I used an aluminum bucket + acrylic lid in the past, but the less scratch prone glass and the more salt resistant stainless really appealed to me. Also, the seal couldn't be easily replaced on the acrylic lid I was familiar with. The stainless + glass has a removable seal on both the stainless and the glass, providing a decently large mating surface. The vacuum line fitting is the standard 1/4" flare commonly used in HVAC, so if you have a pump or want one faster or slower you'll find plenty of options. I have a decent HVAC pump, but didn't want to goober it up so went with the chamber + pump combo. Lots of bang for the buck. The pump in the combo is fairly quiet for what it is. Also it isn't very fast (1/2 the speed of my HVAC pump), which can be quite handy in helping to prevent a 'boiling over' situation. Just be sure to watch in case the bubbles aren't popping fast enough. The overall quality of the kit is on par with the price point, and everything works exactly as expected. I didn't have my readers but didn't see any installation picture for installing the gauge+valves to the lid. My guess was add 1 steel washer, then 1 silicone washer, stick through the lid hole and add remaining steel washers, then add + tighten the nut. Seems to work just fine, though I have not pulled it down to microns.
