Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've been looking into Sous Vide cooking for over a year now reading reviews etc. I finally pulled the plug on this model and couldn't be happier with this purchase. We've used it everyday for over a month now. You name it we've cooked it (eggs, steak, pork roast, vegetables, fish, desert toppings.. and even used it to ripen fruit!) Not a single complaint. I won't bore you with descriptions of how the juicy or wonderful or delicious meals have been as its already been said dozens of times in these reviews. If you are considering this purchase, just be aware you can't use it to cook a meal in a hurry and you need to plan ahead. (Think of it like cooking with a crock pot... low temperature cooking over long periods of time ... slow and steady) . Early yesterday we decided to challenge this cooker with the tough meat challenge. As you may know, one of claims of sous vide cooking is it can make the toughest cut of meat tender. So... we asked the butcher provide us with a cheap inexpensive cut of meat which was a chuck underblade steak (also sometimes called a bottom chuck steak)... these are cuts that all too often turn out really tough. Be aware that tough meats need to cook for a much longer period of time. Following the instructions for cooking a tough cut of beef to medium rare... we cooked ours at 149 degrees for 19 hours ( recommended time is 16 to 24 hours) . The result ... was a delicious melt in your mouth delight, no knife needed, cut it with the side of a fork dinner. Really amazing. NOTE: You absolutely DO NOT .. I repeat you DO NOT need a vacuum sealer or Food Saver type of appliance to use this cooker! A zip lock bag works just as well. We have used both equally with the same great results. In regards to this cooker, the only advantage we found with the food saver was being able to bulk purchase meat / chicken. We put the meat into a food saver bags with our seasonings of choice, seal them up then throw them in the freezer. We then have a supply of ready to cook meals waiting for our Anova Culinary Bluetooth Precision Cooker, Black And "Yes" you can cook frozen food right from the freezer by just adding two hours on to the recommend cooking time. FYI: There is an awesome "sous-vide-time-and-temperature-guide" located under the Resources tab on the chefsteps website. Last... you also DO NOT need one of those large clear containers you see being used with many of these Sous Vide cookers. Just clamp this unit on to the edge of any large pot you have and it works great. Just be aware when cooking for long periods (like cooking a tough cut of meat for 24 hours) water will evaporate so you want to make sure the water is always covering the food being cooked and to add more water if necessary. One trick to prevent water loss is to tightly cover the top of the pot with plastic wrap. Seal if off the best you can (working around the precision cooker) to close off the top of the pot. Another hack... do as I did. I stole this idea from another reviewer here on Amazon of using a cooler with a hole cut in the lid. I chose the Igloo Island Breeze Cooler (Diablo Red, 9-Quart) (The price of this cooler fluctuates up and down. Be patient ... I picked up mine for $10. Anyway, by using a cooler... the water heated by the Precision Cooler is insulated from outside air so the cooker doesn't have to work as hard to keep the water hot thus saving on electricity, and with the lid closed the water that evaporates, condenses on the underside of the lid and drops back into the cooler. NET: We had ours running for 19 hours of cooking without and drop in the water level. Cool!