Posted: 3/5/2011 8:02:41 AM EDT
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I am in the process of vacuum sealing some homemade bacon.
I ran out of the commercial vacuum sealer bags. I tried a regular freezer bag, but it simply sealed and never pulled a vacuum. Investigating why the vacuum bags worked and a ziploc would not, I had a flash of genius. (or menopause, hard to say) Anyways, the problem is the vacuum bags, while made from the same material, have a rougher texture. This allows air to be pulled through, and when a vacuum level is attained, the heater turns on and seals. With Ziploc freezer bags, the machine detects a vacuum almost instantly since the air cannot flow through the smooth plastic layers. The trick was to figure out how to let air out of a standard bag, and still seal it. Plastic straws were the key. I inserted two medium drinking straws. I placed the ziploc/straw combo in to the machine. It drew a vacuum, and then sealed it. Plastic is plastic. This means I can now use cheap gallon sized bags, instead of the pricey commercial vacuum bags. 
Experimented with the next couple of bags. Works best with two, medium sized, lightweight, straws. One straw does not seem to give enough of a pathway to let the air out, seals too soon. Lighter straws are better than heavier. The thinner plastic of the lighter straws melts faster. If you are using a flex straw, don't let the flex/joint be along the sealing pathway. You can trim the straws (you just need about an inch) and it still works fine. And the ziploc bag, as pictured, is not zipped at all. On a couple that did not seal, I trimmed the ziploc and tried again. Here is a pic using straws cut shorter. 
TRG |
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What's the price differential between 20 ziplocs and 20 vacuum sealer bags? I always thought ziplocs were pretty pricey for what you get. I stocked up on ziploc-style freezer bags for 1.00 a pack with 15 per box. Mine are the "Food club" brand freezer bag. TRG |
| I applaud your ingenuity, but I would not trust that seal on anything I consider important. I believe others have used non-mesh style pouches, those used for snorkel or chamber sealers, with a strip of mesh-style bag to allow airflow out of the pouch and into the vacuum chamber with FoodSaver type sealers. As I am envisioning it, I think you only need to use the mesh strip between your pouch where the vacuum chamber foam/rubber presses down. This means, in theory, you could reuse the mesh strip as it does not need to extend into the hot seal zone. All that being said though, I specifically chose 4mil pouches for my chamber sealer, as opposed to 3mil pouches, as I want the extra protection against puncture. How puncture resistant are your Food Club bags? |
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did the sealer melt the plastic straws? If not, I would be concerned with durability, the straws may puncture a hole in the bag, overtime. very cool idea, when I will give it a shot! Yes, that was the reason this works. The plastic straws melt, bond with the plastic bags, and seal it. This is why the medium sized, and lightweight, straws are best. Heavier straws take too long to melt. The machine is melting, and pulling a vacuum, simultaneously. As for them punching a hole, I doubt it. It is a plastic vs. plastic boundary. Try pushing a round plastic straw through a freezer bag. It can be done, but, not easily. TRG |
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I applaud your ingenuity, but I would not trust that seal on anything I consider important. I believe others have used non-mesh style pouches, those used for snorkel or chamber sealers, with a strip of mesh-style bag to allow airflow out of the pouch and into the vacuum chamber with FoodSaver type sealers. As I am envisioning it, I think you only need to use the mesh strip between your pouch where the vacuum chamber foam/rubber presses down. This means, in theory, you could reuse the mesh strip as it does not need to extend into the hot seal zone. All that being said though, I specifically chose 4mil pouches for my chamber sealer, as opposed to 3mil pouches, as I want the extra protection against puncture. How puncture resistant are your Food Club bags? What, exactly, is going to puncture a pack of pork chops in my freezer? These are the same freezer bags that I would use to put leftover in the freezer in the past, with no worries about a puncture. If there was something that happened to puncture a bag, it is a net-zero loss compared to simply storing in a freezer bag. What items are just capable of puncturing a freezer bag, but not capable of puncturing a standard vacuum bag? It looks like a margin of error/risk that I can live with. TRG |
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I like it. Thanks for posting it. Do you have any long term examples using this method? (week or two ?) or did you just do it in the last day? Just did it today. I've been experimenting it. I have two different vacuum sealers. One is a Cabelas Professional. The other is Rival Seal-a-Meal. I tried doing it with jerky on the Cabelas version. It uses a broader sealing zone, but does not heat long enough to melt the straws to complete the seal. It is a timed melt. However, it does have a broad sealing zone. The Rival keeps melting until it senses a vacuum seal. I get intermittent results with the Rival. Sometimes it melts too long and the weigh of the items pulls open the seal while it is trying to melt. Same with the Cabelas. It pulled loose too soon and opened the seal. This is because the ziploc bag is a lighter weight of plastic than the vacuum bags. It is from the difference in weights of the straw plastic and the bag plastic. Once I find the right combo, I'll post it. I am going to try slicing open a straw and laying a couple of them along the vacuum boundary. This will cut the melt time in half, and still let air out of the bags, I think. Well that did not work. Slicing the straws removed the effect of having a straw in the first place. It works 100% of the time using just a 1 inch piece of straw. The problem is the lighter weight of the freezer bag means it can tear at the seal if the bag is too full, or the weight of the contents are unsupported while the bags are hot. Holding the bag with the contents, keeping it still while the seal cools, and waiting a little longer to open the sealer is working pretty good. I tried with sammich sized freezer bags using some jerky for the contents. It works fine. just have to be careful on the bag until the seal cools enough. I put some in the freezer, along with the bacon, and ham that I sealed this morning. We'll see how long the seal lasts. Tried 'double bagging' some jerky. Placed jerky in the inner bag. Put it inside the outer bag. Straw went through to the inner bag. Drew a fast seal, and seemed to have no issues with tearing at the seal. Of course, this means it costs twice as much, but, I think I could find a ziploc with slighty heavier plastic and be golden. TRG |
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What, exactly, is going to puncture a pack of pork chops in my freezer? These are the same freezer bags that I would use to put leftover in the freezer in the past, with no worries about a puncture. If there was something that happened to puncture a bag, it is a net-zero loss compared to simply storing in a freezer bag. Damn, you're cheap. I thought I was cheap but you got me beat there. 
Pork chop bones are deadly to vac bags, no matter what kind you use. Just too many sharp edges. I pulled a bag out of the freezer tonight (FoodSaver bag) and found that it had lost vacuum. Might as well just use ziplocksif you can get a good seal. |
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What, exactly, is going to puncture a pack of pork chops in my freezer? These are the same freezer bags that I would use to put leftover in the freezer in the past, with no worries about a puncture. If there was something that happened to puncture a bag, it is a net-zero loss compared to simply storing in a freezer bag. Damn, you're cheap. I thought I was cheap but you got me beat there.
Pork chop bones are deadly to vac bags, no matter what kind you use. Just too many sharp edges. I pulled a bag out of the freezer tonight (FoodSaver bag) and found that it had lost vacuum. Might as well just use ziplocksif you can get a good seal. I'm not cheap, I'm bored. Same reason I recently learned to make cheese, planted a full size garden, decided to put in a 300'x 50' watermelon/cantaloupe patch... 
FWIW, this means a standard freezer bag, with just a little piece of straw and some careful filling will have the potential to preserve foods much longer. I tried some other methods: Trimming the zipper, notching a portion of the zipper, wedge cutting. Nothing gives the same effect as the single straw. I am keeping my eye open for something that could allow air to leave the bag, and reinforce the seal area. By far, the double bagged jerky has the best seal, with the least amount of air remaining. TRG |
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I'm not cheap, I'm bored. Same reason I recently learned to make cheese, planted a full size garden, decided to put in a 300'x 50' watermelon/cantaloupe patch...
Bored? Your garden plans will cure you of that ailment. Yeah, it's 'ambitious' to say the least. The largest garden I have ever put in was 16'x4' in a raised bed. 6 tomatoes, 6 pepper plants. This year, I planted two rows of onions, 75' each. 75' of beets, radishes, cabbage... I have a 75' 'row' of mustard greens, 3' wide. Seemed like a good idea at the time.
Freezing, dehydrating, canning are going to be my next project. TRG |
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I used the cut off strips from standard seal a meal bags. When you use the regular seal a meal bags you cut off the excess. Simply place those strips into the normal bags and they will pull a vacuum. The seal a meal bags are so expensive that I want to use every single inch.
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I used the cut off strips from standard seal a meal bags. When you use the regular seal a meal bags you cut off the excess. Simply place those strips into the normal bags and they will pull a vacuum. The seal a meal bags are so expensive that I want to use every single inch. So, you use a regular ziploc-style, with a folded piece of commercial vacuum bag at the opening to draw a vacuum? Got a pic? TRG |
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I used the cut off strips from standard seal a meal bags. When you use the regular seal a meal bags you cut off the excess. Simply place those strips into the normal bags and they will pull a vacuum. The seal a meal bags are so expensive that I want to use every single inch. So, you use a regular ziploc-style, with a folded piece of commercial vacuum bag at the opening to draw a vacuum? Got a pic? TRG No pic, just results. The vacuum bag strip must extend to the bottom of the bag. |
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Quoted: Bone guard.Quoted: What, exactly, is going to puncture a pack of pork chops in my freezer? These are the same freezer bags that I would use to put leftover in the freezer in the past, with no worries about a puncture. If there was something that happened to puncture a bag, it is a net-zero loss compared to simply storing in a freezer bag. Damn, you're cheap. I thought I was cheap but you got me beat there. Pork chop bones are deadly to vac bags, no matter what kind you use. Just too many sharp edges. I pulled a bag out of the freezer tonight (FoodSaver bag) and found that it had lost vacuum. Might as well just use ziplocksif you can get a good seal. |
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I used the cut off strips from standard seal a meal bags. When you use the regular seal a meal bags you cut off the excess. Simply place those strips into the normal bags and they will pull a vacuum. The seal a meal bags are so expensive that I want to use every single inch. That's exactly what I do. |
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Looks like a good product. Pricey though. I think I'll take my chances with bag failures. For the most part, I only have failures with pork chops. |
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I used the cut off strips from standard seal a meal bags. When you use the regular seal a meal bags you cut off the excess. Simply place those strips into the normal bags and they will pull a vacuum. The seal a meal bags are so expensive that I want to use every single inch. So, you use a regular ziploc-style, with a folded piece of commercial vacuum bag at the opening to draw a vacuum? Got a pic? TRG More or less. I use the wide seal a meal material. When I seal something using the seal a meal bags, I use the built in cutter to lop the top off. I then use that strip again by placing it into a zip lock bag going all the way to the bottom of the zip lock bag. Insert item and seal away. The cut off strip has to extend out of the top of the zip lock bag and into the vacuum channel in the sealer. Hope this helps. |
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I used the cut off strips from standard seal a meal bags. When you use the regular seal a meal bags you cut off the excess. Simply place those strips into the normal bags and they will pull a vacuum. The seal a meal bags are so expensive that I want to use every single inch. So, you use a regular ziploc-style, with a folded piece of commercial vacuum bag at the opening to draw a vacuum? Got a pic? TRG No pic, just results. The vacuum bag strip must extend to the bottom of the bag. Thanks for the clarification. Mine still won't hold the seal. It will pull the vacuum good and tight but leak out after the seal. I am using ziplock brand freezer bags and letting it cool a long time before opening the lid. |
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I used the cut off strips from standard seal a meal bags. When you use the regular seal a meal bags you cut off the excess. Simply place those strips into the normal bags and they will pull a vacuum. The seal a meal bags are so expensive that I want to use every single inch. So, you use a regular ziploc-style, with a folded piece of commercial vacuum bag at the opening to draw a vacuum? Got a pic? TRG No pic, just results. The vacuum bag strip must extend to the bottom of the bag. Thanks for the clarification. Mine still won't hold the seal. It will pull the vacuum good and tight but leak out after the seal. I am using ziplock brand freezer bags and letting it cool a long time before opening the lid. Try putting a bag within a bag. I tried it, and got one of the best seals. TRG |
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I'm not cheap, I'm bored. Same reason I recently learned to make cheese, planted a full size garden, decided to put in a 300'x 50' watermelon/cantaloupe patch...
TRG ROFLMAO!!! Guys, that's a joke, he's an ARFCOMMER. He's both!!!!!! But it will be nice to get all those fresh veggies. TXL |
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I'm not cheap, I'm bored. Same reason I recently learned to make cheese, planted a full size garden, decided to put in a 300'x 50' watermelon/cantaloupe patch...
TRG ROFLMAO!!! Guys, that's a joke, he's an ARFCOMMER. He's both!!!!!! But it will be nice to get all those fresh veggies. TXL Whore. Mouth. Shut. It.
So far, the items that pulled a seal, remain sealed. TRG |
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I'm not cheap, I'm bored. Same reason I recently learned to make cheese, planted a full size garden, decided to put in a 300'x 50' watermelon/cantaloupe patch...
TRG ROFLMAO!!! Guys, that's a joke, he's an ARFCOMMER. He's both!!!!!! But it will be nice to get all those fresh veggies. TXL Whore. Mouth. Shut. It.
So far, the items that pulled a seal, remain sealed. TRG I had to stumble across this idea? You didn't even bother to call and tell me about it. Eugene! Bite the goat! How long have the seals lasted? |
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I'm not cheap, I'm bored. Same reason I recently learned to make cheese, planted a full size garden, decided to put in a 300'x 50' watermelon/cantaloupe patch...
TRG ROFLMAO!!! Guys, that's a joke, he's an ARFCOMMER. He's both!!!!!! But it will be nice to get all those fresh veggies. TXL Whore. Mouth. Shut. It.
So far, the items that pulled a seal, remain sealed. TRG I had to stumble across this idea? You didn't even bother to call and tell me about it. Eugene! Bite the goat! How long have the seals lasted? Varied. Some lasted until I opened the package, others lost their seals almost immediately. The heavier the bag, the better the seal. TRG |