Grant Creative Cuisine Primo Review: Polished and Precise Water Oven

Grant Primo Review

Grant Creative Cuisine, a UK-based sous vide manufacturer of consumer and professional sous vide equipment, recently entered the US market in full-swing. Their at-home sous vide machine collection includes the Primo water bath and the Uno Sous Vide Controller, formerly known as Codlo. For this review, we got our hands on an all-in-one Primo sous vide machine and put it to the test. Let’s see how it stacks up to competition.

Unboxing

Grant’s Primo arrived at my doorstep in its retail-esque packaging; meaning it was not inside of a plain brown shipping box. My first thought is: oh no, I hope it’s securely packed inside and isn’t dented, scraped, scratched. Thankfully, it had tons of Styrofoam shipping material and was in perfect shape. Inside the box you will find the Primo water bath itself (including food rack), user manual, and a few awesome recipe cards.

Design

Product design is a big deal for me – especially when it comes to an appliance that will be sitting on my kitchen counter top for extended periods of time. Grant Creative Cuisine hit an absolute homerun with the Primo’s design. Available in four colors (red, black, white, and cream), Primo sous vide water bath exudes quality and timeless design with its stainless steel accents and the digital display and transparent lid add to the modern experience.

The Grant Primo controls and user interface are also impressive. The control knob accurately spins to pick a precise temperature, down to 0.1 degree, but also cycles through temperatures fast when rotating the dial quicker. The control knob on the Nomiku was one thing we really didn’t like because you had to sit there spinning the temperature wheel for what seemed like an eternity.

The Primo also gets a big one-up in comparison to the Tribest Sousvant because of the included food racks (Sousvant does not have any – and now that I think of it, you may not be able to use one due to the circulator location). This two-piece rack can be used to hold multiple steaks in place at one time, or you can remove the one piece and place a large roast in. It’s also removable for easy cleaning.

Overall, the Grant Primo sous vide machine resembles a cross between the Sous Vide Supreme Demi (general appearance and shape) and the Tribest Sousvant (transparent water bath). Personally, I think this is an amazing combination. The overall size of the Primo water bath is roughly 12” x 13.5” x 14”, so it doesn’t take up all that much room on your counter. Last but certainly not least, the Primo is designed and built in the UK and comes with a 2 year full product guarantee. Simply using the machine confirms the quality of parts and how well-built the machine is.

Features

800W Heater

The Primo water oven includes a standard 800 watt heater. For a quick comparison, the Sous Vide Supreme all-in-one has 850 watts, Anova’s precision cooker has 800 watts, and ChefSteps’ Joule has 1100 watts. However, there are a few key things to know when comparison sous vide heater wattages. All-in-one sous vide ovens do not need as powerful of a heater since they include tight-fitting lids and insulation; as a result, the heaters do not have to work as hard to maintain an accurate temperature. Immersion circulators, on the other hand, are typically used with less-insulated containers or even no lid at all, resulting in more necessary power.

Sure, Primo does fall short of the Sous Vide Supreme by 50w, but this difference will not be noticeable – we’re talking a 23 minute pre-heat time vs 25 minutes. While talking comparisons, we should note that the Grant Primo can set and maintain temperatures to 0.1 degree F. Sous Vide Supreme can only select temperatures every full degree F!

Grant Creative Primo has a Max Heat of 194F which is right around the average for the industry. The highest temperature I’ve ever had to use was 185F for cooking veggies such as asparagus.

10L Water Bath

The Primo’s water bath is decent sized, especially if you remove the middle part of the rack. I cooked a 3lb corned beef roast with no problem at all – in fact, it could definitely hold a much larger roast. Many people consider all-in-one sous vide machines a restriction as to what you can cook due to the limited size of the water bath. However, most immersion circulator owners use 12 liter polycarbonate containers, which is really not much larger at all. If you plan on cooking a rack of ribs, which will not normally fit in the sous vide bath, simply cut them in half and cook.

Sous Vide Food Rack

I love the fact that the Grant Primo comes with a removable food rack to hold your food in place. One of the biggest frustrations with the Tribest Sousvant and immersion circulators is starting a sous vide cook and then coming back an hour later to see your bag floated to the top. This rack helps hold things in place and ensure accurate temperature and food safety.

Built-In Run Dry Sensor

This simply, but effectively, prevents you from ruining your shiny new sous vide machine from operating it with too little of water.

Performance

We had zero hiccups or reliability concerns with the Primo during our review – it performed flawlessly. We started our test by first cleaning the water bath according to the user manual and then filling it with water until ¾ full. I then set the temperature to 185F and prepped corned beef by vacuum sealing it while the water pre-heated. It seemed to heat quicker than I expected for having an 800w heater – perhaps this is due to the tight-fitting lid which helps hold in heat unlike my immersion circulators.

Another thing I’d like to point out is how quiet the Grant Creative Cuisine Primo is while operating. I could barely hear it. Most sous vide machines have a rather annoying hum from the circulator drawing in and pushing water out, but the Primo uses convection heat to transfer temperatures and as a result does not have this sound.

The temperature also maintained accuracy during the cook, as proven by my instant read and infrared thermometers. From a performance perspective, we give it a 10/10 for sure. I mean, just look at the sous vide corned beef sandwich we made!

Final Thoughts

Grant Primo’s initial cost may be a hurdle to jump for some; however the build quality is proven by using the device. It simply feels, looks, and performs like a top-of-the-line product – because it is. If you’re looking for an all-in-one sous vide machine instead of worrying about what containers to buy, cutting make-shift lids, and frustrating floating bags that happens with immersion circulators, the Grant Creative Cuisine Primo should be one of your top choices. Two thumbs up for this Britain-built sous vide machine.