Under “Ice Bath”, are you saying that the ice bath is the cause for excessive wrinkling on snack sticks or the ice bath will prevent this from happening?

smokinbubba Do you vacuum seal the 24" logs before sous vide in the tote? I’m wanting to finish my snack sticks this way but don’t have reasonable capability to vacuum seal long sections of sticks.

I just purchased an 1100watt unit off of amzon for about $80 and took it for a test spin. That unit had no issue heating a tub full of water to 160 degrees. It’s kitchen tub from Sam’s club that I’m guess had about 30 quarts of water in it. Insulation would have definitely helped as would a lid. If you go the cooler route, maybe you could hook up two or three of the cheaper units to run at the same time. You would need separate electrial circuits to run them without tripping a breaker, but seems well worth a try before spending thousands for the commercial stuff.

I’ve been using a 7lb Hakka Brothers vertical sausage stuffer. Tonight I was squeezing out some snack sticks through the 12mm tube and the pressure finally got the better of the stuffer. One side of the housing bent where the lower lug/bolt is that the canister rests on. I can’t blame the unit for blowing out… it takes tons of pressure for the smaller diameters.

So my question is if any of you have found a more robust unit that is up to the task? Are the 11lb stuffers any stronger? Do the horizontal stuffers experience less resistance by not having the 90 degree turn? Any tiops are greatly appreciated.