Chamber Sealer Bags

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mobiledynamics

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Ordered me a VP230 chamber vac. Coming from a regular Weston Vac.

Any bag recommendations.

For example, I used to hate my Weston. Would lost the seal over time. Turns out it was the bags.
For that model, I've been using the Ary Bags and they have been great.

Thinking about a mix of 3 and 4 mil Bags from Ary. Unless you guys have different recommendation.
 
Whoa. If I understand correctly, that is a serious piece of gear. I just finished sealing up some coarse ground pork for Steamed Pork Hash with salt fish. I guess I used a Weston? I got it from Cabela, but people said it must be a Weston. Haven't had a problem with the Vacmaster bags I use.

Kind of jealous, here, but maybe I helped by mentioning Vacmaster?
 
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daveb said:
Vacuum sealers unlimited has best choice of bags I found. Still have a bunch for my VP112(?)
Click to expand...

+1. I find 3 mil bags are sturdy enough for everything I do. 4 mils maybe if you freeze a lot of stuff and beat up the cold bags in the freezer. But I have only had a couple leaks in more than half a decade with 3 mil bags. Clean sealing and good technique are more important than bag thickness, in my opinion.
 
I have a VP230 and have only used 3mil bags bought directly from VacMaster. I bought many sizes, but mostly use 6x10 and 8x10, but also 10x13 and 12x15. Sign up for their emails and get a discount. I probably only get two emails a month at the most announcing a sale or new product. When you place the order for the bags, go ahead and get a couple quarts of compressor oil. I've changed mine once so far and will do so any time I see the oil in the sight glass starting to look the least bit milky.

I like to buy mixed nuts and other things in bulk to snack on, so also bought the 6x8 zippered bags, These are great to take on road trips (or help with portion control while watching tv). Seal your stuff, and when you want a snack, rip off the zippered part, then use the ziplock style closer until you're ready for more. As a side note, you can place two 6" wide bags side by side when sealing, so halves the number of cycles.

Be careful sealing liquids. Always take out the spacer so the mouth of the bag is as high as possible. This seems like common sense, but sometimes you can lay the bag down and still have the mouth higher than the spacer, but just take it out. When it starts boiling, be ready to hit the stop, regardless how much time is left on the timer. This will seal the bag and release the vacuum. I've been lucky and not had a bag blown up spraying liquid everywhere, Don't turn your back on liquids! The same goes for things you don't want to crush... and this thing can and will crush some items. If the needle is in the green, it still has more vacuum than my FoodSaver sealer ever had.

Cool "party trick" is cutting watermelon into cubes and sealing them. There are valid reasons to do it anyway, but it's way cool.

The VP230 is a beast, so I bought this cart from Sam's Club. It's just the right size for machine on top and the boxes of bags fit nicely on the two lower shelves. It came straight out of the box onto the cart and they've been paired ever since.

Buy this cover. It;s only $15 and fits perfectly. I put a microfiber cloth on top of the "lid" as extra protection, then this cover.

For a helping hand, order these. You'll be glad you did. The height is easily adjustable. I roll the edge of the bag over an inch or so, then attach to these holders. They are great when you want to seal soups, red sauce for pasta, etc. They may seem flimsy at first, but the bag does the real work. These just help tremendously.

For a funnel, I've found the easiest and cheapest thing to use is a red Solo party cup with the bottom cut out. They fit very nicely in a 6" wide bag and makes the job so much easier while keeping the sealed area clean.

I can't call it a regret, but wish I'd bought a high quality vacuum sealer many years ago. It was an investment for us empty nesters. We were used to cooking for five kids and all their friends. Once they left, it was hard cooking for just the two of us. Now we do our meal prep on the weekends and don't go through that "What are you hungry for? I don't know. What are you hungry for?" during the week. We even invested in a good chest freezer and focus on buying food in bulk only when it's on sale. No doubt we've saved more buying this way and having our meals ready to eat than the initial cost of the machine, bags, and deep freezer.

Congratulations! Enjoy your new toy.
 
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Wow, you guys have much better luck with the bags than I do. I used to use the 3 mil but I kept finding steaks in my freezer that had lost their seal and had ice on them. Could be attributed to how stuffed my freezer is and how much I inevitably jostle things to find what I want, but either way, I switched to 5 mil. I feel like I could leave these bad boys tied behind my car like national lampoon and they would still hold a seal. Worth it for expensive steaks or bone in meat for sure, or if you’re like me, I use it for everything but liquids.

Edit - involving liquids. I used a foodsaver for ages and I loved making big batches of chili, stock, stew, etc, and immediately after eating just loading it all up into bags and sealing it for the freezer. When I bought my vp321, I tried to do the same thing. No bueno. What they don’t really tell you is that if the liquid is even close to room temperature or warmer, it will boil. The window you have between boiling liquid and exploding messy situation is extremely slim. Not only does it cause a huge mess, but any boiling liquids in your chamber (even if caught before bag explodes) will be sucked into the machine itself and cause you to have to change the oil more often or risk long term damage. Also, you’ll find that if you press seal early when it starts to boil right off, it’ll vacuum seal but there will still be air in the bag. I know it makes little difference with liquids in the freezer but this is annoying to me. I’ve resolved myself to just sticking whatever food it is into the fridge overnight and then portioning it and sealing it the following day. Works very well, makes the night clean up a little less stressful, and I’ve had no issues with exploding bags. Bonus points since you can skim the fat now. Trust me, an exploding bag is traumatic enough to make you question all of your decisions, so best to avoid it altogether. I do keep a foodsaver and the accompanying bags still for special situations. For example, I smoke my steaks before I sous vide them. That means I would be vacuum sealing a “warm” (100-110 degree) steak. Surprisingly, I would see steam fill up the bag and the chamber, and though it wouldn’t explode, there would be a bunch of moisture in the chamber and a strong steak smell after opening. Didn’t take me long to realize that I was sucking moisture out of my steaks and probably rupturing cell walls in the process by doing this. So I have my foodsaver for small tasks like this. Sorry for the long write up but I think this is very important.

@rstcso Have you tried just simply rolling back the edge of the bag? I’ve found it’s easier to just do this instead of adding a funnel gizmo to the mix, which necessitates a bag holder since your free hand is now occupied by holding the funnel. I fold my edges back two times (has to be 2) and then simply ladle everything in while holding the bag directly with my non ladling hand. Works very well, then when I’m done I unroll the edges and there’s never any food on them. Different methods work better for different people though, so maybe yours is better for you 🤷🏼‍♂️
 
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Wow guys. What a read. Especially RST. I was leaning on 4mil as the -price- wasn't that much of a difference, in my mind between a bag that may lose air vs. the extra mil that may mitigate it. I'll have to do a finder check on the sit

The price of the bags don't throw me off but 1000 QTY or 500QTY seems excessive in storage. I'd rather have 250QTY and reup as needed.

BTW, on the comment on oil. I dunno. Akin to after changing the oil in your car, even after a 70 mile drive, the new oil will be close to just as -black-. The white goop you describe is moisture. By product of it being in use and the unit not getting hot enough or used long enough during a -vac session- to burn the moisture. Lots to re-read and circle back on this thread.
 
The oil that you use for the chamber vacs has no detergents in it, which is what prolongs oil life (to my limited understanding)

Their recommendation is something along the lines of once a month for heavy use or once every few months for not so heavy use. They do specify if you do a lot of liquids to change it more often. Could be a bunch of hooplah but I tend to want to believe them considering 1) how expensive these things are, and 2) how much of a royal pain in the ass it would be to get one transported and fixed
 
I probably have good luck with bags because I don't use them a lot for extended frozen storage. At cold temps, the plastic is more brittle and the food inside is frozen solid, so it has sharp corners. If you toss things around, I'm sure some will puncture and lose their seal.

As cooktocut mentioned, sealing hot items isn't a good idea. The colder the better, as sealing warm product will damage it and can reduce the life of your pump oil (or the pump itself, if you're using a dry piston pump like my VP112). In practice, this is seldom an issue for me except maybe when sealing up batches of stock, though I usually chill that down anyway so that I can remove the fat in a solid layer after a night in the fridge (again, like cooktocut mentioned). I have no need for a Foodsaver. If I need to seal something warm like a smoked steak that I want to cook in a circulator, a Ziplock does just fine.
 
I've never had an issue with zippies, so long as they're proper freezer bags. Of course, they shouldn't be used in higher temp applications like cooking vegetables at 85C because the plastic gets really soft and is easy to damage. But where I do most of my SV cooking - at 65C and below - they're just fine. But I don't use them that often, so I might just be getting lucky. I trust them enough to cook the big roast in 2 gallon freezer bags for Christmas and other big family gatherings. I know that Dave Arnold (who helped popularize SV cooking and used to teach the technique at culinary schools) just uses zipper bags when he cooks SV at home, so that's a pretty solid, if unofficial, endorsement.
 
Hearing you say that about the holiday roast gives me anxiety. Maybe I should give them another chance after all. For something large like that, I’m stuck using those expandable foodsaver bags which are awful in their own regard.
 
Dare I ask.....presuming storage is dry conditions in conditioned space. Is there a shelf life on the bags.
2 Different Sized bags at 1000K qty is alot

On the same token, for example, I do know Saran Wrap has a shelf life. I've used one that was definitely oil and it had zero cling and very minimal stretch to it.

I know the heat bar melts/seals the bags so I suppose the answer to some degree on shelf life is -indefinite- ?
 
I buy 4ml bags 8x12 off of eBay. Less than $60 for 500. Keep couple of rolls, 8 inch and 12 inch, to make bigger or smaller ones. I’ve probably used 2,500 over the past 10-15 years with no failure.
 
Rolls = Mesh / fooosaver style ?

I was thinking about rolls/chamber bags that I could still make up my own closed and cut to size is the Small or Large Pouch I had was way out of proportion.

Back to my OP. IME, with the Weston Vac, no names I had terrible luck . Some would lose it's seal. Some would not be a good seal right off the heat bar. Bought Ary bags and never looked back.

Leaning on the same direction with the chamber/bag brand. Unless you guys say ARY is overpriced and go here for 4 mil. Link for your ebay seller / or pouch /
 
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cooktocut said:
@rstcso Have you tried just simply rolling back the edge of the bag? I’ve found it’s easier to just do this instead of adding a funnel gizmo to the mix, which necessitates a bag holder since your free hand is now occupied by holding the funnel. I fold my edges back two times (has to be 2) and then simply ladle everything in while holding the bag directly with my non ladling hand. Works very well, then when I’m done I unroll the edges and there’s never any food on them. Different methods work better for different people though, so maybe yours is better for you 🤷🏼‍♂️
Click to expand...
I always roll them once, but never tried twice.

Agreed about any liquids above room temperature (better if cooled more). Somewhere there's a warning about warm liquids.

As for long-term storage and shelf-life of bags, only time will tell. Mine stay inside in their boxes on the cart below the machine, so aren't exposed to varying temperatures or excessive sunlight.
 
I have an older model Vacmaster machine which I have been trying to use with aluminized mylar bags.. For real long term storage, oxygen and moisture will go through the plastic, the bag just slows things down. But the aluminization will stop all of that. In any event, the Vacmaster will not seal the aluminized bag... I talked with an engineer at Vacmaster, and he said the power was not enough, as the aluminum was conductive and they did not make a machine with enough power to seal an aluminized bag. Has anyone else confronted this issue?? Is there a work around aside from rebuilding the pulse sealing mechanism??
 
I have a VP320 in my restaurant and we pretty much only use 4mil bags these days. Never had luck with the 3mil bags holding a seal long term, especially in the freezer. Get the backs straight from vacmaster.
 
RocketMan -

I think to make it hot enough to work with the bags you want, it would be too hot for regular poly nylon bags. Too hot = melted seal=aka, holes, leakage
 
I got a VP320 earlier this year from webstaurant, mostly for the free shipping. It’s sitting on an Advance Tabco stainless mixer table, which puts it almost level with the countertop. A 16x24 is perfect.
 
RSTCSO -

Revisited the responses and went to check the cover. How long have you had the cover. It says it's waterproof. If it's like those PVC'ish fabric with some sort of coating on the inside, my experience with those materials is that they rot over time, stink to high hell and depending on the coating, it yellows and starts flaking. Feedback
 
On the display, if it shoes Ed, is is a error code.

I just fired it up for it's maiden voyage. Everything seems okay except it's not sealing. Flipped the bar around just in case it was a location specific. No change. My sealing bar ain't getting juice or this machine was made on a Friday
 
mobiledynamics said:
On the display, if it shoes Ed, is is a error code.

I just fired it up for it's maiden voyage. Everything seems okay except it's not sealing. Flipped the bar around just in case it was a location specific. No change. My sealing bar ain't getting juice or this machine was made on a Friday
Click to expand...
“Ed” just means it’s ready to go, no error. Nothing to worry about.

Not sure about the sealer not functioning. Did you set your seal and rest times as it says in the manual? Otherwise, I’d call them tomorrow and ask. Their customer support, as you’d expect on products that cost this much, is quite good.
 
Thx. Ha. Had to break out the Weston to finish the job. Was planning to re-gift the Weston, like my extra pots and pans. Maybe it should stay in the garage as a backup
 
I've seen the posts of the bar covered in tape or epoxy to prevent corrosion. The bar is simply a resistive load, If you have a multimeter you should have a reading across it (would vary between machines) but it should not be open.
 
daveb said:
I've seen the posts of the bar covered in tape or epoxy to prevent corrosion. The bar is simply a resistive load, If you have a multimeter you should have a reading across it (would vary between machines) but it should not be open.
Click to expand...
Yes, I was going to suggest this same thing actually. Felt kind of obvious though, kind of like leaving the little plastic pull tab in the back of your McDonald’s toy and then wondering why it’s not working 😂
 
I get .5 on the bar. Grrr. Shiney Expensive Toys - wish they worked right outta box
 
All I got is probes

Even if I had clips, would that even work....aka, wire, door down. Will the chamber still be airtight seal .

No option other than start so I can't how I can trigger sealing mode ?
 
BTW, what the rule of thumb when dealing with liquids. Stock.
Do you pre freeze it before sealing.

Or fill it not more then 1/3-1/2 so it won't explode......
 
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