Review: Kitchen Boss G300 Sous Vide Cooker

Kitchen Boss’s latest sous vide immersion cooker, the G300, is a sturdy entry into the sous vide universe.

Although marred by some quality of life issues, and worries about longevity, its unique design and consistency impressed.

Specifications

Let’s be clear, the Kitchen Boss G300 is a big immersion circulator. It’s heavy and tall, but makes up for some inflexibility with a two-pin clamp system. Fair warning, if you’re looking for a light-weight unit this might not be the immersion circulator for you.

• 4.3 lbs
• 16.2 x 6.9 x 4.4 inches
• Water minimum: 6 liters
• Water maximum: 15 liters
• Power: 1,100 watts at 110-120 volts
• Temperature Range: 104F to 194F
• Temperature Variation: +/- 0.1F
• Waterproof electrical casing (IPX7 certified)
• Up to 99 hours of continous cook time
• No bluetooth of wi-fi functionality

Now let’s get into how the G300 performed.

Build Quality

Overall, we were extremely impressed with the Kitchen Boss G300 sous vide Immersion Cooker.

The G300 has some of the best water-proof electronics sealing we’ve seen – especially at its modest, in the world of sous vide at least, price point. Rather than using a traditional rubber seal or a two-piece plastic sleeve, the Kitchen Boss G300 sous vide Immersion Circulator uses a thin metal band to seperate the touch display from the shelling.

As you can see above, the stainless steel sleeve is seperated from the electrical cylinder through a strip of metal with subtle striations and the Kitchen Boss logo. Above this is the shelling itself. During testing the shelling retained absolutely no heat. It was cool to the touch, although the metal around the logo was slightly warm to the touch. Use caution when handling the unit when cooking for more than 8 hours.

The clap system at the back is of likewise high quality. Like the Anova Pro we reviewd not to long ago it has a fantastic two pin system for fastening both the pot and plastic loop. Unlike the Pro, however, Kitchen Boss uses a small pad with extra grip at the end of a protected screw mechanism. This gives some extra holding power and is, frankly, a brilliant design choice.

During our test cook I purposefully set the Kitchen Boss G300 Immersion Cooker a few inches above the bottom of my pot. This was to see if there was any slippage while cooking. The result? Not a single inch of movement in any direction.

Form

There isn’t another sous vide immersion circulator on the market quite like the Kitchen Boss G300.

Most immersion circulators, or cookers, have a flat-panelled display. The G300 features an extremely attractive 12-sided polygonal display. It tapers down into a triangles then narrows again down to the shelling around the central cylinder. This serves the dual purpose of looking good, and acting as something of a steam guard (though I’m not convinced this model needs one given its high-quality sealing).

The display itself is bright without being glaring and uses cool blues and whites for temperature adjust controls, time, and all that good stuff. One extra, not to mention fun, feature of the Kitchen Boss G300 is the dot display above the logo. During warm up each node will light up, providing an easy way of seeing if your circulator is up to temperature even if you miss the alarm.

Functionality

The G300 heated up incredibly quickly during testing – about 20 minutes to jump from 70F to 165F degrees. It was quiet the entire time – though not quite as quiet as the Pro. At its loudest, during cooking, it sounded like a kettle just beginning to heat up.

There are, however, a few sticking points worth mentioning. As discussed earlier under Specifications there’s absolutely no bluetooth or wi-fi funtionality. As many of you know, I’m not the biggest fan of integrating wireless functionality into my sous vide. Personally, it’s not something I ever really miss.

During testing the G300 also fluctuated more than the +/- 0.1 F advertized on their website. The temperature swings were closer to a full degree – something that Amazon reviewers have noticed as well.

Another more worrying issue is the unit’s limited ventilation. Although, there were no issues during our short time with the Kitchen Boss G300 Immersion Circulator we would advise caution during your first 6-hr or overnight cook – both in terms of heat retention and mositure build-up.

One other, minor, caveat is that the lack of an angled display. This makes reading the LEDs from a distance a little annoying.

On a Wing and a Prayer

This time we took a look at another week night staple – the humble chicken thigh. We went with a mixture of garlic, soy sauce, rice wine-vinegar, a solid 1-inch knob of ginger, a glug of sweet chili thai sauce and two dried hot red peppers.

As you can see, we were quite pleased with the results. Our chicken thighs were crisp and tender. We cooked them at 165F for about 1 and a half hours before crisping beneath a broiler cranked to high for just under 3 minutes.

Verdict

Kichen Boss’s latest entry into the sous vide universe is an exceptionally solid unit, marred by a few consistency issues. Over time, due to its limited ventilation, it also might be more susceptible to electrical damage, but this isn’t something we could confirm at the time of writing.

Fortunately, the G300 comes with a generous 2-year warranty.