Water Baths and Immersion Circulators

[jmasur]

The Anova worked great on my Igloo Ice Cube wheeled cooler. I used a piece of Reflectix cut to fit for the cover.

[Adam George]

I am still on the fence as to Anova or Sansaire but I've been using a 28 Litre Thermos Cool box that without a circulator only drops about 1Celius an hour from 55c. It cost £20 on Amazon.

Obviously I'm not going to use the full capacity on this and although it has a lid, it's oddly not insulated, but it means I have used the top as a hot plate for drying clothes! When I finally get a circulator I will fashion some extra coverage for the gaps.

[Joshua thomas]

Researching polysceince, anova etc circulators and asking people personally with them, my question is can you double them up in a single vessel, so instead of one circulator heating 22 litres of water, can you have a suitable vessel with 2 circulators heating 44 litres of water. Any information would be appreciated thanks, josh from Australia

[scubadoo97]

Sure you could double up. I don't see why you couldn't use multiples.

[dcarch]

No, You cannot do that using the same electric outlet on the same breaker.

If one is 1,000 Watts and the other is also 1000 watts, when they are both heating, you will exceed the circuit breaker capacity.

dcarch

[alanz]

I don't think the question is about overloading the electrical circuit (you could connect to two different circuits) but it is about how the two units would interact.

If the water is below target temperature, then both heating elements would turn on until the target temperature is reached. The water should reach target temperature more quickly than with one unit.

In the simplest case, the question becomes which, if either of them, is more sensitive to temperature drops... It would be the one to turn on first. Whether the second one turns on at all, and when, would be a question.

This may get much more coplicated when you take into account the programming that may be present in the units that facilitate achieving (but not overshooting) temperature.

I have two Anova units, and kill-a-watt meters... I may do the experiment, but don't know of the results would actually be useful.

Edited December 8, 2013 by alanz (log)

[Martin Fisher]

Yes, you can use two circulators in one container........

One Container, Two Immersion Circulators?

[alanz]

Having multiple units in the same tank would likely allow for maintaining circulation and costant temperature in a greater amount of water.

In a page about pharmaceutical applications of their immersion circulator (http://polyscience.wordpress.com/tag/immersion-circulator/)

They mention in a response about the capacity of thier unit

"In some situations, you may be able to use multiple MX Immersion Circulators (one on each side of the tank, for example) or your application needs may be better met with a different model."

[dcarch]

I don't think the question is about overloading the electrical circuit (you could connect to two different circuits) but it is about how the two units would interact.

Yes and no.

I don't know how many kitchens have two circuits both protected by GFP outlets. I would not really want to plug in any water related appliance in regular outlets, especially something like a sous vide circulator.

The reason why you might need two heaters is to get the water up to temperature as quickly as possible. If you need two heaters to maintain cooking temperature, you have a very serious insulation issue to consider.

dcarch

[glepore]

I use a 28 qt container with a single circulator without issues. Start with hot tap water at 130 f. No problems keeping up with a 1000w heater at all. The average kitchen circuit is only 15 amps, so 1500wt load max. That's one circulator at full throttle.

[alanz]

15 amps at 120 volts should be able to handle 1800 watts.

[glepore]

15 amps at 120 volts should be able to handle 1800 watts.

Agreed but not 2k....

[Paul McMichael]

Two PID controllers responding to the same variable are less stable - this might not be enough of a problem in this application. If you need the extra heat, just set one controller a degree cooler than the other. If extra mixing is what is needed - set one controller at 0 that will solve the power limit.

[dcarch]

Two PID controllers responding to the same variable are less stable - this might not be enough of a problem in this application. If you need the extra heat, just set one controller a degree cooler than the other. If extra mixing is what is needed - set one controller at 0 that will solve the power limit.

Not a bad solution. However, as I said, if you need 2,000 watts to maintain temperature, you are really having a different kind of problem.

Also, for extra circulation, an extra sous vide circulator is $XXX,00, whereas an extra circulating pump is $20.00.

dcarch

[rotuts]

although now a dinosaur of a solution: but air-bubblers work quite well, from an external aquarium air pump.

true, somewhat old fashioned.

Edited December 9, 2013 by rotuts (log)

[swifter]

First post longtime reader...

When using a Polyscience 7306 circulator, in a large stockpot, is it a bad idea to use the stove in conjuntion with the circulator to accelerate bringing the water to temperature? Is there any risk of damaging the circulator as long as the stove is turned off a little before it reaches the final desired temperature?

[dcarch]

First post longtime reader...

When using a Polyscience 7306 circulator, in a large stockpot, is it a bad idea to use the stove in conjuntion with the circulator to accelerate bringing the water to temperature? Is there any risk of damaging the circulator as long as the stove is turned off a little before it reaches the final desired temperature?

If the circulator uses PID control logic, that may confuse the self-tuning feature a little?

dcarch

[gfweb]

I'd heat it first on the stove and then put in the IC unit when its near temp and turn off the burner.

You don't want to risk frying the IC with heat that comes up around the pot.

[Chris Hennes]

I regularly do what gfweb suggests with my circulator. Its logic takes a few minutes to catch up when it's put in the bath that's already at the correct temp, but it otherwise works fine.

ETA: For the record, mine's not a Polyscience unit.

Edited February 24, 2014 by Chris Hennes (log)

[swifter]

Thank you all for your quick responses!

[chriswrightcycles]

Hey all,

 

I've been eyeing up an immersion circulator on ebay recently that seems to be modeled after the Polyscience Classic series unit. The ebay item doesn't seem to have a protective cage covering the heating element. My question is, how necessary is this accessory? Any arguments for or against it? Arent sous vide temps below the melting point of most of the bags I'd be putting in the bath?

 

Thanks in advance,

Chris

 

[Chris Hennes]

Sous vide water temps are below the melting temp of your bags: the temperature the heating element itself reaches is much hotter than the water, in general. If you don't have a cage you'll want to take some sort of precaution against your bags touching it (securing them to the sides, using a rib grill rack, etc.)

[gfweb]

Some of these ebay ICs are ex-lab equipment. Probably just fine, but one never knows exactly what they were used for.

 

Check out the Anova IC.

[dcarch]

Hey all,

 

I've been eyeing up an immersion circulator on ebay recently that seems to be modeled after the Polyscience Classic series unit. The ebay item doesn't seem to have a protective cage covering the heating element. My question is, how necessary is this accessory? Any arguments for or against it? Arent sous vide temps below the melting point of most of the bags I'd be putting in the bath?

 

Thanks in advance,

Chris

 

As long as you have water around, You are perfectly OK.

 

That's why you can boil water on fire using a paper container. 

 

You can find youtube videos of that.

 

 

dcarch

Edited March 31, 2014 by dcarch (log)

[pbear]

In addition to the heat transfer factor, consider that the cage protects the bags from physical damage by the circulator.