Vacuum sealers for food - money-saving or not?

Angelina-M

sb44 wrote: »

What I have done is have the blue strip up to the top of the bag, then the air can get taken out ot the bag better, vac it, wait till my lid pops up and whilst it is still stuck on the heat seal, open the top of the bag gently and cut the blue strip off, then pull the bag down and seal above where it has been sealed.

Hope I have explained that properly.

So actually then you aren't sealing the blue strip but moving it out of the way at the end? I will give this a go tomorrow. I see now how you mean you are sealing it. I couldn't understand how you did the angle thing

sb44

Angelina-M wrote: »

So actually then you aren't sealing the blue strip but moving it out of the way at the end? I will give this a go tomorrow. I see now how you mean you are sealing it. I couldn't understand how you did the angle thing

I am sealing the blue strip on the first seal as that is pulling the air out, then cutting the top part of the blue strip off before sealing again above the seal which has the blue strip in it.

The angle thing was just putting the bag over the heating strip slanted so that all of the bag didn't seal.

But, it kept slipping off if I had anything heavy like lots of chicken drumsticks in it.

The new way of cutting the top corner off the bag, sealing all along the top up to where it drops down at that angle is a lot better.

Angelina-M

Its making my head hurt with all this thinking :rotfl:

I think I will stick with just ruching up the bag a bit. However its not too reliable as I said before.

Have you seen on the American sites they have a jar sealer that fits on the new fangled kilner jars and makes a vacuum then you just screw the lid on when you are done. Much easier than our way of putting the jar inside a canister. I'm not sure whether it would work out expensive though to buy the right type of kilner jar and a fitting.

sb44

Like this.



Cut a corner off the top of the bag.

Seal across the top of the bag (after putting your food in of course).

Pop your blue strip from the top of a ziplock bag into it, making sure it goes as far towards the middle and bottom of the bag as you can.

Turn the bag at an angle so that just the corner bit is going into the suction channel of your machine, making sure that the blue strip is either coming out of the top or is very close to it.

Vac.

Open the lid and you will probably find that the bag is stuck to the heat sealing strip until you pull it from it.

Leave it stuck to the sealing strip, pull the top of the bag open, reach inside with a small pair of scissors and snip off the blue strip which is above the sealing line.

Pull the bag down and heat seal above the top of the blue strip.

Now, if any air was about to leave it should be kept in by that second sealed line.

sb44

Angelina-M wrote: »

I think I will stick with just ruching up the bag a bit. However its not too reliable as I said before.

I can't get that to work with mine, by the time I have closed the lid the creases have come undone!

sb44

Angelina-M wrote: »

Have you seen on the American sites they have a jar sealer that fits on the new fangled kilner jars and makes a vacuum then you just screw the lid on when you are done. Much easier than our way of putting the jar inside a canister. I'm not sure whether it would work out expensive though to buy the right type of kilner jar and a fitting.

They sound like the FoodSaver vac lids, I don't have any as I just use the FoodSaver canisters instead.

Angelina-M

SB your machine does a beautiful seal. It looks a bit thicker than mine. Ok so why do you have to do the cutting off of the corner then? I think the cutting back of the blue strip is genius by the way

sb44

Angelina-M wrote: »

Ok so why do you have to do the cutting off of the corner then? I think the cutting back of the blue strip is genius by the way

I just found it made a lot better vac if it only had a small part of the bag to deal with.

So I had the idea of sealing most of the top but found it easier if I cut the bag at an angle so that it only had that tiny part of the bag to seal.

I just get something in my head and won't let go until I find a solution.



I couldn't work out a way of doing the blue strip thing, it was trial and error.

The other idea I tried which did work but was a bit of a faff was cutting the middle bit of the blue strip out by about 3cm so that it just had both sides of the strip and not the middle to seal if it was too thick.

So that the blue strip looks like a zip, without the middle bit.

Kevie192

Sb44, do you find that your bags sometimes melt right through when sealing? This is the problem I've been having lately!

taxsaver

Kevie, does your one not have the ability to adjust the heat up and down? I can do that on mine, which is useful for the thinner Lidl freezer bags.