I like this product but it's still pricey. Many people have built their own for under $100, like me. Plans, parts, and plug and plays are readily available. Crock pots work but the stoneware slows down the heat transfer. You can use high to preheat but be sure to use low for your cooking or it will be difficult for the PID controller to maintain constant temp. A better choice is a countertop roaster which has way more room and more direct heat. Use a cheap wire rack inside to keep food off the sides and bottom. Vacuum sealing is not necessary. Submerging your bags will squeeze most of the air out. Sous vide is awesome for meat, poultry, fish and eggs. Along with perfect doneness from poached to hard boiled, you can pasteurize raw eggs to use in raw recipes like hollandaisse, mayonaisse, and egg nog with out any fear of bacterial contamination. Medium rare burgers too, 135o F, 57o C is the magic number for killing bacteria.

You can also pre-heat the water in a kettle or on the stove top to save time, as long as you stay just under the final desired temperature.

Hi PC - I'm Grace, founder of Codlo.
Thanks, we love sous vide cooking too! However, there needs to be an affordable and approachable device in the market to bring sous-vide mainstream.
Our conscious and thoughtful design approach addresses many of the pain points for new users, so that it's truly plug-and-play. For example, there's no need for manual adjustments of PID due to the algorithm's ability to learn. It's great value to have the convenience and design of such a product just off-the-shelf.

I have gone through the process of making a home made sous vide cooker in an Esky, and have now bought a cheap Sous Vide cooker for $160. I think the Codlo option is very good as it is compact and easy to use. I wish it was available earlier but I am sure it will find a good market. Ron

@Cyberon - it's never too late to get one! :)

Does nobody care about the effects of cooking your food in plastic for long periods of time?
I didn't know that plasticizers like phthalates and PVC were an element of fine dining.

I have been involved with sous-vide in the past. I really, I mean REALLY, like this. Way to go Grace!

Tom, i believe there is no pvc or phtalates in the plastic type of these bags. The temps used are relatively safer, but i too tend to use plastic minimally in my cooking, just for a safety margin.

Dunno, but it seems to me that $130 for a power supply (a couple bucks), PID temperature controller (single chip, pennies), thermocouple (pennies), and solid state 120V switch is a whole lot of money. But I guess that's what successful device entrepreneurship is all about and I wish them success.
This does interest me as a possible way to give a small convection oven precise low temp control for use speeding up curing of adhesives, softening plastics, dissolving gelatine, and many other useful DIY kinds of things. Probably can't handle the current, though, and the PID may not be able to tune itself to that condition.

why wouldn't a cooktop like the nuwave PIC suffice for this? if it had a digital readout...they hawk as being accurate...?