Breville Joule Turbo Review

This high-quality sous vide boasts powerful circulation, efficient heating, and a unique turbo feature that can cook dozens of pre-made recipes quicker than the typical sous vide. It's an incredibly capable device that, paired with the Breville+ companion app, can be controlled remotely with voice commands and offers many video-guided recipes.

Performance Comparison

Temperature

We consider a sous vide's ability to heat water a major factor in its performance, which is why the temperature rating comprises 40% of our overall score. To test this, we measured how fast the Breville Joule Turbo could heat water and its accuracy in achieving and maintaining a set temperature.

The Breville proved to be exceptionally fast. We filled a 9.5-quart container with 50.9-degree tap water and set the device to 147 degrees, then timed how long it took for the sous vide to heat the water to that temperature. The Breville accomplished this in an impressive 32 minutes, averaging a temperature increase of three degrees per minute. With 1100 watts of power at its disposal, this sous vide machine will get your pot of water hot and ready to cook faster than most.

Next, we set the Joule Turbo to heat the water to 135 degrees and recorded the actual water temperature with a super thermometer multiple times throughout the water bath. There was a bit of variance, but nothing too significant. The average temperature discrepancy was less than half a degree from the set temperature, showing that it was relatively accurate but not perfect.

Circulation

A good sous vide needs to circulate the water efficiently to heat food evenly. The Breville Joule Turbo didn't have any problems creating a gentle yet consistent whirlpool in our cooking vessel.

To measure circulation, we crafted our own testing instrument using an aquarium hose and a syringe to inject 10 milliliters of high-contrast food coloring into a corner of the water container. Then, we switched the flip on the machine and started our time to see how long it took to homogenize the color of the water bath. The Breville got this done in 15 seconds flat. This quick circulation time helps to ensure a thorough and balanced cook without any hot or cool spots in the vessel.

Ease of Use

Sous vides are meant to make your cooking more precise but also easier. What good is a kitchen appliance that is so complicated that you don't want to use it anymore? To make sure the Breville Joule Turbo was something we actually wanted to use in a kitchen, we tested and rated the device's interface and attachment style.

If you like controlling appliances with your smartphone, then the Breville is a delight to use. The app is wonderfully intuitive and capable. Through the app, you can set the temperature to the 10th of a degree, which we really appreciate for fine-tuning the cook on sensitive foods like steaks and eggs. The app can also send notifications about your timers and temperatures, be programmed to autostart the timer or wait until the food has been added to start counting and let you know how long your food has been holding at the target temperature. All of these controls help you take a set-it-and-forget-it approach to cooking, which is one of the best benefits of using a sous vide machine. There are no manual on-device controls like buttons or knobs, which is a bit of a bummer if you don't have your phone on you all the time, but who doesn't these days?

We also think the turbo recipes are a great addition, though the fast-cooking functionality is limited to these specific recipes — you can't activate turbo mode for your own creations. Similarly, the step-by-step recipes are helpful, but you do have to pay for a subscription if you want full access to specific chef recipes. That said, the guided recipes provided at purchase are plentiful and have been specifically tuned for the Breville.

As for the attachment, the included removable clip is narrow, which limits the styles of containers you can attach it to. A larger clip is available as a separate purchase, but we would have liked to see that included as an option from the start. However, the flat magnetic base helps make up for the less-than-ideal attachment. The magnetic foot allows the Breville to stand up in a metal pot on its own — no clip or clamp required. We appreciate this super practical bonus feature.

Cooking

At the end of the day, a sous vide machine needs to cook food reliably and to your exact expectations. Our way to measure this ability involves cooking an egg with the Breville Joule Turbo following a set guideline with the goal of delivering an intact egg white with a runny yet slightly thickened yolk — the type of egg we would love to enjoy with a piece of toast.

We cooked the egg for an hour at 144.5 degrees, then cooled it in an ice bath before cracking it open onto a plate to evaluate the results. The Breville produced an egg that was slightly undercooked when weighed against our expectations. The egg white was a little ghostly and runny, and the yolk was a good deal more runny than we had wanted. This falls in line with our temperature test, which showed this device keeping the water about a half degree cooler than it was set, so if you want super precise results, keep this half-degree difference in mind.

Should You Buy the Breville Joule Turbo?

The Breville Joule Turbo is a powerhouse machine in a compact package. If you're comfortable operating the device via your smartphone, you'll find the app comprehensive, informative, and easy to use. It's priced at a premium, but its quality and capability make it worth it for some. Though its temperature accuracy was a little off, it was consistent, which means it's something you can adjust to. The benefits certainly outweigh the downsides — that's why it's listed among the best sous vide machines.

What Other Sous Vides Should You Consider?

If you're looking for a sous vide with a great companion app but find the price tag of the Breville Joule Turbo a little high, take a look at the Anova Culinary Precision Cooker 3.0. It's a well-rounded option that outperforms the Breville in some aspects, such as temperature accuracy. Similarly, the Anova Culinary Precision Cooker Nano 3.0 uses the same powerful app as the full-size Anova, but it is smaller and more on par with the Breville in terms of size, and it's even less expensive.