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Duty Cycle Info for PolyScience Creative versus Chef

ashecorvin

Hello all - I'm new to this forum after having spent the entire weekend reading just about every word on this whole site. I plan on getting my sous-vide setup in the next week or two. I'm trying to decide between the Creative or the Chef series circulator.

My question is as follows: Is there a difference in duty cycle times between the Creative and the Chef series circulators? I couldn't find anything on the Polyscience site and couldn't find anything published anywhere else on this subject. Once acquired, I plan on going through a few recipes without any rest inbetween, a few that call for 24+ hours and want to make sure that if I do go with the Creative, it can handle that type of non-stop operation.

My guess is that if it isn't addressed by the manufacturer (isn't a listed spec) then I can probably run either one 24x7 with little worry, but I want to get some more opinion on the matter before I pull the trigger.

Thanks in advance!

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Comments

ParkerCook_66639

I ordered my Chef series yesterday! The wait until mid-April is going to be the worst.

seijoed

Keep reading down

http://www.sousvidecooking.org/sous-vide-equipments-the-ultimate-review-coming-soon/#comment-1709

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Johan as I read the posts it seems to be talking about the Vac-Star (which sounds like a PS unit made under license), not the PolyScience units; maybe I missed something ...

seijoed

@Jack - I'm pretty sure

http://www.sousvidecooking.org/sous-vide-equipments-the-ultimate-review-coming-soon/

Read down towards the end and the development of the II series.

Jack_Mayer_85396

maybe one of the CS team can weigh in and get us the answer ...

Brendan_Lee_56950

I've seen different labels on the back of the units @jack so I'm not too clear on that either.

seijoed

@Jack I think you are entirely right, it is a license manufacture as far as I can see.

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Parker - I'll echo what @Tim and @Brendan have to say. I have a Sou Vide Supreme and I'm going to take advantage of the terrific offer here at ChefSteps to get the Chef Series. I find that with just one unit I'm limited if I have something in the bath that needs long cooking times, like 72 hour Short Ribs (amazing!). Also, if I understand correctly, the Chef model is made in America and the Creative comes from China (I may be wrong about that and would love to hear from someone who can say definitively).

Brendan_Lee_56950

And honestly after a few months your going to wish you had two.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

@ParkerCook, you will not go wrong with either model, but the sale price on the Chef Series is very good.

I mainly only cook for my wife and I and you will be surprised once you start cooking sous vide what you throw in the bag and how much you use the circulator. When I started I expected to cook proteins for an hour or so then eat them. It wasn't long before I was cooking 72hr short ribs for Tuesday's dinner. I buy bulk proteins (pork belly, rib eye, etc) when on sale, portion the protein, cook, then chill, then freeze. For an easy meal I pull protein from the freezer and while it is retherming in the bath I make some sides.

ParkerCook_66639

I have a question somewhat related to this discussion, basically coming down to whether to buy the creative or chef series. The sale they have going right now on the chef series here is awesome and is making me lean towards it, but I start thinking of need vs. want. I'm a married undergrad (two more semesters!) and the $150 in potential savings could go a long way towards other things. I plan on using the circulator often, 4-5 times a week making meals for my wife and I and then probably 2-4 times a month cooking for larger groups of family members. I want the machine to last as long as possible, obviously, so I guess it comes down to this: is it worth upgrading to the chef series even though I don't plan on using it like a professional chef would? Any tips from more-experienced users will be greatly appreciated.

ashecorvin

Thanks for all the help and answers to my queries. I went ahead and ordered the Chef series (from this site, of course).

Chris - if you can get it to me by tomorrow I'd appreciate it. ;-)

Seriously though - thanks a lot. I hope to become a productive member of this awesome community sometime in mid-April. Until then I'll probably just have a ton of questions in preparation for the fun that will be had.

seijoed

@Chris the thermometer I use according to the paperwork is -

Accuracy/Resolution: 0.1 from -20 to +100 - so yes, what you said makes perfect sense.

And for anyone wondering about this thread, this is really minute detail wankery that will not affect cooking one way or the other. The units as such are insanely fast to get to temp, keep temp and just chug along for long, long periods.

ashecorvin

I'd like to echo the thanks to Chris and company. This site is a great resource for ideas, technical advice, and inspiration. Plus it's fun watching Grant work.

So upon doing some more research, I found that PolyScience is located in Niles, which is like 10 minutes from where I work. I ride by it nearly every day during my commute home when we have motorcycle weather here. Would it be possible to pick up orders from them or do they need to be shipped?

Either way is fine - just thought it'd be nice to save freight and shipping time.

Chris_Young_80640

Thanks @Jack, we're having a lot of fun and really excited about what we hope to open up to the community over the coming weeks and months. Big ambitions for where this can all go.

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Chris first, thanks for the confirmation. More importantly, thank you for an amazing resource! I tell people about this site every day and the fact that the principals are here every day answering questions and providing guidance to the community and the response I get is "no way!" And then I tell people to go to the site and check it out. To a person, the reaction has been nothing short of amazement ...

seijoed

Cool beans!

Chris_Young_80640

@Jack — Yes, some of the thermapens seems to have pretty good accuracy ranges. I've seen as good as +- 0.5 °C.

@Johan — If you're asking how can we push this kind of information into an easy community driven FAQ, we're looking into that as part of a big update to the site that we'll be starting to push very soon.

seijoed

@Chris - Makes sense. How do we promote that as a "truf" - i.e document all I'm doing is polishing presentation data?

Jack_Mayer_85396

@Chris this is good information, thanks. I'm guessing that the Thermapen would be on the good side for a thermistor unit?

Chris_Young_80640

Okay, I'm checking into the total system accuracy for these units with a contact at PolyScience. I believe the total system error is +- 0.5 °C, which means that you could have two units disagree by as much as 1 °C and be within limits. I believe the pro series, which is really a lab system is +- 0.1 °C.

Basically, this is me saying that if you read a temperature of 60 °C, and the total system error is +- 0.5 °C, then 59.5, 60, and 60.5 °C could all be the same temperature.

Make sense?

Thermistors are generally around +- 1.0 for a very good one, to about +- 2.5 for a mediocre one.

seijoed

Sorry, the C012, went .7 up.

seijoed

Chef, C011, and C012, they both disagree by less than .4, funnily enough up and down.

Chris_Young_80640

Two questions:

(1) Are these Chef series or Creative series?

(2) How much do they disagree by?

seijoed

They don't disagree with a certified temp, I did that after about 10 minutes of solid reading.

seijoed

No, I'm saying my two units disagreed on the reference, one up, one down.

I just put them in line to what I call a 62.5 for eggs.

Chris_Young_80640

I'm okay being disagreed with. But let me ask for some clarification, are you saying your PolyScience units disagree on the temperature, or are you saying that your PolyScience unit disagrees with the thermistor-based thermometer?

seijoed

And @Jack, the deal is awesome.

seijoed

As a developer and tinkerer, doing his own ammo and whatnot else I'm just politely gonna disagree @Chris

I want all of my units to have the same reading at the same level at the same height.

Chris_Young_80640

You're welcome. Thank you for your business.