Sous-vide sets review: 4 top sellers but I only like 2
22.11.2023
Translation: Elicia Payne
Sous-vide cooking with vacuum bags in a water bath should be easy and always produce the same result. The test of the four best-selling models at Galaxus shows: all the cookers have weaknesses.
You’ve clicked on this comparison test and therefore know what to expect. If you’ve spent the last ten years in a culinary slumber, here’s the lowdown:
Bringing food vacuum-packed in plastic bags to temperature in a water bath has been all the rage for a few years now. The French term «sous vide» is the name of the method, which translates as «under vacuum»
The advantages? Meat and other foods reach an exact core temperature and remain at this temperature. This means you can leave the heated food in the bain-marie for longer without everything going bad. You don’t need a hob either, as sous vide cookers only require a pan, provided there’s a socket nearby.
On the negative side, there are the plastic vacuum bags that end up in the bin, the entry-level price and the space required for the temporary sous vide installation, which is especially problematic in small kitchens.
I put everything under water!
I got into the sous vide game a year ago. Meanwhile, it’s not just entrecôte I give well-tempered baths. While I was careless in the past and pairs of sausages burst open in boiling water, today they dance in water for hours without being damaged. I heat the Wieners to 80 degrees (and no higher) before removing them from their plastic corset and eating them.
But sous vide isn’t reserved for meat. Hollandaise sauce, potatoes or other vegetables– anything goes with this method. I even made peace (for two hours at 63 degrees) with chicken breasts I disliked so much.
High time for a well-founded comparison test between the four best-selling sous vide cookers.
The competition
All sous vide cookers in the test work according to the same basic principle. You put them in a pot of water, select a temperature and the rods maintain this temperature. Inside the rods is a heating coil, similar to an immersion heater in a chemistry lab. A small propeller circulates the water in the water bath, while a sensor measures the water temperature and regulates it accordingly.
The categories
Sous vide cookers must have the following properties with the most important ones at the top. They must:
- Maintain a specified temperature in the water over a longer period of time.
- Be easy to attach to the water container or pot and stay in place.
- Be easy to use.
- Heat the water quickly. (Because time is also money.)
Above all, a sous vide cooker must therefore be able to maintain a constant temperature in the water. With meat, a difference of one to two degrees can decide whether it’s still pink or already overcooked. It goes without saying that the sous vide cooking rod has to be stable. If it tips over in the water or submerges, the feast won’t cook. At most you’ll be the one hot and bothered. It’s also important that it’s simple to operate and intuitive. You don’t want to have to dig out the manual every time.
How quickly the sous vide rods heat up is of secondary importance to me. in my case its faster to bring the water up to temperature on the induction plate at the beginning anyway. There are a few borderline cases where the sous vide cooker is left to its own devices. I’ll explain them to you below.
Source: Simon Balissat
Maintaining temperature
The Anova did best at maintaining a constant temperature. At the beginning of the measurement, the cooker overshot the temperature slightly, but then levelled off at a constant 79.8 degrees Celsius. The cooker from Proficook reached its feel-good temperature at 81.1 degrees Celsius, but had a couple of rogue readings. Koenig struggled to reach the set 80 degrees; it oscillated around 79 degrees, with a few readings slightly below. La Vague’s cooker wandered around between 78.4 and 77.2 and only calmed down towards the end at a much too low 77.4 degrees.
The most important category therefore goes to Anova, closely followed by Proficook. Koenig falls behind slightly and La Vague significantly.
**Consistency rating **
Anova ➡➡➡➡➡
Proficook ➡➡➡➡
Koenig ➡➡➡
La Vague ➡
The bracket
The bracket must be flexible enough to work on different appliances, which wasn’t always the case.
Thanks to a screw thread, Anova holds firmly to my pot Unfortunately, I accidentally dropped the washer and haven’t been able to find it. Sure, my mistake too. But that’s a minus because I was able to make the mistake in the first place.
Source: Simon Balissat
The device at La Vague is ingenious: a clamp with predefined grids. It’s super secure and quite flexible. The cooker only causes problems if the pot doesn’t have a protruding rim.
Source: Simon Balissat
There’s also a clamp with the Proficook, but it runs the risk of slipping on smooth surfaces. In my case, there were no problems.
Source: Simon Balissat
For my application, the Koenig cooker was the most difficult to fix. As the cooker would have gone too deep into the water, I had to attach it to the edge of the pot. So I deducted a point for this. The clamp holds well, even if the installation looks fragile.
Source: Simon Balissat
Bracket Rating
La Vague 🧲🧲🧲🧲🧲
Anova 🧲🧲🧲🧲
Proficook 🧲🧲🧲🧲
Koenig 🧲🧲🧲
Operation and display
If you use sous vide cookers, you cook slowly. Nothing ever burns or spills over. - However – a cooking temperature of 100 degrees isn’t an option as none of the cookers can reach that high. To avoid frustration, intuitive operation is still a must. The display must be easy and quick to read and it should be clear how to set the target temperature and timer.
Anova works with symbols. The current temperature, target temperature and timer can be selected at the top of the large display. You can set the target temperature and timer using the plus and minus buttons. «Play» or «Pause» is self-explanatory. The display is positioned at a slight angle and is therefore easy to read, regardless of whether you have your sous vide pot on the floor or on a shelf. I like how easy it is to use.
Source: Simon Balissat
The La Vague is also self-explanatory. Instead of buttons, the cooker has a control wheel on the right-hand side. This can be used to set the temperature and timer. Play and pause are again, self-explanatory. The wheel is a bit too slack and looks poorly finished. Because the display is perpendicular to the stick, you can easily read it on the table or other shelves. However if you put it on the floor, it’s almost impossible to read so that’s a minus for me too.
Source: Simon Balissat
With cooker number three, things get complicated for the first time. You control the Proficook using the ring on the edge of the device and use the small button with the cogwheel to choose between temperature and timer. However, it isn’t always precise and gets frustrating. You use the power button to start the cooker, which is confusing compared to the play buttons on La Vague and Anova. Here the display is horizontal to the stick, so it’s difficult to read on the hob or table.
Source: Simon Balissat
I still haven’t really understood how to use the Koenig sous vide cooker. There’s a dial like on La Vague and a power button like on Proficook. I use «Set» to switch between timer and temperature. I don’t understand why it beeps roughly every 15 seconds or when the temperature is reached. Even when I intensively studied the instructions it didn’t solve the puzzle. It just contributed to the great frustration. Although the display is beautifully designed, it’s positioned horizontally, which makes it barely legible on the stove or a table.
Source: Simon Balissat
Bracket Rating
Anova 🎮🎮🎮🎮🎮
La Vague 🎮🎮🎮🎮
Proficook 🎮🎮🎮
Koenig 🎮
Heating time
The last criterion isn’t very important, as you should bring the water to a basic temperature with a kettle or in a pot on the hob anyway. It’s just faster and more efficient that way. In rare cases, for example if you’re grilling on the terrace or in places where there’s no hob, the sous vide cooker has to do all the work. I heated seven litres of water from 20 to 80 degrees Celsius.
Proficook and La Vague take the most time of around 44 minutes, followed by Anova with 34 minutes. Koenig completes a real speed run in 26 minutes, thanks to a power output of 1,300 watts. It only takes 12 minutes on the induction hob to heat the water to 80 degrees Celsius. Not surprising, because a stove like this delivers at least 2,500 watts of power.
Heating time rating
Koenig 🕐🕐🕐🕐🕐
Anova 🕐🕐🕐
Proficook 🕐
La Vague 🕐
The results
With the individual disciplines measured equally, the final result is as follows:
Anova comes out on top, Proficook and Koenig share second place with La Vague close behind. This calculation is unfair, as I consider the almost irrelevant heating speed in the same way as constant heating. I have therefore weighted the results:
- Consistency 50%
- Mounting 20%
- Operation 20%
- Speed 10%
This gives a different picture.
1. Place: Anova
Source: Valentina Sproge
Anova is by far the winner. Constant temperature, simple operation and a solid mount give it the victory. The fact that this cooker takes a long time to warm up is a negligible evil.
2. Place: Proficook
Source: Valentina Sproge
Behind it comes the Proficook. It heats very consistently and is easy to attach, but it is a little slower to operate and takes a long time to bring the water up to temperature. In terms of value for money, this cooker is unbeatable.
3. Place: Koenig
Source: Valentina Sproge
I can’t recommend the Koenig appliance because of the poor operation, the temperature fluctuations and the inconvenient bracket.
4. Place: La Vague
Source: Valentina Sproge
The same applies to La Vague. During the test, this cooker was unable to maintain the temperature and therefore failed the main task. Even simple operation and secure mounting don’t help.
We work as an independent editorial team and write independent texts. - The campaigns running for Black Friday Week have not been agreed with the editorial team. The products were chosen for testing because they are the four best-selling in their category
Header image: Valentina Sproge
Simon Balissat
Teamleader Editorial
Simon.Balissat@digitecgalaxus.chWhen I flew the family nest over 15 years ago, I suddenly had to cook for myself. But it wasn’t long until this necessity became a virtue. Today, rattling those pots and pans is a fundamental part of my life. I’m a true foodie and devour everything from junk food to star-awarded cuisine. Literally. I eat way too fast.