Thinking of getting a vac pac?

Well don't hesitate!

I did, but when I eventually found enough reasons to justify it, I discovered I use it for a whole load more things than I was expecting. And the bags are much cheaper than I was expecting.

At first I was thinking for hops only. Hops are possibly the most expensive AG ingredient and deteriorate relatively fast. Then I got interested in Sous Vide, but I bought a Sous Vide machine which came with reusable hand-pump bags, so still no need for a vac pac. But I quickly got tired of the hand-pump bag idea, especially for 3 day Sous Vide cooks when I was sure some water was getting into the bag. So I plumped for a vac pac.

My main considerations were good reviews, manual control of vac & seal, and not too much gap between bag top and seal (as you can reseal the bag and only lose that gap).

Once I had it in hand, I spent half a day vac packing all sorts of stuff. All my spices, all my herbs, coffee, tea, rice, dried mushrooms, baking powder, ham, hard cheese, wraps, dry beans... And of course, hops, special grains, irish moss, dextrose, yeast... And that was before I even began using it for Sous Vide. You probably guessed by now that it's quite well used, much more than I was expecting.

It only occurred to me after I bought the vac pac that bags can be reused; you only lose the top bit you cut off. So if you don't mind washing them out (if used wet), and if, when from a roll, you cut initially much longer than you need, they can be used over and over again. I also found really cheap bags on Amazon. Those cheap ones can't be used for Sous Vide, but are the ones I use for pretty much everything else. That said, I do use expensive bags for the freezer, as they are more resilient. The cheap ones come in loads of sizes and believe me when I say that the long ones are better, as you just cut and reuse, cut and reuse.

After a lot of research, I ended up spending a bit more than I originally planned, but I think it's good value for money. I got the Magic Vac Maxima 2. If you know Amazon well enough to navigate in a foreign language, buying the vac pac and the bags from the Italian Amazon site proved cheaper, even after shipping and currency conversion.

Well, I don't work for Magic Vac, but a high recommendation none the less.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ae2AQCio0Q[/ame]

That's the one I got; cheers Chippy. My thread intended more as motivation to buy a vac pac, and not as a review, but it is a solid unit.

Thought i would save members searching for the unit you mentioned :wink:

Pretty expensive for a sealer but I notice ones at £30+, what advantage does this have over less expensive methods?

I've sort have known about Sous Vide cooking when I discovered that thermostatically controlled boilers can cook by this method. I'm intrigued but I also grow some veg and the sealer is a good way to prolong my produce.

Ive used an Andrew James Vac machine for years with my catering business
Well worth the dosh and I've used its 1000s of times

this is the one I use had it for about five years now and still going strong
http://www.jmldirect.com/kitchen/ki...gclid=CNzMoZfNrtMCFUeZGwodFSID2w&gclsrc=aw.ds

After a search, Lidl have these machine in the £20-£30 price bracket from time to time. I can see them on Amazon for £30+ but it's not an essential purchase so I think I'll just wait until a Lidl deal comes along.

We've also the biggest Lidl Store in NI opening close to us soon so I expect that's where all the sale items will go when deals don't sell out.

I'm not really recommending one type over another, more that you'll probably find you use it loads more that you thought, whatever brand you buy. Like Braindead said, "1000s of times".

But to answer your question, reviews suggest the cheaper ones have a tendency to fail on sealing after a few years. The foam gets squashed. And thin plastic bits can snap. The Maxima is just a really well built model; you can just feel it. The seal is foam on one side and rubber on the other for example, and it has a "store mode" which is less clamped than when sealing, so it doesn't deform the foam in storage. It has 2 pumps, so stronger & quicker. It is fully manual, which I suggest should be a minimum, even more now that I own one and really appreciate the manual mode. It has a slow mode for powders and squashable items. The drip tray is removable and dishwashable. It has different sealing modes depending on how damp the contents are (when wet, e.g. ham, it seals longer to evaporate away the liquid). The vac line is well positioned to prevent liquid getting pulled into the pumps. It has a lit window so you can see the bag (I use that to pull the bag right to the edge so I don't waste any of it).

All said, you can buy a few of the cheaper ones for the price of the Maxima, so maybe cheap would be a better first purchase to be sure it's something you'd use.

I'm a bit of a curry freak and have pretty much every Indian spice and seed you could think of. I buy the value packs (which don't cost much more than the small jars), but it takes me a while to get through every spice, and honestly, a bit of a pain to store in a compact way, without smell, and sealed to last. Step up the vac pac! And this touches just the first item on my above list...

Got mine from JML for about £20, use it for my hops all the time, bloody great bit of kit.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

I think we are building a consensus of opinion from satisfied owners :!:

hi @fore if you are getting a vac pac
you will need some foil bags these are the ones I use get the big size ones
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mylar-Foi...hash=item258fcb9ae0:m:mGnnzKei8W7zaTFtZYxxM2g

dps51 said:

hi @fore if you are getting a vac pac
you will need some foil bags these are the ones I use get the big size ones
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mylar-Foi...hash=item258fcb9ae0:m:mGnnzKei8W7zaTFtZYxxM2g

Click to expand...

Thanks, but I already have one, and I vac my hops in a standard clear vac bag. I'm aware of the light exposure issue, but my freezer door doesn't spend much time open!

But you have got me thinking. Hops already come in the sealable foil bags, so no reason why I couldn't just reseal the bag (or at least give it a go). I don't think I've opened a new hop pack since I bought the vac pac, so it hadn't occurred to me yet, and I certainly haven't tried to reseal one yet.

The only problem I can envisage is the lack of grooves in the foil bag might lead to the bag slamming tight shut and preventing air extraction. It's for the same reason you can't (normally) use standard freezer bags with a vac pac. Still, I already have a solution for this and have successfully used standard freezer bags before. The trick is to cut a strip of a grooved bag and place it inside the non-grooved bag. You just need to ensure the strip reaches the top, and reaches the food. It creates a path through which the air can escape. Sometimes the seal can fail over the double seal part, so it's worthwhile snipping off the tab of the strip and resealing above.

I think I'll be trying this :thumb:

This just popped up on HUKD but it's a week late BUT.... we in NI don't always get the same deals as GB so it may pop up in the coming week or so. Fingers crossed.

As I suspected these vacuum sealers are available from this Thursday in Lidl for £24.99 along with bags for £4.99. I'll grab both.

Well, my idea for resealing the foil bag didn't work out. There's just not enough heat in the sealing bar. I tried 3 cycles in one place, and one seal above the other, but it still leaked a bit. Oh well, normal vac bags are fine, as you hardly ever have the freezer door open, so there is near zero light getting to them. It occurs to me there will be more light getting to my hops while they wait for the boil, than the whole year they were sitting in my freezer.

I bought one of the Lidl machines and it's great even though I haven't used it for hops. I grow veg and I've stuff in my fridge from last week that's still fresh. I also made sushi rolls last night that would normally be binned that I'm eating now. I've done as you say and taking what I need and then resealing the bag, it's worked well so far.

My only gripe is the bags are a bit expensive, I stocked up with a few but have you any links for cheap bags?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001HCHFKS/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I used these for years.
Can also use them for sous vide boiling.

Can also wash, cut down to smaller size etc

GlentoranMark said:

I bought one of the Lidl machines and it's great even though I haven't used it for hops. I grow veg and I've stuff in my fridge from last week that's still fresh. I also made sushi rolls last night that would normally be binned that I'm eating now. I've done as you say and taking what I need and then resealing the bag, it's worked well so far.

My only gripe is the bags are a bit expensive, I stocked up with a few but have you any links for cheap bags?

Click to expand...

Showing my ignorance, how long does the stuff you put into the bags keep compared to not using the vac bags?