Costco has these marked down from $89.99 to $64.99. I’ve been wanting to get into sous vide, and I have a very nice food sealer, but I have extremely limited counter space. I like the idea of a combination device that could do pressure cooking, rice making and sous vide. Does anyone have one of these and does it do a worthwhile job?
I have an Instant Pot and use it for pressure cooking as well as rice.
I do Sous Vide with a Joule in a poly carbonate square container. You know you can use most any container as long as it will take the intended temperatures, right.
Some folks use stock pots etc. depending on the size of the item to be cooked.
I’ve cooked large items including 12 pound rib roasts (using an ice chest as the container) and would not consider the pot large enough for normal sous-vide cooking. On the other hand, it’s a great price for the Instant Pot and would be handy for smaller sous-vide items so why not?
Reviews of the IP’s sous vide functions are pretty bad. I’d stick with either a Joule or an Anova SV circulator. The temperature accuracy is apparently terrible, and accurate temp control is the key with SV cooking. My Joule is good to a half degree vs a calibrated thermometer, but review of the IP seems to show it can be 15 degrees over, and even then the temperature wanders. 15 degrees is the difference between a rare steak and ruined.
And 6 quarts is tiny for SV. If I’m doing one chicken breast for myself, I’ll use a 6 quart cambro, and I’ve got an 18 quart cambro for larger things like roasts. For truly large foods, you can even use a picnic cooler.
I like the instant pot as it can do a lot as a multi purpose device. I use it mainly as a steamer, as a crock pot, legumes, stew type stuff. My brother swears it makes better ribs than any of his BBQ’s.
Need to try rice but we have *two *rice cookers and I’m skeptical it would be superior for cooking white rice. I have never tried sous vide in one, but as gotpasswords pointed out, sous vide really needs accurate temp control. I use an Anova and love that.
Net net, for me an instant pot is definitely a kitchen keeper and eliminates the need for a crock pot or steamer. It’s on my list to figure out more things to make in the instant pot.
Thanks for the replies. It really is too big of a thing to have in my tiny kitchen, and I need a good sous vide cooker more than I need a rice cooker or any of the other functions of an instant pot.