Vacuum sealers for food - money-saving or not?

Angelina-M

treacle_toes wrote: »

Hi all,

I've been reading through this thread for the last couple of weeks (very entertaining reading!) and am ready to get one of these too.

Something I wanted to ask, does anyone (possibly Angelina-M?) have the Vacuum Sealer - Eiffel Freshpack Pro L/N (i.e. the quieter sealer of the two sold by Freshpack)? If so, would you say it's worth the extra £20? There's a sale on at the moment at Freshpack with about £35 off the usual price of sealers, and £4 off the canisters.

Well I can't comment on the noise of the normal one because I haven't heard it but the L/N one that I have is pretty quiet. Certainly much quieter than the Lidl one I purchased to try.

Those canisters though are a bit hit and miss. I've had some dried bananas in the small one for weeks with no problem but I've just noticed the one with pineapple in has again come unstuck, this is not the first time. And the one in the fridge that I put in with salad I've discovered this morning has also come unstuck. I bought the expensive canisters and now i'm wondering if the ones off ebay at half the price would be better. What sort do others have?

treacle_toes_2

brenda50: It's such a coincidence that you mentioned the oxygen packs, because I only just noticed that Freshpack sell them too (hadn't heard of them before that)...they are just under £4 for 10 of them but postage would be about as much again if purchasing less than £50 worth.

Angelina-M: Thanks for the response. Think I'll go with the quieter alternative but give the canisters a miss for now if you don't think they're any good. Wouldn't have thought that something like salad gives off much gas so can't imagine why it should come unstuck!

Getting excited now about ordering my new toy !

Very interested to hear about which canisters other people have and what they think of them.

uksunseeker

Hi All,
I've spent far far too long researching which sealer, which canisters, which bags, this thread has been the most useful - thanks to all contributors.:beer: I came across a site with an excellent pdf which i don't think I noticed within this thread. Hopefully it will save someone a little time. They are advertising their own brand of sealer along the way which is bit too expensive for my use but the general information is very useful as a starting point.

www .lava-vacuum-packing.com/A-Practical-Guide-to-Vacuum-Packing.pdf

uksunseeker

The choice is the Eiffel, or the Foodseala AVS550 from
www .bagsoffreshness.co.uk/webstore/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=3

On paper I'd say the Foodseala wins, plenty of features, cheaper, same suction strength, free bags and rolls (minor point but still ££) and better looking too. Problem is I can't find any reviews whereas the Eiffel has plenty of good reviews.

Any opinions on the Foodseala would be gratefully received - I'm tired of looking - itching to spend some money!

uksunseeker

I spoke at length with the vendor, they were very helpful, and knowledgeable, they've been around for a few years selling a similar model to one of the Andrew James - this model is their upgrade. Two possible downsides remain. It may not cope with very thin bags and it may be significantly louder than the Eiffel. .
However for me the benefits appear to outweigh this, not least it being 45% cheaper.

If anyone is interested, I'll update when I've received it.

[Deleted User]

I have had a whale of a time this morning re-packaging dehydrated foods so that they are easily seen and to hand. I have a lot of AJ canisters and have put labels on, vacuumed and lined them up in kitchen cupboards. They are so neat and easy to get to now. I have concluded that I won`t be using the vac bags again for dehdrated foods as they are too easily pierced and the canisters will eventually work out cheaper. I do like the vac bags for the freezer though

I am really interested in your work on vacuuming kilner jars and the like. What sort of foods do you put in them?

JB_York

kittie wrote: »

I have had a whale of a time this morning re-packaging dehydrated foods so that they are easily seen and to hand. I have a lot of AJ canisters and have put labels on, vacuumed and lined them up in kitchen cupboards. They are so neat and easy to get to now. I have concluded that I won`t be using the vac bags again for dehdrated foods as they are too easily pierced and the canisters will eventually work out cheaper. I do like the vac bags for the freezer though

I am really interested in your work on vacuuming kilner jars and the like. What sort of foods do you put in them?

Good for you! That's one reason why I bought a load of Kilner jars - they look so tidy (when you can actually see them from all of the other clutter I've got on the counters at the moment!)

I use mine for a whole range of veg that I've harvested from the garden & dried in my dehydrator - courgettes, carrot, tomato, celery, celeriac, chard, spinach, mushrooms, beetroot, parsnip, also have some rhubarb & banana chips. Excellent for my dried herbs - garlic, parsley, mint, sage, oregano. So much better than shop-bought dried herbs. Dehydrating & vacuum sealing is a great combination for quality ingredients - you can fit a load of volume of sliced/diced veg into a really small space, and even more if you powder them for stock.

My one concern about the AJ cannisters is how long they'll actually last if they're being resealed on a regular basis. If they have a tendency to crack, I suspect that replacing them may start to get quite expensive. I'd certainly appreciate anyones views & experience on the longevity of these types of cannisters

JB.

Sunnyday

JB - Is it the screw top kilner jars that you are sealing?

If so are you using a cannister to seal them?

I`m waiting for one of mine to become empty and then i`ll give it a try by popping it into a cannister to seal. I don`t know why i`ve never tried one of these (think i must be going crackers lol) i`ve just used normal jars ie old pickle jars etc, mixed results at first but all are now holding their seals well.

SD

JB_York

Sunnyday wrote: »

JB - Is it the screw top kilner jars that you are sealing?

If so are you using a cannister to seal them?

I`m waiting for one of mine to become empty and then i`ll give it a try by popping it into a cannister to seal. I don`t know why i`ve never tried one of these (think i must be going crackers lol) i`ve just used normal jars ie old pickle jars etc, mixed results at first but all are now holding their seals well.

SD

Yes, it is the screw top kilners. I started off using the cannisters to seal them, but they weren't very reliable and my cannisters were only big enough for the smaller jars. They also took a long time to suck out all of the air, and given their general ineffectiveness, I would usually try and seal the cannister twice in succession without releasing the vacuum. I got myself a little worried that the cannisters would implode!
I'm now using a jar sealer that I picked up online (imported from the states - http://www.goodmans.net/i/3559/tilia-foodsaver-regular-jar-sealer.htm ) It needed a bit of convincing to attach it to my AJ sealer, but works much better than the cannister method (although still not perfect)


JB.

Sunnyday

JB_York wrote: »

Yes, it is the screw top kilners. I started off using the cannisters to seal them, but they weren't very reliable and my cannisters were only big enough for the smaller jars. They also took a long time to suck out all of the air, and given their general ineffectiveness, I would usually try and seal the cannister twice in succession without releasing the vacuum. I got myself a little worried that the cannisters would implode!
I'm now using a jar sealer that I picked up online (imported from the states - http://www.goodmans.net/i/3559/tilia-foodsaver-regular-jar-sealer.htm ) It needed a bit of convincing to attach it to my AJ sealer, but works much better than the cannister method (although still not perfect)


JB.

Hmmm decisions decisions

Did you have to contact them re postage to the uk? Was it expensive :eek: I must admit that the cost of the sealers is really good compared to some other places.

SD