REASONS TO BUY
Heats very quickly
Tons of circulation
Can be used in very little water
REASONS TO AVOID
No display
Can only be controlled through the app
Breville Joule 1100W Review
This is a sleek and stylish app-controlled sous vide that heats up quickly
By Michelle Powell ⋅ Senior Review Analyst ⋅ February 14, 2022
Contributions From: David Wise
RELATED: The Best Sous Vide of 2025
Our Verdict
The Breville Joule is one of the best sous vide machines and did well across most of our tests. It has a powerful heater that can get your water up to temperature much faster than many other models. This product has a sleek and stylish design that will look fantastic in most kitchens, and it is quite accurate and stable when it comes to maintaining temperature. It has a handy smartphone companion app to set the time and duration for different recipes and is overall user-friendly and easy to use.
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Breville Joule is a sleek and stylish sous vide. Credit: Laura Casner
Temperature
The Joule is one of the fastest models to heat water, only taking 36 minutes to heat 48°F water to to 147°F. It recovers quickly when food is added, taking a mere two minutes to regain its set temperature after three frozen hamburger patties in a vacuum-sealed bag were added.
It also did very well in our stability test, only wavering from its steady-state temperature for 10% or six minutes of the hour-long assessment. Even then, it was only an average of 0.09°F off of the stable temperature.
The Joule did a solid job in our temperature accuracy assessments. Credit: Laura Casner
When we compared the temperature shown on the Joule's app to our calibrated lab-grade thermometer, the Joule displayed an average temperature variance of 0.45°F above the set temperature of 135°F. This average error decreased to only 0.33°F above the desired setpoint when the Joule was set for 147°F.
The Joule has a surprisingly powerful circulator. Credit: Michelle Powell
Circulation
The Joule has one of the most powerful circulators of the group, determined by how long it took to circulate blue dye throughout the water bath.
The Joule only took 21 seconds to completely incorporate the blue dye, just a bit slower than the 14 seconds or so of the fastest time and considerably quicker than the 3+ minutes of the slowest.
The mobile app is great but we did occasionally miss having controls right on the machine. Credit: Laura Casner
Ease of Use
This product is intuitive and simple to use through the app, which offers an entire library of presets to choose from, as well as a full history of your uses. You can start and stop the Joule remotely, but we occasionally had some connectivity issues where we had to reset the WiFi on our phones or restart the app.
Smart sous vides can be more convenient to use but it isn't a crucial feature. Credit: Laura Casner
We found it mildly irritating to only control the sous vide through a smart device. It has a clip to attach the side of a vessel or a magnetic base to keep it upright in metal containers.
The clip makes it quick and easy to attach the Joule to the side of a container if you aren't using the magnetic base. Credit: Laura Casner
Should You Buy the Breville Joule?
The Breville Joule is an all-around top-tier sous vide but might not be the best option for everyone due to its reliance on smart devices. It has a powerful heater and circulator, but we would like to see a bit more accuracy to match the performance of the top-tier products. It is one of our top recommendations if you prioritize appearance and don't mind paying for it. While the interface through the app is very convenient and easy to use, we found it was a bit disappointing that there aren't controls on the Joule itself. This can be a bit of a hassle if multiple people use the Joule and don't have the app installed or the registered account login info, or if you don't feel like pulling out your phone to set the temperature or add more time. Unfortunately, the Joule isn't necessarily the best value option. There are more affordable models that can serve you almost as well.
What Other Sous Vide Machine Should You Consider?
If you are unsure about only having controls via your cell phone, but like the app-enabled idea, the Anova Culinary Precision Cooker Nano and the Anova Culinary Precision Cooker AN500-US00 are high-ranking options that provide online connection to recipes and controls. We like the idea of making this kind of cooking easier for newbies.
—Michelle Powell and David Wise
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