On 2/11/2012 at 2:23 PM, nicad said:finally started my egullet account to reply to this topic
these will work fine. I work in the water treatment field (among other things) and these are commonly used for water treatment, filtration, etc. The polypropylene bags seen here would work great:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-filter-bags
(click Mesh filter bags) to see a good selection
these are also FDA compliant.
I don't see the need to pay an extremely marked up cost for the same product - clever marketing by the superbag people!
I'm reposting this because I think it's the best advice in the thread. There's no reason to buy a branded superbag. These are commodity items, and they're available in much finer mesh sizes than the superbag people are reselling.
You can find identical bags made by other companies. I got a whole assortment on ebay, down to 25 micron.
Edited to retract the following!—
Check out McMasters standard mesh bags and high performance bags.
I just ordered High Performance bags from McMaster and they're not useable in the kitchen. There are two or three layers of material, with one of them being a thick felt that you'll never be able to clean properly. The ones I've used in the past (generic, found on ebay) were like the superbags—single layer of woven synthetic fabric. The rep at McMaster is taking them back, and is unsure which filters in their stock have the right structure (they don't catalog them this way). Looking for a new source ...
In practice, I can't tell the difference between the nylon and polyester filters. I use the 25 micron size most often. My fine chinois is probably around 200-300 micron, so this size represents an order of magnitude decrease in particle size. It removes a LOT of stuff the chinois leaves behind. But it won't clarify a cloudy stock or other liquid. You need more powerful medicine for that, like a protein raft or agar / gelatin filtration.
The filter bags aren't terribly difficult to clean. I just turn them inside-out and spray them down, and work dishwashing soap into them by hand. Rinse and hang to dry.