Chamber Vac Hints

[palo]

To get an impregnable seal the area to be sealed must be clean and dry. Amazon US sells a Vacmaster multi-ring stand for $68.23 USD - I can't imagine the price in CDN dollars - mind you it comes with a "prep stand".😛

 

Cheap (free) substitute - cut a 1 litre plastic bottle so that it is wide enough to accommodate the food and the other end small enough to fit the bag you are using. Not to be snobbish but I find the Perrier 1 litre bottles ideal for this. You can either wash or toss as it was free to start with.

 

I'm sure everyone is aware of this - items that are opened, sealed, used and the re-sealed (cheese blocks) - use a large bag so that there is extra space at the top to re-seal.

 

Anyone else with hints not covered in the manual?

[teonzo]

You can find many hints in this thread.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Coogles]

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.

[rotuts]

i use 1 qt re-purposed yogurt containers

 

I re-seal bags of frozen items several times after I take out one unit from the bag

 

I can easily fit 6 sticks of butter into a bag , vac , freeze.  I cut the bag , take out one stick , and reseal and

 

ut back into the bag.

 

I roast coffee.  let cool , and vac.  in 24 hours there is CO2 in that bag , Icut the bag open , and re seal.

 

when I add a few says of coffee t my grinder , re seal the bag.

[MelissaH]

We use a Pringles can with the bottom cut out, along with a canning funnel. The top of the bag folds over the rim of the can, the funnel goes inside for neat filling, and then you can remove the funnel, unfold the bag, and lift the can off. If the bag-inside-the-can is filled all the way up, there will still be enough space to seal the bag.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

When I am vacuum sealing something with water I freeze the water first.

 

[rotuts]

@JoNorvelleWalker 

 

I do the same

 

i use rectangular storage units 

 

this stuff:

 

https://www.target.com/p/snap-and-store-small-rectangle-food-storage-container-5ct-24-fl-oz-up-38-up-8482/-/A-14695635

 

works very well

 

creates a " brick '  that after Vac'd a is easier to store

 

and no , I keep them and take care of them

 

hopefully Until the End of Time

 

 

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I just use ice cube trays.

 

[dscheidt]

My chamber vacuum hint is simple.  Get it into your kitchen.  Or at least get it kitchen adjacent.  Mine had been down in the basement, I finally moved it to the back porch off of the kitchen a couple months ago.  It's so much easier to use for a single bag of something.  I'd been keeping bags in the pantry, so we could put stuff in a bag, and I walk down the stairs to seal it up.  But it wouldn't happen for a little leftover; now it's much more likely to. 

 

And I've convinced my wife to use it, though I haven't convinced her she needs lo really learn how to anything more than seal a bag with whatever setting it's programmed with.  That's  a start.  I figure it'll take her a year to train her.