Burned $150 on a fancy sous vide circulator that I used twice

I fell for all the hype from those food blogs about how sous vide changes everything. Bought a Joule for $150 last spring. Used it for a steak and some chicken breasts. Then it just sat in the drawer. The steak was fine but not worth the setup time and bag waste. Anyone else have kitchen gadgets that looked good online but flopped in real life?

2 comments

2 Comments

spencer_wood8d ago

Laughing my ass off because I did the exact same thing with an Instant Pot. Bought it, made some killer yogurt once, then realized I'd rather just buy yogurt. Now it's a very expensive paperweight that takes up half my cabinet. At least your sous vide thing is small enough to hide in a drawer. The bag waste was the worst part for me too - all that plastic just to cook a chicken breast that I could have grilled in 10 minutes. Have you thought about selling it on Facebook Marketplace or are you just gonna let it collect dust like the rest of us?

the_kevin8d ago

Used to think sous vide was only for hardcore foodie types, but your story makes me reconsider. A coworker gave me his old Anova after the same thing happened to him, and I think I used it maybe once.