We compared the ChefSteps Joule to the Anova — and it's clear which

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Sous vide cooking is no longer relegated to Michelin-starred restaurants and culinary school-trained chefs.
With devices like the Joule or Anova sous vide machines, you can quickly turn your weeknight meal into a sophisticated masterpiece.
While both devices will get the job done, we’re partial to the Joule when it comes to throwing an impressive dinner party —for a party of one or 10.

You don’t have to speak French to know that sous vide means delicious. Actually, technically speaking, sous vide literally translates to “under vacuum,” which refers to the cooking technique that chefs around the world have been employing for years to ensure that their dishes come out tender, juicy, and perfect — every single time. The secret, of course, is that the technique involves sealing ingredients and their marinades in plastic bags, and then placing said bag in a water bath, where temperatures can be carefully controlled. The result is reliably delicious steak cooked to an exact medium rare, or an egg with a just runny enough yolk, or a fish that gives fork tender a brand-new meaning.

While you may have once resigned yourself to only experiencing the magic of sous vide cooking at Michelin-starred restaurants, innovations in the smart home space have recently made this technique more accessible than ever.

When it comes to sous vide devices, there are two that stand out among the rest of the pack. They are the ChefSteps Joule Sous Vide and the Anova Sous Vide Precision Cooker.

Both devices are essentially long, cylindrical sticks that can be placed in a pot or other container of water, and then quickly bring the water to your desired temperature, allowing you to cook your meal with unparalleled precision. Of course, both devices also come with their virtues and vices, and when it came time for us to compare these two head to head, we took a few key metrics into consideration: price, design, ease of use, and power. To clarify, the two models we’re putting to the test are the Anova Precision Cooker 4.0 (with Wi-Fi capabilities), and the stainless steel Joule.

Keep scrolling to see which kitchen appliance wins each category and to read our final verdict on which one you should buy.

Price

Amazon

When it comes to price, the Anova clearly comes out on top. Whereas the cheapest version of the Joule (there are only two offerings, and they differ exclusively in their stainless steel versus plastic finish) comes in at $ 179, the high-end Anova Precision Cooker 4.0 will set you back $ 159 (currently on sale for $ 90 at Amazon). The slightly more expensive Stainless Steel Joule is actually $ 199 — a full $ 40 more expensive than the competitor.

Design

Amazon

Design-wise, there are a few things to note about both the Joule and the Anova Precision Cooker. First off, the Joule Sous Vide is undeniably the sexier offering. Sleek and lightweight (it’s only 1.3 pounds), this sous vide device comes with a simple wire form clip that will allow it to quickly attach to just about any pot. But it also features a powerful magnet that will allow it to adhere to any steel pot, which eliminates the need for the clamp — this is not only more aesthetically pleasing, but more user-friendly, too (we’ll get to that later).

In an effort to be as minimalist as possible, the Joule doesn’t have any sort of display on its body. The only way to know that it’s working is to look at the little light atop the device — it’ll flash yellow when it’s heating up, green when you’re ready to cook, and of course, red if there’s something wrong. As a result, this means that you’ll have to have the Joule app in order to actually cook with the device.

The Anova Precision Cooker, on the other hand, looks just a bit clunkier. For starters, it’s decidedly bigger, and unlike the wand-like Joule, the Anova has a number of different-colored and shaped components. Sure, it’s still a sous vide stick, but it has a stainless steel component meant to go in the water, and then various plastic parts and an LED display for easy readability. While this may make it a bit more user-friendly, the overall effect is a bit less sleek.

The Anova also comes with a clip, but it works best on pots, and not so well on coolers or other irregular edges. Alas, there is no magnet to speak of, which means you must make use of the clip in order to keep the Anova upright.

Ease of use

Amazon

When it comes down to it, both the Joule and the Anova are remarkably easy to use. Indeed, the entire sous vide cooking technique is meant to take the work out of cooking — all you’re doing, after all, is dropping a plastic bag in water. There’s no babysitting, no flipping, really, very little cooking to do. That said, there are a few differentiating factors between the Anova and the Joule that may sway you in one direction or another.

As we mentioned previously, the Joule does not have any sort of display whatsoever, which means that you have to control every aspect of the device from your smartphone. Sure, that’s perfectly fine for most of us, but if you’re without a compatible device, or are a bit perplexed by the idea of controlling a kitchen appliance with the same thing you use to send texts to your mom (we get it), then you may not love the app-only functionality of the Joule.

That said, the Joule app is pretty near faultless. You can easily set the temperature and time required to cook your recipes, and the app also comes with a visual doneness scale for a wide range of ingredients. For example, the app will show a variety of options for how runny you want your egg yolks to be, and set the time and temperature in order to achieve that desired doneness. Plus, the app comes with the option to select between “fresh” and “frozen” for your proteins, so you don’t have to worry about defrosting or thawing before cooking, saving you precious time.

The Joule also gets major points for its built-in magnet, which makes attaching the device to a pot really quite seamless. Rather than fiddling with a clip or trying to figure out exactly how to keep the Joule upright, you can just stick it and forget it.

As for the Anova, the availability of a digital display may make things a bit easier for folks who prefer to do their cooking with their actual cooking tools. The LED display is bright and easy to read, and will show you your target temperature, current temperature, and cooking time. You can set these metrics manually using a little dial, making it easy to sous vide sans smartphone with the Anova.

Of course, that isn’t to say that the Anova doesn’t have an app. In fact, everything you can do on the Anova itself you can do through its companion application, which not only allows you to control the device, but also comes with some pretty excellent recipes and cooking guides, courtesy of Serious Eats. While the Joule doesn’t come with an exhaustive list of recipes (you actually have to go to the ChefSteps website in order to get some instructions), the Anova app seems to feature a veritable tome of meal guides — you can see how to cook seafood, poultry, meat, vegetables, fruits, and even some desserts. You can also select your desired doneness on certain proteins, like your steak.

Verdict: Tie.

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