Here's my FAQ that a friend new to SV asked me.
Q: What circulator to get? Only one?
A: Two minimum. It sounds over-the-top but not once you realize you're in the middle of a 48 hour pork butt at 145 but need to toss in some chicken for dinner that needs to get 165 or your SO likes their steak medium well and you eat yours correctly at 135 you'll see why. I frequently do mashed potatoes (190) and whatever protein I'm doing can't handle even a short time in that. Best recommendation is this
Kitchen Boss model. It's a nice price and it's the best I have at heating up quickly. I have an Anova Nano and regular Nano also and those are a toss-up. I don't find any benefit to the variable height the Nano has because nothing I do takes a very shallow container so they are pretty much a wash. The Nano is a significantly smaller (wattage) heating element so it will work harder to keep larger baths to temperature. The wifi on either Anova is fun but very hit-or-miss once you leave the house and off the home wifi. When I absolutely need it I will disable wifi on my phone, reboot the Anova, and that seems to keep me connected if I stay on LTE all day. If I had to do it all over again I'd get two (or three) Kitchen Boss units above.
The blashpemous answer is you don't really even need a heating unit if you're just doing steaks and chicken. Most only take a couple of hours to cook so just heat up a pot on the oven, drop a candy thermometer in it, and once it's to temp turn the heat to low (or slightly warmer depending on what temp you need to hold). A few degrees either way isn't going to have any impact so just check the temp every 15 minutes or so to make sure you're not running rogue.
Q: Do I need those fancy containers?
A: No but yes. You can cook perfectly fine in a kitchen pot. The biggest benefit the fancy schmancy ones have is the form-fitting lid. This will prevent heat loss, letting your circulator run less and extending its life and also prevent water evaporation. For short cooks evaporation isn't an issue but most SV units will auto-shutoff if the water gets too low so doing 24 hour ribs does require paying attention. With the lidded containers it's cover-and-forget.
Q: Do I need vaccuum bags and sealer?
A: Nope but they sure make life easier. First off they protect meat from freezer burn like a champ. I buy a lot in bulk when it's cheap (I currently have 60 pounds of pork loin from $1.39 a pound sale) and bag it up the moment I get home from shopping so getting a good seal is important. Plus it makes the food last f o r e v e r. I have left chicken in the fridge for 5 or 6 weeks and expected it to reek when I opened it but it was fresh as the day I sealed it up. You're gonna love yourself when you never again throw out spoiled food. I also cook for a lot of other people/households so they are nice to keep it fresh and it looks classy to hand someone a tightly-packed up roast. If you don't want to invest in a sealer or bags (yet - you will) just get some brand new Ziplock bags and google "water displacement method" to see how you get a perfectly acceptable seal for single-cook use.
Q: I hate it when my meat floats!
A: That's what she said, and it's not a question. This happens as fat renders from the cooking process - all of a sudden you have a big air bubble in there. A good vaccum seal helps to minimize this but it can't be avoided completely. You can weigh the food down with something handy like a wrench or scissors, or something practical like a paperweight, or even something
ridiculous awesome like some
sous vide weights in the bag. I also like to rig stuff up so I will use a cooling rack, flip it over so the legs rest up against the lid, and the meat can't get above the water level. The bubble itself isn't an issue, the meat will still cook just fine as long as it's submerged and the air in the bag remains at the right temperature. If it floats that air bubble will be exposed to open air and cool off and that's no bueno. Once you get fully into SV you'll be ready to get
the champ of containers which has a built-in rack to prevent this. Just keep the water level above the grate and you're golden. Watch these prices, they get gougy at times, this shouldn't cost more than $60.
Q: What's the best way to sear?
A: Yes. Just yes, sear it. That's the entire point of cooking food, you need to get the
maillard reaction going to get those amino acids jumping and those sugars reducing. This can be a pretty religious argument - pan sear, open flame, oven. Whatever you do, do it hot as hell. You want the maillard reaction to get lit up but you don't want to actually cook the meat any more, so 30 seconds at 600 degrees is better than 3 minutes at 400. For pan searing I highly recommend using avocado oil - it's got one of the highest smoke points out there plus it's got high in unsaturated fat vs. saturated fats. Whatever you do do it hot as hell. Can't stress that enough. Just don't burn your house down and if you do for the love of god save the steak first.
Q: Where should I set up?
A: No one really considers this but it's kind of a big deal. I bought a stainless steel kitchen prep table for the basement so I don't clutter up the kitchen with a bunch of toys. The only thing I will stress is get your container as close to the sink as you can - water is heavy at 8 pounds per gallon so it's no easy task emptying a 26-quart container when you need to.
Q: What's the best seasoning to use?
A: Oh great, now I need to write a new FAQ.