Breville HydroPro and Plus Review

The Breville Polyscience brand is a well-known name in the kitchen appliance world. Their products are known for their quality, durability, ease of use, and affordability.

The Breville PolyScience line includes everything from food processors to juicers, blenders, coffee makers, and of course – sous vide cookers!

This article will cover the specifications and benefits of both the Breville Polyscience HydroPro and HydroPro Plus so that you can make an informed decision when choosing to see if either are right for you.

If you’re in a hurry, the Breville HydroPro Plus is one of the most fully-featured immersion circulators. If you don’t need a digital temperature probe and Bluetooth connectivity, you can get the regular HydroPro.

Breville Polyscience HydroPro Plus

• Precision Temperature Probe: Digital probe allows for precise internal temperature control to achieve perfect and safe cooking temperature, delta cooking techniques and reduces cooking time by up to 50%
• Bluetooth Enabled: Easily Transfer HACCP Data Logs to your phone or computer via HACCP Manager App

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Before you know it, you’ll be cooking like a professional chef with a fraction of the effort.

Their bestselling Breville Joule Sous Vide Cooker is one of the top-selling immersion circulators out there. They’ve continued their high-quality products with their next-generation sous vide cookers – Breville HydroPro and HydroPro Plus. 

These HydroPro precision cookers are some of the most powerful sous vide cookers out there. They have precise temperature regulation, power and a hardy, durable design that makes sous vide cooking easy.

The Breville Polyscience HydroPro 

Specifications

The Breville Polyscience HydroPro sous vide immersion circulator has a range of cutting-edge features to simplify your sous vide experience. That includes tools that utilize scientific algorithms to calculate time to temperature and pasteurization for a vast selection of food dishes.

The durable materials are made of stainless steel and polymer, and with dimensions of 6.7”x3.7”x14.6” (WxDxH). 

This sous vide immersion circulator makes for a powerful product. It has a capacity of 45 liters with its 1450-Watt on 120V heater (1485 Watts on 240V). It heats up the water very fast with a 17 liters per minute water flow.

The entire unit is IXP7-rated, so it’s waterproof and fully immersible should it accidentally fall into the sous vide water bath. The unit comes with a large 4.3” Gorilla Glass color TFT touch display with sound capabilities, which allows you to manually (and easily) select or adjust your desired cooking parameters.

The HydroPro weighs 4.4 pounds and is dishwasher safe, making it easy to clean. Cleaning sous vide cookers is easy though and I never put them into a dishwasher. I always clean my sous vide cookers by hand. They don’t get that dirty since it’s just heating up water.

The HydroPro has over temperature protection and low liquid level safety with an alarm and fault indicators. It supports a maximum temperature of 194^o F (90^oC), with temperature stability of ±0.1^o F (±0.1^oC).

Sous Vide Toolbox Cooking Guide 

The Sous Vide Toolbox is a built-in sous vide cooking guide that allows you to select the type of food you are making, the size of the portion and the doneness level you want. It will tell you the temperatures and times that you need for perfect meals. 

It includes a variety of food types to choose from, such as grains, vegetables, fruits, custards, green vegetables, and soaked legumes among others.

Temperature units are in degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius, with three flow settings—high, medium and low—and you can choose from English, Dutch, French and Spanish languages.

You can also save your most frequently used sous vide settings with the “My Presets” program, allowing you to input a name, temperature, timer, and flow speed.

The Toolbox is really handy and useful. It beats going through a cookbook or my own recipe notes. 

Adjustable and Detachable Clamp

The HydroPro comes with an adjustable and detachable clamp designed with food safety and easy maintenance in mind.

This tension clamp holds the unit steady in place on a sous vide container or pot, so that it doesn’t wobble or shift while in use. It also allows you to quickly remove the device for simple cleanup.

Magnetic Impeller with Adjustable 360° Flow Direction

This pumping system is unique in that it provides a 360° adjustable flow direction. 

The impeller has tool-less removal for easy cleaning. It uses magnets to hold parts in place, so no screwdriver or other tools needed.

It features three flow speeds for gentle, low circulation or aggressive pumping, useful for large water baths.

Breville Polyscience HydroPro Plus with Digital Probe

The specs of the HydroPro Plus immersion circulator are the same as the regular HydroPro. It contains all the same features of the HydroPro, while adding a couple more. 

The Plus comes with an additional digital needle probe that lets you measure the precise internal temperature of the food as it cooks. You can then adjust temperatures when needed, but it also lets you take advantage of Delta-T cooking techniques.

Delta cooking allows you to reduce cooking time by up to 50% by providing the core temperature of the food in real-time. It does it by cooking at higher temperatures than what the water temperatures should be. 

The HydroPro Plus also allows you to easily Transfer HACCP Data Logs to your phone or computer via the HACCP Manager App. You can only get this with the digital probe since it monitors and logs the cooking temperatures and the cooling temperatures.

The HydroPro Plus has Bluetooth built-in, so it can transfer the data logs to the Polyscience HACCP Manager for HACCP compliance.

One issue with the data logging though if you’re also using it to cool the food. The HydroPro’s cooking process won’t stop while logging data. The device needs to continue running for it to continue logging. 

Not a big deal since cooling doesn’t take that long, especially with an ice bath. 

Another thing I want is for the Bluetooth to do more than only send the data logging. It’d be great to get notifications via Bluetooth and even control the HydroPro. Hopefully Breville will include this in the future. 

Breville HydroPro vs HydroPro Plus

The main difference between the regular Breville HydroPro and the HydroPro Plus is the Digital Probe that measures the internal temperatures of the food that’s cooking. The Plus and probe also allow you easier HACCP compliance by logging data and transferring it to a HACCP Manager App through Bluetooth. 

If you don’t need the HACCP compliance logging, I still think the HydroPro Plus model is worth the extra cost. The temperature probe is very useful for knowing what the temperature of foods is 

Here is a side-by-side comparison chart of the HydroPro and HydroPro Plus for a quicker glance to see if the Plus model is for you and worth the cost of upgrade. 

As you can see, most of the features are all the same, except for the Bluetooth and digital probe.

Breville Joule vs HydroPro

The Breville HydroPro has a slight advantage here with its higher wattage and flexibility when it comes to how much food it can cook at one time. Breville also brought a color touchscreen to the HydroPro, while the Joule was only controllable by a smartphone app. 

The Breville Joule sous vide cooker is an excellent product with a power wattage of 1,100 Watts. Its sleek, compact and modern design, the Breville Joule has set the benchmark for premium sous vide cookers—that was until the introduction of the HydroPro series.

One major drawback of the Breville Joule was its operational requirements, as it can only be used when connected to a smart device via a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi Internet connection. It also requires iOS 8.0 and up, or Android 4.4 operating system software, and some features can only be used with an Internet connection.

Although it is a premium product and well above the grade of most sous vide cookers on the market, these minor drawbacks make it a cut below the HydroPro series. The HydroPro doesn’t require a wireless connection, it has a TFT color display touchscreen for temperature control, and can heat up your water bath faster with its 1450-Watt power.

Here is a comparison table for the Breville Joule and HydroPro.

Breville Joule vs HydroPro Plus

Aside from the digital probe and calibration holder, and wireless Bluetooth functionality, the HydroPro and HydroPro Plus don’t differ much. Which is why I won’t go into much detail on this comparison between the Joule and HydroPro Plus.

The two major advantages the Joule has over the HydroPro Plus are its lower price and small, sleek design that is compact and space-saving. 

The handy comparison table below should help you make an easy informed decision.

Breville HydroPro Pros and Cons

HydroPro Pros

• The HydroPro is water resistant, with durable materials, and therefore less likely to be damaged while in use.
• It has precision temperature control for perfect doneness of your sous vide meals.
• The TFT color screen provides easy usability at the touch of your fingertips.
• The Sous Vide Toolbox is an easy-access cooking guide to give you times and tempeartures for different foods. No need to look up recipes in cookbooks or on note cards. 
• It has one of the highest power wattages on the market—1450 Watts—and heats fast.
• There are more user options with 3 flow speed options.
• Cleaning comes easy with the HydroPro that is dishwasher friendly.

HydroPro Cons

• The HydroPro is pricier than other Breville cookers, such as the Breville Joule.
• Sitting at 4.4lbs and bigger dimensions, the HydroPro is not as sleek and compact as other sous vide cookers and can be a bit bulky.
• The maximum temperature of the HydroPro is not as high as the Joule for example. But cooking at 200° is rarely, if ever, needed. 
• No mobile sous vide app to control the device. 

Breville HydroPro Review Final Thoughts

The Breville HydroPro and HydroPro Plus might not be as affordable as other sous vide cookers, but the features that come with this premium sous vide cooker make it worth the purchase.

The HydroPro makes it relatively simple to cook sous vide dishes to perfection, with a TFT color screen and the Sous Vide Toolbox.

The HydroPro is also an incredibly powerful tool and durable to last long.

Breville Polyscience HydroPro Plus Sous Vide Immersion Circulator, 1450...

Sous Vide Toolbox: a built in sous vide cooking guide; Heats up fast: Powerful 1450 Watt heater and 17 liter per minute water flow

Breville Polyscience HydroPro Sous Vide Immersion Circulator, 1450 Watt,...

Sous Vide Toolbox: a built-in sous vide cooking guide; Heats up fast: Powerful 1450 Watt heater and 17 liter per minute water flow

Last update on 2024-04-24 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

For other sous vide cooker reviews, check out these articles: 

• Anova Precision Cookers Comparison: Nano, Standard, Pro
• Wancle Sous Vide Cooker