Is anybody else seeing house lights flicker with Joule

As soon as Joule gets up to temperature every incandescent light in my house starts flickering. Used to be flickering on/off about twice a second, but following a recent firmware update it's much faster. Only happens when Joule is up to temperature, not when it's heating up. Is it just me, or has anybody else seen something like this?

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Comments

Mike_Kisiel_129680

No???

wolfiegirl

Call an electrician!

Or cheaper and less reactive, first open a help ticket with CS. This is NOT normal.

JM_463468

You probably have insufficient wiring in the location you're using the Joule and getting voltage sag. The Joule is 1100W like some older sous vide equipment which can cause electrical problems in older or improperly wired locations. Try a different/less loaded circuit in your home (or maybe switch to LED bulbs to lower the load?) The Sweethome covers this in their sous vide roundup: "We’ll get more into the heating element of the Anova Precision Cooker Wi-Fi in a bit, but the company has upped it from 800 watts to 900 watts, which is still low enough to prevent it from tripping the circuitry in your kitchen. The original Anova circulator ran at 1,100 W. Most modern kitchens should have a 20-amp circuit, which should allow for to 2,400 W at 120 volts without tripping—more than enough for the full power heater and whatever else you’re running in the kitchen. But older buildings will sometimes run as low as 10 amps, which means a 1,100 W heating element is already pushing close to the maximum of 1,200 W, and adding anything to that same circuit will cause trouble. Even more modern kitchens will sometimes have outlets set for 15 amps, even if the circuitry can handle more. Depending on how and when your kitchen was wired, 1,100 W may have been pretty close to the maximum load it was designed for on a single circuit, and turning on anything else may trip it. Reducing the wattage means you’re less likely to accidentally lose power while cooking, which means fewer failed cooks and less food waste."

wolfiegirl

Yeah... what he said....

FrankM_3301

Not dramatically, but I have always noticed a faint pulsing of my lights...even before Joule, when using my Polyscience circulator. I don't know that anyone else in my family has noticed. It is subtle...but it is there.

tshewman

I want that pill. :-)

tuckie_340811

I see it too (house built in 1976), and the firmware update did make it less noticeable.

Peter_Jeffcock_39421

Thank you. I've tried it on several different 20 amp circuits, even out in the garage, with the same effect. We had some electrical work done recently and there were no issues found with the service or wiring, but this is an old house (1955) and there could easily be some older or improper wiring somewhere. Will see what we can find.

fisher23

@Peter_Jeffcock_39421 check out this post the comments from Dan Ahern at ChefSteps. I have LED lights and I don't notice it, but when I open my refrigerator I see it with the light in there.

TL:DR Joule used to cycle 2 times per second, with the update Joule now cycles 8 times per second.

fisher23

Under the right circumstances it would be normal. Dan Ahern for ChefSteps recently posted a comment regarding this. #electrical

Peter_Jeffcock_39421

That was what I was looking for. Thank you. Since this happens with multiple 20 amp circuits and the wiring in those areas seems new, perhaps the suggestion to ask the electricity company to check the service to the house will help.

fisher23

Still not as bad as when I use my vacuum cleaner, it will sometimes pop the breaker. BTW I have used two Joules on the same circuit and they don't pop the breaker.

Dan_Ahern_30344

As others have noted it probably isn't anything to be too concerned about.

Depending on particular home wiring, the flickering is something that can happen in some homes. This is due to the way sous vide works by maintaining a precise temperature, to do that we cycle power to our heater many times a second (right now 2 times, in the firmware update it is 8 times). What you are seeing with the lights dimming is the heater power cycling on and off to maintain the temperature. This is similar to the microwave's defrost cycle or refrigerator compressor turning on or off.

If you are concerned there are some things to check:

(Sounds like you already checked to make sure it wasn't the particular circuit)

Another thing that can make this worse is the type of lightbulbs. High wattage lightbulbs like incandescents are going to be more sensitive to high power draw devices like your microwave, Joule, or refrigerator. Lower wattage LED lightbulbs seem to hold up much better to the large power draw of Joule's (or any sous vide device) heater turning on.

There is also a small chance that your home electrical service isn't getting enough power from the power companies transformer. If the lights in the entire house dim this could actually be the case and the power company could come out and test this (and if it is a problem with the service coming into the house they _should_ fix it free of charge).

fisher23

Dan thank you so much again for explaining this.

#electrical #flicker

Era_327830

No.

jane_bauer_278852

Dan, my lights are also flickering. I've changed the circuit and it continues. It is the only appliance that causes it in my house. I see on the above feed you mention "If you are concerned there are some things to check:" but I don't see what things I should check.

I also see some people mentioning a firmware update....how can I get that?

Dan_Ahern_30344

Hi Jane,

Sorry I missed this. This post has the things to check:

https://www.chefsteps.com/forum/posts/joule-issue/comments/a617bf4d-6143-4bc2-ae9b-ebcfa75926b0

The firmware update should be pretty easy.

http://us3.campaign-archive1.com/?u=9f69331c823fb9ca452fe5184&id=833e6ec03e&e=226f8da4ef

Anthony_Te_578825

I'm having the same issue. Just got mine yesterday. Only used it twice with the same lights flickering and it's annoying!

Anthony_Te_578825

I'm concerned that because of this whole house power fluctuation done by the joule, that some sensitive elecronic devices like computers and LED TVs might get destroyed rather quickly. I don't want a $199 joule to break my $4K smart tv.

clockoclock_1017234

Frankly speaking, I am a geek and I have tons of smart device's in my house and the light sometimes is flickering but not too often. There were times when the light was nearly shot down, when I was trying to charge my phone and I could not understand what that's happening. I called an electrician, but he wanted too much money for the whole job and I was not confident about him, he was a little drunk

So, I asked for help from spark innovation Sutherland and they solved this issue within an hour. It was fast and easy for them, and not that expensive as that drunk guy was asking for his job. That's why I am calling them every time I have an electrical issue