I have been using Joule since the beginning. I pre-ordered mine for the discount they offered.
Some time ago ChefSteps "updated" their app to change the timer function, forcing the timer to not start counting until the desired water bath temp is reached.I have been complaining to the support team about this since then.
Look at the complexity of the timer in this app. It's a timer. It's supposed to start when you say and notify you when a programmed amount of time has passed. Why do they insist on making it more than that? And why does ChefSteps think they know better than I do when it comes to cooking my food?
In addition to this added complexity and additional button tapping being utterly useless, it's also worth noting that ChefSteps Inc has no right to assert itself in my private life. This is corporate, Big Brother style overreach. Humans have done OK for the past thousands of years cooking food in ovens, on stovetops, grills, smokers, and open fires by simply timing the process. Why does CS now assume we are too ignorant or stupid to cook our own food properly?
My testing shows that warming my bath up to temp takes anywhere from 7 to 20 minutes. The 20 mite times are when I use cold tap water, which I never do in real cooks. Why should I be forced to wait 7 minutes before starting a 4, 8, or 24 hour cook? And why does CS insist on controlling my device that I purchased, and that I am capable of using? I am an adult. I can be responsible to cook my own food.
The whole point of sous vide is simplicity and flexibility. Instead of timing cooks down to and exact minute as in hot oven cooking, we are able to cook most foods to a broad range of times without fear of ruing dishes. I can cook a steak for 1.5 hours or 4 hours. Either way will be fine. There will be texture differences, sure, but really both will be delicious. Simple. But CS has created a system of timing where that whole concept is removed. They come from the perspective that timing should be to an exact minute, just like in an oven. They assume I am too ignorant to understand that the water needs to heat up (as if I have never used an oven in my whole life). And they assume that food doesn't start "cooking" until the desired water temp is reached, which is false.
ChefSteps, please fix your software. Remove this ridiculous timer and allow us to cook our own food as we choose, without your invasive software dictating how you think we should do it. Allow us to just start a timer, without having to "set" a time, and then subsequently "start" the timer (manually or automatically). At the very least, provide an option for adults to disable this nonsensical non-feature in the settings, so we can have a normal, usable timer function.
In my opinion, Joule hardware is the best on the market, hands down. But the software it uses complicates and restricts usage so much that I have a hard time recommending it to friends any longer. While I once was a vocal advocate, I feel that CS has positioned themselves as my adversary with their ludicrous, invasive software.
