Nuovoware Immersion Circulator Review

I've been cooking using the sous vide method for about three years now, and my original immersion circulator is still going strong, if a little tired. So I was delighted when Nuovoware offered me one of their circulators to review.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, an immersion circulator is a simple device that can be used for sous vide cooking. It fits into any suitable vessel, contains a heating element to heat the water, an impeller to mix the warmer and cooler water together, and control circuitry to maintain the temperature you've set.

The first thing that struck me was the chunkiness of the top section - I'm sure they could design this to be more compact. But the machine is well-made and feels reassuringly solid in the hand. I like that it has a clamp fixed to the body - this is much preferable to machines that have a separate clamp. The machine carries all necessary safety cetifications and the metal barrel is made from 304 stainless steel, which is properly food-grade.

I found operating the machine to be a little bit tricky. There are 3 LEDs - one for the temperature, one for the timer (up to 99 hours and 59 minutes), and one at the top that glows blue while the water is heating up and changes to red when the desired temperature is reached. And there are 4 touch buttons - the power button and the set button are multi-functional depending on whether you do a quick press, or a long one (3 seconds) and buttons for changing values up or down Again if you do a short press the values change more slowly than if you do a long one. I found these a bit awkward to use and would much have preferred a scroll wheel. Using the power and set buttons also requires patience and practice - you can easily end up cancelling everything you've set and going back to selecting Celcius or Fahrenheit.

In operation, the machine is very quiet, with just intermittent chugs when the impeller is working. Although they claim accuracy of ±0.1°C, I noticed that it would sometimes be showing as much as one degree over or under the set temperature. Safety-wise, the circulator won't work if the water level is below the line on the barrel. If the water level drops below this line during cooking, it will stop heating/circulating and emit some (very quiet) beeps.

Some immersion circulators are equipped with Bluetooth or WiFi and can be controlled via an app. This one has neither, and that's no problem at all for me - my previous circulator had Bluetooth, and I think I used it once.

To sum up: this is a good-quality immersion circulator with some niggly little faults, none of which are serious enough to be deal-breakers. It's not massively expensive - about £70 in the UK, $53 in the US. Until the end of May 2019, Nuovoware are offering my readers a 15% discount (10% in Germany) if you use the codes below at checkout on Amazon:

UK: https://amzn.to/2DvIm1x code: LXE7IEWD

Spain: https://amzn.to/2XnIrfc code: 55A889AN

France: https://amzn.to/2UJZWcU code: 5N367YFO

Italy: https://amzn.to/2Pe1Ht1 code: DULQJMEC

Germany: https://amzn.to/2VU4iLg code: DM5YKBGT (10% discount)

US link: https://amzn.to/2KZhSfp - sorry, no discount, you're already getting it cheap!

Full disclosure: I was sent this item for review by Nuovoware, but have received no other payment. All opinions expressed are mine own.