Need a good vacuum sealer
- Thread starter dragon49
- Start date
Food Saver machines are a great tool to have and I have had a couple different ones. You can also vacuum seal ammunition for long term moisture-less storage. Did I just type that? HOWEVER, I will be asking Santa for one of these soon:
https://harvestright.com/
You know, for the inevitable zombie apocalypse....
if the link doesn't show googoo harvestright freeze dryer
https://harvestright.com/
You know, for the inevitable zombie apocalypse....
if the link doesn't show googoo harvestright freeze dryer
I need to reply to this thread as my fist post described too many shortcomings for my model:
After sealing 15 or so more packages, I realized that If I only wait 1 minute between seals, I have not issues with malfunctions. I also started sealing some fish without freezing. The problem with pre-freezing is that even after a few hours, some ice is formed on the fish and I don't want to seal this in. I still haven't figured out where the drip tray is and am not sure whether the vacuuming process really sucks any juices out. I was originally worried about this, as when the vacuuming process runs, I see blood being dispersed in the bag, but am not sure if any got out.
After sealing 15 or so more packages, I realized that If I only wait 1 minute between seals, I have not issues with malfunctions. I also started sealing some fish without freezing. The problem with pre-freezing is that even after a few hours, some ice is formed on the fish and I don't want to seal this in. I still haven't figured out where the drip tray is and am not sure whether the vacuuming process really sucks any juices out. I was originally worried about this, as when the vacuuming process runs, I see blood being dispersed in the bag, but am not sure if any got out.
Did you see my post about cling wrap?
Fair enuf, no idea if it works, I googoogogogled. 
Read threw the thread. Maybe I missed it, but it doesn't seem like anyone brought up the difference between the home and the industrial vacuum sealers. Home sealers seem all to require a very special bag design. One side of their bags has an unsmooth / rigged surface. This allows the air to be sucked out between the two layers of the bag before sealing. Downside is the bags cost a fortune. There area couple places you can find generic bags, but very few. Uline is one of them.
Commercial models do not require the special bags. They have a tube or ridged rod that inserts and lets the air get sucked out even when both sides of of the smooth bag close on themselves. If you search youtube, you can find video that shows how to overcome this by drilling a hole in the machine and inserting a rod or straw that you pull out after it is sucked down but before you seal it. Then you can use the generic bags that do not have those ripples, they are much, much cheaper.
Our Walmart has a couple of the home units. Next to them are the generic bags without those ripples. Bags which work with none of the vacuum machines they sell. It is wildly misleading and how I learned about the drilling trick.
BTW: The price difference is large enough that it is cheaper to have a copacker dry and vacuum pack than it is to buy the brand name rippled bags.
Commercial models do not require the special bags. They have a tube or ridged rod that inserts and lets the air get sucked out even when both sides of of the smooth bag close on themselves. If you search youtube, you can find video that shows how to overcome this by drilling a hole in the machine and inserting a rod or straw that you pull out after it is sucked down but before you seal it. Then you can use the generic bags that do not have those ripples, they are much, much cheaper.
Our Walmart has a couple of the home units. Next to them are the generic bags without those ripples. Bags which work with none of the vacuum machines they sell. It is wildly misleading and how I learned about the drilling trick.
BTW: The price difference is large enough that it is cheaper to have a copacker dry and vacuum pack than it is to buy the brand name rippled bags.
Have been watching and drooling over those units for a time. At $3,000.00 + a unit, Santa must really love you. I put it on my list and Santa laughed his ass off at me. Since you mentioned ammunition in the same thread as vacuum sealing, want to add be ware of O2 eaters. Uline has some very cheap for use with vacuum packers. Great for long term food storage. But they promote rust, hell I think they are rust. Have read that over time, they can really screw with some primers and maybe with the oxidizer in the ammunition.Clashole said:
We aren't really preppers because we think we are just dealing with what is already going on. Not getting ready for a thing, just coping with grocery prices. Only started putting up ammunition a couple years ago. My wife decided it was time she got comfortable with a pistol. I traded for an entry level Ruger .22. Went to buy her some ammunition and there was none to be had for nearly two years. So yes, put some up because if I have to hunt rabbit to feed my family I will hunt rabbit to feed my family.
Working on something for folk who feel about the same. If interested, please PM me. Again, not a prepper really. Just noticing how much money we spend on food and how it keeps going up. More interested in growing than hunting, but push comes to shove not going to fail my family.
good luck freeze drying w/o a sublimation cold trap... you know how much water is in a lb of strawberries?
water + vacuum pump oil = oil change.
water + vacuum pump oil = oil change.
I appreciate the advice, but since I am not a commercial user and I'm not going to use the unit a lot, the prices are bearable for me. I can get 44 Quart Bags for $15.99 - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01D5TM5MS/ My best guess is that it is unlikely that I will use more than 100 bags a year, so I can deal with the less than $50.00 annual cost. If I were using thousands of bags a year, I'd consider the hole drilling hack to save money.AJ Drew said:
Obviously I am not nearly as well as you. Are you saying the Harvest Right freeze drying machines won't work? Please explain cause have been seriously longing for one. Not that I have $3,000.00 but for a 20 year shelf life I could see spending it if I had it.queequeg152 said:
Ye, the commercial units that use the non-ripple bags are in the thousands. I really think it is a scam.dragon49 said:
far as i can tell its just a freezer with heated racks and a vacuum pump.AJ Drew said:
problem with freeze drying is that all that sublimated water vapor has to go somewhere. if you let that water vapor go straight into the oil, then the oil gets cloudy and looses its low vapor pressure.
add enough moisture to the oil and you start to loose lubricity and you ruin the pump.
the pump they show in the picture is a common hvac pump that does not hold a huge amount of oil... so i suspect it will saturate with water quite quickly.
you can change the oil in the middle of a run though, and let the old oil slowly separate. you could also pull a vacuum on this "wet" oil, or even just heat it on a hot palte to get rid of the moisture.
what would be better is a laboratory vacuum pump with a very large ballast valve, and very large oil reservoir, but this small hvac pump will have neither.
Hey Dragon, though I have a Food Saver vac packer, I've never used it for fish. Beef, pork, venison & other game, and vegetables, yes. But I've never needed to vac fish.
I simply put my filets in a quality Ziploc bag and fill with water, then carefully burp the air out and seal. I have filets from a couple year ago that are still fresh and tasty out "the bag".
I live in MN, fishing is still king up here..
I simply put my filets in a quality Ziploc bag and fill with water, then carefully burp the air out and seal. I have filets from a couple year ago that are still fresh and tasty out "the bag".
I live in MN, fishing is still king up here..
Your fish system is better than my old system. Back in May, I staked some big Bluefish, so the pieces could fit in quart-sized Ziploc Bags. I did my best to close the bags and not leave any air in, but something went horribly wrong. Looking at the bags in my freezer, I can see ice inside the bags. No matter how well I defrost them, they still taste waterlogged after I fry them, as if the ice crystals somehow merged with the meat. My food saver is a major improvement. The fish that I defrost in the vacuum sealed bags tastes as if I just caught it.stettoman said:Hey Dragon, though I have a Food Saver vac packer, I've never used it for fish. Beef, pork, venison & other game, and vegetables, yes. But I've never needed to vac fish.
I simply put my filets in a quality Ziploc bag and fill with water, then carefully burp the air out and seal. I have filets from a couple year ago that are still fresh and tasty out "the bag".
I live in MN, fishing is still king up here..
I have 2 questions:
1 - Why do you fill the Ziplocs with water?
2 - Why don't you vacuum seal the fish? Are you saving money on the pricier bags?
Fishing is NOT king in NYC where I live. I can catch fish in the river a few blocks from my apartment, but I wouldn't eat any of it. I only catch and release, if something is not in season, or is too small to legally keep, so I have to travel to fish.
1) water guarantees againts freezer burn and actually keeps the existing moisture in the filet. I don't use soft water, as salt will draw moisture out of the meat, and soft water retains a small amount of sodium.
2) Yes. We use a LOT of vacuum bags, and we've preserved fish this way since I was a boy. No sense in changing what works.
2) Yes. We use a LOT of vacuum bags, and we've preserved fish this way since I was a boy. No sense in changing what works.