As a quick test I simply used the body of my pressure canner. Even though the pot was round the easy-to-fit clamp fitted perfectly. As there is a large surface area for heat loss, in order to give it the best chance as maintaining temperature I used some tin foil as a lid. I found that the heater was powerful enough though and it wasn't actually required. For speed of testing I did assist it to initially get the water up to temperature with the gas hob, but even before I did that it was steadily heating the water from cold on its own.
The settings were simplicity themselves. A button to toggle between C and F, Temperature up and down, cooking time up and down, start and stop. Once at temperature it kept the water to within 0.2 Deg C for the two hour cook, which I regularly confirmed using my
Thermapen.
For the testing I used some chicken breasts (marinated in a Chinese style sweet sauce) and some pork loin steaks (with a herb crumb). Both were from the reduced shelf at my local Tesco supermarket. These flavours were not selected for any particular reason other than they were there and were inexpensive. For suggested cooking times I used the information here. They use the USDA Pasteurisation tables for calculating the minimum required cooking times at different temperatures.
http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/07/the-food-lab-complete-guide-to-sous-vide-chicken-breast.html
For eating hot they recommend 140-150 F (60-65.6 C), and for cold slicing 150 F (65.6 C). I used 65 C for 2 hours (the minimum required safe cooking time being 2.8 minutes).
After the 2 hours the bags were taken out and the contents examined
Still in the vac packs the chicken looked like cooked chicken
but the pork slices did not look much different to when they went in. I think that this was due to the herb crumb that was on the outside. There was a little juice in the bottom of each bag but this was minimal.
When cut open the chicken looked perfectly cooked and the meat was juicy, soft and silky, with a little of the traditional soft stingy texture starting to form. It melted quickly in the mouth but also still had a good texture. The flavours of the Chinese sweet marinade were intense but not to the point of being unpleasant.
When cut the pork was also cooked well. The texture was soft and juicy and it too melted in the mouth. The herb flavours were intense and it was even possible to identify the individual herbs that were used in the coating. It tasted amazing.
On it's first real run I was impressed with the way the Sous Vide unit operated, and at £99 I think that it is excellent value for money.