Sous-vide is amazing but I can&#x27;t believe how expensive they typically are.<p>Because I couldn&#x27;t believe it, I built my own for $45 using weird things from amazon.  It didn&#x27;t even take any electrical work or programming and can be setup in about a minute:<p>Cheap fish tank pump: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;gp&#x2F;product&#x2F;B00EWENKXO" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;gp&#x2F;product&#x2F;B00EWENKXO</a><p>Cheap hot plate: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;gp&#x2F;product&#x2F;B005T0SN0K" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;gp&#x2F;product&#x2F;B005T0SN0K</a><p>And the star of the show, a temperature modulator with a standard plug: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;gp&#x2F;product&#x2F;B00V4TJR00" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;gp&#x2F;product&#x2F;B00V4TJR00</a><p>Put a pot of water on the hot plate, insert fish tank pump, plug hot plate into the Willhi.  Put your meat into a regular ziplock bag, leaving it open, dip it into the water.  The pressure of the water will cause the air to leave the bag, creating a vacuum (you can find many demonstrations of this technique on youtube).  Clip the bag to the side of the pot using some clothes pins.  Bam!  DYI sous vide.<p>Generally it maintains the temperature within +&#x2F;- 1 degree Fahrenheit, which is good enough for a rare steak.  I had this incredibly dangerous coffee heating element at first, which could keep the temperature within 0.1 degree, but decided it was too dangerous to be worth it: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;gp&#x2F;product&#x2F;B00V4TJR00" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;gp&#x2F;product&#x2F;B00V4TJR00</a><p>I then use a $25 Iwatani torch to char the surface: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;gp&#x2F;product&#x2F;B00BBJC1CY" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;gp&#x2F;product&#x2F;B00BBJC1CY</a><p>As opposed to most butane cooking torches, this one seems to produce a large hot flame about 20 centimeters long and the diameter of a quarter.<p>Not to take away from this griddle or anything, but I&#x27;m pretty psyched about my sous vide machine and it was too easy to make just to not tell everyone that will listen.