Chamber Vacuum Sealers, 2011–2014

[Chris Amirault]

I'll be very interested to read your notes for comparison, John. If I were doing production volume, I'd definitely save up; it'll be helpful to see how your home use needs are met (or overmet!).

[lstrelau]

I can appreciate the need for a larger capacity if one was doing large quantities of product. New version of the 210 found here (link below) for $889.00 which is pretty good, not that many more days of penny pinching!!

http://www.qualitymatters.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=QMVP%2D210

VP210C:

$889.00

Chamber: 15.5” x 11” x 5”

Overall: 19” x 12.5” x 15.5”

10 inch sealer bar

Max vacuum is: 27ï ½hg - 29ï ½hg

Motor: Dry rocker piston

much smaller footprint but a lot higher. Motor sounds the same ad 112.

VP112:

$638.99 (from same source as above, www.Qualitymatters.com

Chamber 12” x 11“ x 5” (total unit dimensions are: 24” x 16” x 9”

Overall: 24” x 16” x 9”

12 inch sealer bar

Max vacuum is:28 (assume same units)

Motor: Dry rocker piston

takes up a lot of counter space (but of course would fit under a top cabinet). I have the room to purpose build a drawer with heavy duty glides so I can tuck it away when not in use. Think the same motor - no indication of max vacuum achieved.

So you won't gain anything for depth or increased quantity of liquids. Certainly you can fit a longer bag in though so that would have helped Chris with his ribs.

210 does have greater control of functions like being able to add inert gas and has a cooling function and ability to set levels (didn't look for an online version of the manual so not sure what the controls do though).

As far as the hinges are concerned, I don't see any reason that they would fail any sooner than on the 210 with the exception that it is a TWO HAND job to open and close the 112 - that can be a bit of a pain when you have a bag of food with liquid in one hand and no where to set it down (that happens to me a lot!).

It sounds like the 210 has a double seal wire. The 112 has the external vacuum port for use with canisters or jar sealers which I really find useful. Apparently doesn't work with retort flasks/bags but since I don't yet have MC I don't know what I would use them for even if I could (please god, no more new toys for a while!!).

Sure is easy to spend money on toys (tools).

Best,

Llyn

[Chris Amirault]

Here are a few shots of the VP112:

[hll]

Does anyone have nay experience with any of the Koch vacuum machines?

Edited March 26, 2011 by hll (log)

[KennethT]

Chris, about how thick is the plastic cover? I'm in the process of designing GhettoVac5000 using either a large heavy stockpot as the chamber or reinforced hotel pan (pan with buttresses welded to the sides to increase strength). The lid was originally going to be a very thick piece of clear plastic - I'm still investigating properties of different plastics - many like lexan have high impact resistance, but are pretty flexible which I don't think I'd want - but it can be stiffened with the crossbeams like in the 112... but maybe I can get away with a thinner piece depending on the design of the crosspieces. That would certainly decrease the cost even more as the thick piece of lexan is probably the most expensive part of the whole thing!

[KennethT]

Still in process of designing/rigging Ghetto Vac 5000.... coming soon.... hopefully!

Looking forward to it. I had occasion to drag out the ShopVac the other day. When I turned it on I was impressed by the power of the vacuum. Of course, this immediately made me ponder the ways in which it might be employed in the culinary arts.

Today I discovered GLAD Press'n Seal plastic wrap. I'm pretty sure a marriage is possible here, but a preliminary FoodSaver powered test revealed that some development of technique will be required.

Well it won't be THAT ghetto with a shopvac - Idon't think that can pull nearly enough vacuum, but haven't researched it. I was thinking for along the lines of a pump used by refrigeration/HVAC repairs to remove refrigerant from cooling lines - like this one. There are cheaper ones also that pull the same vacuum but will just take a little longer.

[lstrelau]

Cover is at least 3 mm thick, don't think they tell you what material but Lexan would be my choice - you should be able to get thicker material. There is also Lexan that is made up of molded squared tubes that is incredibly strong (used it in our greenhouse and it has withstood golf ball size hail with no damage).

You should be able to get off cuts from a plastic supplier too for not much money. Lexan is probably available in 5-6 mil thickness to.

The molded shape of the VP112 beind 'domed' and the cross ribs give it a lot of strength by virtue of shape.

Some plastics suppliers can do vacuum formed shapes or you could maybe find pre-fab domes that were made for other purposes (small skylights?? that would have the requisite strength.

Llyn

edited to add these links - bet you could find a dome like this that would work - they have a range of thicknesses too and the dome shape would be very strong.

http://www.globalplastics.ca/skylights.htm

http://www.globalplastics.ca/domes.htm

Edited March 26, 2011 by lstrelau (log)

[Chris Amirault]

Cover is at least 3 mm thick[.]

Agreed with Llyn. I don't have a caliper, but my rough measurement just now suggests it's 5mm.

[lstrelau]

Ate my compressed watermelon last night for an appetizer.

The one with tequila and some hot Aleppo pepper was actually really good (albeit spicy). The other one with orange juice was great too. Just topped small wedges with pieces of goat feta. Meant to drizzle some balsamico on top but forgot in the rush to get the food out though.

Texture was fairly meaty and flavours definitely infused the melon. Look forward to doing this when melon is actually in season and truly ripe.

Peaches, plums, apricots, all sorts of fruits would be great candidates for this treatment.

Llyn

[LoftyNotions]

Chris, about how thick is the plastic cover? I'm in the process of designing GhettoVac5000 using either a large heavy stockpot as the chamber or reinforced hotel pan (pan with buttresses welded to the sides to increase strength). The lid was originally going to be a very thick piece of clear plastic - I'm still investigating properties of different plastics - many like lexan have high impact resistance, but are pretty flexible which I don't think I'd want - but it can be stiffened with the crossbeams like in the 112... but maybe I can get away with a thinner piece depending on the design of the crosspieces. That would certainly decrease the cost even more as the thick piece of lexan is probably the most expensive part of the whole thing!

As another data point for you, the MVS31 has a 3/4" molded clear domed lid. I don't know what kind of plastic it is however.

Larry

[KennethT]

Cover is at least 3 mm thick, don't think they tell you what material but Lexan would be my choice - you should be able to get thicker material. There is also Lexan that is made up of molded squared tubes that is incredibly strong (used it in our greenhouse and it has withstood golf ball size hail with no damage).

You should be able to get off cuts from a plastic supplier too for not much money. Lexan is probably available in 5-6 mil thickness to.

The molded shape of the VP112 beind 'domed' and the cross ribs give it a lot of strength by virtue of shape.

Some plastics suppliers can do vacuum formed shapes or you could maybe find pre-fab domes that were made for other purposes (small skylights?? that would have the requisite strength.

Llyn

edited to add these links - bet you could find a dome like this that would work - they have a range of thicknesses too and the dome shape would be very strong.

http://www.globalplastics.ca/skylights.htm

http://www.globalplastics.ca/domes.htm

Wow - that's awesome!!! Thanks so much! That'll be much stronger than the flat pieces I was looking at! And the price is great. Lexan is a great choice also because it is not affected by alcohol (important when vacuum infusing fruits with liquors)... other plastics will haze in the alcohol vapor eventually.

[Chris Amirault]

Quick note: If your vacuum goes kablooey on your FoodSaver and you get a chamber sealer, don't toss the FoodSaver! It's still built to seal and cut bags on rolls far more easily than anything else.

[Chris Amirault]

A few mediocre but perhaps useful shots of the VP112. The control panel:

Closed:

Open:

And here's a good example of the sort of thing that would take me half an hour of frustration to seal up, a Thai geng gari -- that is to say, a coconut-cream-based curry sauce:

One minute later:

As noted elsewhere, this is not a machine that's easy to move around and, unlike my vintage Hobart meat slicer, it is not a thing of beauty to behold forever. Unless you've outfitted your kitchen to look like the deck on Battlestar Gallactica, this is going to stick out like a sore thumb.

[Phaz]

I got my VP112 today and just played with it a bit tonight.

My first few attempts had no vacuum, you really have to press down on the lid a bit.

I made some french toast which worked well, but when I tried to do something in a bag it didn't work. I could see the vacuum going and everything, and it seemed to seal, but there was still air in the bag when it sealed. I gave it plenty of time to pull a vacuum (the liquid inside started to boil) so I'm not sure what was wrong. I think my seal time was 5 seconds and I was using the bags from amazon somewhere earlier in the thread. I'll try again tomorrow with some other stuff and see if I can do better.

Does it matter how much the bag hangs over the sealer bar?

[Msk]

Would be interested to hear your impressions on the size of the unit - is it big enough to do most anything you would want?

Interesting you'd ask that. I decided this morning to make the brine and bag some short ribs for pastrami, and I ran into trouble. Turns out that even the biggest bag doesn't handle 4l of brine because you have to lay it down -- a decided disadvantage to a FoodSaver bag that can be as long as you'd like! I ended up parceling it into three bags -- a pita, let me tell you -- but all's good now.

But that's a pretty unusual situation. I really can't imagine anything I'd want to vacuum seal that would be too big for the chamber itself.

I wonder if there is a way to use the hose attachment on a container large enough to put the brine in. Anyone know if they make one that would hol th3 4L of brine?

[Jose Nieves]

Wow - that's awesome!!! Thanks so much! That'll be much stronger than the flat pieces I was looking at! And the price is great. Lexan is a great choice also because it is not affected by alcohol (important when vacuum infusing fruits with liquors)... other plastics will haze in the alcohol vapor eventually.

Have you looked at pre-formed salad bowls? Cambro, Carlisle and a few others make clear polycarbonate salad bowls in different diameters. They also make lids that can be adjusted to size.

[ermintrude]

Well in the UK chamber vac seealers seem to be 2x the $ cost

The only way I cound see me getting a chamber vac would be if the sous vide suprime sold thel chambet vac here.

However if they did it via John Lewis ( eg svp 350 rather than 499) then i could see sales.

[KennethT]

Can anyone take a picture or two of the sealing bar and the top bar of your vacuum chamber? Thanks!

[LoftyNotions]

A couple of these are a bit blurry, but hopefully they show what you need to see.

View from front, lid closed. The brown is the tape on the seal bar, the red is the piece on the lid it seals against.

View from front, lid open. The white behind the sealer bar is a filler plate.

Quartering view of sealer bar looking toward the front.

Lid open

Bar end showing sealing and cut-off wires under tape.

Edit to remove duplicates.

Edited April 1, 2011 by LoftyNotions (log)

[KennethT]

Wow! Thanks so much! Those pics were just what I was looking for... absolutely perfect! I didn't realize how thick the cover is - it looks to be about 1/2 - 5/8 inch (13-16mm) thick, right?

[LoftyNotions]

Wow! Thanks so much! Those pics were just what I was looking for... absolutely perfect! I didn't realize how thick the cover is - it looks to be about 1/2 - 5/8 inch (13-16mm) thick, right?

I measured it at 19.5mm, .76 or .77 inches.

[KennethT]

thanks!

[Phaz]

I got these VacMaster bags from Amazon and haven't gotten them to work at all with the VP112. They seem to seal but there is always a good amount of air that makes it back into the bag when it does. The bags that came with the machine work fine, so I know it's not the machine.

The bags have a little added piece on the inside that is used to filter air out (i'm assuming for the clamp style options) and I think what is going on is that part isn't fully sealing, so it's letting air back in after the seal is set. So the seal seems to be complete but isn't actually. I used a 5 second seal time.

Has anyone used these bags or does anyone know where I can get a good set of bags like the variety pack that came with the machine (which IMO is perfect)?

[Chris Amirault]

My FoodSaver leftover bags are working well with that machine, I'll add, but, yeah, +1 on replacing that variety pack. They are excellent.

[paulpegg]

Thanks for your pictures. I am interested in how the seal bar works. Does it move up to clamp the bag at the end of the vacuum run? Or is the bag clamped all the time and the air inside is pushed out through the clamp as the vacuum increases?

I am beginning to think about building a chamber sealer of my own. I am looking into used autoclaves from hospitals. These generally operate at 30 psi for steam sterilization but should work equally well under half that pressure under full vacuum.

Anybody have any thoughts to share?