Review on 🍽️ Dash Chef Series Sous Vide: Stainless Steel Precision Cooking with Temperature Control, Timer, and Vacuum Sealing System - Perfect for Steak, Poultry, Seafood, and Vegetables - 8.5 Quart Capacity by Pamela Howard

This review relates to the Dash Chef series sous vide water oven. I use it almost every day and it works as advertised. I'm mostly happy with it; However, I have some reservations. I had to read the manual to get it working because when you plug it in, the LED indicator flashes and then goes off. For some reason, the designers thought it would be a good idea to force users to hold the power button for three seconds to switch back to display mode. I'm not sure how this will help anyone. I think this is a waste of time and an unnecessary extra step. But maybe this will cause the device to go into sleep mode in power saving mode. This water oven has a hybrid design consisting of a temperature-controlled water tank and a circulation pump. The tumbling element looks like a large white pill or vitamin. This is a magnet that rotates under a cylindrical protective cover at the bottom of the tank. Actually it's a cool design. However, it is far from silent. For "cooks" at low temperatures (about 140 F or less), this unit is pretty quiet. However, when preheating a water veg oven at 183 F, this unit makes quite a bit of noise. It's not unbearably loud, but full of amazing sounds. For example, the sound of a heating element causes the metal to heat up and creak. You can hear the circulation pump humming as it spins and the water gurgling from time to time. I could see how this onslaught of weird little noises would annoy some users. In my opinion, this is not a significant disadvantage. However, it would be nice to use a quieter agitator. The most significant design limitation is the size of the vacuum packs that can be placed in this water oven. It comes with a 4 slot rack with a central cutout that prevents food from sinking to the bottom of the oven where the heating element is located. While this design guards against uneven cooking, it severely limits the portion sizes you can cook without investing in a third-party grill. To place sous vide bags in this rack, you must carefully portion your food so your vacuum bags are no more than 4 inches tall, no longer than 9.5 inches, and no more than 1 3/4 inches wide. Ideally, your pockets should be slightly smaller to allow for circulation. Even a small or medium-sized roast or four cobs of corn that the oven could otherwise hold would be impossible to cook with the grate. If you take the rack out, you'll probably want to replace it with a raised cooling rack that has enough room for water to circulate under and around the sous vide bags. The advantage of the rack is that it can be turned on its side (although the manufacturer does not recommend this). This allowed me to easily fit two bags of veggies that would otherwise easily stick out of the water (except they touched the sidewall and restricted circulation, but shorter and longer bags might solve that problem). If Dash sold an additional rack designed to stack larger bags on top of each other, that would be useful, as would a flat rack for a medium roast or a couple of corn on the cob. However, such racks can be purchased from third-party suppliers. On the other hand, the oven is easy to clean. The frame, the cylindrical body of the water circulator and its "magnetic tablet" are removed. Normally the water needs to be drained and wiped off, although after two consecutive uses without cleaning I did notice a build up of a white tarnish-like substance. There may be some unique chemicals in my local water! Perhaps one of the device's best features is its lid. What defines a well-designed case is its durability and fit. Based on user reviews of other water heaters on Revain, this is not a universal design feature. That's right, when you remove it you have to hold it at an angle so that the condensate from bad water can go back into the tank. However, from the reviews I've read, this is the standard for water oven lids. Although the Dash water heater is small, it can be attractive to those who live in apartments and want to keep the device on their countertop. That's definitely one of the reasons why we chose it. What is my final verdict on this product? If you're not put off by its whimsical noises and small portions, the Dash is an efficient hybrid thermostat with an attractive design and a durable, comfortable lid. I would say this is an efficient sous vide water oven for a couple, one person or maybe a family of four eating very lightly. Using third-party coasters can greatly increase the portion sizes you cook in the dash. Just make sure the water circulation is comparable to the original coaster and don't let the bags touch the bottom or walls of the tank to avoid bumps. Heating.