Connecting Your Joule to Alexa or Google Home
In today’s day and age, we can now connect pretty much any device to our smart home or smart speaker. Being able to control our electronic devices that we use every day by just using our voice is all too convenient.
We often yell “Alexa” or “Hey Google” to turn lights on or off, change the volume on the TV, and more. But did you know that you can also use these devices to control your Joule for sous vide cooking? The Joule is a revolutionary sous vide tool that you can connect to your phone and also your smart speaker.
Connecting your Joule to your smart speaker is very simple to do, but you may run into some problems. Regardless, I’ll help you step by step on how to set up your Joule to your smart speaker, and how to use it going forward.
Controlling Joule Sous Vide With Alexa
Controlling your Joule Sous Vide with Amazon Alexa is super simple and makes your life even more efficient when using sous vide. If you have your hands full, simply ask Alexa to do all the hard work for you. All you need to do is speak.
Here are some simple steps on how you can set up your Amazon Alexa device to control your Joule:
- Open the Amazon Alexa App, and tap the menu in the upper-left corner.
- Choose “Skills” from the drop-down options.
- In the Skills search, simply type in “Joule”. This should bring up the option for “Joule: Sous Vide by ChefSteps”. [Note, while this says ChefSteps, Breville is still the new owner of Joule. Read more here.]
- Once you see this, click on “Enable Skill”. This will take you to a ChefSteps sign-in page. Simply sign in, and you’ve enabled the Amazon side of the Joule connection.
Once you have your skill enabled, make sure your Joule is connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the Alexa device and you’re ready. I recommend having everything set up and ready to cook at this stage (water bath filled, food seasoned and bagged, and Joule plugged in).
To get started, simply ask Alexa to open Joule by saying “Alexa, open Joule”. Once this app is open you can use your Joule to the fullest extent. Check out the table below for some commands that you can use.
| “Alexa, ask Joule to change the temperature to [#] degrees Fahrenheit” | This will specify what temperature you want Joule to heat your water bath to. You can change this midway through the cooking process should you want to. |
| “Alexa, tell Joule to stop” | If you want to stop cooking but are unable to get to the Joule, simply tell Joule to stop cooking with this command. |
| “Alexa, open Joule” | If you want to check on the status of a cooking procedure, you can use this command. |
Once this is all set up and enabled, you can control your Joule from any Alexa-connected device, such as Amazon Dot or Amazon Echo. As long as it’s connected to your Amazon account and the same WiFi network, this will all work the same way.
Troubleshooting Alexa Connection to Joule Sous Vide
Some problems you may run into when installing and using the Joule Sous Vide with Alexa, are quite small and easy to fix.
If your Joule isn’t listening to commands, try removing the skill and reset the Joule to go through the above steps again. Make sure both devices (Amazon and Joule) are on the same Wi-Fi network and are connected correctly to avoid any issues.
As of yet, Amazon doesn’t allow third-party apps to allow timers to be set, so when you ask Joule to set a timer, this won’t work.
A workaround that may help with this is by asking the Joule skill how long it will take to cook your desired protein and then set a timer on Alexa itself (with “Alexa, set a timer for[#] minutes”). Once the timer is up, you’ll have to tell Alexa to stop the Joule yourself.
For other details on dealing with connection issues with Joule, check out my guide here.
Controlling Joule With Google Home (or Google Nest)
Controlling your Joule with the Google Assistant (Google Home or Google Nest) is super simple, and makes your life even more efficient when using sous vide. If you have your hands full, simply ask Google Assistant to do all the hard work for you. All you need to do is speak.
Connecting Joule to your Google Home is super simple to do, and the setup doesn’t take very long at all. Here’s how to do it:
- Pair your Joule and WiFi in the Joule app if you’ve not done so already.
- Visit the Google Assistant website for the ChefSteps Joule App, and download and install it to your device (usually a phone or other smart device).
- Link your account. You’ll need to have and open the Google Home or Google Assistant app on your phone to link your Google account with your ChefSteps account. Once you log in, enter your email and password associated with ChefSteps.
Once you have linked your ChefSteps account to your Google Assistant, you’ll be able to control your Joule from any Google Assistant device, such as a Google Nest or Google Home.
When the above steps are completed, you can start commanding your Google Assistant to control Joule. You can first use the activator command, “Okay, Google, talk to ChefSteps Joule”. Then, you can make simple commands like:
- “Set the temperature to [#] degrees Fahrenheit”
- “Status Update”
- “Stop cooking”
However, if you want to complete commands in one sentence, you can simply say “Okay, Google, ask ChefSteps Joule to [insert command here]”.
Troubleshooting Google Home Connection to Joule Sous Vide
Installation problems may occur with the Joule if the devices aren’t on the same network as each other.
Your Joule and Google devices both need to be connected to the same network, and if they aren’t, the installation may still be successful but may not work properly.
If you have any issues, you should be able to stop, reset, and re-complete the instructions above to ensure that they connect correctly and work for you.
For more on troubleshooting connection issues with Joule, check out my article here.
In Summary
All in all, in this ever-changing world, technology is at the forefront, and using your smart speaker or smart devices to control your Joule makes sous vide cooking even easier.
Hopefully, the details in this guide have helped with setting up and controlling your Joule with your Alexa or Google Home. By using your voice to control your Joule, you can do everything so much more efficiently.
