Duty Cycle Info for PolyScience Creative versus Chef

AFAIK, and I don't have a polyscience so this is just heresay, is that the Chef series is designed for continuous use (i.e. warrantied for that type of use) where the creative series is for more moderate use but will definitely hold up to the 72h cook times but shouldn't be run 24/7 all day everyday like in a restaurant kitchen.

I think they stated somewhere that the Creative series has a casual user profile of 3-5 dinners a week, I read that as "support" phrasing for if you run this 24/7 for months or use it in a restaurant manner we might argue you bought the wrong unit.

I think the Creative is a license manufactured unit, the same as Vac-Star Chef (Original) and I've used it quite a bit, it works really well but it has things like you needing to set for how long it should run, a slightly different circulation system and of course a lower price.

Going from DIY either one will be a huge bump up in reliability, I ended up getting the Chef series since I tend to run mine quite a bit.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

@Ashe Corvin, welcome to the site.

I have both, the Chef (2.5+ yrs) and Creative (1 month). On average the Chef has run an easy 30 hours per week with many cooks in the 48-72 hour range. The unit stopped heating a month ago, the motor was replaced and it came back today, otherwise I have had not issues with it. The Creative I have has done one cook to 51 hours and many shorter than that. In the month with the Creative it has been an easy 40+ hours a week average.

I run both units in 20 litre baths (~16L of water at the max fill line). The pump on the Chef is more powerful and it is noticeable in both noise and water movement. (I do not call it loud though). I prefer the user interface on the Chef. There are less buttons to push and you can change the temp with the unit running. The angle of the LCD screen on the Creative is awkward for me as I have to lean over the unit to read it and it catches glare from overhead lights. I have not yet found away to turn the timer off on the Creative (defaults to 24hrs and beeps at that time) nor turn the Fahrenheit readings off (I only cook Celsius. When you turn the Creative on it defaults to Fahrenheit. To set Celsius then requires three presses of the menu button (F set, F timer, C set). Those three presses get old quick.)

I have been very happy with both units. My preference is the Chef Series, mainly because it was my first child and the user interface.

The Chef series has some quirks in user interfacing too -

The C011 revision allows you to set offset on the fly where as the C012 now forces you

to do a slightly more cumbersome setup.

@Tim the 3 clicks on the button doesn't get you to C?

ashecorvin

Thanks for the replies!

Eventually I'll have both which will help with some of the more complex meal plan executions I've been dreaming up in my head. I guess since there's a "special" right now on this site for the Chef I should go for that and then get the Creative in a few months. Only problem is that shipping date for the Chef right now is around mid-April. Not sure I can wait that long! I guess I have a little time to make that decision.

Thanks again for the input; I knew this would be a good place to ask. And by all means please post any more thoughts you might have on this matter!

Thanks!

That deal is killer so if you can wait it out I'd pounce on it.

@Johan what do you mean by the term "offset?" I'm planning on getting the Chef series from this site to take advantage of the great deal. I am strictly a home user and want some to go along with my SVS. It sounds as though the small increase in price makes the Chef series preferable to the Creative series. Any other thoughts?

@Ashe, welcome to a fantastic community!

ashecorvin

It is definitely a great deal, and one you probably won't see again for a good while. I really shouldn't even be thinking about it.

The mid-April ship date is really the only thing keeping me from purchasing. That coupled with the fear that the parts issue might not be resolved by then and the date gets pushed back even further.

I guess I'll decide this weekend what I want to do. I have to figure out if $150 off is worth the two week delay.

Maybe I just have to not act like a 12 year old and just be patient.... sucks.

haha yeah that's the hardest part. I would definitely say wait it out though. There really isn't anything else on the market (new at least) that you can get for that type of money right now. I just bought a used fisher scientific circulator off of ebay for $260 but I've been searching for months for a good and safe ebay deal so you could try your luck there on short notice but the deal on the site is still the best option IMO.

@Ashe — We're pretty optimistic that the ship date will not be pushed back, and it might even be a bit sooner. We're not in control, of course.

@Jack - they are still thermocouple and pid driven, they might differ a little in the temperature reading, that was the reason @Allen couldn't get the eggs right.

My one unit is about 0.7C off the other one was 0.4C off. So you can compensate on the units for the temperature reading.

I use a certified thermometer as a reference for this - it is my go to temp that I used to calibrate the sper as well.

the sper didn't come certified?

It is a thermocouple, the units may be certified but there are differences in tolerance on the probes.

@Jack, yes I was looking at getting one of each, I (my wife said so) felt after debating it a bit that the potential for a longer life, more capabilities and flow was worth the extra money. - Purely personal reasoning of course fell into this like it looked cooler and was more "Chefy".

Yeah I suppose the individual thermocouples would differ from the one's it came with.

It is minuscule in terms of an oven or smoker setting - I just like fiddling with my knobs.

I hear it's much more fun if you have someone else fiddle with your knobs.

Hahaha! Yes, I think you might be on to something.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

@Ashe here is a pic of the Creative (left) and Chef (right) side by side. The units are pulled 2-3" out from the wall. The bottom of the molding on the upper cabinets is16.25" from the counter and both units easily fit under. My tanks/lids I believe are the same as the Polyscience tanks/lids (18"x12"x9" 19L - I bought mine well before Polyscience was selling them) and they nicely fit on a half sheet pan.

@Johan, @Tim & @Brendan - thanks for your input, it is appreciated!

@Johan, what are you using to check the accuracy of your circulator? Best I have is a thermapen. Will that do or do I need to find a friend with some scientific equipment?

The thermapen is supposedly NIST certified so it should be an accurate (or accurate enough) measure to calibrate but I'm sure there are more precise ones out there.

Thanks @B

Hey guys, when thinking about calibration, please be aware that the temperature measuring technology in a PolyScience unit exceeds the accuracy of your thermapen (thermistor) technology.

See a discussion of this here:

http://forum.chefsteps.com/discussion/comment/39/#Comment_39

Read that one - that is why I pointed out it was a certified and tested thermometer

@Jack I bought this one - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015SGXAM/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I used to have a certified mercury one, that one was really expensive, I broke it about a year ago, this one went hand in hand with it, I use this as the base for what I do, if I'm wrong I'm at least consistently wrong as we learned in basic chemistry.

I would use the eggs as a reference - so much happens per degree that you can get a decent visual and mouth-feel adjustment to where you want to be.

@Chris I was afraid of that, but thanks for confirming it. So how do we check the accuracy of our various SV units? For many applications, one degree doesn't matter much, but in other cases it could be significant. And @Johan I was thinking along the same lines re: using SV eggs as a barometer.

Basically, PolyScience units should be factory calibrated. If you really suspect that your unit is off, you should contact PolyScience. Trying to calibrate a device that should be accurate to +- 0.1 degree with a technology that is, even when properly calibrated and certified, +- 0.5 to 1.5 degrees just is not a good idea.

Message received, and thanks @Chris! And thank you and the CS team for a great deal on the PolyScience circulator ...