Joule: Sous Vide by ChefSteps Reviews

I’m not really sure why so many people have not given this the this app a better rating. I am a Chef in the food industry and I love my this app...or joules! I have 3 of them now and looking at a 4th one. I have tried competitors, but always go back to the this app. I also have had a couple of my kitchen staff buy ones for themselves. They are precise, work awesome and have not had any issues I can’t fix with the simple troubleshooting techniques. I use the recipes as well as the manual cooking option. The updates, I feel, have been great, and the chefsteps crew seems to be continuously trying to improve the whole experience. I love the tech side of the this app(though a manual control, or even better, a control from the cloud on a desktop would be nice), and multiple users being able to control the same this app at once, is awesome!
The only reason I don’t give this a 5 star, is because I want and NEED a way to add and save my own “recipes”/cooking data. I cook some of the same things over and over, and I have tweaked Joule recipes to what works for me. If chefsteps could have a section that saves personal recipes in Joule so that I could quickly go back to them, that would make this machine perfect!
Thanks for the awesome this app and keep it up!

Not only is the ersatz ‘chipper’ tone annoying, it gets in the way of efficiently using the device. It would be nice if there were a toggle to turn off the cute.

More crucially, there still isn’t implementation of basic functionality that was teased a year ago, eg using the top button to start again the same temp as last used. And obvious capabilities such as a workable log (which would have to allow you to assign titles to your cooks) or a more full featured custom cook creation option would at least partly justify the necessity of using a smart device to operate the sous vide. I have created my own time and temp profiles for everything I cook ... which I have to log separately and track changes for... and share with the 4 other families I have bought sous vide for (not all joules, because my in laws can’t handle a device without built-in controls). You would think the social sharing potential alone would motivate these wannabe hipsters to build in the ability to set custom cooks... but instead they pour development energy into another cutesy notification that makes me never want to tap on Joule ever again.
Enough with the style over substance.

When you set the timer on most smartphones, the time end alert keeps sounding until the user acknowledges - the way it should be. With the this app, however, the timer’s audio alert lasts only a few seconds. If an airplane flies by, or if you turn on the blender or use a vacuum cleaner momentarily, the alert gets missed. I do realize that sous-vide cooking in general is more about temperature than time but there are applications when time is crucial, for instance, ChefSteps 75 degree eggs - which is what I just happen to use the this app mostly for. I’ve ruined many eggs by depending on this app’s timer and now use my iPhone’s timer instead.

On the other hand, suppose you stop the device manually after cooking because you don’t want to touch your phone with wet hands. The next time you turn it on and set a temperature, you must acknowledge that the water level is too low (from the previous session), turn it off from Joule , then restart from Joule . A big hassle.

Also, many of the time/temp recommendations provided by Joule are wrong. If you research the internet for time /temp recommendations, you’d be better off choosing the recommendations from other sources.

The this app is sleek and cool, but the software interface is a nightmare. Joule does not work at all unless you create an account, which might be ok for a free service but is insane for a companion to a $150 piece of hardware that has no use for an Internet connection. It also deliberately hobbles the experience until one “updates the firmware,” but this is not possible because Joule is so glitchy. The this app might be connected fine to WiFi (or not), but Joule will invariably request a WiFi connection be established in order to update. This will invariably fail. Infuriating experience. The very basic functionality available in Joule is also extremely annoying. Setting a timer does nothing until you log back in after preheating and tell the timer to start. Oh, and the notifications bug people have been complaining about for months is still not fixed, so you won’t know that has happened. Any little change to time or temperature clears both settings and restarts the session. Was this tested at all?

The device helps toke make food such as steak and eggs perfectly done. Fish turns out silky smooth and lamb is just awesome.

Now all the description of the device is critical as the device has no built in controls. You NEED a separate device running an app for this to work. Joule does what it needs to. It controls the device and gives you a timer to use. It also has many recipes and recommendations on how to cook your food and what temps work best. I still rely on various websites for my info, but it is good to have the info in hand.

If you have never cooked sous vide, grab one of these. Cost effective with a pretty powerful heating element. When comparing immersion circulatory, check the power level of the heating element as it make a big difference in heating times.

A few requests to improve the user experience.
For iPhone X/XS users the “Stop” button for the cook sits right at the bottom of the screen, which is also where you swipe up to minimize Joule and use your phone for something else while this app works in the background. Can we move this around to avoid the on screen conflict?
The Alexa integration is a nice idea but it needs to keep up with Joule development. For all of the hype on the website about conversational cooking it’s still not possible to simply ask when the cook will be done - what time? How much more time? This becomes even more important now that Joule allows you to put the food in before the water is at the target temperature. You have to use your phone to know what’s happening or ask Alexa multiple times.
Thank you for considering this input!!

Enabling notifications crashes Joule and you can’t even get to the food timer. You are actually reduced to setting a kitchen timer or a phone timer to cook. A fix was promised in 2.70 but no change for me.

While I was trying to fix Joule using their suggestions I made the mistake of trying to run the cooker with no water. Just to see if I could fix Joule without filling up the pan. So Joule told me to add water. I guess that’s a good thing. So I added water. App told me again to add water. Then I filled up the entire 12 quart container. It still told me to add water. You have to dig into the FAQ to find out that once it tells you to add water once the only way to fix it is to pull the plug for thirty seconds. Why can’t the notification just say ‘if the water level should be sufficient just pull the plug for thirty seconds’.

Finally, after I tried several of the suggestions on the notification/app crash issue, I signed out, deleted Joule , signed back in, and Joule now seems to work properly.

Looks the me like they are trying to build too much cute stuff into Joule rather that concentrating on basic usability. Educational videos. Interactive recipes. I wish they’d just make a second app that just sets the water temperature and sets a timer but make it so it doesn’t crash and I have to spend an hour or two trying to make it all work.

I’ve been using this app for a long time and enjoy the machine and the food it makes, to a point.
The software is frustrating. Basic issues never get fixed. For example, I can’t believe that I bout a top of the line device 4+ years ago and STILL joining a WiFi network, or changing to a different WiFi network requires you to delete Joule and start over. The first time I encountered this problem (over 4 years ago), chef’s steps suggested this fix immediately, suggesting they were aware of the problem. Now here we are all this time later, under new ownership and still trying to do BASIC stuff requires an app deletion to accomplish.
I expect better from this device.

Enough said. Can no longer connect to WiFi & get the annoying prompt every time that I start my this app. Reinstalled Joule as suggested, and it worked for 30 minutes... getting the same prompt again. Love my this app, but please fix Joule /WiFi issue.

Bumped up one star because the manufacturer was quick to reply. Submitted the requested support ticket...fingers crossed.

7/31 update...very impressed as Joule was updated & the customer service that I received was incredible. My this app is now working flawlessly. Can’t give 5 stars as there are features/recipes without a subscription that need to be addressed, but really happy with my choice of the this app for my Sous Vide cooking.

I love the this app more than I did my Anova (which died after about a year)!

Joule has many nice recipes. You only need to select what you want to cook - and that’s it! :)

But! Problem is, you still have to turn the heater on and off by yourself. Turning it on is not a problem. The problem is that if you’d missed the notification that it’s done - you’ll end up with overcooked food, because Joule won’t turn the heater off - you have to turn it off manually. I don’t know why it doesn’t have the feature to switch to a “keep warm” function after the cooking is done.

If the developers add the option to automatically switch to the keep-warm mode after the timer is expired (or turn it off completely) - this will be the best sous vide device!!!

Update: installed Joule on my iPad as well. Two problems: it keeps nagging about firmware update, when there isn’t one, and nagging about enabling notifications, when it doesn’t even show up in the “Notifications” tab in the Settings... :(

This makes cooking even harder and adds many more steps for rather ordinary cooking. This is a complicated device to operate. It keeps wanting to suggest times and temperatures that simply will not work. And more than likely leave you with cool undercooked food. Stay from seafood especially shrimp unless you like ceviche. Please check your chicken as when I followed their instructions, I got almost raw chicken. Go to several web sites and read their recipes. You can get a better idea of the huge variances in this male a lot more work product. Took me 1 hour, 60 minutes, to get regular hard boiled eggs. You also will need to sit down, even after watching the videos, and do several dry runs. Mine was a gift so I am unable to return it, sadly.

Joule was advertised to help with cooking. Mostly it diverts everything to the web. There’s no built and help so it becomes laborious, complicated and the exact opposite of the simplicity sous vide is supposed to provide.
For example today, I just wanted to cook one piece of frozen halibut. I launched Joule , it connected, I searched for halibut and it gave me a temperature and time. It did not ask me if the fish was fresh or frozen and did not help me adjust the time or temperature. It would have been easier to just steam the piece of fish and sauté to finish.
Please, simplify Joule . We can go to the web to search for recipes blah blah blah but since the ONLY way we can use our this app device is via Joule - it’s not fair to junk up Joule with so many other things.

The actual sous vide device is fantastic. Compact, quick to heat, no complaints. Joule is also super helpful, and while it’s not organized in my favorite way the biggest problem is how buggy the application is. More often than not, when reinitializing Joule after the water is heated, Joule has trouble starting the timer or completely disconnects. I’m excited for the future of this product but core functionality should not suffer for innovation.

Joule comes with a library of Sous vide recipes. They include beautiful video of the dishes and walk you through the options of using different sizes of ingredients, cooking to different amounts of doneness, etc. I like using this part of Joule .

Try cooking anything they didn’t include in the library, like any fish other than salmon or a 10 minute egg, and the experience is brutal. You can’t store presets so you just have to remember that eggs Sous vide at 194 or halibut at 131. And the timer setting never works; at this point I don’t even try, I just use Alexa for timers... makes me wish I just had buttons on the top of the device so I didn’t have to deal with Joule .

The worst thing about the device is that because it has no manual controls, you must use Joule to control it. And Joule is AWFUL.

1) It sometimes requires you to update the device’s firmware to cook anything. 2) It favors “graphically rich” over “usable.” A doneness guide that elsewhere is conveyed in five lines in a table here takes three screens and several minutes to figure out. 3) You can’t paste in your wifi password. Too bad if you store the password on your phone and it’s hard to remember.

This device, for 95% of use cases, just needs one control that goes from “off” through its range of temperatures. There should at least be a simple, fast way to set the temperature as fast as you can twist a burner control dial.

I love my this app. In fact I just bought a second one because we use it almost everyday for meat and vegetables. I love Joule and it’s really helpful to get you started Sous Vide cooking. I’m finally figuring out exact temperatures and times for food we cook. Those temps and times don’t always match what Joule recommends, so I wish I could save my own settings. For example, instead of manually inputting the temp and time I’d like to just push a button preset with my preferred settings. Being able to add multiple presets would be awesome!!!

I love my this app and I love Joule as well. Please update for iPhone X people 😁 you could add the this app controls to the bottom for quick access. Some ideas I thought of when using this app it’ll be great to have a quick way to toggle the timer in Joule . I was thinking maybe like 3 quick presses once the this app is at temp if that’s possible. I believe the one button can be just as practical then Anova’s buttons. I always find myself forgetting to toggle the timer after adding my meat 🥩. Thank you chef team - M.A

Joule force closes when it asks me about notifications and i click yes. Because of this, I have no choice but to click no. That’s my only issue with Joule .

One suggestion to mention, under “cook history” it would be nice to allow the user to put a description of what they cooked. Instead, it defaults to “Manual Cook”.

The device has worked great so far. Even when Joule force closes because of what I described above, it still continues to work.

For some reason, when you set a timer, the timer does not start counting down. You have to wait for it to accept the time take you to the next page, and then hit start. I don’t use my this app daily so I tend to forget this. On numerous occasions I have found myself returning to Joule to see how much longer I have left on my cook, only to find that the timer never started. Also, it would also be nice if this app added a feature that let you know the time at which your water reached temperature. I often put my food in before the water has reached temperature, and when I come back I want to see how long it has been in the water at the set temperature.

I love this app! I can ask my kids to pull the pot out of the fridge and stick the this app in the pot. I can start dinner before I leave work and it is ready by the time I get home. It doesn’t get any better than that.
There are a couple of things I’d like to see happen. 1. The ability to add a recipe or have a way to save a time and temperature with a name. Some sort of quick setting. 2. I would like to see more chefsteps recipes added to Joule . I hate having to leave Joule to go to chefsteps to get Sous Vide recipes and then have to go back to this app and enter that info