Sous Vide recommendations (film development)

Hi all,
does anyone have any recommendations for a good sous vide brand/model that is available in the UK? I've got through two Cinestill ones so far that have failed just out of the warranty period that I used for C-41 processing (also 20 C B&W but that's easier to achieve). In one Cinestill the thermocouple has gone and it basically boiled the water bath when I wasn't watching, and on its replacement, the touch-button to switch it on has failed.

I was looking at the Anova ones but the reviews on reliability are mixed, but also looking at the sousvidetools one as they seem aimed towards the professional market. There are loads of Chinesium ones for a lot less but given my experience with the Cinestill ones that lasted just over a year, I'd like to get something that's a bit more reliable. Buy well, buy once and all that...

I've got two Anova units, both of which have survived years. Given their attempt to move to a subscription model for the app I'm not sure I'd buy them again, but the hardware has held up well.

have used ink bird. Also wifi connected so you can watch the temperature or set it while you are not around.

I have a cheap, generic Chinese unit. It was the cheapest I could get. It's clunky, somewhat noisy and its user interface is extremely basic and not particularly well thought through. But so far it hasn't let me down in my occasional use. I see sous vide units start at around €50 on AliE and frankly that's the route I'd go if I were to buy one again today.

xtolsniffer said:

Buy well, buy once and all that...

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I'm not sure if that applies to sous vide units. I think they're all engineered for lowest cost, and even if the system design as such is solid, the components in there (pump, display etc.) will be in the same league as the low-end units since there's very little meaningful stratification in such parts (at least in this overall consumer/semi-pro segment) to begin with.
Case in point- we have a 'genuine' Bosch mixer. I once opened it up because the 'run'-button didn't work well. The engineering turned out to be on par or even below the level of cheap Chinese units - which this likely is, just with a Bosch brand stamped on it and 150% added to the sales price.

I'm skeptical of the value that 'major' brands constitute in these kinds of products today, while on the other hand I'm very optimistic about how far generic Chinese products have come quality-wise.

I have the basic Anova Nano 2.0 for 3 years, and it has survived. I don't use the app, everything can be controlled and set directly on the unit itself. In the US, it now sells for only $66.

It might also depend on how many rolls you process, the volume of water bath, and your ambient temperature. I typically do 50-100 rolls a year (including C41, E6, and ECN-2). And here in California, it is typically 65-75F indoors all year around. I use a smallish plastic bucket that needs about 8L of water bath, plus 4 liters of chemical in bottles.

I've had a Joule for almost a decade now, used regularly for both food and hot water baths, and it's still in perfect working order. very simple design, and you clean it in a weak acetic acid bath naturally. my only concern was that the interface is entirely app based, no buttons on the wand itself except power off. nonetheless, the app is still fine, as is the device, never let me down.

Careful with the cheap ones. Believe it or not the control unit heads aren't waterproof.

Thread title tweaked - just in case the search engines start sending a bunch of foodies on a wild goose chase!
Pun intended.

MattKing said:

Thread title tweaked - just in case the search engines start sending a bunch of foodies on a wild goose chase!
Pun intended.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. In the end I managed to combine two non-working Cinestills into one working one. I had one that had a good touchscreen but a non-working thermocouple relay and one that had a good relay and a non-working touchscreen, so I swapped the touchscreen over. I think the fault was a bad solder joint in the ribbon cable connector on the touchscreen. For anyone who finds this thread and wants to do the same, take a sharp narrow blade and insert between the screen and the silver ring at the 3, 6, 9 or 12 O'clock position and then prise up the thin plastic face cover. The reason for these positions is that there are screws underneath here, so a small screw hole that makes it easier to slide the blade in at a angle and prise up. There is a lot of adhesive under the plastic face cover so go carefully. Once this cover is off, you will see four screws that hold the silver surrounds ring. Remove these and then the ring. Under this there are six more screws that hold the display/touch button unit in place. Remove these and the display can be pulled out. There is a thick ribbon cable behind that connects this to the unit, which can be gently prised out. It will only insert one way, so no need to mark it.

I don't find the Cinestills particularly accurate; when I calibrate with my Kodak process thermometer they tend to over-read by a degree or more, I guess this is an issue with having the thermocouple right next to the heating element. To get a consistent 38 degrees C in my C-41 water bath I generally set them at 40 degrees, though to be fair, this is a sample size of two.