Home Vacume Food Storage Machines

[Ducatiboy stu]

Been looking around for those vacume food storage machines..

Who has one and, what brand, and how do they perform...

 

[barls]

it really depends on what you want it for and what style of bags you want to use.
for food- id go the sunbeam or similar. they are great for meats and things that have liquids with them but only use the channel bags. which can be a pain if you want to do hops or the such

for brewing id recommend - the snorkel type such as the pack and seal unit. does all bags including foil but is easily destroyed by liquids being sucked into them.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Just looking to do food

 

[Phoney]

I, along with a lot of other AHB'ers have got the 50 buck Maxkon's food savers. Although I havent used many others to compare, mine does the job just fine.

 

[6tri6ple6]

+1 for the maxxkon. Does just as much as a $200 machine. Even if it lasts half as long I'm still in front.

 

[DU99]

+2 for Maxkon have had one for awhile

 

[argon]

+2 for Maxkon have had one for awhile

Looks as though i've been bought one of these for christmas (i get the paypal updates when Mrs argon makes a purchase )

When sealing up bulk hops, do you split them up into convenient sizes in multiple bags or just seal up the entire lot, open and reseal as necessary?

 

[6tri6ple6]

Looks as though i've been bought one of these for christmas (i get the paypal updates when Mrs argon makes a purchase )

When sealing up bulk hops, do you split them up into convenient sizes in multiple bags or just seal up the entire lot, open and reseal as necessary?

I seal mine into bags of 200g each. I roll out a little extra plastic so I can use and reseal. Was thinking of getting the matching vac sealed plastic containers for this task as well. While the roll of bags are cheap I never bothered.

 

[DU99]

i break mine into smaller lots,you can make bags to suit whatever you require..

 

[Mercs Own]

I have my sunbeam vacuum sealer which is great but I also bought a hand held vacuum sealer that runs off power or batteries and uses reusable bags. It is much easier to do small things like half blocks of cheese, left overs, cut fruit, onions, vac seal pies and put in the freezer etc etc

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/25335233...uum_sealer.html

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/51286123...ood_sealer.html

I have several 1 kilo bags of hops sealed up in the big reusable bags

I got mine at a home show.

I have a friend that sells them I will ask where we can buy them on line at.

 

[MaltyHops]

... the sunbeam or similar. ... but only use the channel bags. which can be a pain if
you want to do hops or the such ...

Hey barls,

Why do you say the Sunbean is a pain for hops? Is it the fact that
the manual says to only use the recommended bags?

I have a Sunbeam VAC 440 (manual, though have yet to have enough
hops yield to use it <_<) and it has a manual overide to stop the vacuuming
and carry out the heat sealing so I'm thinking non channel bags might be
used by pressing air out of a bag with hops in it and just heat sealing the bag
(I do have rolls fo channel bags also).

T.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Hardley Normal have a Sunbeam 330mm unit for $ 198 from $260.....

I would rather go the wider bags


Could go the Maxkon, but where is the service and warranty ..... have been down that road..

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

The main reason for buying a Vacume machine is where we live

Unfortunatly, we get school prawns fresh of the boat.....$10kg

Fresh squire ( baby snapper ) are $17kg......they weight in at 500gm ea.........straight of the boat.

Wooli oysters fresh, schuked, $11 doz... shame I have to stop at the pub on the way back.....hate that

 

[punkin]

The main reason for buying a Vacume machine is where we live

Unfortunatly, we get school prawns fresh of the boat.....$10kg

Fresh squire ( baby snapper ) are $17kg......they weight in at 500gm ea.........straight of the boat.

Wooli oysters fresh, schuked, $11 doz... shame I have to stop at the pub on the way back.....hate that

Well that would be a shame. Better off stopping at the Bowlo and enjoying one of the best chinese feeds on the east coast at Harry's.



I use a sunbeam 28cm model. I freeze my kilo lots of hops in long bags and it works just fine. Cheap as shit bags (channel ones) are available Here .

The single cut bags work out cheaper than the rolls with 200 X 400 working out at around 50 cents each with postage. That's hard to beat when you can reuse them so many times.

 

[drsmurto]

I've gone through 2 of these - Link

Both don't get a good vacuum anymore.

Have the Maxkon on order in readiness for the homegrown hop bounty about to be bestowed on me (ironically it was sealing up kg of homegrown hops last season that killed both vac sealers - i dont think lupilin agrees with them).

I seal my bulk hops in 100-120g lots. Homegrown hops 100g max and they take up a lot more room.

 

[MaltyHops]

... Cheap as shit bags (channel ones) are available Here.

Link should be: Here

... (ironically it was sealing up kg of homegrown hops last season that killed both
vac sealers - i dont think lupilin agrees with them). ...

Hey Doc, is it really necessary to have a complete vacuum to store hops?
Thinking if just manually squeezing out as much air as possible and then seal
without the vacuum option (which is possible in my Sunbeam). Alternatively,
maybe a manual squeeze first anyhow would reduce the amount of air
(& lupulin) going through the sealing unit would help?

Also for those in Adelaide, MBL (Master Butchers Co-op. Ltd - 432 Churchill Road
Kilburn, Adelaide SA 5084) is a good place to buy vacuum bags - bought two
of the continous rolls in the past and price was good IIRC (tho the rolls don't
seem to be listed on their web catalogue).

T.

 

[drsmurto]

Link should be: Here


Hey Doc, is it really necessary to have a complete vacuum to store hops?
Thinking if just manually squeezing out as much air as possible and then seal
without the vacuum option (which is possible in my Sunbeam). Alternatively,
maybe a manual squeeze first anyhow would reduce the amount of air
(& lupulin) going through the sealing unit would help?

Also for those in Adelaide, MBL (Master Butchers Co-op. Ltd - 432 Churchill Road
Kilburn, Adelaide SA 5084) is a good place to buy vacuum bags - bought two
of the continous rolls in the past and price was good IIRC (tho the rolls don't
seem to be listed on their web catalogue).

T.

If you want to slow down oxidation/staling then removing as much air as possible is very important.

I've got homgrown hops vac sealed up from 2010 and they still smell as fresh as the day they were packed.

 

[punkin]

Thank you for repairing my link. I'll just paste em in in future.

I've had the Sunbeam one for about 4 years now, mostly used for spices, fish and meat before. But it gets a workout every w'end now with hops.

 

[benno1973]

I've gone through 2 of these - Link

Both don't get a good vacuum anymore.

Hey DrS, did you pull your machine apart and clean it out? I had one that clogged up from vacuum sealing pork (juices went into the vacuum tube). On the back side of the machine, there's a black plug that you can pull off and down the tube there's a small piece of foam that prevents particles or fluid being sucked into the workings of the machine. Over time, I found that this got clogged with fine hop debris, and ultimately with pork blood. With a fine pair of tweezers, you can remove this filter and either clean it, or in my case, throw it away. I got another 12 months out of the machine after this. I'm now on my second machine, my first lasted about 4 years.

 

[drsmurto]

Hey DrS, did you pull your machine apart and clean it out? I had one that clogged up from vacuum sealing pork (juices went into the vacuum tube). On the back side of the machine, there's a black plug that you can pull off and down the tube there's a small piece of foam that prevents particles or fluid being sucked into the workings of the machine. Over time, I found that this got clogged with fine hop debris, and ultimately with pork blood. With a fine pair of tweezers, you can remove this filter and either clean it, or in my case, throw it away. I got another 12 months out of the machine after this. I'm now on my second machine, my first lasted about 4 years.

This tool tard has not even attempted to clean/fix it.

I switch it on, it doesn't work, i buy a new one.

I'll have a look at them tonight and see if i can find a filter, blocked or otherwise.