Rubbermaid 5 Gallon Clear Polycarbonate Food Storage Container - Durable & BPA-Free for Restaurants, Kitchens, Cafeterias - Perfect for Bulk Food Storage, Meal Prep & Commercial Use

I've been put off by the pricey sous vide machines out there when they are really simple construction. So I decided to make one myself after seeing a local high end restaurant use something similar. This box is a very sturdy polycarbonate - heavy and nice-n-thick. I can see this lasting for years and years even if dropped. I ordered the lid which was separate.Although the description says it's a 3.5 gal and the dimensions, it didn't register to me how big this box was. Luckily I didn't order the larger one of these because this easily fit 2 large corned beef packages and left room for all of the other stuff. I also was able to put in 10lbs of porterhouse steaks at 140 degrees for a couple of hours and they came out wonderful (after a quick searing on the frying pan). The plastic can handle boiling water as I put it in a couple of times and let it cool to the desired sous vide temperature.I bought a temperature controller off of the "bay" site for $60, a cheap coffee mug heater for $10 and a food grade circulation pump. With a dremel tool, I cut a notch on the top lid so that the heater go go in the hole and hang suspended off of the plastic. I also put a piece of ceramic below just in case the heater would accidentally drop to the bottom and potentially melt a hole (though I doubt it can do that with water all around). The pump would circulate the water around the tank all the time. Because of the size of this, it takes a considerable amount of time to heat up that much water/meat if everything was cold Best to put hot tap water first and heat from there.I highly recommend this box as it fits the bill when doing sous vide.