Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is a comparison review of the Anova Precision Cooker and the Nomiku Immersion Circulator. I have used both devices for a few months and even made the same dishes side-by-side to note any difference in the final meal. Let me just do the benefits of each to start: Pros of the Anova Precision Cooker: • Better final fit and finish than the Nomiku. The Nomiku has a rotary dial (the Green ring around the top) that almost free-spins and feels somehow loose. Also, the LCD screen on the Nomiku is tiny and low resolution, as compared to the Anova which uses a Seven-segment display, but it just seems to be more well integrated and polished. • Anova packaging is better (in my mind) – the packaging looks like a giant battery and it takes up little more space than the circulator itself as compared to the Nomiku which comes in a box with molded plastic that holds everything in place. Plus my daughter loves the foam cylinder that is part of the packaging. She wears it and pretends like it is a beard (see picture). This means every time I take the Anova out, she gets excited…which makes me happy. • Bluetooth connectivity is nice, although it really just shows the temperature of the water/food. The way I use the Anova is pretty much to heat my water to what I want, then it cooks at that exact temperature for however long I want. There really isn’t anything I need to monitor. So while the Bluetooth is cool, it’s not like a cooking thermometer where you have to monitor the temperature of the meat over time. And with Sous Vide, you don’t really have to worry about overcooking, so to me the Bluetooth ability to monitor the water temperature really doesn’t matter. • Clamp that is used to secure the circulator to a bath or pot is more secure when installed, although it's a separate piece whereas the Nomiku it's integrated. • AC Adapter is integrated to circulator, so all you have to do is plug into the wall. The Nomiku has a separate AC Adapter which is quite large – about the size of 3 decks of playing cards. • Much greater range of water levels. The range between the “MIN” and “MAX” lines on the device are over 3.5”…so it can accommodate a little or a lot of water. The Nomiku by contrast has just about 1.5” of distance between the “MIN” and “MAX” levels, which means you have to be more careful about filling the basin. Not that big of a deal, but when adding the food it's easy on the Nomiku to go over the MAX level, or when doing a REALLY long cook, you can evaporate enough water to go below the MIN. Not so on the Anova. • The Anova app has some cool recipes that are integrated with the Bluetooth connection to monitor temperature. The Nomiku comes with a recipe book which I already lost. Pros of the Nomiku: • The Nomiku has an integrated clamp, which is cool. You don’t have to set up a separate piece of hardware. However, I found that it’s a little less stable, so this is only a slight edge for the Nomiku. • The Nomiku has multidirectional flow while the Anova is uni-directional, although the flow rates are the same. In theory I guess I could put more stuff into the basin and still ensure that it is evenly heated. But even with the Anova I have not yet had any issue with uneven heating. Maybe it’s the similar flow rates that really makes the difference here as the Anova is probably flowing more in one direction so it ends up evening out. • The Nomiku is 1150W versus the 800W of the Anova. This means that when I filled two pots with the same quantity of 66 degree water, it took the Nomiku just 30 minutes to raise the temperature to 165, while it took the Anova 58 minutes to do the same thing. That might seem like a huge factor, but in reality I NEVER start with 66F degree water, nor have I cooked anything that required the water to be 165F. I cook fish, eggs, beef and other things and I will fill the water with hot water from the tap, which comes out around 130F degrees. If cooking beef, I pretty much cook to 132F degrees, so it takes the Anova about 2 minutes to reach that temperature, and the Nomiku does it in about 65 seconds. Considering it might take me 10 minutes to get all the food out, system set up, etc., this really makes no difference to me at all. Even going to 149F where I like my eggs only takes about 8 minutes on the Anova and just over 5 on the Nomiku. So, while the Nomiku is more powerful, in my world it just doesn’t matter all that often. So what’s the conclusion? Both immersion circulators do a very good job of making any sous vide dish. In terms of the meals that I’ve made with both, I would struggle to note any difference between them. Now, with that said, I do prefer the Anova Precision Cooker for it’s overall form, simplicity and packaging.