£75 non-stirred sous vide bath - VonShef 8L

Leonard_13847

I came across the VonShef sous vide bath on amazon.co.uk that costs just £75 (VAT included).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/VonShef-Premium-Digital-Display-Cooking/dp/B00L2COQNM/

It makes it hard to justify the SVS Demi at three times the price. Not to mention the Codlo at a third more.

It looks like VonShef has put their brand on the Steba SV2 - (possibly the opposite)

http://www.steba.co.uk/themen/sousvide/251/

Anybody tried it?

Find more posts tagged with

What About Tools?

Comments

reck.harm

It looks ok on paper, +/- 0.5C isn't exactly high end, but it should be good enough. The one thing that does seem odd to me, is that steba sells what seems to be the same device, for twice the price here in Germany, so this would be a hell of a deal. I have half a mind to just order one, but i already got two immersion circulators, so i don't really need one. Btw. from what i can tell both steba and vonShef only rebadge stuff instead of actually manufacturing something so it's propably produced by some chinese oem.

Johan_Edstrom_5586

They look like deep fryer oem conversions...

reck.harm

yeah kinda. especially the non stick thing. i mean why would you need non-stick pans for sous vide. it's not like the food actually touches the pan. I mean if those work, what the hell, why not? it does seem kinda bodged though.

Leonard_13847

@Harm - I have no idea who makes them. Tip: You can get a better shipping cost to Germany on VonShef's Ebay listing.

@Johan - I agree that it has more than same remseblance to a deep fryer but I don't believe it a conversion. The top-down photo shows that it looks very much like the Sous Vide Supreme Demi.

An Amazon.de user review of Steba SV2 leads me to believe that the VonShef Water Bath is even circulated.

Copy, paste:

1 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich

Not bad, quite OK

Von cheng li on 14. Juni 2014

Just finished testing the machine... can't say how it behaves in the long run but first impressions are ok.
1) I set the temperature at 60 degrees and measured it with two different thermometers, the temperature is about 60-61 degrees. Not bad. Previously I was messing around with a rice cooker and a temperature controller, and here the temperature was fluctuating within 5 degrees above the programmed temperature.
2) You can program the timer in hours and minutes. This gives you a good control of the cooking
3) Design. The control is on top of the machine, I prefer this to other sous-vide machines where it's on the side of the machine.
4) Quality. A lot of plastic. On of the screws was screwed in to forcefully which resulted in a bad screw hole that is to big.

----
Update:
Steba SV2 versus SousVide Supreme
- the Supreme costs twice as much
- SV2 has a waterpump, so the water should be more even than the Supreme.

The SV2 seems to me a better deal than the Supreme, although I think the Supreme is better built, less flimsier.

reck.harm

How about the timer? i read in the specs it only goes to 24h? that would be a little on the short side. can you run the thing without using the timer entirely?

Edit: should've read the whole post. didn't get that you only copied the review.

Leonard_13847

@Harm - I own a SVS Demi and it is non-stick. Do deep fryers tend to be non-stick?

Leonard_13847

I am investigating how to edit the topic heading - it ought to be "£75 probably-stirred sous vide bath - VonShef 8L" :-)

reck.harm

@Leonardh most deep friers i know apart from commercial ones are non-stick, even though that doesn't make much sense either i guess.

As for the stirring, i don't know. The steba web page, and it looks a lot like they are the same, doesn't mention anything about a pump and that seems like a feature you would mention, so iI'm sceptical. that said, most non immersion circulator sous vide devices are non-stirred, so we'll see. If i can find a source from the uk for that orice and reasonable shipping, i'll propably get one and review it on my blog. Might take a while to ship here though.

reck.harm

I just ordered one for about 110€ with shipping from the uk, which is about £84. As i said i don't need it at all, but for that kind of money, i was just to curious. It will propably take a while to get here and when it does i'll have to hack the power-plug, but i will report. i suppose, at the very least this schould make a nice bain-marie for creme brulee and the like.

Leonard_13847

@Harm On Ebay they sell for £80 and shipping to Germany is just £3.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VonShef-Premium-8L-Digital-Display-Sous-Vide-Cooking-Water-Bath-Oven-1200W-/351097020789

Now, Harm Reck, you have promised a review :-)

reck.harm

yeah that's exactly the one i just ordered. and yes i will do a review. But i will do it on my Blog in german, cause that's the language i do my blog in at the moment. I will do a sort of summary here and if google translate doesn't measure up, i might even post the full one in english. I'm really curious how it will compare to my immersion circulators, which on paper are way more accurate, so i'm seeing some side by side pork loin comparison in my future or maybe eggs, since that's where even one degree seems to make the most difference.

Samuel_68313

I am very curious if it is any good because it is I might buy one for my folks back in England for christmas. I am sure my dad would love it. Although as I think he occasionally lurks here I have probably spoiled their surprise.

Leonard_13847

@Harm A side-by-side comparison with immersion circulators is the gold standard - especially with eggs. I look very much forwards to read your review of how it performs.

For long cooks I think silent, insulated water baths with lids, in many ways, are preferable to immersion circulators - apart from their fixed size.

Btw no need to hack the power plug. From Ebay:

"Features a detachable power cord for safety and convenience and side handles to help you to empty the bath easily."

reck.harm

Yeah i didn't catch that. I'll have to look if i have a spare iec cord lying around. Unfortunately i throw away most of them a while ago...

Leonard_13847

Now the price dropped to £72 on Amazon.co.uk and £75 on eBay. To put that into perspective, the VonShef costs $100 ex. VAT.

We have arrived at the point where a sous vide water bath costs no more than a decent deep fryer! Hence, the cost of the equipment is no longer a real issue. It is well within "Christmas gift territory".

Now what is still lacking in the marketplace is an inexpensive device that can vacuum pack liquids in pouches easily.

(Argh! Why does VonShef only ship to a limited number of Western European countries?)

reck.harm

Just a quick update. The machine arrived today and i will do some proper testing on the weekend, but since i was giving it a quick spin anyway, i figured i might as well share my first impressions. Note that these are completely unsorted.

The power cord that came with the machine had a fuse integrated into the plug i have never seen that before, is this normal in the uk?
The whole thing looks and feels rather cheap, which i guess was to be expected
It is in fact circulatet
Overshoots quite a bit around 0.5 though that might get better as the p.i.d. algorythm adapts.
It also seems like it might have a systematic deviation of 1C though i have to check that my thermometer isn't off before confirming that.
Heating up from 20C to 55C took about 35 minutes, which feels kinda long, have to check against the circulators.

So that's it for now. I'll be back with some proper pictures and stuff on the weekend.

Cheng_Keun_Li_59332

It's funny to see my review on Amazon.de mentioned here. I bought the Steba machine for 175 euro in the Netherlands, seems you can get the machine on Ebay for half the price for the VonShef. The advantage is that the Steba comes with two year warranty and has good customer support, they will send you replacement parts within a week when you report problems. But then again, for half the price I would buy the VonShef and take my chances.

I have cooked with the Sous-Vide machine 6-7 times. I always use my water cooker to boil 3-4 liter water and add another cold 2-3 liter tap water, so I’m ready within 6 minutes to start cooking with the Steba. It works as advertised within 0-1 degree of the programmed temperature.

The non-stick coating is kind of cheap Teflon. It's not very durable, I already have one scratch with normal use. The SousVide Supreme is better built and should outlive the Steba SV-2.

There is a water circulator, however don’t expect a big water pump.

As for the UK plug, yes.. it’s quite normal that they have a fuse.

reck.harm

Can you clarify on the accuracy? What exact deviation have you noticed? because mine definetely overshoots as much as 1 degree. doesn't drop down to more that .3° below though

Cheng_Keun_Li_59332

Same results with mine, it overshoots with one degree. I normally set it a 0,5 degree lower.

It's OK, it seems that the Sous Vide Supreme has the same problem.

It's cheap, it looks cheap, but it works and you can cook Sous-Vide quite good. The salmon at 45 degrees was delicious!

Cheng_Keun_Li_59332

By the way, this Sous-Vide setup costs you nothing.

- Just get a 5 liter pan, a good thermometer, a heat diffuser and a round baking rack. (on the photo you see a small pan, but that's because I was testing it with two eggs)

- Use a can of cold water to control the temperature, add some cold water when it's above your designated temperature.

reck.harm

So it's not just me then. That's good. So i guess i'd put it on par with a diy crockpot solution accuracy-wise. It's a lot more convinient though. So propably worth the money if you wanna dabble in longtime stuff. Personally i'd always spennde the 200€ more on a proper circulator. but guess that's just me.

Leonard_13847

@Cheng Keun Li - What a pleasant surprise! I never expected that you would show up :-)

Please share more of your experience with the Steba SV 2 so far. Scratches to the teflon seem pretty insignificant.

@ Harm Reck - It seems that UK plugs do come with a fuse. What kind of "socket" is on the VonShef itself? The same that is normal on desktop computers?

It is strange that it took so long to warm up the water with 1200w. The SVS is 850w and SVS Demi is only 500w. I will do the same test on both of them soon. In the past I have had some trouble maintaining a high temperature on the SVS Demi without the lid. I always just use hot water from the tap when I fill them. It is only when I cook "plant matter" heating time is an issue for me.

As for testing the absolute temperature in the bath, it is kind of tricky because the Thermapen, for instance, is only accurate to +/- 0.4C. I measured my SVS, with a Thermapen, just now to be 0.5-1.0C lower than what I set it to. This was measured 12 hours into a cook. Deviation within the bath itself was only 0.5C.

With a small circulator, I guess the VonShef/Steba is less prone to cold and hot spots than the SVS. Have you tested for cold and hot spots without any pouches - and with the bath packed with pouches? Is it silent in operation?

Does it seem to heat up to the same temperature each time you set it to, say, 60C? Does it maintain the same temperature throughout a long cook? How much does it fluctuate?

Is the user inferface well thought out and easy to use? Does it shut down after 24 hours?

I would love to see the VonShef in an egg test against some high-end circulators, Harm :-)

Great work guys!

reck.harm

@Leonardh

The device itself has an IEC C14-Socket which is the same as a Desktopcomputer.

Not sure why it heats so slow. but i tested it a couple of times now and it seems to heat at about 1°C/min.

The 1200W in this case arent really comparable, since we don't know how much wattage the pump takes, though i doubt it's more than 50W or so.

Yeah as you said testing for absolute accuracy is always somewhat tricky. My best Thermometer is specced at +/-0.2C, but i couldn't get it to read exactly 0.0C in an ice-bath so it's possible that it reads a little high. I haven't checked for hot/cold-spots yet.

I haven't specifically tested for repeatability, but it seems do heat to the same temperatur at least according to the internal thermometer.

The longest i have done so far is around 3 hours, that worked ok. I will see if i can get an immersion thermocouple for my multimeter to do some longterm datalogging. So far from what i have observed it seems to fluctuate at +/-0.5C for most of the time with peaks at +1C. I'm still not sure if it's actually p.id. controlled. I'm starting to think it's propably just a bang/bang kind of thing.

The userinterface is about as straight-forward as it gets. You have 5 keys: Start/Stop, Time, Temp,+,-. So you press temp to set the temperature, press time to set the timer and then press start. A nice detail about the timer is, that you can set hours and minutes seperately, i.e. press "Time", set the hours, press "Time" again, set the minutes. Haven't seen this on my circulators before. Makes it a lot faster to set a time of 24h for example, which is as high as it wil go. There is however nothing in the manual to suggest that you shouldn't just reset it after that time. Off course you would have to account for it, to make sure that you're home to reset it. Also the timer starts when you press the start-button not when the target-temp is reached, which is on par with everything else i've seen, but still very annoying.

As for Operation, it is not silent. Theres noise from the pump and also a click everytime the heater switches on.

I will do an egg test against the circulator, but neither one of those is particulary high end. One is a vac-star Sous Vide Chef 1, which by all accounts seems to be the same as the polyscience creative series. And the other one is an allpax SV-2 which by the looks of it seems to be also marketed as the steba SV-100 and some other brands. Both of them are however accurate to .2C.

As a preliminary conclusion on the vonShef i'd say its a very good alternative to a crockpot/controller or other diy solution. I wouldn't spend the extra 100€ on the steba version, but for ~100€ its well worth the money. Its definitely adequate to dable in sous vide and if you decide to get something better it would still be useful as a secondary bath. However if you only plan on having one sv-bath and are serious about it, i'd still get a circulator.

I hope i didn't forget to adress any of your questions.

P.S.: On the topic of hot spots. I just snapped a pic with the thermal cam (because, i can)

It seems you have a rather big hot spot above the pump outlet, which makes sense, but it's hard to tell how much of a problem that is from that image. I'll do one with some pouches in, next time i actually use it.

Cheng_Keun_Li_59332

I agree with Harm, for 100 Euro it's a good deal. I paid 75 euro more for the Steba, ahh well.. you win some you lose some,

Leonard_13847

mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">@ Harm Reck- mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">You are the

man!

mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">You have your

testing equipment in order, man. This is beyond my wildest imagination.

mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">

mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">

@ Cheng Keun Li - I would urge you to publish your little review also under the

VonShef on amazon.co.uk so people can know what to expect of it.

I did a little bit of testing on the Sous Vide Supreme Demi. It took nearly an

hour to heat a bath from 20C to 55C. My Thermapen however measured what SVS

Demi meant was 20C to 16C. When the SVS Demi reached 55C I

measured it to 53C. However this improved with time and the SVS Demi and

Thermapen pretty much were in sync after a couple of hours. More to come soon.

mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">I tested my Thermapen to 0.3C in ice water and to

read 100.3C in boiling water at sea level.
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">

mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">

mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" lang="EN-GB">It seems that the VonShef and SousVide Supreme perform on par. The SVS' are better built, lack a circulator and are completely silent. But I think most people would opt for the VonShef at a third of the price - or why not for three VonShefs!

Leonard_13847

@Harm - Have you finished your testing? Still satisfied with the VonShef?

I did a little testing of my SVS Demi again. It clocked in at 53 minutes heating water from 20C to 55C. This time the initial 20C water was displayed as 23C on the Demi. It seems that it is at least 3 degrees off at low temperatures. When it reached 55C, my Thermapen measured 53,5C. I have done a lot of tests and found out the my Sous Vide Supreme Demi is always at least one degree celsius off. I contacted the manufacturer who told me that it cannot be calibrated by the user.

reck.harm

I got to admit i haven't done much more testing. It seems to be within a degree of what it displays. However, i just got a fresh batch of eggs, so i will do an eggsperiment (sorry about that, couldn't resist) tommorow, where i will try an onsen egg at 64°C and compare to the results of my circulators. i also will to some poking around with a thermometer, but i expect, that it will propably be close to what the internal thermometer says, when measured close to where the actual probe is. Heating is about 1C per minute.

The thing is i just bought it because i was curious if it could work, i still prefer my circulators. But as far as i can tell so far, it does get the ob done. I'll report more tomorrow or maybe sunday, depending on when i find the time.

Leonard_13847

@Harm Reck‌

Cool. You should publish a little review on amazon.co.uk because it seems that people are buying the probably inferior " Steba SV1" type models at a higher price than the VonShef. That seems like a poor choice.

Top selling sous vide baths at amazon.co.uk:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/bestsellers/kitchen/3538368031/

reck.harm

Okay so i just did a quick speed test on my 3 sv baths. I filled them all up within 1 minute from the same tap but somehow, they all showed different initial temps, so i first heated them all up to 30°C and then set them to 60°C and timed them. I filled the von Shef to just shy of the maximum and the circulators with 9 liters of Water, which accounting for the volume of the circulator itself should be the same-ish. I used the internal timers of the baths to time, since i don't have another simple setup to measure this and i couldn't be bothered to rig something up with an arduino or something. the results are:

Vac Star SVC 1 (same as Polyscience Creative Series) : 17 min.

Allpax SV2 (also sold as Steba SV 100 and propably a whole lot of other brands) : 16 min.

von Shef: 25 min.

While that is about 50% slower than the allpax it's still way within reason.

After they all reached 60°C i measured with my Greisinger GTH 175/Pt which has a stated accuracy of +/- 0.2C heres what i measured:

Vac Star SVC 1 : spot on (60C)

Allpax SV2 : 0.4C lower than it said. (59.6C)

vonShef: 0.9C higher than it said (60.9C)

And since i already had heated them all up i took some pics with the thermalcam:

Vacstar:

note that the min temperatur is the temp of the casing not the water.

Allpax:

vonShef:

That's actually way better than the first one i took, not sure why...

I'll be back with the eggtest tomorrow.

And yeahi will write a review on amazon, i won't go in as much detail as here though. It will propably boil down to something like:

It gives you the same accuracy as any diy rig with way more convenience at the same price or less.

Leonard_13847

@Harm Reck
I love the testing equipment you have! You are testing the VonShef like a pro. No, it is beyond a pro.

The heating time for the VonShef has improved a lot since your initial test. The last result is now more in line with what one would expect.

Looking at the thermal images, the VonShef is similar to the Allpax where as the Vacstar stands out for its evenness.

I am looking forward to your egg test. Eggs are maybe the only application where one can taste/detect a difference between the VonShef and more high-end equipment.

An Amazon review would be really helpful for people to determine whether the VonShef is good value/right from them or not.