Comments on: DIY Sous Vide Heating Immersion Circulator for About $75

By: mattymonkey

mattymonkey — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:48:18 +0000

@Philip – ABS boxes seem to work well. It is the same plastic that they use to make waste plumbing pipe from. It is resistent to heat and is suitable for solvent based pluming glue (which is very good). They are usually water tight and come in a vast vaiety of sizes. I have bolted mine to a metal frame and used a metal clamp from a portable table tennis set that I had lying around.

By: Philip

Philip — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:03:26 +0000

I built my Sous Vide back in December, following Scott’s directions (with a few tweaks from forum suggestions). I have used it about a dozen times with perfect results. However, yesterday the bend on my acrylic brace gave out leaving me with no way to attach the unit to my water vessel. I have also had some splintering of the acrylic around cutouts on the main box. I’m starting to think brittle acrylic isn’t the best material for this application. Does anyone have suggestions (links) for other boxes and/or braces they have used for their sous vide?

I’m thinking polycarbonate may be a good option but i cant find any premade boxes and am weary of trying to build a sealed box from plastic sheets.

Scott – do you have a link to where we could buy the “upgraded” red box pictured in your V1.5 prototype?

By: George

George — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:13:20 +0000

@Dezzed – A few things. Although you may have the relay output, it does not mean you need to use that relay out on the PID. I think what most people found is due to the wattage of the heaters you are better off with the 25 A SSR so if you have the external solid state relay use it. If you hear clicking then you left the relay out enabled and you can disable it (there is a note on this on an earlier post). On a RTD thermocouple it measures the resistance across teh two wires so you can just wire the two white wires across the “R” (On the JLD 612 it is 8 and 9).

By: Dezzed

Dezzed — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:09:24 +0000

I’ve had all the parts for this sous vide cooker in a box since March. Decided to put it together. After getting it almost all together, I found I had the relay output PID. Not sure what I can do except buy another. Also, the thermocouple has one red and two white wires, not the red/blue/yellow described. I’m assuming red is red. Can anyone help me with the two whites? thanks!

By: pbarron

pbarron — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:09:49 +0000

Marc and anyone else interested in pump solutions. I’ve been using a P-38E pump: 12V, 109 GPH, ~105°C, food grade. They are generally available on ebay from a seller in China. Follow the link below while it’s still active or just search “P-38E” AND pump.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-12V-Electric-Centrifugal-Water-Pump-109-GPH-P-38E-/260688654282
I’ve burned through 2 aquarium pumps, another submersible pump and found the standard coffee maker pumps to be lackluster in GPH performance. I can say that the P-38E has worked flawlessly when cooking several meals for 3-days at 145°F.

By: Marc

Marc — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:18:10 +0000

Anybody have an ideas or experience in regards to water circulation for a sous vide rig. I was thinking of using a homemade magnetic stirrer on a Cambro container or trying just an aquarium bubbler to move the water around. Do you think the bubbler might play havoc with water temps?
Thanks

By: mattymonkey

mattymonkey — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:19:59 +0000

@Deiniol – those cartridge heaters look really professional. I would prefere to use one of those, but my fabrication skills arent quite up to the required standard. I am not sure how you would make the thermal break to stop the entire unit being heated up by the element.
But anyway, recieved my travel heaters from Germany and the quality seems excellent. Just being held up by my previously mentioned fabrication skills in fixing the heaters in the unit.

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:58:17 +0000

Hey, I built this awhile ago, but it recently malfunctioned, and I’m not sure why. I have a GFCI outlet rigged into my box that a heating element plugs into. However, for some reason, the reset button won’t push back in anymore. I tried switching the outlet out for a regular outlet, but it causes the kitchen GFCI to trip. How can I determine where my problem is?

By: Deiniol

Deiniol — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:04:18 +0000

Banned! That’s why I’ve been having such issues then.They have immersion cartridge heaters at http://www.easupplies.com for around £60 (and non immersion for 30), They seem easier to clean as they are stainless steel but a little pricey. I’m dubious about performance/cost issues before purchasing so will probably go for the ones you suggested.

Thanks scott and @mattymonkey

By: mattymonkey

mattymonkey — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:19:48 +0000

@Deiniol – didnt know what a cartridge heater was until I googled it. Have no idea where to get one of those at a reasonable price in the UK. Decent heating elements are quite difficult to get in the UK as the type used by Scott are banned here due to safety issues. I managed to find this site after follwoing a link on the Edinburghfoodie’s post – http://www.eibmarkt.com. They seem to sell some decent immersion heaters at reasonable prices, posted from Germany. Will let you know if they are any good when they arrive. Also, if you find a better option, I am always interested in hearing about it.

By: Deiniol

Deiniol — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:07:18 +0000

Hi, has anybody used a cartridge heater? any advice on where to source supplies in the uk?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:29:20 +0000

hello, I came across this website and decided to partake of a project that utilized similar universal generic components, but at the same time is far superior in performance and overall quality. I started with a much stronger shatter proof acrylic container that is 3/8 inch thick. sealed all the wire holes with rubber grommets, and reinforced all the drilled holes with liquid steel. I use a single heating element that you cannot find on ebay or amazon, and it could be used 24 hours a day and still have a 10 year life span, and when it does give out, it simple matter of unscrewing it, and screwing a new one in. The beauty of this unit, is that with the exception of the pid, all the holes can be simply drilled, cant post any pictures here or I would, also the mounting bracket is made of steel I cut two brackets and then welded the bolts to them that hold the I nut, so that is much stronger, then siliconing a nut in place, this is actually my second prototype, and I am working on a commercial grade third

By: Mattymonkey

Mattymonkey — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:29:13 +0000

looks like I found the problem. Seems that my pt100 is faulty. the whole thing is electrified, even the sheath. I was surprised by just how much current went through the thermocouple from the pid though. It was enough to give a decent jolt when I was grounded.
Worth checking you setup before you introduce water to the equation.

By: Mattymonkey

Mattymonkey — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:36:39 +0000

I have just finished my 3rd version, including a heatsink and old cpu cooling fan for the ssr. But I have found that my pt100 is conducting a lot of voltage to the waterbath. I ound this out the hard way when I recived a small shock. Anyone else experienced the same?

By: Matt A

Matt A — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:14:37 +0000

Would it be possible to show the CD101 PID Controller with the SSR diagram instead of the physical relay. Im trying to do this setup, but am not very experienced in wiring. I am also trying to turn this machine into a general-purpose temperature control unit by installing a power outlet from a 3 prong 125V AC power outlet, and a similar jack for the PT100 thermocouple probe. Any thoughts on the wiring diagram?

thanks.

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:06:45 +0000

Tom,
Thanks for the info and the awesome write up on your site. You have the best pictures around to see how it is really setup and you took a lot of them. Thank you.
I am getting my acrylic box tomorrow via UPS, the one they recommend 7″X4″X4″ and was wondering if you think I am going to be able to fit 2 outlets in there with the 25AMP SSR and standard heat sink they sell with it? I was thinking I may be able to cut a hole in the box and have the heat sink sticking through the box to help cooling and save internal space. My element is a 1500w water heating element and according to the killawatt meter is is pulling almost 1400w which is a little under 12 amps so it is going to get hotter than yours did although it looks like the heat sink that I bought for it when I bought the SSR is larger than what you are using. Here is a short youtube video of my first test of the water heater element in my heat stick configuration if you want to check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ8BtOYyz3s

I plan on cutting a 1 1/2″ hole in a small piece of acrylic for the j pipe to go through and a hole for the thermocouple and mount the water pump to the side of the j pipe aiming down at a slight angle to get it to pump water through the element. I will be able to turn the pipe to different angles or raise it up or down to where I find the optimum temperature control is at.
I will go with the other heat rated pump when this one fails, but for now might as well let it go ’til it blows. I don’t have any other use for it. The only reason why I didn’t in the first place was it sounded like from the specs that it didn’t pump very much water. Does it really have good enough water flow?

By: Turkey Leg…In A Water Bath « WholeMeal

Turkey Leg…In A Water Bath « WholeMeal — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 19:51:59 +0000

[...] Polyscience (€720) is pretty good going. And while it may have been more expensive than going the true DIY route I’m still very happy to have such a highly accurate controller as the Sous Vide Magic because [...]

By: Tom1

Tom1 — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 05:51:02 +0000

@Robert – Here’s how I did the build with the high temp water pump.

http://www.tomordway.com/PID_Controller/SousVideController.html

By: Tom1

Tom1 — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 05:48:59 +0000

I don’t know why people are not using the high temperature (up to 105′C) FDA approval mini submersible water pump sold at Light Object for $14.50. It does need a 6v dc power supply, but works great and is rated at 20,000+ hours. Seems like a no brainer to me, instead of replacing the aquarium pumps one after another. Here’s the link – http://www.lightobject.com/High-temperature100-39C-1LMin-mini-DC-Water-Pump-FDA-approval-Ideal-for-coffee-maker-or-other-food-process-application-P510.aspx

By: reedux

reedux — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:54:16 +0000

just wondering what housing people are using for their builds. with the addition of a SSR and possibly even a heatsink, it’s almost impossible to fit in 4x4x7 box from the plans.

By: Justin

Justin — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:46:50 +0000

@Robert

And after about 100 hours of use the norpro heaters are going strong, use the vinegar solution to keep the scaling off.

By: Justin

Justin — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:41:26 +0000

@Robert I built two of the diy immersion circulators both following the plans scott laid out. i would consider both of them a success. I did accidentally fry one of the aquarium pumps buy taking the temp too high (I’d say 70c is about the limit). A little solder removal and a new pump I’m back in buisness. I finished both of my machines just before Christmas. I decided to make the housings out of plexiglas and bought the SSR relays. All told I was barely over $225 for both of them. I looked for the best deal on each of the components and I could have built it for just over $75 (I am and amazon prime member so I did save some on the shipping). All in all, this is a great product and I am looking into a more robust circulation system. I am thinking propeller or paddles to circulate the water instead of submersible pumps. I have been unable to fine a big enough high-heat submersible pump that doesn’t need priming.

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:34:33 +0000

Got my first parts into today and decided to test out the immersion heaters norpro 559. I filled a coffee mug with water,inserted the heater into the almost full cup and plugged it in. After about 4 mins the water was boiling. I thought that was pretty quick. I got my camera phone and was going to snap a picture and send it to a friend with the subject Success when at about 5 mins it quit making noise and stopped boiling. It appears it has burned up in the first cup of water. Is this normal? I have read a lot of hit and miss reviews for this thing now that mine broke. The water was at least an inch over the top of the coil part. Can you not just let it keep it hot like that? In the sous vide bath I will not be heating to nearly that hot, but I figured it would be ok if I was sure it was covered. Anyone have any insight? Any higher quality brands out there?

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 07:03:44 +0000

Scott,
I have ordered pretty much the same setup that you have here. I have found a Premium Stainless Steel Waterproof PT100 RTD Temperature Sensor Probe that is designed to be submerged for $24 http://www.lightobject.com/Search.aspx?k=ETC-PT100SS2M
I really didn’t want it to look cheap in a latex glove finger or rust from the water vapor coming off the bath. This waterproof one should last me forever.
I ordered an 18 qt storage bin for the bath. I will use a separate flat piece of acrylic to mount the elements and probe to(the rest of the piece that I will cut the J clamp section from). I do not plan to mount the acrylic control box directly to the heating elements right over the water bath, but a modular design with a GFCI plug mounted in the acrylic box instead and then just plug all the stuff into it without cutting and soldiering all the wires together and I plan on using a 3 way power splitter to give me the outlets i will need. This way it will be easy to replace 1 heating element if it goes out, or the aquarium circulation pump http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004LOBS20/?tag=seattlefoodgeek-20 if it can’t take the heat. This is a 90gph pump, but it is adjustable so I can turn it down if it is blasting my food around too much. I have a feeling i won’t need it to pump wide open but I can vary the power for different size containers since they claim this 3 element bath can handle up to 15 gallons of water. For the circulation pump I guess I will have to plug it directly into the wall outlet so it will run all the time unless I put 2 GFCI outlets and wire one of them directly off from the switch on the unit. Also, leaving the temperature control unit separate and putting the power outlet right on the unit, it gives me the option to control other devices such as an electric smoker or beer keg refrigerator.

I have a few questions while I am waiting for my parts to arrive.

The PT100 probes look like they have a red wire and two blue wires now unlike your diagram. Is there anyway to know which blue wire goes where since it looks like they used to have 3 separate colors for the wires? I am assuming the red wire will still go to 10, but there is no yellow wire anymore. The ones on eBay look like this as well as the expensive submersion one that I ordered.

Do you see anything with my design that you think might cause me problems that I may be overlooking?

Any other way to keep it modular without needing 2 GFCI outlets on the unit to run the water pump all the time the switch is on short of wiring it directly? I have thought about using 2 standard outlets and putting the GFCI in the wall, but this will not give the safety of the GFCI if I decide to move the bath or take it with me somewhere. I don’t mind spending the money on another $12 GFCI, but the $75 project is going to be at $200 if I do, i’m already at $180 with shipping and the plastic container i’m using for the water bath.

Why do you not hear about many people using an aquarium circulation pump to move the water around more efficiently like a laboratory water bath does? It does not seem like just bubbling the water will keep it nearly as accurate. Have you heard these cannot take the heat associated with sous vide? I decided to give it a try since they are not that expensive and see how it holds up. I will report back in the future with personal observations.

Will I have any problems mounting the GFCI right in the same box as the causing interference with the temp controller or probe?

I don’t think this can be done for $75 anymore unless you only count the main components and no shipping charges. Actually, i just added it up and the main parts not counting the PT-100 came to $121 with shipping so with even a cheaper PT-100 one from eBay it would be about $133. Still, even with $200 in it, I will have a better product than the sous vide supreme “water oven” with a better controller and circulation to keep the temp more uniform. I would compare this more to the $799 unit that you can move from bath to bath as well. This is probably overkill actually, but since I used to be a bench chemist and used to use high end laboratory water baths for testing the last 20 years, the thought of the water just setting there being circulated by convection really bothered me.

Thanks a lot for your input and ideas.

Rob

By: David

David — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:18:05 +0000

Just D-checked, it is now working…operating it w/o the storage box-may have got water in the probe (?) and now it has dried out (Accidental 100% submersion); regardless, thank you for your immediate feedback

By: David

David — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:56:24 +0000

Changed the 2 blue wires-temp is still jumping.
Probe is connected directly to the PID using factory installed “connectors”-out of the water it settles at one temp. Any other suggestions?

By: scott

scott — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 04:32:16 +0000

@Kelley – make sure that your relay is turning off with your OUT1 light. There’s a red light on the relay that will tell you if it’s on or off. It’s possible (likely) that you may have a short in your wiring. It could be sending current through the water, which would explain your temperature reading. My recommendation is to dissasemble the unit, check all your connections, and make sure that all contacts are covered with electrical tape to avoid accidental shorts.

@David – Double check the wiring of your probe to the PID. If your probe has 2 blue wires, try switching them. Also, is your probe connected directly to the PID, or is it wired into a plug or onto any connectors using different materials? Since the PID measures the resistance of the PT100, using connectors or different materials can interfere with an accurate reading.

By: David

David — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 22:42:16 +0000

Having trouble with probe reading temp-seems to be jumping, range of aprox 5-8 degrees when in water (?)

Anyone else experience this and able to resolve it?

By: Kelly

Kelly — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:48:51 +0000

We have made so many great meals from this guy! Carnitas are special treat sou vide. Unfortunately while trying to cook lobster this evening the PID kept climbing above the set temperature. Though the temperature of the water remained less than the set amount. After turning machine on and off the PID only shows EEEE now. We have checked all the settings and set them to the listed default. We tried PT at default 10 and 100 as well. No luck. Any suggestions?

By: Michael Avery

Michael Avery — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 23:58:14 +0000

I’m starting to build this crazy thing. One more hardware shop trip to go. My wife has liked the Kenji style ice-chest sous vide, so we’re moving forward.

One suggestion – on the full size 1:1 pdf templates, it would help people if you included size references, such as a ruler (either inches or cm). Many printers scale things up or down and having an absolute reference, would help. Especially since some folks might not have the same box you used.

-Mike