Joule Sous Vide from ChefSteps

[gfweb]

On 3/26/2020 at 7:16 AM, kitchen_muse said:

Twice that, Robenco, glad they're back. I've always loved their content and recipes. 

Gents, which containers do you use with Joule when you're cooking large pieces of meat? I use pot (but I have to add more water from time to time), so I've been thinking about getting something even bigger.

 

 

I'd cover the pot with foil for long cooks

[TdeV]

For one of my friends, I bought this pot top (though currently out of stock) which works well.

Amazon has others (but I have no experience with these).

 

Edited March 30, 2020 by TdeV
Grammar (log)

[Smithy]

On 3/30/2020 at 8:10 AM, TdeV said:

For one of my friends, I bought this pot top (though currently out of stock) which works well.

Amazon has others (but I have no experience with these).

 

A less expensive option is to cannibalize one of those flexible plastic cutting boards that often come in packages of 3. I took one that had seen the dishwasher once too often. It makes a pretty good pot cover. If I'm really worried about a good seal I lay more rigid objects onto it to hold the edges more firmly in place.

 

[blue_dolphin]

On 3/26/2020 at 4:16 AM, kitchen_muse said:

Twice that, Robenco, glad they're back. I've always loved their content and recipes. 

Gents, which containers do you use with Joule when you're cooking large pieces of meat? I use pot (but I have to add more water from time to time), so I've been thinking about getting something even bigger.

 

 

 

A while back, I posted a photo of the cover I cut from a sheet of mylar covered styrofoam insulation. The one I posted is a small cooler, I also have a larger one if needed and made the same sort of lid for it.  I already had these items on hand. 

 I don't have a Joule, but it should work fine. 

[btbyrd]

I just had a couple eggs crack while in the bath, so I had to do a deep clean on Joule. That involves running it at 140F with a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water. One of my favorite things about Joule is that I can do this in a mason jar.

 

 

That's pretty cool.

[btbyrd]

Looking back at the thread, I see the issue of containers came up. If I'm cooking for extended periods or am cooking something large-ish, I use a 12QT Rubbermaid container with this hinged lid from a company called Everie (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). That company apparently makes a whole range of lids and containers that work with Joule, so check them out. They even sell insulated wraps for the container if that's something you care about. This setup is large enough to cook pretty much all the things I normally cook. If I need to cook something longer, like a rack of ribs, I use my OG Cambro that I used to use with my Polyscience circulator. 

 

I find the official silicone Joule lid to be close to useless. It's too small to use on my 6 and 8 qt dutch ovens and the pots it does work on are too narrow to cook anything significant in. Maybe it'd work with the pot on my pressure cooker... I won't be finding out anytime soon. Actually the one thing that I use it for is helping to seal up the lid on my big Cambro that has a Polyscience-sized slot. It's not a great seal, but it works well enough when I'm too lazy to bust out the plastic wrap.

Edited January 20, 2022 by btbyrd
Fixed link. (log)

[adey73]

On 1/20/2022 at 11:01 PM, btbyrd said:

polyscience

 

if you could Brandon would you swap your Joule for the newer induction powered Polyscience breville/sage hydroplus with the smartphone looking display rather than the chefsteps app? (am not buying!)

[btbyrd]

Money aside, that's kind of a tough call. The main draw of the Joule is the form factor. It's just so dang small. I can store it anyhere. I can take it anywhere. I can cook inside basically any vessel. I do wish that it had some sort of rudimentary physical controls. I've been cooking sous vide for so long that I almost never use the visual doneness features of the app, but a lot of that is thanks to all the hard work ChefSteps did in their early years educating people about SV. Having something similar built into the Hydropro seems nice, but... I really only need a temperature display and some up and down buttons. Everything else is superfluous.
I look at the Hydropro and just wonder where I'd store it. It's not even that big, but Joule is that small. Still, of all of the more expensive SV units, the Hydropro Plus is definitely the one I'd want, especially if using it in a professional kitchen. I have always wanted to have something with a probe to do some delta cooking. And the form factor is among the best of the larger circulators. The detachable clamp is nice. The repositionable jet is nice. The probe is nice. The metal construction is nice. The display, bigish though it is, is nice. I like the looks of that unit a lot. I'd swap out my Polyscience Chef for the Hydropro Plus in a heartbeat. But if the choice was between a Hydropro Plus and three Joules, I don't see how I could justify it. And that's the real world tradeoff in dollars and cents.

Edited January 28, 2022 by btbyrd (log)

[lemniscate]

My Joule started reporting error codes (blinking red light) while trying to do a cook.   I had to do a deep cleaning because there was debris in the propeller and wrapped around the shaft.   I suspect there was a label or something like it that got into a previous cook on a bag and dissolved enough to enter the Joule.

 

The bottom magnet unscrews and the red propeller just pulls off.  I had been doing the 50/50 vinegar jar rinse every 3-4 months depending on use.  This debris would have been unaffected by that process.

 

I really thought I was going to have to junk the Joules, but after the deep cleaning and 2 additional vinegar flushes, it's back and able to handle log cooks, thus far.   I'll take a bit of luck with it.

Edited February 25 by lemniscate (log)

[TdeV]

@lemniscate, six months ago (or so), something happened to my Joule and the red foot warped. I wrote to support and they arranged to send me a new foot, entirely free of charge. I have two Joules. Previously, one of them malfunctioned and Chefsteps sent me an entirely new Joule. So, definitely worth contacting support!

 

All of my other malfunctions have been corrected by deep cleaning (which I've done infrequently).

 

I'm a satisfied customer for sure.

[lemniscate]

So, my ailing Joule did eventually die and I had a backup Joule from a Black Friday or some type of sale.   I had been struggling with the Joule app connecting to my wifi on the new one.  Tried all the resets and still wouldn't wifi connect, however, it would work thru bluetooth so wifi didn't matter.

Breville I believe is sunsetting the Joule app and transitioning to the Breville + app.   When I downloaded the Breville + app and did the Joule connection setup, all the wifi issues disappeared.   The Joule is now wifi and bluetooth friendly.   So, if any Joule users out there are having connection issues, download the Breville + app and give it a go.   The B + app is very much like the Joule app in user interface so the learning curve should be short.

[TdeV]

We upgraded our internet service so WiFi went to 5GHz which, believe it or not, neither the Joule nor Anova Precision Oven could handle. DH then set up a new 2.5GHz WiFi which both Joule and Anova can handle.

[Midlife]

2 hours ago, TdeV said:

We upgraded our internet service so WiFi went to 5GHz which, believe it or not, neither the Joule nor Anova Precision Oven could handle. DH then set up a new 2.5GHz WiFi which both Joule and Anova can handle.

Ouch!!! I need to check if my Joule works in our new home.
 

Have a similar issue when we moved recently and had to resort to a T-Mobile 5g Gateway for internet (only reasonably priced choice here). Our Epson printer does not like 5g and T-Mobile customer support has been unable to find a work-around even though they say the gateway has a built in 2.5g capability. If we want to print anything from our phones we have to email it to a laptop that is hard-wired to the printer. Annoying! 

Edited August 2 by Midlife (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

4 hours ago, TdeV said:

We upgraded our internet service so WiFi went to 5GHz which, believe it or not, neither the Joule nor Anova Precision Oven could handle. DH then set up a new 2.5GHz WiFi which both Joule and Anova can handle.

 

If your WiFi supports more than one SSID, set up a separate SSID for 2.4GHz devices such as the Anova.  Maybe that's what your husband did.