Vacuum sealers

[Bill NH]

Vacuum sealers are wonderful tools... many long-distance sailors I know use them for storing all sorts of otherwise somewhat perishable goods like: Oil/fuel filters, engine parts, emergency tools, toilet paper, etc. :)

OK, I'll start a new thread rather than hijacking the hydraulic cutters discussion...

I've been thinking of getting a vacuum sealer for a while now - Anyone have a brand that they particularly like (or don't like)?  Any recommendations as to where to buy the units and the rolls of plastic?

[CapnK]

As an aside (and minor hijack ;)), and to point out the obvious - vacuum sealing is awful nice, especially for liquids, but heavy duty freezer zip-lock style bags are reusable, don't require electricity to seal, and work just as well for something which isn't going to leak.

Just something to remember. :)

Now, back to the original intent of the thread... ;D

[CharlieJ]

We use a "Food Saver" brand. We buy the gallon sized  rolls and cut them as needed. We've tried the Black and Decker bags also- they are cheaper but give trouble when sealing, so we quit buying them. Our Walmart here sells bags, rolls, etc.

On point- we bought the top line one that has the facility to use the canisters- waste of money We got a couple canisters but never use them. The Snap-lock canisters are better anyway. THEY are costly but well worth the money

I recently did some playing around with the thing. I got several spark plugs for our engine, so I made a short bag, then sealed it crossways into several sections, put the plugs in the individual sections then sealed the end. Worked out I could cut off a single segment to get one plug out, without disturbing the others. Might have uses for other small items too. Batteries?

In the past week I've frozen then bagged left over Chicken Spaghetti, left over Chicken and rice and tonight, the last of some Lasagna. Then you can just reheat in the bag in a pot of boiling water- no mess. To bag stuff like stews, and such as I just mentioned, I put the left overs in a bread pan, freeze that, then run hot water over the bottom ( like the old ice trays) and then bag the fozen block- you can't bag liquids.

[CapnK]

CJ - what kind of power draw do those things have? Any idea?

[Fortis]

Depends on the unit and the price.

I like the full 240volt plug-in-athome version that sucks about 1100watts....That is one heck of a diaphragm pump in there!

For the boat, units that will run 12volt would be pretty thirsty, but you want tou get every bit of air and not just to the point where the pump is overpowered...


Alex.

[bayracer]

For an alternative using no electric and no appliances, this country boy vacumn sealer consists of a bucket or sink filled with water with the ziplock bags. Close the top  right up to the last half inch or so and sink the bag till the edge is just above water. Then continue to close it. This pushes the air completely out of it, and has allowed me to have flat packs to freeze or to protect my important items of interests for maximizing storage in the boat for long treaking.

[CharlieJ]

The only real problem with that is that most zip seal bags leak air over time. The seals just aren't that good.

I haven't tried the reusable storage bags that use a vacumm cleaner to seal, nor the ones that you squeeze the air out of, for clothes, etc.

Capnk- the one we have claims .95 amps at 115 VAC. I doubt we could use it often with an inverter- more for dockside use while in port.

[bayracer]

I attempted to go on the cheap and buy generic brand ziplocks and did not have the success that I did with the brand name.

[Captain Smollett]

The only real problem with that is that most zip seal bags leak air over time. The seals just aren't that good.

I mentioned this once before, but it's relevant here: maybe that depends on the ziploc bag?

I've got a bag I sealed about 7 years ago that is still sealed, and is still "tight."  It's been tossed around, moved (ie, from one house to another) and generally mistreated as these things will be.  THIS one (maybe an outlier) has not leaked - a heavy duty freezer bag.

YMMV.

[AdriftAtSea]

Just curious Capn Smollett-

Is it one of the freezer bags with the double zippers?  I know that most of the freezer bags are far heavier plastic than the regular ziplocks, so will tend to leak less.

[Auspicious]

Grog to Charlie for saying everything I would have said about the vacuum sealers.

Just to reiterate, they work much better than zip-locks, they are basically a dock-side tool (even with a generator I haven't ever been moved to use mine except when packing away food from a Costco shop or pre-cruise cook-fest), and the containers are a waste of space - stick with the bags.

I use Lock-n-Lock instead of SnapLock for leftover storage. The alternatives don't nearly seal as well.

My vacuum sealer is a Foodsaver Advanced Design, model 2240 (I think). The things I like are the controls over maximum vacuum (the less vacuum setting is convenient for things like muffins that might crush at full vacuum) and pump speed (the lower speed is good for wet items or liquids to keep contents from being drawn into the pump.

The boil-in-a-bag idea that Charlie mentioned works very well.

[CharlieJ]

I use Lock-n-Lock instead of SnapLock for leftover storage. The alternatives don't nearly seal as well.

I just looked - ours are "lock n-lock" also. My bad for not checking before I posted. Great containers. Laura has all sorts of stuff stowed in them including the wall warts for charging things. Hey - she got a bunch of them and I really don't know WHAT all she has in them. But they are really something, with the four latches and o-ring seals.

And since they are clear you can tell what's in there.

We found out about them from the SCCA forum.

[olivertwist]

I can't vouch for this product because I haven't used it yet, but when I researched vacuum sealers Pump 'N Seal was both the cheapest and claimed the highest vacuum pressure. It's a manual pump system. Here's a link: http://www.pump-n-seal.com/

Can anyone who has anyone used this give a report?