The Gourmia 1,200 watt sous vide immersion circulator is an absolute powerhouse at its price point. Trade offs were made elsewhere, and not all features are as advertized, but it’s hard to argue with a successful test cook

Let get into things.

Specifications

This particular sous vide cooker is light and powerful. Its temperature range is great. Even better, it’s slightly smaller than other units in this price range. For the apartment inclined saving space is a huge bonus.

• Dimensions: 14.8 x 5.2 x 2.8  inches
• Weight: 3.31 lbs
• Temperature Range: 68 to 203 degrees Fahrenheit
• Temperature accuracy: +/- 0.1 degree Fahrenheit
• Power: 1,200 Watts at 120v
• Gallons Per Minute: 1.5
• Warranty: Unlisted, website registration required
• App-based wi-fi Functionality

Gourmia’s sous vide cooker is also a little on the light end, coming it at just over 3 lbs. Usually this is something we love to see. Light and of good build quality? Sign us up.

Unfortunately, Gourmia’s GVS150 ran into a few hiccups along the way.

Form

The Gourmia GVS150 sous vide immersion circulator is sleek and awkward in equal measure. Like many mid-range units it sports black plastic shelling with silver highlights, also plastic in this case rather than the steel seen on other unit. The build quality itself is medium-low. Although nice looking, the plastic groans under pressure – especially around the clamp. Even exerting a little force with a thumb and forefinger cause creaks.

The Gourmia’s screen is perfectly flat. This means that it’s hard to check on without being right next to the unit.

With that said, the display itself is clear, bright and compact. It also shows both cooking time and working time. This means that you can track not only where you are in the cooking process, but also how long its been since the unit began heating period. In addition, you can tell if the unit has shut off due to an error, or simply finishing the cook while unattended. For those concerned with FDA and USDA pasturization windows this is a great bonus.

Temperature and time and both adjusted through the dial on the Gourmia GSV150. It’s quite a responsive little wheel, unlike some other units we’ve reviewed.

Unfortunately, the shelling is also sealed vertically around the wheel. As we’ve discussed before this is bad news for condensate and long-term, heavy usage.

Function

The Gourmia GVS150 performed quietly, efficiently, and quickly. Its 1,200 watt motor took our test cook up to temperature in around 10 minutes. This is a powerful little tool. For comparison, the Anova Pro at a 120 volt connection had a draw of 1,200 watts. The Pro costs just about $400 USD at the time of writing.

However, at this lower price point the GVS150 has to compromise somewhere. The Gourmia isn’t exatly loud, but it’s definitely noticible. Even while I was bustling around, doing dishes – that kind of thing – I was able to clearly hear it bubbling away in the background. Again, at this price point it’s incredibly hard to beat the Gourmia’s wattage.

There are a few other trade offs in function, in addition to the sub-standard build quality discussed above.

Perhaps the most noticible are the clamp system and rotor cover on the skirt. During our test cook there was a little bit of lilting, but nothing that led to vent blockages. As someone who dislikes alligator-style clamps I was disappointed. However, it did perform much better than some of the clips with articulated plastic ridges. The Gourmia GVS150 also has a few caveats when it comes to servicing the rotors, or descalaing.

Simply put, the Gourmia GSV150 isn’t designed to be dissassembled for cleaning. The white molding around the top of the stainless steel skirt isn’t easily removable, and a phillips head screw locks the skirt in place beneath the plastic. In their user manual Gourmia instead suggests owners run a descaling bath using a light abrasive.

Features

The two big selling points for the Gourmia GSV150 are wi-fi functionality and the 1,200 Watt system. We’ve already discussed the former in depth so let’s focused on the other differentiating factor.

These days there are a lot of sous vide units that come with baked in wi-fi or bluetooth functionality. This technology, despite being years in development, can be finickity for one reason and one reason only: app support.

Like its competitors, Gourmia offers an app that allows for a wi-fi or remote connection. Unfortunately, reports and testing indicate that the app is unstable. This is frustrating as the time and effort put into this feature could have instead addressed some of the build quality short falls.

Meanwhile, the skirt and its circulation cap are exactly what you’d expect at this price point (save for not being able to service the coils with a toohbrush and soft cloth). The cap features a recessed venting system. It’s possible that you could let this sit flat-bottom in a water-bath, but we don’t reccomend it. A simple single exhaust jet would alleviate this issue without compromising design.

Duck, Duck, Dinner

Despite caveat after caveat it’s hard to argue with results. For the first time in months we decided to tackle a (liquid) smoked duck with honey, chilli, and a host of other goodies. See below:

It’s hard to argue with melt in your mouth duck breast.

At the end of the day the Gourmia GSV150 is a mixed bag of build quality issues, a powerhouse of a motor, and dead on arrival wi-fi functionality.

With that said, I was frankly shocked at how good the results were given the other quality checks we ran through. If you’re looking for a sous vide cooker that hits hard, but has some rough edges, then this might be the unit for you.

Either way, I’ll be watching for when Gourmia’s next sous vide immersion circulator as it comes down the pipe.