Build a 12 volt sous vide

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by pacific_voyager

Typical CF — OP asks a question and quickly it goes off topic. This was about cooking and half the posts are about inverter efficiency.

Typical CF. People comment without even reading posts.

For instance the first two sentences of the thread.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

There was even a cookbook based on the old air cooled VW on how to prepare meals whilst driving.

Indeed.
➥ https://www.vwcampercookbook.com/our-story

[Scott Berg]

I do a great deal of cooking aboard, and probably 1/2 of the proteins are prepared sous-vide. We have 2 Polyscience circulators on board. Yes, there are now many cheaper versions but these have served me well for years and are MUCH better built than the newer models. They run easily on our Victron inverter system that provides us efficient 120 and 240 volt power. After looking at 12 and 24v appliances we opted for commercial grade high voltage models powered by inverters off of a large house bank and a lot of solar and wind power. We use two smallish coolers and have cut floating covers from insulating (blue board) styrene that fit snugly around the circulator. Highly recommended for those who are enjoy modernest cuisine aboard

[boat-energy]

Just thought many people discussing the efficiency of inverters should perhaps have a look at the efficiency graph for a very well respected Outback inverter. Many other decent inverters will be similar. As you can see, with a load of less than 300W on a 3kW inverter, the efficiency is down at approx 82%. And the conversion efficiency doesn't take into account the typical power draw of the inverter itself (approx 10 to 12W). I'm not knocking inverters - just sayin that the efficiency advertised is only the peak (as said on a previous post). Many smaller power systems are best only running an inverter when they need to.

[captainmarknc]

Originally Posted by Jdege

I sous vided in a crock pot for years. All you need is a stupid pot without electronics, and a temperature controller that can turn it off and on. Fill it with water, drop in the thermocouple and the vacuum sealer bag, plug it into the controller, and wait.

I'm still sous viding the same way, except I'm using a rice cooker instead of a crock pot.

Many convert their crockpots to sous vide. I love chicken breasts in the suve method. Very juicy!

[Normanskier]

Either I am confused about the issue it seems that an inexpensive pws inverter can be gotten for less than $300.00. My Innova sous vide draws 1100 watts. Quite a bit less than what the inverter puts out. Virtually no noise. No need to hard wire. Just go to battery with removeable clamps. Case closed.

[Bill O]

When we were doing a recent delivery, we were discussing a 12V sous vide as a viable method for cooking while offshore.

I must admit I was intrigued by the idea and started looking for well insulated pots to reduce the large amount of electric power it would take to cook something for 4-8 hrs.

I think it was the OP that posted they preheated the water before they started cooking to reduce energy consumption.

Would something like this insulated pot work similarly and use less power? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0794ZR5YX/ref=emc_b_5_t
Basically you heat up the contents of the pot and then place it in the insulated pot for the allotted time. Didn't look at the instructions for this unit but it does have a 12V/35W heating element for possible warming.

Seems to fit the bill for low energy cooking. They make better (vacuum insulated) thermal cooking pots but are much more expensive and this was the only one I saw w/a 12V heating element.


Bill O.

[ssmoot]

It's not obvious to me that cooking sous-vide actually is a very efficient form of cooking. I don't think in four pages I've seen any hard data?

I have a Kill-a-Watt and an Anova setup with a non-insulated container. It looks very much like this bundle on Amazon except the lid on mind isn't hinged.

I filled it up to 8L like I usually do and, since I don't feel like wasting a steak, vacuum sealed a leftover piece of fried chicken to toss in there.

Then I set it for 135F, which is how I like my steak (on the border of medium-rare to medium).

Coming up from about 65F is burning between 790 to 805w. We'll see how it does on total kWh in three hours, which is about typical for a couple really thick steaks, and about as long as you want to cook them. It's a bit of a myth that you can sous-vide for days. At least with steak. You'll turn it into mushy meat-glue that way.

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/...ks-recipe.html

Anyways. I'll let you know.

Intuitively I don't expect it to be more efficient than an Induction Cooktop. The cooktop is much higher heat, and will loose more of that heat above 135F to ambient air quicker, but the surface area to give off that heat, and the thermal capacity of a small pan is much lower than a sous-vide setup.

My GE Cafe Series 30" has a 2500w 7" burner (which is where I'd cook a steak with an 8" cast iron skillet). On medium heat (which is about medium-high for a comparable gas cooktop as electric cooktops get much hotter) I would guess it draws about 1250w since I can't put my Kill-a-Watt on it. Assuming that's the case, a couple minutes of pre-heating on high, and 10 minutes of cooking will take about 300wh total.

Actually, I just got the beep-beep. The Anova is up to temperature. It took 33 minutes. So that's about 400w. It's already less efficient. It's "maintenance" temperature is about 176w currently. If I let it go for another 2-1/2 hours, assuming it doesn't raise or lower much, that's about 840w to cook a couple steaks. And then you still have to sear them.

Which makes the induction cooktop about twice as efficient as sous-vide cooking in an 8L uninsulated container.

But what about an insulated container? Well, since the "maintenance" wattage is 176w, then even if heat loss went to zero, and using the 19w quoted earlier in the thread for the circulator, the induction cooktop would still be about 20% more efficient.

Overall I would guess that with a little care, sous-vide is probably the fourth most efficient way to cook your food then from a pure wattage perspective. Microwave, Pressure Cooking and Induction taking first, second and third place respectively.

I don't mean to attempt to discourage anyone from sous-vide cooking. I think it's a great option, and it's still miles ahead of resistance electric in terms of efficiency. I was just curious about the actual numbers. It's not the most efficient way to cook a steak with electricity if that's your goal. Unless you like microwaved steak, the most efficient way to use your solar power to cook a steak appears to be on an Induction Cooktop.

[cj88]

Moven UK have an off-the-shelf countertop sous vide setup for boats. It uses silicone heating pads in 12v, 24v, 110v, and 240v options. It can also be supplemented by a helical cool using cooling water">engine cooling water amongst other sources and it can all be wrapped in an insulating jacket. Not cheap but it looks alright.

Devon sailing chef launches a new cooking system for yachts | Local Devon business and investment | Devon Life

[ssmoot]

FYI for anyone curious: The final 3-hour cook time totaled 640wh. So the maintenance wattage did end up fluctuating quite a bit. A few minutes after the peaks around 176w, as I checked in on it, it seemed to cycle every half-second or so with a peak of 146w.

An insulated container would've fallen somewhere between 640wh and 460wh. I'd split the difference and guess maybe 520wh. Allowing for 60wh of heat loss.

Interesting to me anyways.

BTW, my Kill-A-Watt Edge was under $40 on Amazon a few years ago when I purchased it. Seems to be the same price now if you're curious about running such experiments yourself.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by dfelsent

Baggies can be used and no vacuum sealer needed.

Check the manufacturers' recommendations. All those I have read said don't use baggies for this application.

Originally Posted by owly

This is the "gold star" solution..... The Road Prop is available on Amazon for $33.62 with free shipping....... who doesn't have Prime?

Dude. The RoadPro is SO last week. The big truck folks have moved on to the HotLogic. *grin* $49.95 for two including Pyrex containers on Cyber Monday. Don't miss yours! << I crack myself up.

[MC4Sunz]

I have been cooking soux-vide for a little while now (in the house) so was curious about it's application on-board.

Of course all the discussion on power requirements and options are interesting.

Aside from power, here are some of my thoughts. If you already have a soux vide cooker, then you are pretty much locked in unless you want to start over with other options.

I don't have a cooker (too darned expensive) so I DIY'ed my own. In my first attempt I used my wife's large crock pot and an STC1000 and inkbird relay that someone else mentioned above. Already had these items as I use them for making beer. Of course, this setup requires 110v power.
I stuffed the pot with 5 steaks including one of the cheapest chuck steaks I could find. Even without circulation, they were perfect. In fact, the raunchy chuck steak actually tasted as good if not better than the more expensive cuts. A testament of soux-vide.

The STC1000 and crock pot have worked well in subsequent meals all still without circulation FWIW. I'm sure with insulation and smaller crocks sized for two could help with power consumption.

My latest upgrade includes a RaspberryPi with the same relay. This is a little more hi-tech but can support 12v power and circulation with the same pump already mentioned earlier. I use this pump myself in my brewing process so yes it handles the temperature just fine. The RaspberryPi also offers many other perks like wireless remote access through wifi and cell phone if available. I could go on and on here but that's enough for now.

The RPi may not be the lowest power option, not trying to advocate that, just an option with additional perks. One example; I set up the crock and put the steaks in an ice bath to maintain fridge temps and left for work. Around lunch time I logged into the RPi using my cell phone and turned the system on. By the time I got home from work, it was done. I realize that may not be feasible on the boat without all the right conditions but just sayin.

[owly]

Originally Posted by MC4Sunz

I have been cooking soux-vide for a little while now (in the house) so was curious about it's application on-board.

Of course all the discussion on power requirements and options are interesting.

Aside from power, here are some of my thoughts. If you already have a soux vide cooker, then you are pretty much locked in unless you want to start over with other options.

I don't have a cooker (too darned expensive) so I DIY'ed my own. In my first attempt I used my wife's large crock pot and an STC1000 and inkbird relay that someone else mentioned above. Already had these items as I use them for making beer. Of course, this setup requires 110v power.
I stuffed the pot with 5 steaks including one of the cheapest chuck steaks I could find. Even without circulation, they were perfect. In fact, the raunchy chuck steak actually tasted as good if not better than the more expensive cuts. A testament of soux-vide.

The STC1000 and crock pot have worked well in subsequent meals all still without circulation FWIW. I'm sure with insulation and smaller crocks sized for two could help with power consumption.

My latest upgrade includes a RaspberryPi with the same relay. This is a little more hi-tech but can support 12v power and circulation with the same pump already mentioned earlier. I use this pump myself in my brewing process so yes it handles the temperature just fine. The RaspberryPi also offers many other perks like wireless remote access through wifi and cell phone if available. I could go on and on here but that's enough for now.

The RPi may not be the lowest power option, not trying to advocate that, just an option with additional perks. One example; I set up the crock and put the steaks in an ice bath to maintain fridge temps and left for work. Around lunch time I logged into the RPi using my cell phone and turned the system on. By the time I got home from work, it was done. I realize that may not be feasible on the boat without all the right conditions but just sayin.

Interestingly I bought my sous vide originally for mashing. I've since quit homebrewing (for my health). The sous vide didn't work well for brewing.... It wanted to suck the bag in, and was generally a bad idea, though I did develop an in bag circulator for brew in a bag, which worked along with an ordinary hot plate controlled by an STC 1000. I tried many things.... I'm an experimenter at heart. Another iteration used a cheap 12 volt pump next to the brew kettle, and a hotplate under it. A suction line went beneath a false bottom to avoid problems with the brew bag, and the pump output went a piece under the lid that distributed the wort around through 6 radial ports.... barely submerged. I suck started the pump, which was simple and effective. This was done using a brass fuel tank selector valve. Turned in one position I could suck through the running pump to prime it, turned the other way, it directed the flow to the lid. This system worked decently until I built my in bag circulator which incorporated the thermocouple for the STC 1000. It would draw wort from near the surface through an impeller near the bottom, discharging it toward the bottom of the kettle. This could tolerate moving grain as well as wort, and was much like the Annova without the built in heating element. I bought a low energy density stainless steel heating element... straight no coil.... that I was going to incorporate, but never got around to it.


..... That is all kind of off topic. I was passionate about brewing, but had to make some hard choices.


The insulated cooker or "thermal cooker" as they call it seems like it has a lot of potential, but they make no provision for adding energy, which if one is doing long term sous vide, is a problem. It's just a tiny bit short of fulfilling all the requirements.


The 12 volt crockpot combined with a temp controller, clearly makes the most sense for the average person. You can sous vide in it, or make soup or stew. It's really a multifunction device. Enhance the insulation and efficiency goes way up.


It's amazing to me how resistant some people are to the idea of sous vide.... obviously having never tried it, or tried something someone made who obviously had no idea how to use one for a particular food. With no moisture added, or lost from meats for example, they cook in their own juices, retaining both flavor and moisture. How else can you achieve a perfect medium rare steak from one surface to the other, with just the outside surface seared on the grill, or get a tough cut like chuck as tender as a rib eye, while still maintaining that medium rare state? What it does with red meat, poultry, fish, etc cannot be duplicated any other way. It also allows perfect veggies with exactly the texture / doneness you want. I did creme brulee sous vide the other day for friends.... You can't screw it up! I frequently use it for grilled chicken..... Sous vide the chicken to the exactly texture you want.... no moisture loss, through it on a smoking hot grill, to brown the surface, and you have a perfect piece of chicken..... no worries about under cooked meat near the bone, no drying out.



H.W.

[Bill O]

Originally Posted by owly

The insulated cooker or "thermal cooker" as they call it seems like it has a lot of potential, but they make no provision for adding energy, which if one is doing long term sous vide, is a problem. It's just a tiny bit short of fulfilling all the requirements.

Love all the experiments and off shoot ideas to get these to work especially using the RPi to add in the wifi/remote control element.

The thermal cooker I linked before (here it is again https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0794ZR5YX/ref=emc_b_5_t) does have a 12V/35W element (3.3A) in it so you don't need to preboil if you don't want/can't cook on the stove top while underway. The biggest short coming of this thermal cooker/heater is no temp controller or circulator pump. Could easily see adding the Inkbird ITC1000 to do the temp control and am not certain you need a circulator pump if using the it while underway (due to sloshing/boat movement) or due to the large thermal mass (~ 4L of water).
I guess the real question is this better (better insulated) than using the 12V crock pot.


Bill O.

[pearson 32]

Off topic, but...I use a Hamilton Beach deep fryer filled with water and dialed down to 132 degrees for my souls vide cooking at home (110 power). A Thermopen used to set the temp. No circulator, but I turn the bag over often and placed a piece of tin cut from a pie plate over the heat element at the bottom. Makes a perfect steak every time. The 30 minute timer has to be reset but for a total cost of $29 I figure it’s worth the trouble. In addition, I sear my steak on a very hot iron skillet one minute per side. Total cooking time one hour.
RH