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Anyone heard of a vacuum sealer which uses ziploc bags?
QUESTION: On another forum someone mentioned a food vacuum sealer which uses
ziploc bags and sells for 19.95.
Anyone heard of this? comments?
ANSWER: It's called the Pump and Seal. It looks sort of like a bicycle
tire pump. We bought it years ago, and we still use the "flavonator"
that came with it. In order to use the ziploc bags for meat (or
whatever) storage, you have to have some of that absorbent paper that
supermarket meat cutters put in the bottom ot the styrofaom containers.
There are a few more steps involved in that process, and it's actually
more trouble than it's worth. But the "flavonator" part is excellent
for marinating meats & veggies. It fits on top of bowls or pans &
allows the marinades to penetrate the foods quickly.
But you just can't beat the Food Saver.
At that price, it's probably a Seal-A-Meal or a
EuroSealer. The Seal-A-Meal (later renamed
Micro-Seal) is designed to clamp over one
edge of a bag and seal it in one quick contact.
It's intended to be used with bags from the
manufacturer (Dazey Corporation of Industrial
Airport, KS), which have holes to fit on some
guide pins, but it works just fine with regular
Zip-Lock (or any other manufacturer -- I prefer
Hefty because it doesn't stink of solvent smell)
bags if you hold the bag in place like the pins
would do. I bought three for $5 each at a Goodwill
store. Two were unused in the box. What a steal!
Micro-Seal is a hand-held unit which also clamps
around the plastic, but it has a very small heating
element (a wire, really) and you slide it along the
edge where you wish to make the seal. You really need
to practice before you can make a good seal with
this thing. It's difficult to control how much
pressure to apply to the clamp while controlling
the rate at which you slide it. Too much heat or
too slow a sliding rate can melt through the plastic.
Too little heat or too fast a rate doesn't make a
seal. The manufacturer does not offer any special
bags for it. It is intended to work with any
heat-sealable bags, which it does, badly.
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