Homemade sous-vide slow cooker conversion kit
Home made sous-vide PID temperature controller kit for a slow cooker
Julia first kindled my interest in a sous-vide cooker in January this year, but I have to be honest, the cost and limited space in my already full kitchen has held me back so far. Nevertheless, after only a little reading of Modernist Cuisine The Art and Science of Cooking, I am convinced I need one, and I need it now!
Well I still have a space and cost issue, however, if I can prove its worth with the following undertaking, I may still purchase one. To this end I intend to build an experimental PID thermostat to control my Morphy Richards 6.5 litre slow cooker. There are limitations, firstly, I don't know if will even work. Secondly, although the accuracy of the controller is to .1 ° C, I doubt that control of this accuracy can be realised using a slow cooker and finally I won't be using a pump to circulate the water bath. However, for £27 ($41) for the components, compared to £353 ($568) for a new sous-vide cooker, I'm willing to take a chance.
Primary components
- PID controller (£26.99 with free delivery (Amazon Prime)
- Thermocouple (included with above item) - Unsuitable (not waterproof)
- Solid-state relay (included with above item)
I've created this article before even purchasing the above items, let alone building the controller, incase it might be helpful to anyone else attempting to source components for a similar project. I do not intend to create a step-by-step how to. If you are not able to interconnect the components above without help, you should not be contemplating such an undertaking. Building even a simple project such as this requires knowledge of electrical safety procedures and basic electronics engineering experience.
Progress
I will update this article with the final outcome, be it a success or a failure. If you have any thoughts on this, do please get in touch with me by using Contact the Editor link below.
- Update 1:
- Maybe it will work. I've just seen a commercial version of the kit I'm building (SousVideMagic controller). Quite expensive though at $169!
- Update 2
- The thermocouple supplied with the Amazon controller is unsuitable as it is not waterproof. The screening is stainless steel braiding covering heat-resistant braid (fibreglass?). Neither materials are the least bit waterproof and water ingress to the thermocouple would be immediate. It could possible be be modified with silicone sleeving but a waterproof K-type thermocouple is the long-term solution: ( K Type 20cm Probe Thermocouple Temperature Measurement Sensor 0.63M Amazon uk). The one provided will do for initial testing purposes.