The home Vacuum Sealer unit you should have bought first time round!
Upon buying our first vacuum sealer unit for home use (mainly culinary use) when we saw the bags we knew we had messed up, in fact it's still around to this day as we couldn't give it away with a clean conscience.
Having tried it out, we were dismayed, knowing the amount of food that is commercially vacuumed & stores so well in the freezer as a consequence freeing up space, important when you have 3 freezers like we do!
So, research this time, not taking the word of Lakeland (rubbish bags at a premium price) ..again typically made for left-overs & immediate consumption, not tossed around int he freezer, nor this time taken in by the "apparant" cababilities of a sealer on a certain flogging frenzy tv channel (yes I mean you QVC, it wasn't quality, it was awful value, & you had a choice of one unit).
Basically we fell between the lines, on one hand we were not churning out commercial quantity food, on the other hand we didn't trust anything to keep our goods in the freezer (& food ain't cheap) that was merely the thickness of a crisp packet...
Oh & we also wanted to be able to deal with liquids, such as meat juices, marinades, soups, ..sloppy filling & a bit of spill, all of which can seriously screw up an expensive purchase, & if you look carefully will often void the warranty of your machine.
So, taking another gamble, having done a little research in a time within the uk where the internet didn't have much choice in the way of vacuum sealers, we purchased the Fresherpack Eiffel Pro vacuum sealer ...& 5 years later we are still as enamoured with it as the day we bought it.
This is the home use vacuum sealer that ought to get far more attention, in it's class & prie point, ..it's got the "oomph" to deal & seal semi commercial bags (more about that later) tough enough to deal with the rigours of rummaging & scratching around in your freezer, or as we do batch sealing 25 kilos of vanilla sugar for a fundraiser, & as you'll find elsewhere is ideal for correctly sealing & preserving my smoked cheese fetish, either for home consumption (cheese needs to rest y'know) or upping the ante where presentation is concerned for gifting or even selling small quantities of general product.
5 years down the line the newest model has an even quieter "near silent" operation, with the same sturdy & serviceable innards & mechanisms, otherwise remaining the same in appearance on the outside, this bodes well for longevity having got it spot on from the design stage.
Hundreds of joints, boned & butchered chickens later, having thought, "it'll never deal with that" when prising a joint of Aberdeen Angus into the largest vac bag available it's proven to take pretty much everything in it's stride, a machine packing a punch well above it's proclaimed fighting weight, & it's even capable of dealing with a bit of liquid, unlike machines in the £300+ range.
The premise of a vacuum sealer is to suck air out of a bag, to aid preservation of "stuff" in order that it extends the lifespan of a product, keeping freezer burn to a minimum for instance, although you can screw up a seal, it's easy to fix, often without resorting to a new bag, or if your seal gives way from all that constant throwing stuff around (yes we do to) then you can decide to re-seal or get it out, defrost & feast, it's that easy ...& rarely does a product come along that I sincerely get so attached to.
Many brands will sell you a unit which if it go's down will flog you a new one... this is eminantly serviceable, as offered by fresherpack who import the Eiffel brand from a South Korean manufacturer, items which may go over time are cited as the spongey vac seal itself (through constant compression) ..so far mine holds up well to the trouncing we give it.
Also: the teflon based adhesive strip (sitting above the "hot wire" which seals the bag when all the air has been expunged) ..very cheap to replace at around £5.00 & five minutes of your time!
It is recommended that when sealing, you give the unit a breather after 10 uses, but trust me, unless you have pre-bagged & sealed 50 units for a rush order the down time spent doing other stuff in the kitchen will normally suffice, however we use the old adage of when we are ready for a spot of rest a cup of tea (c'mon we're English after all) then so is the Eiffel vac sealer, & we value it's contribution, honestly, maybe we are peculiar still trying to live by the mantra "buy once, buy well" ...but we find it less vexing & taxing to know that when it comes out of the box it will work perfectly year in year out.
Sporting a sturdy white chassis, eminently wipe clean, rugged & simple ...(always use an anti bacterial to clean up, the outer, the chamber & remove & wipe the spongey seal) the main, (right hand side) closure operating on a micro switch, is sturdy & simply works, you press down the left side with a finger to effect the seal prior to either activating the vacuum or selecting one of the 3 sealing modes this machine has available.
SO whilst some machines are claimed to be automatic, the pump kicking in as soon as the lid is down, you can make adjustments & not waste your vacuum rolls needlessly.
The 3 stage heat seal is worth a mention here as it vastly increases the bag types & thickness you can utilise for a specific job, however we typically use one type to get the job done in one shot, talking to a Fresherpack representative it's recommended that when doing multiple seals (I always start on high heat regardless) I can then drop down to medium as the wire will hold heat pretty well from that point on, indeed the all knowing wife typically sets heat to medium after the Fresherpack eiffel pro & accompanying bags have been laid out to her liking, only to have me at her beck & call prepping bags ...in other words, SHE gets to have all the fun!
It operates on heat right!? ..absolutely, but still our 9 year old has been able to operate it safely, the "hot wire" beneath the teflon strip isn't typically touched & is easy to see in order to avoid any chance of a nip of heat (minimal).
Replacing (or bodging) the teflon adhesive seal is a piece of cake & honestly really is a 5 screw, 5 minute job to complete.
Recently (see picture) the tape adhesive has got a little old, & had "rucked up & over" causing an imperfect seal (but still useable) therefore a tinker was involved...
Having tried it out, we were dismayed, knowing the amount of food that is commercially vacuumed & stores so well in the freezer as a consequence freeing up space, important when you have 3 freezers like we do!
So, research this time, not taking the word of Lakeland (rubbish bags at a premium price) ..again typically made for left-overs & immediate consumption, not tossed around int he freezer, nor this time taken in by the "apparant" cababilities of a sealer on a certain flogging frenzy tv channel (yes I mean you QVC, it wasn't quality, it was awful value, & you had a choice of one unit).
Basically we fell between the lines, on one hand we were not churning out commercial quantity food, on the other hand we didn't trust anything to keep our goods in the freezer (& food ain't cheap) that was merely the thickness of a crisp packet...
Oh & we also wanted to be able to deal with liquids, such as meat juices, marinades, soups, ..sloppy filling & a bit of spill, all of which can seriously screw up an expensive purchase, & if you look carefully will often void the warranty of your machine.
So, taking another gamble, having done a little research in a time within the uk where the internet didn't have much choice in the way of vacuum sealers, we purchased the Fresherpack Eiffel Pro vacuum sealer ...& 5 years later we are still as enamoured with it as the day we bought it.
This is the home use vacuum sealer that ought to get far more attention, in it's class & prie point, ..it's got the "oomph" to deal & seal semi commercial bags (more about that later) tough enough to deal with the rigours of rummaging & scratching around in your freezer, or as we do batch sealing 25 kilos of vanilla sugar for a fundraiser, & as you'll find elsewhere is ideal for correctly sealing & preserving my smoked cheese fetish, either for home consumption (cheese needs to rest y'know) or upping the ante where presentation is concerned for gifting or even selling small quantities of general product.
5 years down the line the newest model has an even quieter "near silent" operation, with the same sturdy & serviceable innards & mechanisms, otherwise remaining the same in appearance on the outside, this bodes well for longevity having got it spot on from the design stage.
Hundreds of joints, boned & butchered chickens later, having thought, "it'll never deal with that" when prising a joint of Aberdeen Angus into the largest vac bag available it's proven to take pretty much everything in it's stride, a machine packing a punch well above it's proclaimed fighting weight, & it's even capable of dealing with a bit of liquid, unlike machines in the £300+ range.
The premise of a vacuum sealer is to suck air out of a bag, to aid preservation of "stuff" in order that it extends the lifespan of a product, keeping freezer burn to a minimum for instance, although you can screw up a seal, it's easy to fix, often without resorting to a new bag, or if your seal gives way from all that constant throwing stuff around (yes we do to) then you can decide to re-seal or get it out, defrost & feast, it's that easy ...& rarely does a product come along that I sincerely get so attached to.
Many brands will sell you a unit which if it go's down will flog you a new one... this is eminantly serviceable, as offered by fresherpack who import the Eiffel brand from a South Korean manufacturer, items which may go over time are cited as the spongey vac seal itself (through constant compression) ..so far mine holds up well to the trouncing we give it.
Also: the teflon based adhesive strip (sitting above the "hot wire" which seals the bag when all the air has been expunged) ..very cheap to replace at around £5.00 & five minutes of your time!
It is recommended that when sealing, you give the unit a breather after 10 uses, but trust me, unless you have pre-bagged & sealed 50 units for a rush order the down time spent doing other stuff in the kitchen will normally suffice, however we use the old adage of when we are ready for a spot of rest a cup of tea (c'mon we're English after all) then so is the Eiffel vac sealer, & we value it's contribution, honestly, maybe we are peculiar still trying to live by the mantra "buy once, buy well" ...but we find it less vexing & taxing to know that when it comes out of the box it will work perfectly year in year out.
Sporting a sturdy white chassis, eminently wipe clean, rugged & simple ...(always use an anti bacterial to clean up, the outer, the chamber & remove & wipe the spongey seal) the main, (right hand side) closure operating on a micro switch, is sturdy & simply works, you press down the left side with a finger to effect the seal prior to either activating the vacuum or selecting one of the 3 sealing modes this machine has available.
SO whilst some machines are claimed to be automatic, the pump kicking in as soon as the lid is down, you can make adjustments & not waste your vacuum rolls needlessly.
The 3 stage heat seal is worth a mention here as it vastly increases the bag types & thickness you can utilise for a specific job, however we typically use one type to get the job done in one shot, talking to a Fresherpack representative it's recommended that when doing multiple seals (I always start on high heat regardless) I can then drop down to medium as the wire will hold heat pretty well from that point on, indeed the all knowing wife typically sets heat to medium after the Fresherpack eiffel pro & accompanying bags have been laid out to her liking, only to have me at her beck & call prepping bags ...in other words, SHE gets to have all the fun!
It operates on heat right!? ..absolutely, but still our 9 year old has been able to operate it safely, the "hot wire" beneath the teflon strip isn't typically touched & is easy to see in order to avoid any chance of a nip of heat (minimal).
Replacing (or bodging) the teflon adhesive seal is a piece of cake & honestly really is a 5 screw, 5 minute job to complete.
Recently (see picture) the tape adhesive has got a little old, & had "rucked up & over" causing an imperfect seal (but still useable) therefore a tinker was involved...