Finally used unit twice. Once to heat water to see if it would hold temp. Next we had a chunk of standing rib roast left over from Christmas to reheat. Both worked as expected using the wifi. This is the best way to reheat anything!
My question is how do most of you hold the cooking bag down without clipping to side of tank? I noticed that someone used what looked like rods going across their cooler and bags clipped to that. I would like the water to circulate all around bags so no putting a weight to hold it on bottom. I do well with pictures. Thanks
If you’re sure of your seal and you’ve got the air out you can set them free, they don’t really need to be clipped to anything.
But what about water or heat coming from both sides if we have several bags? Get caught up in the intake of unit?
I’ve never had a problem. Water or heat is supposed to come from both sides.
You may want to look at getting one or more sous vide racks for your vessel. The size of rack you can get really depends on how big your vessel is.
I have the Lipavi L15:
(I don’t actually like promoting their products, as the pricing they offer in the UK and Canada is HIGHLY offensive, but they do make really good products!!) Reasonable pricing in the US.
I have the Cambro 4 3/4 gallon polycarbonate container with locking lid (2 1/2" hole drilled through it for the APC).
A setup like this (or a cooler with a sealed lid) is ideal for long cooks as it reduces evaporation to nearly zero.
When I first started I actually used a Weber rib rack (meant for BBQ) as my sous vide rack. 
It worked ok, but because it’s chrome, not stainless steel, it rusts at all of its welds each time I used it.
Sous Vide Supreme also make a much simpler, less expensive rack:
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I use an Ikea product called VARIERA. Works fine.
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I bought a Lapavi one on special on Amazon, and even with the often ridiculous postage to Australia it worked out pretty good value. The Ikea one is cheap until you add delivery costs when there is no Ikea handy and it is apparently a discontinued item.
Thanks for the replies. Now I know what to look for or something similar that will fit my cook container.
JB, unless you are tightly packing your container with cooking bags there should be ample water circulation to evenly heat your food. It’s a very forgiving technique. A weight in the bag will not impact heating.
If you are concerned with uneven heating and are present during cooking, just give the bags a stir occasionally. The strength of SV cooking lies in the powerful heat transfer capabilities of water.
The VARIERA Pot lid organizer (Article Number: 701.548.00) from IKEA offers several advantages:
- Low price.
- Quality stainless steel throughout.
- Accordeon can be stretched from 5.75” (W) x 3.5” (L) x 4” (H) == to == 4.75” (W) x 18” (L) x 4” (H).
- Each dividing rod (14 in all) can easily be unscrewed and removed, offering a variety of configurations.
- Pouches can be squeezed between rods or clipped to them if so desired, or simply left loose to keep them from floating around.
- Rack was originally designed to store pan lids, but turns out to be very useful also in a SV bath.
- Fits perfectly in small or large coolers, or 8 qt+ metal pots. I find this “Pot lid organizer” extremely useful, if not indispensable for SV cooking as well as pressure cooking or marinating.
- This rack can also be used to hold pouches vertically in the freezer while liquid contents solidify to facilitate vacuum sealing.
USA: U$7.00 - https://m.ikea.com/us/en/search/?query=701.548.00&_=1515103775282
Canada C$13.00- https://m.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/art/70154800/
Why is it so expensive in Canada? It should not sell over C$8.75 at today’s exchange rate. It’s currently overpriced by 49%. Price gouging? Hello IKEA, anybody home? Are you prepared for another Asian invasion?
Heh! I dropped by Ikea this morning to grab one of these and found that they had misplaced their last shipment of them! So somewhere on their loading dock or way back in the warehouse there is a box with 200 of these just waiting to be sold - I just have to wait for them to find them! Got my fingers crossed that they find them in the next couple days.
André, overpriced? Maybe not so much price gouging but reflecting the significant differences in the cost of doing business in Canada.
There’s more to it than the woeful difference in currency. To start, retail wages are almost 2x in Canada and that’s the largest business expense after cost of goods sold. Then there’s more fees, permits, licenses, real estate costs, and taxes, and then even more fees. I’ve done business in both countries and Canada is far more costly.
Mirozen - It seems that IKEA has difficulty moving inventories between stores. We had a similar problem here locally. Some stores were ridiculously overstocked while others were out of stock, but the matter was settled within a week or so. I wonder if this is linked to legalization of pot consumption in some places or if IKEA inventory management courses are supplied in assembly kits from China. 
I’d rather not think of the gigantic mess it will become in the near future. I suspect that the name “pot lid organizers” is fancied by drug addicts as well as SV and Instant Pot cooks alike. 
Chatnoir – I shall abstain from drifting into such a misleading debate. Time is money afterall. However, I can assure you that U$1.00 does NOT convert to C$1.86 (U$7.00 x 1.8571428571 = C$13.00). No argument can sustain such a markup ratio BEFORE TAXES, unless you are a BOING CEO with slave attorneys, or a bankrupted and starving Trump subcontractor. BTW and FYI, the “pot lid organizer” is made in China under IKEA license. Does that ring a bell? 
You can also buy sous vide bags, which contain a small vacuum hole and hand pump. For $18 on Amazon, get 10 reusable bags, the hand pump and a couple of clips too.
Very interesting André.
Let’s leave the mud down in the ditch and focus on food related challenges.
Some things, like vegetables, will just float no matter how well you get the air out. Celery has got to be the most frustrating vegetable known to mankind. Apart from being fairly low on the flavour scale (though you notice it when it’s missing in a classic mirepoix) that darn thing is gonna float even with a brick tied to it. Fortunately if you can stand that bag on edge and trap it in place with a rack of some description you’re golden.
I don’t buy celery very often because I don’t use it much. When I have it I pack it in batch bags and sous vide for 1 hour at 83.4C/183F for an hour, crash chill and shove in the fridge. It keeps there for ages. When I need some for building a sauce or a stock just open the bag and chop the sticks. They still colour up beautifully with enough saute time.
I can see people pulling the racks out of old dishwashers and adapting them, the prices of ready made ones are pretty steep, i will end up knocking something up, its half the fun
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For vegetables, I wonder if it’s possible to use the water displacement method to get most of the air out, then weigh the bag down in the pot and clip it to the side, but not seal the bag completely? That way, any gas produced will have an outlet for escape, while the water pressure keeps a pseudo-vacuum around the veggies.
K, the problem with vegetables is they tend to float and that makes for uneven contact with the cooking water. I use a weight and give the cooking parcels a tumble occasionally to ensure even cooking.
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