. Would have been better cutting the price on the creative series. IMHO

+1

This unit is almost s joke: it's a more expensive, less powered, horrendous looking circulator. I don't know who does the marketing for polyscience but I imagine at this point they should know that most people who sous vide, a cooking style that isn't exactly mainstream, have probably done some amount of research before buying. If a kickstarter can do it for $199 polyscience would have to go to $150 for me to even consider them. My home-built unit is about as ugly as this and it cost $90, and it's enclosed in a big tool box

[scubadoo97]

At $299 they are competing with Nomiku and using their name. However, when I recommend a unit, currently recommend the Anova. I have both an Anova and a polyscience chef series. Anova is quieter, significantly so and every bit as accurate, just handles a slightly smaller bath size. Both are 1KW. Think that a 750W unit is under powered. Would have been better cutting the price on the creative series. IMHO

Also note that they perhaps have been reading the Anova thread, they have specced it with an auto restart. A feature not available on the higher end units.

I would love to see this feature on any unit being made today. In the meantime I use an UPS device to guard against any short term power interruptions on anything that needs to be in the water bath for more than an hour or two. In my short term interruptions happen infrequently but they do happen. It's one thing to come home and have to reset the digital clocks. Don't want to come home and have to toss dinner that I've been working on for a couple of days.

[ChrisBau]

If they wanted to get into the low-end game, they should've just priced the creative series at $199. And even then, it would be difficult choosing between that and the Anova. At $299, I'd go with Nomiku. But why pay 100 more when the Sansaire and the Anova are better speced?

Edited October 8, 2013 by ChrisBau (log)

[Martin Fisher]

I think that the race is definitely on between the Anova and the Sansaire.

So far I favor the Anova by a mile.

I don't see the Nomiku or PolyScience DISCOVERY taking much more than a nibble of the market.

On the non-immersion circulator front, the Codlo and DorkFood DSV are nothing to get excited about compared to the Sous Vide Magic.

[Martin Fisher]

With auto resume how does one know that when unattended (and short of using a recording thermometer which can be expensive) the unit wasn't off and the food in the 'danger-zone' for an extended period of time creating a serious safety risk?

Edited October 8, 2013 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[rotuts]

" On the non-immersion circulator front, the Codlo and DorkFood DSV are nothing to get excited about compared to theSous Vide Magic. "

these seem to be just the controllers, w no circulation element. i cant see these as competing with the Anova.

I do not have an Anova yet but I bet it will handle larger volumes of water if that water is in a cooler and preheated, and covered with a insulated top. at most an inexpensive bubbler for the far area will add a little circulations.

re power shut off while youre not there: your clocks might tell you the 'time-out' again a cooler would conserve heat until restart.

[Martin Fisher]

" On the non-immersion circulator front, the Codlo and DorkFood DSV are nothing to get excited about compared to theSous Vide Magic. "

These seem to be just the controllers, w no circulation element. i cant see these as competing with the Anova.

Whether they compete or not depends on what specifically you're trying to accomplish.

Regardless, I categorized them differently.

A timer or clock is potentially only an indicator of how long the unit was off.

What really matters is the temperature of the bath during the down time.

Guessing that the bath temp remained at safe levels during the timer or clock indicated down time doesn't seem like a good idea to me, unless said down time was very short.

[jrenband42]

I was at StarChefs in New York a couple weeks ago and had an opportunity to talk about PolyScience's new equipment with Philip Preston, the owner of the company.

One of the things he mentioned was their desire to make it more clear which of their products are suitable for commercial use and which are for home use. I hope I'm explaining this right, but the gist is two fold:

Apparently in the cooking appliance world you can't mark a product as suitable for both commercial and household use - it has to be one or the other. So if you have household equipment in your business, an inspector can fine you and insist the equipment be removed from the premises. On the other side, equipment that is sold at retail to home users must be marked as household use only. This is apparently part of the UL code.

The second point Philip made was to compare their differentiation of home vs commercial to that of electric drills (he gave other examples but this is one I remember most clearly). A lay person can go into Home Depot and choose a drill to hang a sheet of drywall for $40 but if they hang drywall for a living they will want the durability of the $150 model.

This made a lot of sense to me and now I can see why they've marketed their units as such. Either way, my PolyScience sous vide Chef is still going strong. Incidentally, it does have an auto-restart feature and says "power fail" on the screen if the power goes out. A quick check of their circulator comparison shows that all of the units listed there have auto restart. So it would seem maybe Anova took a page from them.

[Martin Fisher]

I hope the strategy serves them well but I'm afraid that simply focusing on defining their various models in terms of home or commercial use falls critically short of seriously addressing their direct competition.

Edited October 15, 2013 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[rotuts]

Maybe they had no choice.

""" critically short of seriously addressing their direct competition """

they failed, as their " home use " $ 299 model is too expensive, and stunningly Ugly. it might be quite snappy otherwise.

[scubadoo97]

I thought their Creative series was their domestic product

[EnriqueB]

(...) Either way, my PolyScience sous vide Chef is still going strong. Incidentally, it does have an auto-restart feature and says "power fail" on the screen if the power goes out. A quick check of their circulator comparison shows that all of the units listed there have auto restart. So it would seem maybe Anova took a page from them.

I am surprised at this. I wrote to Polyscience some months ago asking a number of questions, among others what happened under a power fail, and their answer was, literally (boldface mine) "In the case that the unit shuts down due to a power fail, the screen will display "fail power" and will reset. It will not go back to the temperature it was previously at due to safety reasons."

[Adam George]

The "for household use only" has me worried. Is this the synonym of "Not for every day use"? That's the way I read it anyways. It kind of makes you wonder what kind of lifespan or usage you can get out of this model.

..

Sansaire says the same thing...

[Anna N]

The "for household use only" has me worried. Is this the synonym of "Not for every day use"? That's the way I read it anyways. It kind of makes you wonder what kind of lifespan or usage you can get out of this model.

..

Sansaire says the same thing...

Many small appliances say the same thing. Blenders, mixers, toaster ovens, etc.