<span class="highlight">vacuum</span> sealing food

hi, we have the machine type bought from the camping show which is good and much better than the cheaper ones from ebay, even apart from the idea of food lasting longer it's how flat and easy food is to pack into fridge or freezer making lots more fit into the same place. but i think you are talking about those smaller ones, that were advertised on tv, we were looking at them at the last camping show too, but i think the bags would workout quite dear as they only work with their own bags i think, that's what put us off, but like you would be interested to hear about them and the cost of using them.

I have machine type as well,you can vacuum and reseal virtually any plastic bag with it eg corn chip bag,potatoe chips bag thus saving the unused contents for later.

I have a e bay one, keeps cooked Pizza, stews, BBQ meats, roasts & marinated chicken pieces up to 4 weeks in camp fridge no need to freeze.

We have a Sunbeam foodsaver vacuum pack machine in our van and run it off a 300watt inverter. The bags are in rolls that you seal then cut off the length you require. It has been working well for about 6 years without any problems.
We cry-ovac meat and many food items in meal lots then simply keep them at fridge temps until we consume them.
We even cry-ovac any fish we catch (fillets ) and they last for weeks.
Best bit of food type gear we have.

I think hes meaning a manually operated one ( NOT ELECTRIC )

I haven't seen one, but if that's what he means, it makes sense, but don't know where you'd get one ??

kman1,

I bought a manual vac set up from the old Ranger camping stores here in WA, I am not sure what they call themselves now, I think they have changed hands recently.

Had it for about a year and so far no probs, it does prolong the life of the food, no doubt about that.

From memory it cost around $30 and they sell replacement bags as well.

Regards

Barry H

Hi kman1,

I used one of the manually operated suction pumps for
years and it performed very well.(in those days the electrical ones had yet to be invented) Mainly used it for the dogs food (and then froze it) -and he never complained;))

But did use it for our own use on quite a few occasions. No problems at all. Come to think of it I have no idea what happened to it.

We moved on to an electrical model but I guess the manual one would be ideal when travelling.

Cheers
Michael

Hi guys,Sincere thanks to allthose that took the time to reply.
kman