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Oliso Sous Vide Smart Hub and Vacuum Sealer: An In-Depth Review for Precision Cooking Enthusiasts

Sous vide cooking has revolutionized home kitchens, transforming everyday meals into gourmet experiences with unparalleled precision and consistency. For over seven years, our kitchen has embraced this innovative technique, evolving with each technological advancement in sous vide appliances. Our journey began with the venerable Sous Vide Supreme in 2009, leading us through the popular immersion circulators like the Anova Sous Vide and the Nomiku Sous Vide. Each device brought its own set of innovations, but our latest deep dive into the world of precision cooking introduces us to the sophisticated Oliso Sous Vide System and accompanying Vacuum Sealer.

Before Oliso reached out to us for a review, the brand was already a familiar and respected name in our household. Their debut product, the Smart Iron, truly showcased their commitment to intelligent design and user convenience. I personally purchased the Smart Iron upon its release and even gifted one to my Mother-in-Law. Its innovative iTouch technology, which automatically lifts and lowers the iron upon touch, made it a favorite among quilters and earned it a spot on Time Magazine’s “Best Inventions of 2006.” This history of ingenuity set high expectations for their foray into kitchen appliances.

Oliso’s expansion into the kitchen brings us two powerful tools: the Smart Vacuum Sealer and the Sous Vide Smart Hub. While each product operates independently, together they form a cohesive system designed to seamlessly integrate sous vide cooking into your daily routine. In this comprehensive review, we’ll first explore the Oliso Sous Vide Smart Hub, delving into its features, performance, and overall user experience, before moving on to its indispensable companion, the Oliso Smart Vacuum Sealer.

Oliso Sous Vide Smart Hub Review: Precision Meets Power

The Oliso Sous Vide Smart Hub stands apart from traditional immersion circulators, offering a unique two-part system that redefines convenience and performance in sous vide cooking. It comprises:

An advanced induction cooktop (the Induction SmartHub)
A dedicated sous vide cooking vessel (the SmartTop “Pot”)

The Induction SmartHub is a powerful appliance in its own right, functioning as a portable stovetop capable of accommodating any induction-friendly cookware. However, its true brilliance shines when paired with the Oliso SmartTop. When the SmartTop is placed onto the Induction SmartHub, integrated sensors instantly detect its presence, establishing a seamless communication link that intelligently manages and maintains the water temperature with remarkable precision. This synergistic design creates an optimized environment for perfect sous vide results every time.

Visually, the Oliso Smart Hub makes a statement. It’s a substantial appliance, occupying roughly a cubic foot of counter space, a testament to its robust design and generous capacity. Its presence is justified, however, by its multifaceted utility and exceptional performance.

Design and Features for Superior Sous Vide

One of the SmartTop’s standout features is its meticulously designed lid. Crafted from durable glass and encircled by a thick rubber edge, it serves a critical purpose: minimizing water evaporation. This is a game-changer for extended sous vide sessions, ensuring consistent water levels without constant monitoring or refilling. The transparency of the glass also allows for effortless visual checks on your food’s progress, offering peace of mind throughout the cooking process.

Included with the system is a removable rack, a thoughtful addition designed to enhance cooking efficiency. This rack keeps multiple food bags submerged and separated, ensuring even water circulation around each item. This prevents bags from clumping together and guarantees uniform temperature exposure, leading to consistently perfect results across all your dishes.

The Induction SmartHub itself is an engineering marvel. As Oliso highlights, “The induction burner is capable of delivering up to 1500W for extremely fast heating, but can also maintain temperatures with as few as 2W.” This immense power ensures rapid heating to your target temperature, while the ability to sustain extremely low wattage guarantees unparalleled temperature stability, crucial for precise sous vide cooking. Beyond sous vide, this portable induction cooktop is incredibly versatile. We frequently deploy it in the center of our dining table for interactive meals like Japanese shabu-shabu, Chinese hot pot, or Korean BBQ, where guests enjoy cooking their own food. Its energy efficiency and instant heat control make it a valuable addition to any kitchen.

Operating the Oliso Sous Vide Smart Hub is remarkably intuitive. The process is straightforward:

Fill the SmartTop pot with water.
Place the SmartTop onto the Induction SmartHub.
Add your vacuum-sealed food.
Set the desired temperature and cooking time using the clear digital controls.

Advantages of the Oliso Sous Vide Smart Hub

Unmatched Speed and Precision: Thanks to its powerful induction heating element, the Oliso Smart Hub heats water significantly faster than most immersion circulators like Nomiku or Anova. The large, bottom-mounted heating element also ensures superior temperature uniformity and precision throughout the water bath, minimizing fluctuations that can impact delicate cooks.
Exceptional Versatility: The Smart Hub’s modular design offers dual functionality. Not only is it a top-tier sous vide machine, but the Induction SmartHub also serves as a premium portable induction cooktop for everyday cooking. This versatility means less clutter and more value from a single appliance. Furthermore, the SmartTop pot, being separate from the heating element, isn’t limited to water. While we typically use bags and water, you can theoretically sous vide directly in broth or other liquids without a bag, or even use minimal water for precision steaming of custards, yogurts, or other delicate items requiring exact temperatures.
Streamlined Workflow: For those who regularly incorporate sous vide into their weekly meal prep, the Oliso Smart Hub is a game-changer. Its robust design encourages leaving it out on the countertop, ready for action. This accessibility transforms cooking from a chore to a seamless process. In our home, it’s used far more frequently than our KitchenAid mixer, earning its permanent place on the counter. The “hands-on” time is reduced to mere minutes: grab food from the freezer, place it in the pre-filled Oliso, set the temperature, and a perfect dinner awaits at your convenience.
Superior Evaporation Control: The glass lid with its thick rubber edge significantly reduces water evaporation, making overnight sous vide sessions worry-free. This feature is particularly beneficial for long-cooking items like tough cuts of meat, ensuring consistent cooking conditions without the need for constant water level checks.

Considerations for the Oliso Sous Vide Smart Hub

Investment Cost: The current price point of $499 for the SmartHub and SmartTop, or $599 when bundled with the vacuum sealer, represents a significant investment. For newcomers or those just dabbling in sous vide, more budget-friendly immersion circulators like the Nomiku or Anova (typically around $199) might be a more accessible entry point. These less expensive options allow users to explore sous vide without such a substantial initial outlay.
Size and Storage: The Oliso SmartTop pot is notably large and, when filled with water, can be quite heavy. While its counter presence is justified by frequent use in our kitchen, its substantial footprint requires dedicated space. Storage can be a consideration for smaller kitchens, though the separate components (SmartHub and SmartTop) offer some flexibility for stowing away. Immersion circulators, by contrast, are compact and can be easily tucked into a drawer alongside existing pots.
App Availability: The original documentation mentioned a companion app, but it was not readily discoverable on their website or in app stores during our review. This lack of clear app support might be a missed opportunity for advanced control or recipe integration.

In conclusion, the Oliso Sous Vide Smart Hub is an exceptional appliance for dedicated sous vide enthusiasts who consider this cooking method an integral part of their weekly routine. Its speed, precision, and versatility, coupled with the convenience of an always-ready system, truly streamline the cooking process. While the initial investment is higher, it also delivers a high-quality portable induction cooktop, adding significant value. For beginners, we still recommend starting with a more affordable immersion circulator to ensure sous vide aligns with your cooking style before upgrading to this premium, high-performance system.

Now that we’ve thoroughly explored the Oliso Sous Vide Smart Hub, let’s turn our attention to its equally impressive companion: the Oliso Vacuum Sealer.

Oliso Vacuum Sealer Review: A Smarter Approach to Food Preservation

Vacuum sealing is an indispensable technique for sous vide cooking, extending food freshness, and simplifying meal prep. Over the years, we’ve tested numerous consumer vacuum sealers from various brands. Most traditional models, often resembling bulky laser printers, share a common design: a wide vacuum and sealing strip requiring the bag to be laid flat. While functional, these machines often come with a host of frustrations:

Excessive Noise: Traditional vacuum sealers are notoriously loud, often sounding like a small aircraft taking off in your kitchen.
Messy Operation: Dealing with liquids in bags often leads to suctioning liquid into the sealing chamber, creating a messy cleanup.
Difficult to Clean: Narrow sealing chambers are prone to accumulating raw meat juices and other residues, making thorough cleaning a challenge and a potential hygiene concern.
Bulky Bags and Sealing: The wide sealing area, typically 10 inches or more, often necessitates larger bags and can make sealing irregularly shaped or bulky items difficult if the bag isn’t perfectly flat.
Limited Bag Reusability: While many bags are technically reusable, they become progressively smaller with each use due to the cutting-open process, eventually limiting their utility.

The Oliso Smart Vacuum Sealer: An Innovative Solution

The Oliso Vacuum Sealer introduces a refreshing and highly effective alternative, addressing many of the shortcomings of conventional machines. Its ingenious design centers around a proprietary system featuring:

The compact Oliso Smart Vacuum Sealer machine.
Specially designed reusable zip-top bags.
A unique disc-shaped sealer tool.

The process is remarkably simple and clean. You place your food, such as sea bass with miso sauce and butter for our Miso Salmon recipe variation, into the reusable zip-top bag. The included disc-shaped tool helps ensure a secure zip-top seal. What truly sets Oliso apart is its innovative vacuuming mechanism. Rather than a wide sealing strip, the Oliso system uses numbered spots on the side of its bags. You align the desired number with a specific port on the machine. This is where the magic happens: the machine punches a tiny hole, powerfully sucks out the air, and then meticulously seals the hole, all in a matter of seconds.

The Oliso Vacuum Sealer also features a “Moist” setting, which we found incredibly effective. This setting intelligently adjusts the vacuum pressure, preventing liquids from being inadvertently sucked into the machine’s chamber – a common and frustrating issue with many other sealers. This is particularly useful when sealing marinated meats or dishes with sauces.

Observe the numbered spots on the bags. While we were careful to keep sauce away from the first sealing point, it’s worth noting how critical it is to maintain a clean sealing area, especially around the numbers used for vacuuming. This helps prevent any potential bacterial contamination in the tiny, punched hole.

Each Oliso bag is designed for impressive durability, capable of being reused up to 10 times. To initiate the vacuuming process, you simply align the desired numbered spot on the bag with the machine’s port. The Oliso Vacuum Sealer then automatically detects the bag and commences the vacuum and sealing cycle.

Within a few quick seconds, the vacuum seal is complete, and your food is securely preserved.

Advantages of the Oliso Vacuum Sealer

Compact and Space-Saving: The Oliso Vacuum Sealer is remarkably small, fitting effortlessly into a kitchen drawer. Its minimalist footprint is a huge advantage over the bulky traditional models.
Effortless Operation: There’s no need to meticulously align bags or ensure perfect flatness. The system is designed for quick and easy use, making the vacuum sealing process far less cumbersome.
Significantly Quieter: While no vacuum sealer is entirely silent, the Oliso operates with a much lower noise profile compared to its boisterous competitors, making for a more pleasant kitchen experience.
Innovative Reusable Zip-Top Bags: The zip-top design eliminates the need for cutting bags open, preserving their original size and maximizing reusability (up to 10 times). This allows for sealing multiple items in one bag, freezing, removing only what’s needed, and then resealing the bag.
Effective “Moist” Setting: The “Moist” setting genuinely works, preventing liquids from being drawn into the machine during the vacuum process, ensuring cleaner operation and better seals for marinades and sauces.

Considerations for the Oliso Vacuum Sealer

Proprietary Bags and Cost: The starter kit for the vacuum sealer costs around $149 on Amazon. While reusable, you are restricted to purchasing Oliso’s specific bags, which are more expensive than generic bulk vacuum sealer rolls available on Amazon (like Commercial Bargains). This commitment to proprietary bags is a trade-off for the system’s innovative features.
Liquid Trapping at Seal Point: It is crucial to be mindful of liquids or food particles near the numbered sealing points on the bag. If liquid gets trapped at the punch-and-seal spot, it can compromise the seal and potentially create an environment for bacterial growth. Users must carefully position ingredients to avoid this.
Risk of Losing the Disc-Shaped Sealer: The small, disc-shaped tool is essential for securely zipping the bags. A concern arises regarding its potential to be misplaced. An integrated or more easily storable solution would be a welcome improvement.
Challenges with Labeling: Traditional vacuum sealer bags are easily labeled with a Sharpie, as the top is cut off after each use. With the Oliso’s reusable zip-top bags, labeling becomes more problematic. Writing directly on the bag with a permanent marker would result in messy cross-outs with each reuse. A designated, erasable labeling area or compatible removable labels would significantly enhance usability.
Limited Bag Sizes: Currently, Oliso offers bags only in quart and gallon sizes. This lack of flexibility for custom bag sizes can be limiting for users who need smaller portions or unusually sized packaging.

Despite these minor drawbacks, the Oliso Vacuum Sealer system remains our top choice for food preservation. For those who, like us, buy in bulk and frequently vacuum seal, its compact size, ease of use, and effective “Moist” setting make it incredibly valuable. While the full price may seem steep, options like Costco offering it for $20 less than Amazon sometimes present a slightly better deal.

As a delicious example of what you can create with these tools, we recently prepared Chinese 5-Spice Pork Belly Lettuce Cups – an absolutely amazing dish that perfectly showcases the benefits of sous vide and vacuum sealing. Stay tuned for that recipe coming soon!

Final Thoughts: Is the Oliso System Right for You?

The Oliso Sous Vide Smart Hub and Vacuum Sealer together offer a premium, integrated solution for modern kitchen enthusiasts. If sous vide cooking is a cherished and frequent part of your culinary repertoire, and you appreciate high-quality appliances that streamline your process, the Oliso system is an outstanding investment. Its unparalleled precision, speed, versatility (thanks to the induction cooktop’s dual function), and the sheer convenience of having an “always-on” sous vide station make it a standout. The innovative vacuum sealer further enhances this experience, providing a cleaner, quieter, and more user-friendly approach to food preservation than traditional models.

For those new to sous vide, or simply curious, we continue to recommend starting with a more affordable immersion circulator. This allows you to explore the benefits of sous vide (and trust us, once you try it, you’ll be hooked!) without the significant initial outlay. However, once you’re a committed sous vide advocate, the Oliso Smart Hub and Vacuum Sealer represent a worthy upgrade, bringing professional-grade precision and efficiency to your home kitchen.

Remember, the price of the Oliso Smart Hub (currently $499) not only provides top-tier sous vide capabilities but also includes a very high-quality portable induction cooktop, making it a versatile appliance that justifies its cost for the right user. Similarly, the vacuum sealer, despite its proprietary bags, delivers a superior sealing experience that dedicated meal preppers and sous vide users will genuinely appreciate.

Thank you for supporting Steamy Kitchen!

Oliso Sous Vide Smart Hub Giveaway

Oliso generously provided a unit for this honest review, and another for a special giveaway to our readers. Stay tuned for details on how to enter!