Anova Sous Vide

very solid product, going to sv a burger tonight, actually.

Best kitchen item I have purchased. Use it probably 2-3 times a week.

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Can I put an entire meal in there at 8am when I leave for work, and it will be ready to eat at, say, 6pm?

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Theoretically, yes. It doesn't take that long to cook anything I've done though... you could get home from work, start up the sous vide, set the temperature, drop in whatever you want to cook, take care of other chores/tasks/chill and it'll be ready for dinner.

Now, it'll only do one temperature at a time, so if you want beef at 130, but also some veggies hotter, you'd have to pull out the beef to rest and bump up the temperature to finish off the veggies.

I find it real nice for the main meat dish because I can get that going first, then start on sides or a sauce, etc. and not worry about timing it perfect. I generally leave steaks in the sous vide for an hour, but if I'm not ready for them for 1.5 hours, they aren't going to overcook, they'll still be ready for me.

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Can I put an entire meal in there at 8am when I leave for work, and it will be ready to eat at, say, 6pm?

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It isn't a crock pot. It is a tool that lets you keep a water bath at a very specific temperature thus preventing you from overcooking something past that specific temperature. Most likely an entire meal has food items with different cooking temperatures.

At the same time, even though this thing doesn't let your food "overcook," keeping your food heated to a specific temperature for a long time does some unique (and not always very successful) things to your food. For example a steak sous vide at 130 F for 1 hour will take on a completely different texturethan a steak sous vide at 130 F for 8 hours.

TLDR....no.

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it looks like you could leave some steak/chicken in ice water before you leave and set it to start cooking an hour before you get home

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This. I haven't tried it yet though, but I've seen it online a good bit.

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Would have to experiment some to figure out the right amount of ice to put in so it doesn't melt too fast or too slow.

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Go with more for sure. Once it turns on and starts heating the water, it will melt any leftover ice pretty quickly. I'd definitely be worried about not enough ice than too much.

how long before yeti comes up with a container to hold the ice until you decide to start cooking?

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How about cooking the veggies first and then lower the water temp with ice then cook the beef while still holding the veggies at the lower temp. They won't continue to cook.

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Sure, no reason that wouldn't work, but he was asking about getting it all started while he was at work so it would be ready when he got home.

so what size container and how many bags would you buy? can you use something like ziplock storage bags?

looks like you can add a 12qt clear container + 10 bags/4clips/handpump for right at $200. good deal?

just bought the anova wifi and the clips/bags/vacuum pump. figured i'd just use a stock pot like you suggested

I would suggest you go buy a foodsaver vacuum sealer.