Interesting thing I noticed

While the Joule is coming up to temp, it makes a high pitched singing sound and the circulation seems very powerful. Once it hits temp, the singing note disappears and the circulation settles down about halfway, (or thereabouts).

Normal?

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fisher23

Hi Bill, I am wondering how many times you have used your Joule? If you are getting a sound like that it might be time to descale. The more powerful circulation during heat up is normal. In a quart jar or other small container, put a 50/50 solution of water and vinegar, set Joule for 140° F and when Joule gets upto 140° F your done. When I was beta testing any time I heard a singing or high pitched sound this took care of it. There are directions and a video about descaling in the Joule app. Hope that helps.

#noise

AngelArs_240456

Ours is brand new and has been making a high pitched "whirling" noise since day one.

Are you saying that your Joule doesn't make any noise when on?

John_Fowler_270709

Mine is pretty loud all, much louder than my ANOVA Bluetooth. Brand new.

fisher23

Mine doesn't make a high pitched sound. I hear the motor whirling and the notice the sound circulating water makes but nothing else.

#noise

nasv

I very happily received mine today, and upon testing it tonight, the first thing I noticed as well with its first run was that it was a bit noisier than I anticipated because I also hear the high pitch tone. Joule is sitting in a 6L cambro with about 4L of water on a rubber/plastic trivet on my kitchen counter.

I took out my chromatic tuner, it is about 1240hz (Eb for the musicals out there). I'm not sure what to make of this... might see how it performs over a few cooks this week, and then descale (something I've never had to do with other tools, I don't have hard water).

Curious how this has gone for others, especially with those that have heard the noise since new.

-Nico

nasv

I'll add one additional note. My initial powering-up of Joule was to 135F, and during the warm-up and sustaining period, I heard the high pitched tone. After about an hour, I raised the temperature to 155F, and once it warmed up (or during the warm up), the high pitched tone disappeared, and all I could hear was the quiet whir of the motor.

I cooked eggs this morning at 167F, and no high pitched tone.

So maybe, Joule just needed a ramp-up for first use? I think so far so good. I'll do a lower temp cook later today.

-Nico

Chris_Young_80640

So we've been investigating the acoustic issues that some of you are hearing with your Joule. There seem to be a few issues that can cause Joule being louder than you expect:

(1) With fresh water, when the water is first heating, dissolved gasses start to come out of solution and get trapped in the impeller causing some cavitation noise (yep, just like in The Hunt for Red October) that is amplified by the shape of Joule's heating tube. It can take a while for all of the dissolved gases to come out of solution, but once they do the water should become very quiet with just a quiet whir of the motor.

(2) We have also seen an issue, generally at higher temperatures and with hard water, where the minerals precipitate onto the heater surface, and this triggers some thermal acoustic effects. It's been very difficult for us to reliably reproduce this, but we know it can happen. Think about the "clicking" noise a tea kettle can make before it reaches a boil, and imagine that sound resonating inside a cylinder. That's what seems to be going on and descaling seems to immediately fixes this problem.

(3) Louder than expected noise can also happen when Joule stands in the bottom of a pot and that pot sits on the right kind of surface. Essentially, the quiet vibration of the motor is transferred through the pot into the counter and the entire counter amplifies the noise like a speaker. A soft trivet between the pot and the counter fixes this right away.

(4) The shape of the pot. With some pots, the shape and fullness of the pot itself amplifies the noise from Joule, making it much louder. For example, we use stainless steel asparagus steaming pots for a lot of Joule testing at ChefSteps, and they can make Joule louder just by how they direct the noise (sort of like the way an old-fashioned gramophone amplified the noise of the vibrating record needle).

(5) Something else? We're keeping an eye on this thread, and if you're experiencing different behavior than those I described above, please report it.

Bill_Martin_17506

On my long cook of char siu, it made NO high pitched sound. Donʻt know what the deal was originally, but it made the sound until it hit temp, and quieted right down. Not so this next time.

With this long cook, I did note a LOT of scale build up. So afterwards, I put Joule in a tall, cylindrical, narrow pot: 50/50 water/vinegar, ran it up to 140F and pffffft. All gone.

patty_daley_517082

I noticed after a session where my Joule made a lot of noise, I put vinegar in the water after the cooking was done. Woosh, a big bunch of bubbles came up as I put the vinegar in the pot. INSTANTLY the noise subsided. Bubbles, probably not the vinegar, did the trick as it takes vinegar a while to work. ADDITIONALLY: I noticed the metal base had worked loosed. I had to screw it in a few turns. Hope this helps. Patty from Ameritest, San Ysidro, NM

john_galloway_691269

My unit makes a buzzing noise (varying slightly in pitch) averaging 48 Db measured 8-10 inches away with an iPhone app (with the mic facing the device). This is regardless of what sort of container its in or whether its raising or maintaining the temperature or the surface the container is sitting on and has done so every time I have used it (so its not an issue of accumulation of minerals etc on the prop).

When I first got it (2 weeks ago) it would not start at all and support suggested that I remove the base and turn the propeller a few times by hand. Doing so fixed the startup problem, but it makes me wonder if the device is defective with reports that it should be "silent". Mine is far from silent. Its actually rather annoying (even now sitting 30 feet away and around a corner). It does heat and circulate, its just noisy while doing so.

Bob_Milstead_760085

I'm having a similar problem, but, mine actually stops circulating water. If I bring it it up one degree at a time, I can get up up to temp, but, of course, that is ridiculous. This only happens at higher temps, above 160F I have not tried the descaling yet, however, it is a pretty new unit. I have less than 30 hours total cook time on it.

Nancy_Musser_Larson_815586

It's an old thread, I know. Making egg bits this morning. Joule, at 85C, "hisses" for a period of time, then quiets back down to normal. This is in a 7.3 qt. cambro with six 4-ounce ball jars jars stacked 2 high, having an inch of water over the top jar. After a period of time, the hissing stops.