Sous vide is awesome. PERFECTLY tender medium rare steak all the way across the meat, every single time. Incredibly moist and flavorful chicken with almost no effort. Salmon? Game on.
Have a crockpot? One of the simple non-programmable no timer ones? This temperature controller will turn it into a sous vide cooker for under $20:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F05UI8O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Add an inexpensive extension cord so you have a plug and an outlet to plug the crock pot into. I found that the heavy ceramic crock was too much thermal mass, so I pull it out and use a plastic oven bag to hold the water instead, almost no thermal mass. With the ceramic crock, by the time the temperature probe reached the proper temperature and shut off the heat, the outside of the ceramic crock was much warmer, and that heat would carry over into the water even after the heat was off, making the temp over-shoot by a degree or two. Yes, that little difference matters, the difference between rare and medium rare steak is only a few degrees. A simple non-programmable crockpot is important, as the temperature controller will turn off power when at temp, so a programmable crockpot would lose it's setting and not turn back on when needed. By using a separate cord and plug on the controller vs. wiring the controller into the crockpot plug, the crockpot will be completely unchanged and can still be plugged into the wall for normal use.
You can use ziplock bags instead of vacuum seal. Make sure and get all the air out.
The meat will look funky when you pull it out of the bag. You'll seriously be wondering "wtf did I just do to $20 worth of steak?" Dry it off and give it a quick sear using a propane torch(not kidding), super hot charcoal fire, or rocket hot cast iron pan. You really want to get that sear on without heating the inside at all. When using garlic, I've found that sous vide simply doesn't get hot enough to mellow out the garlic like normal saute'ing or frying does. When sealing garlic in the bag, use way less than you normally would and expect it to smell and taste like powerful raw garlic, not mellower cooked garlic. Or saute the garlic first and game on. Yum.
It's good.