Coogles

An answer on the Amazon page for this says the largest pizza you can make with it is 9", so yeah, pretty small.

I bought a little ozone generatror for my parents to use. Just put the greens/fruits/vegetables in a big bowl of ice water, drop in the air stone, cover and turn on the generator. It runs for about 10 minutes, then drain and dry the greens.

When I'm bagging liquids I load an 8" x 10" pouch in to a 22 ounce plastic pilsner glass, with the pouch reaching all the way to the bottom of the glass there's enough height left to fold over the rim by about 1". Makes it easy to pour int he liquid without getting any on the bag where the seal will be. When bagging thick liquids (like pizza sauce) that may have air incorporated from whisking/blending I'll usually put them in the chamber in a bowl first and run a cycle to pull out the air, makes it much less likely that the sauce will expand while bagging and spill out in the chamber. I'll do the same thing when I need flat beer for a recipe and don't want to wait around for it to happen naturally.

I loved the original Nomiku, it was a workhorse and had such an easy to use interface that even my non tech-inclined parents could use it (it lives with them now). The WiFi model was not a good experience, had to send it back for replacement multiple times due to bad water level sensors that would just shut the circulator down with no warning or notice and once when the plastic housing cracked during a high-temp cook and steam got in to the electronics. Last time I sent it back to be replaced I ordered an Anova and ended up never even taking the Nomiku out for the box it was shipped back to me in. These days I primarily use a Joule with the Anova as a back-up, the WiFi Nomiku is still sitting in the box in case I need a back-up to the back-up.

Nomiku just posted on their Facebook page that they're suspending operations effective immediately.

VacMaster has recommended settings for their various machines here... https://www.vacmasterfresh.com/seal-time-product-comparison/ I usually leave mine set for 30 seconds vacuum time, for thick liquids like soups or sauces I'll have my finger hovering over the "Stop" button in case the liquid starts expanding and moves too close the open end of the bag. I'll go to 60 seconds vacuum for fruit compression and instant pickles. Mine did come with a sample pack of various sized bags and it did have a little oil in it when delivered, probably from QA testing at the factory. You will need to add enough oil to reach 1/2 to 3/4 on the sight glass. They recommend changing the oil after the first 24 hours of run time and every 60 hours of run time after that, at 30 seconds vacuum time that's about 2880 cycles before the first change and every 7200 cycles after that but keep an eye on the oil and change if it gets milky or looks dirty.

The Woot deal is already sold out, must of just had a few.

Woot.com has the VacMaster VP215 up for $499.99 today (10/18/19), they're a deal-a-day site so it'll only be available until midnight central time unless it sells out before that. Edit: Already sold out.

Here's how my gasket looks, the ends should be butted up right next to each other to minimize leaks. If your machine was new when you got it the gasket should be in good shape and you might just be able to tug the ends together a bit to close the gap, just be gentle so you don't tear it. If you got the machine used and the gasket is worn or hardened you can get replacement ones pretty cheap. The machine should work fine for most things as-is, but you might have an issue trying things that require a strong vacuum like vacuum compression of fruits.

I get almost all the way to the end of the green zone after 30 seconds. Check that your lid gasket is in good shape and properly seated. Also check that the rim of the chamber which the gasket seals against doesn't have any dents or deep scratches and that your oil level is at 1/2 or a little higher on the sight glass.

How large? Here is a 9.5" x 13" cast iron lasagna pan but it might be a little deeper (3") than you want... https://www.amazon.com/112010-01-Artisan-Preseasoned-Rectangular-Lasagna/dp/B072QGBNHG/ref=sr_1_4?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1550164844&sr=1-4&keywords=cast+iron+lasagna

This is being offered on Woot.com... https://home.woot.com/offers/bruntmor-double-handle-cast-iron-skillet-pizza-pan-1?ref=w_cnt_wp_5_6

USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service does have an email notification list you can subscribe to here... https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/recalls-and-public-health-alerts/current-recalls-and-alerts If you scroll down the page a bit it shows a list of current recalls.

The vacuum removed some of the moisture but not enough to dehydrate the herbs, I don't think the volume of the Ball jar (1 quart) is big enough to allow enough of the water to boil off under vacuum. After repeating the vacuum procedure several times the leaves had shrunk significantly and gone limp but were still moist to the touch. Something like a vacuum degassing chamber would probably have a better chance of doing this successfully due to the larger chamber size and the ability to keep it under vacuum indefinitely.

Never tried it before, but since I needed to prune the basil growing in my Aerogarden anyway I thought I'd give it a go. My chamber sealer doesn't have the option of holding at vacuum so I sealed up the basil in a Ball jar at high vacuum (45 sec, ~99.9% vacuum according to the gauge) along with a little rice to act as a desiccant. I'll open up the jar in a few hours to see how it looks and repeat the vacuum a few times if the herbs aren't dry enough.