After throwing away a $20 chuck roast that did not cook even close to properly with an apparently garbage budget brand machine, i wanted one from a company with an actual rep, & a good one at that. It meant spending $30 more.. so far its more than worth it. although i have another chuck roast sitting in the freezer begging to be sous'd.. im starting smaller & cheaper (think 3" thick cut pork chops) with this unit to make sure it works as advertised. so far it does. for me the most important thing aside from durability is accuracy in a sous vide machine! this nails it within +/-1 degree in my experience.. & that small difference could be my probe thermometers. although theyve both been calibrated, who knows how truly accurate they remain. either way, this machine IS at worst 99% accurate. good enough for me! It circulates the water enough to properly sous vide my meats (something im realizing must have been the problem with my last machine.. i know it temped close to the readout, so it had to be the circulator malfunctioning. grrrr). its not so powerful as to splash water anywhere, but it gently whirs along. Its as noisy (or not) as expected... you can hear the slight whirring if youre standing close to it, otherwise no issue. So for all its more necessary pluses, I do have some negatives... the clamp stinks. period. its cheap, & poorly designed. due to the build, the back of the stick in the water sits so close to the side of the container that its almost touching, which makes the container VERY hot in that spot. there is barely enough clearance, & that was a really stupid decision on instant's part. my container is polycarb & can handle the heat, but at this price point & from this company, that was a R&D fail. it still works, but it loses 1 star for this boneheaded move. the only other issue i have is the power.. specifically judged by the time it takes room temp water to come up to my chosen temp (I dont empty my water out after each cook cuz that would be a waste of water). The previous unit I returned was 1100W, & heated the water noticeably faster than this unit at 800W. It took this about 1/2 hour to go from 65F to 145F. I now know to get it started before even beginning to prepare anything to go into the bath. barring the 2 negatives, the unit works as intended, stays accurate both with temp & time & gets the job done & done well. im so thankful it doesnt have any wiufi (cr)app to deal with... simple & easy to set the time, temp & go. thats all i need... my sous vide doesnt need to interact with the cloud. this wouldve been a 3 star review due to the cons, but its better than that. & I have faith it will last considering instant's quality. so its a solid 4... just change the stupid clamp for goodness sake!! Read more