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I guess if I left it out someplace where it was showing I would care, but it is in my pantry so the industrial look doesn't bother me. I would rather have an industrial machine rather than some fancy thing with bells and whistles. but that is just me.

I'm pretty sure it showing 3 phase on the Katom site is a typo. The Henkelman site shows it as single phase. 3 phase is used on large loads to reduce the amp draw per phase and increase efficiency, which is not needed on a unit this size. I don't think Busch even makes a 3 phase vacuum pump that small. 3 phase power is almost always available in a commercial building, I have never seen it in a residence. The bigger issue is 50hz European vs 60hz US. It would run slightly faster on 60 cycles and may or may not be detrimental to the motor. MOST loads are OK on 60hz, but not all. I would not want to risk it on a $3k sealer unless the manufacturer stood behind it. Why not just buy a Minipack and be done with it? They are readily available and every bit as good as a Henkelman. Same Busch pump.

It is made by Minipack so should be a decent unit. Much more info on the Minipack site, comes in colors too! https://www.minipack-torre.it/en/packaging-machines/mx-2 It is a DVP pump so pretty decent, but not a Busch. The chamber is pretty deep and a 10" seal bar, but not very wide or long, only 6". They are marketing it as a infuser for marinades with a vapor sensor to prevent boiling. I am wondering if it can stop right at the point before boil over and then maintain that level of vacuum for a period of time by turning the vac pump on and off as needed? So set it for 30 minutes at 89%? I can infuse in my Minipack MVS45x by turning the machine off using the main power switch when it hits the vac level I want. It will stay in a vacuum for a while but eventually leaks allow air into it. I haven't done any that are very long. Might be nice to play with but I doubt I would use this feature very much. I REALLY like having a large chamber and a wide bar.

I agree. I also have minipack torre and it is an incredible machine. Made in Italy with a Busch vacuum pump. The only other machine that I feel is equal is a Henkelman which also uses the same Busch pumps. Minipack may be making them for PolyScience, but why? Just find a good Minipack and call it good. You can find great used machines on eBay or CL. One nice thing on the minipacks is the label shows the manufacture date and the software shows the number of cycles on the machine. This counter is like an odometer and cannot be reset, so is a great indicator of how used it is. There are a couple if their lower end models that use a DVP pump instead of a Busch. Still good and maybe a little bit cheaper. Hope this helps

Have you tried looking at the bladder modules? I ran into this bladder rebuild kit/info page (below). It is for a Minipack MVS (which I have) but I am pretty sure all chamber vacs with an internal seal bar that extend and retract function about the same. I would open it up and inspect them for defects etc. I am betting some moisture has gotten inside. Doug Care Minipack MVS Bladder Rebuild Lots of good info on his site. Hope this helps!

Oh and what city are you located in?

Who makes the Polyscience 300? I don’t think they make it themselves. How old is the machine? How many cycles? Have you pulled the cover and looked at the sealing plungers and the bellows? It sounds like a mechanical issue, maybe a split tube, or they plungers need to be lubed.

Also here is Busch's info for Finland. Email them and ask who the dealers are. They will have oil. Busch Vakuumteknik Oy Sinikellontie 401300Vantaa Phone: +358 (0)9 774 60 60 info@busch.fi www.buschvacuum.com/fi

Your Henkelman Jumbo has a Busch pump, not sure of the size though. Busch recommends their R580 oil which is a synthetic. It looks like R530 can be used as well. Busch Vacuum Oil Specs Honestly I only use Busch oil. I don't change it that often due to relatively low use, so the price or having to order it isn't a big issue. Hope this helps.

Its been interesting read the posts the last few days. I have a few comments, take them for what they are worth. I have a Minipack MVS45x which like someone mentioned, is WAY overkill for home use. But I happened upon it on Craigslist a few years ago and bought it for a song. It had a grand total of 212 cycles on it when I bought it!! It has literally become something that is used every single day! For example I seal all my cheese, usually in a long bag leaving enough excess bag that I can cut off 1/2" when I need some cheese, and then reseal it in the same bag. I also vacuum seal most of our leftovers. Everything keeps so much longer! We found one crazy use for it this summer, home made gelato and sorbet otter pops! I made my own narrow otter pop bags from some large 12''x16" bags, filled them up with homemade sorbet and gelato, sealed them and popped them back into the freezer. Delicious! They are quite labor intensive, but very fun to make. Henkelman, Minipack and Sammic are the top of the line chamber vacs, all with the premium Busch pumps. Honestly if I had the choice I would never buy a vacuum sealer without a Busch pump. They are built incredibly well. I do not feel that the size of the pump isn't really a concern, waiting a few more seconds per cycle shouldn't be a deal breaker in a home environment. I have soft air release on my MVS45X, it is a +/- knob on the front to adjust the return air. I have it set to almost the lowest, but I do not find it to be an indispensable feature honestly. On a unit that does not have it, I assume you could open it up and manually restrict the flow to the return port or hose to slow the return air if desired. So for me the Henkelman would be my first choice over the VP215, although it too should last a lifetime in home use with proper maintenance. Good luck with your purchase!

I agree with what several have said, you MUST put it someplace where it can be used without having to get it out. I have a Minipack MVS45x which is an amazing machine. It sits on a rolling cart in a craft room just off the kitchen, so easily accessible. Honestly, it is used daily and usually several times! We use it for leftovers rather than tupperware since food lasts so much longer. I vacuum pack all of my cheese, usually in a larger or longer bags so that when I use it, I just barely cut off the seal and have plenty of extra bag left to reseal it without changing the bag out. I vacuum seal any meat that is purchased, for freezing or even if left fresh to be used in a few days. Removing the oxygen definitely extends the life beyond the typical meat market loose cellophane wrap. If something is going to be frozen, it almost always is vacuum sealed. meat, garlic, lemon juice, Instant dry yeast, fish fillets etc. Cut an avocado in half and vacuum seal the other half (keeping the stone) and it will keep quite a long time in the fridge. I am an avid sous vide cooker, so it is used for that as well. The list is endless! I even use it when I travel or go camping to reduce space. It is amazing how much items shrink in a vacuum sealer! The bottom line is that you should put it where it can be used. If I had to take mine out every time I needed it or even to to the garage, it would never get used like it does. Enjoy your new sealer, mine is indispensable!

How does the gas flush work for things such as Artisan Breads? Does it help at all if I was going to freeze a loaf? How long would it extend the life at room temperature on the counter? I know there is nothing better than a fresh loaf out of the oven, or merely a few hours old, but I often bake a bit too much and would like to save a loaf or two for a few days. Also would Nitrogen or carbon dioxide be best?

So I took the back off of my MVS45XII last night and it looks like there isn't anything already installed for the gas flush kit other than the wires for the gas solenoid and pressure switch and holes drilled in the tub for the nozzles (plugged with an allen bolt with a nut on the backside). So I would need everything in the KR450A13 kit, including the plumbing parts. I am pretty confident I could source the pressure switch and solenoid at a significant savings. The pressure switch just closes the circuit when there is adequate pressure (~20-50 psi) on the gas inlet. This is to avoid the gas flush running without anything attached or when the gas tank is low. The solenoid is a very common item easily sourced locally. But it may not be worth it after looking at all the various plumbing parts and needing to rig some type of bulkhead fitting for the nozzles that protrude through the chamber tub (they would have to withstand the vacuum as well). I guess I will start to save to justify the ~$625 kit price. :-)

I did get a great deal, only 2000 and it is essentially new! :-) I did some more work on the gas kit. There is a description of the kit on this schematic. Look at the bottom of page 2 and the diagrams http://helpcenter.minipack.us/faqbookpro/Mike/FM112215_1_Ricambi_MV45X_2_Barre_Laterali_1.pdf It looks to be some plumbing and tubing parts, 4 nozzles and a "Solenoid valve for gas" Part # FE140003 and a pressure switch part # FE470000. Maybe I will open mine up and see if I can find the wire harness. If so, it shouldn't be too hard to change one of the programs to gas flush and see if I get output on the wires and at what voltage. I am guessing it will be 120v line voltage since I don't think there is a low voltage control circuit in this unit. Does anyone have a closeup pic of what the gas flush nozzles look like on a minipack, or actually any unit?

I just did some looking at the gas flush option on the Henkelman, Sammic and Minipack. Henkelman charges ~$212 for the gas flush option. It comes standard on the Sammic S series and the cost is close to the same as the T series (which is without gas flush). On the Minipack, gas flush is a $625 option on a new machine! So their add-on kit is the same price as when ordered new with a machine. I wonder what the kit contains to make it nearly 3 times the cost of the Henkelman? How would you rate these three units? I know all have Busch pumps, so they are even there. How would you rate the other items? (overall construction, user controls, ease of use etc).

I have been searching for a chamber sealer for a long time. I could't really justify the cost of a new one and I really wanted one with a Busch pump. Well I finally scored a find on Craigslist and am the proud owner of a MVS 45XII. It is 2013 model and VERY gently used, only having 2500 cycles on the machine, basically unused! I bought it for a real good price so I am happy! It does have the 2 seal bars, which is something I doubt I will use much. I may rebuild one of them with a different type, possibly a double seal. My current bars are the 4mm seal with the 1mm cutoff seal. One thing it does not have is gas flush. While certainly not a mandatory feature it is something I wish it had. I know it can be added on, so I reached out and got a quote on the minipack gas flush kit and found out the price is $625! I am not 100% sure what the kit includes, but this seems quite expensive. I assume it is just a solenoid and the nozzles for the chamber? I remember someone here adding this to their minipack. Can you tell me what is included in the kit and what you had to do to install the feature? One other option would be to resell this unit (since I bought it so well) and purchase one with the gas flush option included. It would probably have to be a new unit though since I have rarely seen gas flush on any used units. I guess though I haven't seen many used unitsa available, at least not higher end with Busch pumos. Any and all thoughts appreciated.

It seems like most believe that a Vitamix/Blendtec discussion is similar to a Ford/Chevy discussion, that they are both about the same thing. But having owned a Vitamix for a very long time and switching to a Blendtec about a year ago, I have quite a different opinion. Vitamix: We owned a 5200 for many years. This is the model with the pulse on the left, rotary speed dial in the middle and stop/start on the right. Mechanically it was great with the one exception being the rotary speed control. It failed no less that 3 times during the 6-8 years we used it. It was replaced twice by Vitamix, once under warranty and once at my cost. The third and last time I replaced it myself with a much heavier duty potentiometer. This component is severely undersized and is prone to failure. Many many complaints. As far as blending, the Vitamix did a good job, but honestly we had to use the big tamper quite often for thick malts or thick purees. We became so accustomed to this that we just though it was normal. Once we bought the Blendtec with the wild side jar (a 5th side that is narrower than the other 4 sides) we realized that we could blend and puree the exact same ingredients without ever touching a tamper or continually stopping it to move things around. We have now used the Blendtec for a bit over a year and I can say without a doubt that it is a superior product that yields superior results. The Vitamix is on a shelf in the basement and I have brought it out for a side by side test a couple times (when a daughter was looking at blenders). The Vitamix does a decent job, but it isn't a Blendtec. FWIW and YMMV. Good luck, buy a Blendtec and never look back!

I buy mine from a local welding supply. I buy it under a business name and they made me sign some hazmat document. I found a used 50 liter dewar on ebay for around $100 (a real steal!). It was some university surplus. I made a lid for it with a pressure relief valve as well as a valve and a draw tube for dispensing. Works great! Basically a poor mans version of this: http://static.coleparmer.com/large_images/0377367APP.jpg Here is a pic of a similar one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/LIQUID-NITROGEN-DEWAR-CRYOGENIC-TANK-679-/400765254972?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d4f787d3c I don't fill it all that often, mostly for making LN2 ice cream, which is awesome!

I know you asked about liquid smoke, but to me nothing tastes like the real thing. This is why I love to cold smoke the raw hamburgers for a couple of hours before sous vide. I also like doing this with steaks, wings, pork etc. I use a small under counter refrigerator that I found used for $20. You want to use a smoke chamber that is cold since you will be smoking raw meat. I plug it in and get it cold first, then put the raw patties in on a wire rack. For the smoke I have a homemade cold smoke setup that uses pellets or small wood chunks (the flavor is up to you...apple, peach, mesquite, hickory etc.) It uses a venturi / injector design to pull the smoke from the can of smoldering pellets/wood and delivers it to the refrigerator through a 1" pipe. I drilled a hole in the bottom corner of the refrigerator. Make sure you are VERY careful to miss any lines that are embedded in the walls of the refrigerator. It is very efficient, smoking for hours on a couple cups of pellets. 2 hours seems to be plenty on burgers since they have a lot of surface area to absorb the smoke. I will do steaks a bit longer (depending on the thickness). The inside of the refrigerator gets a horrible stained brown color - the color of smoke! I just wipe it out when done and don't try to clean the smoke stain off it. After smoking I vac seal them for sous viding. The flavor is very noticeable and very authentic. Yes it takes a bit of time, but if you are already going to the work of grinding your owne burger, sous viding and then searing, you already know the benefits and readily accept the work! Refrigerator Style: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x7kwe8YWaRU/T1BioqADyfI/AAAAAAAAA8c/thOWiW9Q6as/s1600/RCS-Brand-Refrigerator.jpg Cold smoker setup: http://www.instructables.com/id/Cold-Smoker-from-Cocktail-Shaker/ Good Luck!

I was watching a youtube video from the USA distributor of Henkelman Chamber Vacs and heard something brand new regarding sous vide bags. Well brand new to me anyway! They are doing a general overview of the sous vide process. After they seal the steak in a chamber Vac, at 1:50 in the video, they say that you should use a shrink wrap bag and plunge it briefly into boiling water to shrink the remainder of the bag to help seal the meat juices in. I have never seen this mentioned before. So my natural question is, would this really reduce juices leaking from the meat? I have heard of a shrink bag to help maintain the shape of a food item, but never to be used to reduce liquid leakage from meat. I guess I can logically see how it might hold the juices closer to the meat, but would they just run out anyway when you cut the bag open, ending up with the same moisture loss as in a regular vacuum bag? Has anyone tested this? If I can find a shrink wrap vacuum seal bag I am up for the test. Thoughts?

If it is between the VP-210 and the VP-215 and the difference is only $90, I would get the VP-215 hands down! The only difference is the vac pump, an oil rotary pump in the VP-215 vs a dry piston pump in the VP-210. You will need to change the oil in the VP-215, which isn't really a big deal. It only takes a small amount (approx 3 ounces) and it recommends 60 hours between changes (25 hours on first change). It isn't the renowned Busch rotary pump, but is still supposed to be a great unit. Unless you are doing this commercially, 60 hours is quite a lot of vacuuming, so the oil changes could be every 6 months or so! You will generally always get a better vacuum in an oil lubricated pump, which you may or may not need. For sous vide the slightly less vac of a piston pump should be adequate, but you may want higher vacuum for a few things. They will vacuum faster, pull higher vac, run cooler and last much longer than a dry piston driven pump. The should be kept upright though and the oil should always be removed for shipping. My goal is still something with a Busch pump, but the VP-215 is a nice unit at a decent price. Good Luck!

Do the Henkelman's ever come up on the used market? I've been monitoring all the usual places and haven't seen one show yet. Plenty of other models but no Boxers. Is this because there aren't as many sold or are they so good that they rarely change owners?

I'm down to deciding between a Minipack MVS35X or a Henkelman Boxer 35. Probably leaning towards the Boxer at this point. I really like the incline plate option on the Boxer for liquids. Very ingenious the way they have a magnetic shelf that you adjust to get the liquids right up to the seal point. Has soft air release also (not sure if the Minipack has this) and an option for a H20 boil sensor. I'm sure I would be happy with either, but the Boxer seems to have the edge. Would love to see both in person though.

Hi All, Long time lurker/reader here, but just recently joined the forum. I have immensely enjoyed the professional atmosphere and the incredible wealth of information here! I have kept my eye out the last while for a chamber vacuum machine with a Busch oil pump. You guys are right on when recommending a Busch pump. Professionally my company has a 10hp Busch on a large CNC router similar to this one. At about 500 lbs and ~$9000 it is a tiny bit oversized for Sous Vide. :-) Mine will be strictly for hobbyist use. (I LOVE nice equipment, no matter what type...) I am looking for some feedback on the following: 1) New vs Used. I have looked at both new and used systems and wonder what the opinion is on used. a) My issues with used are not really knowing how the machine was used - electronics production line 24/7, fishing boat, etc. b) Do any of the machines have a cycle count in the software or maybe an hour meter? Other than the general condition, it is hard to "see how many miles she has on her." c) At what age do the seals and gaskets begin to deteriorate and need replacement? d) Price. It seems that most used machines with a Busch pump go for around $1500 compared to ~$2500 new (for the lowest cost unit with a Busch) A new pump alone would cost around $700 or so and with the possibility of a cracked dome or other repairs needed. So I'm struggling to justify the used unit. 2) If a new vac sealer, how should I compare different manufacturers? Once you filter the units that use a Busch oil pump, it seems that most have about the same capabilities, with the difference being chamber size and speed (size of pump) I don't really need a printer or dual seal bars. I've looked at Minipack, Koch Ultravac and VacMaster. How would you rank these three or should I consider others? I prefer USA made, but also love European equipment (usually more $$$) I appreciate any and all comments. I've read through most of the threads and have seen bits and pieces of info, but no all encompassing guide with an independent viewpoint. Thanks!