Sous Vide Cooking

	Addelice Swid	Julabo Pearl Z (Premium)
Type	Immersion Circulator, adaptatif	Immersion Circulator, adaptatif
Size	124mm/190/268mm = 4,200 cm3 4.9"/7.5"/10.5"	339mm/190/335mm = 15,700 cm3 13.3"/7.4"/13.1"
Weight	2.2 kg 4.8 lb	6.5 kg 14.3 lb
Power	1,600 W	2,000 W
Tank/vessel capacity	From 5 to 20 L From 1.3 to 5.2 gal	From 20 to 58 l From 5.2 to 15.3 gal
Water pump	6 L/min	14 L/min
Safety	Float switch	Float switch
Stability	Excellent	Excellent
Ease of use, comfort, silent	Excellent	Very good
Maintenance, cleaning	Very good	Good but protective grid difficult to remove and heater element difficult to clean
Warranty	2 years	2 years
Price	EUR 380 excl. VAT (incl. shipping costs)	EUR 899 excl. VAT + shipping costs

COMMENTS

• Size and weight: Julabo immersion circulators are massive and heavy compared to the swid. Pictures below talk by themselves.

• Power: immerson circulator’s goal is to stabilize the temperature of a waterbath. For that purpose you don’t need a lot of power (have a look at this test). Power is very usefull to heat the water of a waterbath. The swid will take 20% more time heating a 20 liter or 40 liter water bath (I made the test) compared to the Julabo. Nevertheless it is recommended by all manufacturers to start with hot water to save time and preserve the electronics of the computer. Therefore the difference between 1,600 W and 2,000 W is not significant. It is also a good sense using hot water because you will have to wait less time the waterbath to reach the targert temperature.
• Tank/vessel capacity: Addelice mentions the swid has been designed for a 20 liter tank max. I tried the swid with a 45 liter tank and it works fine. Nevertheless Addelice doesn’t recommend it except if you start heating the waterbath with hot water and don’t put to many pouches in the container. The 6 liter/min pump may not be sufficient to distribute the heat properly between the pouches in a 50 liters container. The swid is perfect in a 8 liters container, to cook eggs for example. Julabo benefits from a very powerfull pump (14 liters/min) which is too powerfull for tanks below 20 liters and fine for 50 liters tanks.
• Safety: both swid and Julabo benefits from a float switch which is the best solution to alert cooks when the waterlevel is too low and pouches risk to float at the surface.
• Temperature stability: these 2 immersion circulators have an exceptional stability (± 0.05°C) which can be achieved especialy if containers are well insulated. I made some tests with bubble wrap surrounding a pot and the results were amazing.
• Ease of use, comfort, silent: both immersion circulators are easy to use. The swid also benefits from a second display to indicate the cooking time which is very convenient. Both sous vide equipments are silent, a little noise of running water can be heard due to the water pumps.
• Maintenance, cleaning: the swid and Julabo Pearl should be cleaned to remove the limescale appearing after some days of intensive use on the grid and heater element. Removing the Julabo grid is not an easy thing, you don’t have this problem with the swid. The heater element of the Julabo Pearl is made in a way that it is not easy to remove all the limescale (see the picture below).

Julabo Pearl Z heater element. Difficult to clean between the coils

Addelice swid heater element, simple design, easy to clean

• Warranty: 2 years for both Addelice and Julabo which is compulsory for many European contries.
• Price: the Julabo Pearl is almost 2.5 more expensive than the swid. Addelice offers wolrdwide shipping costs.

SUMMARY

• Both Addelice swid and Julabo Pearl are made for professional use. The swid will also please amateur cooks.
• I you need to heat a single tank of 50 litre then the Julabo Pearl will be perfect for that purpose.
• If as a professional you need to travel do make demo or catering, then the swid will probably be a better solution (2.2 kg compared to the 6.5 kg of the Julabo).
• Price is an issue for Julabo Pearl. If you are a professional and you need a 50 liter water bath you should maybe consider if having 2 swids for the price of 1 Julabo isn’t a bad option. This could give you more flexibility (at certain occasion ou could have 2 water baths at different temperatures) and the equivalent of a replacement device if your immersion circulator is out of work.

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