Vacum packer

muddy42

Well-Known Member
Can anyone recommend a good reasonably priced vac packer? What's the difference between those described as "vac sealers" versus vac packers?

thanks
 
A friend of mine has this one, which does the job fine:

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/15349/FoodSaver

Having borrowed it, I subsequently bought this one which has a few more features. I've used it for normal kitchen stuff and for packing venison steaks and mince.

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/16733/Automated-Foodsaver

Whichever you go with, it's worth ordering a couple of extra rolls of packing material. I recommend rolls where you cut off your own custom length bags rather than the pre-sized bags.

regards


Ian
 
Second what the Rabbiter has said. To be honest the £30-£60 vacuum packers are much of a muchness, it depends on how much you use them but the motors will burn out over time.

I had a £30 quid one which lasted me 2 years and in that time did a lot of work, created a good vacuum quickly and gave a good seal. after that I purchased a Trakaje one Takaje Deluxe Vacuum Machine costing £200 after a bit of research... And to be honest I was pretty dissapointed.

It is very finnicky to work with, bloody slow to create a vacuum and temperamental when it comes to forming a seal, I thought it was defective but apparently not. My observations are based on comparisons with a £30 machine!! All that said it has lasted 4 years so far and is still working at the standard it was working at when new.

bear in mind that I could have 7 of the £30 machines for the price I don't think it was worth the extra cost.

My advice, buy the cheaper Lakeland one and see how you get on with it, I use a mixture of pre made bags (Very convenient) and rolls of bag material that you cut and seal at both ends to make bags of infinite size (Brilliant for freezing whole fish or Haunches, Or Saddles etc)

Make sure whatever you are vac packing is as dry as possible, sometimes if I want to give some meat or fish away and want a really really neat finish I will put it in a cheap freezer bag upside down, slide it into the vac pac bag and then pull the freezer bag out if that makes sense, this leaves a much cleaner finish on the vac pack bag.

Be careful how you stack or place your vac pack bags in the freezer, especially if your freezer has drawers, friction will wear a hole in the bag as you open/close the freezer drawers or slide stuff over it, this will break your seal an eventually lead to freezer burn.

Hope that helps
 
Last edited:
Had a lava machine for a few years, very reliable, used constantly. Not the cheapest I've come across but certainly would recommend one.
 
How do you guys make best use of vacuum sealers? IE; do you just use them prior to freezing or do you mature your meat in them at 0 degs ?
 
vacuum packer

How do you guys make best use of vacuum sealers? IE; do you just use them prior to freezing or do you mature your meat in them at 0 degs ?

I just use mine for storing meat in (prior to freezing, like you say.) all the maturing is done on the hook.
 
I also have the Food Saver and bought it to replace a cheaper one that failed, this one is better designed and easier to use than the cheap one. I do not bother with the rolls because it takes up too much time to make the bags, I buy two different sized bags by the 100 off ebay at they cover most of my needs but the roll is handy for larger items like a whole fish.

I've had this one for some time it's got an Internal roll of tubing which the machine heat seals both ends you can also seal individual bags aswell

Food Saver Vacuum Sealer: Amazon.co.uk: Kitchen Home
 
yeah it's a good bit of kit your right about the roll, I'm still on the one it came with as bags are much easier as you said

I also have the Food Saver and bought it to replace a cheaper one that failed, this one is better designed and easier to use than the cheap one. I do not bother with the rolls because it takes up too much time to make the bags, I buy two different sized bags by the 100 off ebay at they cover most of my needs but the roll is handy for larger items like a whole fish.
 
I have the lakeland one and its diabolical. 10 seals and its over heating so you have to lave for 30 minutes. because of this the rolls of bags are pants. you get 5 bags sealed before over heat. i bought 10x20" textured bags from ebay and this works out a little better.

Was looking at the LAVA one at the midlands and if i had the money i would have bought that one. it double seals the bag and will cycle 100 seals with no problem. so the lady said. adjustable vacuum to so you can just seal the bag with your marinade in and chuck in freezer. makes life easier but i cant afford the £300 price tag
 
I got one of these last year, after reading a few bits on here. It's had about ten deer through it over the last year and it's pretty good. You do have to reposition the bag sometimes to get a seal but this is primarily when the bag is overfilled to be fair to the machine - moving up a bag size usually cures the problem. I use both bags and rolls from the same company, as well as the gold boards when I am gifting venison to people.

Made a big difference in terms of storage - all stacks up neatly and no longer have unidentifiable bags in the freezer!!
 
Does anyone know if there are alternatives where you can buy the replacement seals for the eiffel freshpack pro vac packer? Mine is not getting the air out effectively and I think its the seals.

Thanks
 
+ 1 on the lava . Expensive but well worth the money and save so much more food than just the venison . Investing in some of the tubs next that you can bac with the pump and tube . Rolls to cut to suit are good value for the large / weird sizes ,
 
I have the Andrew James one and like it. One of our neighbours also has the same machine.

I can vouch for it too. I use it a LOT!You don't need to spend a fortune of the Andrew James embossed rolls either, eBay has similar at a far more reasonable price :)
 
I have a cheap 20 quid job bought. Bout 8 yrs ago & still going , I just use supermarket bought freezer / sand which bags , put burgers etc in . Vac & seal throw away top bit not used
Lidls have a 20 quid one now & again , I bought one 4 yrs ago as a back up but it hadn't been out the box! So dunnoe if similar to one I have
It's cheap not too powerful as too squash yer burgers etc but also I've never had freezer burn with the supermarket bags.

Paul
 
We use the Lakeland one - so far no problems and it gets plenty of work. We also buy and use the absorbent sheets that you get under your supermarket chook. They cost +/- £15 for about 2000! The only thing we do which seems to make a difference is to chill the meat a bit before packing - we seem to keep more moisture in the meat that way, and the burgers stay in shape!
 
Back
Top