Sous Vide Circulators: Polyscience vs Anova

[daveb]

Is there any tangible advantage of the Sous Vide/Poly Science unit over the Anova?

 

My local culinary store just started carrying the $399 PS.   I ask because I have enough store credit, discounts and gift cards that I could buy the unit without going out of pocket.  There is nothing else in the store in that price range that I want or do not already have.  I tried but can't redeem store credit for gift cards.

 

And I have two Anova's that serve me well.  Somebody would have to go.

 

The biggest difference I've found with google-fu is not in the PS favor, the "made in China" unit is not considered repairable though it will be replaced while under warranty.

 

Any others?

[Shalmanese]

There's nothing any SV circulator can do to produce "better" food than any other. All of them just bring water up to temp and keep it there and all of them can do it equally well. Some may be quieter, less bulky, have mobile apps, be more reliable, bring water to temp faster etc and you have to judge how important those attributes are to you.

Personally, I can't see any reason to go for anything but the cheapest model.

[gfweb]

PS has the advantage of a prestegious brand name.  Kind of like that brand of range with the red knobs.

 

Reliability might be an issue, but if there was a problem with anova it would have shown up here on eG.

 

Sticks in my mind that the PS comes in odd colors...maybe not.

 

PS also has a fixed clamp as opposed to the adjustable one on anova 2.0.

 

I'd say anova wins

Edited June 8, 2015 by gfweb (log)

[rotuts]

"""   store credit, discounts and gift cards  """"

 

do any of these expire ?

 

if not, sit tight.

 

​you do have 2 Anova's correct ?  why pay for a third ?

[rotuts]

BTW, just saying, Im extremely good, perhaps even might have Credentials , at spending other Cookers $$$

 

no complaints so far !

 

[daveb]

Thanks for the replies.  I'm fairly well versed in the use of the Anova (personal) and frequently use a SVS for catering (same culinary store).  I've no experience with the PS unit as it's a recent product addition to store.   I recall that a couple of contributors here have the PS unit and wondered if there was any functional difference I was missing..

 

Rotus - Good points. 20% discount expires at end of month.  The store credit does not.

 

Lacking a tangible reason to "upgrade" I'll probably sit on my hands or push the easy button and buy another VMix.

[weedy]

my understanding is that the $800 Polyscience Professional unit has the ability to work in a somewhat bigger maximum volume of water bath than the Anova

 

that's the biggest difference.

 

but the less expensive Creative and Discovery models (made in Asia) seem much more plastic-y to me than the Anova

[scubadoo97]

The Anova One was recently available for $99 with a promotion code on their website

[Shalmanese]

my understanding is that the $800 Polyscience Professional unit has the ability to work in a somewhat bigger maximum volume of water bath than the Anova

 

that's the biggest difference.

 

but the less expensive Creative and Discovery models (made in Asia) seem much more plastic-y to me than the Anova

But you could just buy 2 Anovas to circulate an even larger volume of water for even cheaper. The $800 Polyscience exists because people bought them before any of the cheap ones came on the market and people who bought them before continue to buy them. In general, there's very little a SV circulator could do to compel you away from buying the cheapest one.

[paulraphael]

The professional units (made by both Polyscience and Anova) are built to higher reliability standards. This probably offers little value at home ... if your $200 circulator only lasts 5 years, you did pretty well. But if your $2 million biology experiment depends on these things running flawlessly for weeks at a time, then you spring for the pro models. 

 

Professional kitchens beat up on the things day in and day and out may also prefer the pro models, although some will probably save money and go consumer. You see this choice made with mixers ... almost every pro kitchen has a consumer Kitchen Aid mixer kicking around on a countertop. The pro versions cost four times as much, just like with circulators.

[weedy]

that may be true for the $1800 "professional" circulators.

 

but it doesn't seem to me that the $800 Polyscience is any sturdier or more reliable (by reports) than the $200 Anova, even though it's labeled "professional"

[rotuts]

restaurants used the expensive stuff back when as that's all their was.

 

wonder what the 'mix' is now.

[paulraphael]

that may be true for the $1800 "professional" circulators.

 

but it doesn't seem to me that the $800 Polyscience is any sturdier or more reliable (by reports) than the $200 Anova, even though it's labeled "professional"

 

Right, i was thinking of the pro models. I forgot they still cost that much. I've used them and they're indeed built like tanks. No idea what value the $800 ones offer.

[Pielle]

I had a polyscience sous-vide professional creative series for about a year and it is one of the worst piece of culinary technology I have owned.   It is heavy, bulky and noisy and the interface is terrible.  It defaults to Fahrenheit every time you power it on and it takes forever to change the set point. It only memorizes the set temperature when you press the "stop button" after you have started it.   I was once doing a long braise at 60oC after a duck confit at 82oC.  I had a power outage and when the power came back on the unit reseted and started heating with a set point of 82oC !

 

i email the company and they never provided any usefull feedback except : yep, that's the way it is.

 

The temperature sensor broke after 8 months and they replaced the unit but I had to pay to ship it back.   In the end, I complained so much to the vendor that he gave me a refund.

 

I would buy the anova over it even if the polyscience was cheaper.

Edited June 18, 2015 by Pielle (log)

[paulraphael]

I would buy the anova over it even if the polyscience was cheaper.

 

 

Even before taking your experience into account, it looks like Anova's really beating up polyscience. The pro version of the Anova only costs half as much as the p.s. creative series, and a third as much as the p.s. lab model.

[daveb]

"  The pro version of the Anova only costs half as much as the p.s. creative series, ..."

 

.

Actually the PS Professional Creative lists at 399.  The Anova Pro version is also 399.   That's not half.

 

I've now used the SVS, the PS Creative Pro, and own and use the Anova 1 and 2.  Regardless of price I prefer the Anova 1  over all of them because of it's intuitive interface.  2nd choice is Anova 2 (the guy who put the wheel on is a techno geek  - can't be a cook and I still can't get the damn timer to work).   3rd choice would be two of the above. 

 

But they all make water hot.

Edited June 20, 2015 by daveb (log)

[weedy]

"  The pro version of the Anova only costs half as much as the p.s. creative series, ..."

 

.

Actually the PS Professional Creative lists at 399.  The Anova Pro version is also 399.   That's not half.

 

I've now used the SVS, the PS Creative Pro, and own and use the Anova 1 and 2.  Regardless of price I prefer the Anova 1  over all of them because of it's intuitive interface.  2nd choice is Anova 2 (the guy who put the wheel on is a techno geek  - can't be a cook and I still can't get the damn timer to work).   3rd choice would be two of the above. 

 

But they all make water hot.

 

the Polyscience Chef series has three tiers:

 

the Professional (made in the USA) which is the one that's really comparable to the Anova 1 (polyscience is $800, ANova about $200)

 

the Creative (much more plastic, made in Asia) for $400 (twice the Anova 1, three times the price of the Precision Cooker)

 

and the Discovery for  $300

 

http://polyscienceculinary.com/collections/sous-vide-circulators

[paulraphael]

Up above I was comparing the $800 P.S. professional to the $400 Anova Pro.

 

The latter looks comparable to the $1200 P.S. lab circulator—the one everyone was using before the culinary and consumer circulators were introduced. 

 

Does anyone here have the pro Anova? It looks like a great machine if you don't mind the weight and bulk, and truly need something bomb-proof for commercial environment.