Chamber vacuum sealers

[jimmer.13]

Yep, I have one too. They're great, as far as they go. Bag cost is an issue for me now though, as is their tendency to pull blood out of the meat, and their inability to seal in liquids. I'll certainly be keeping mine though. It's done sterling service, and it'll still find a fair bit of use

Exactly the same boat as above so I now tend to use butchers paper and cheap zip lock freezer bags.
No issues with long term freezer burn and you can make it look pretty traditional for customers.
Still love my LaVa had it for years but constantly on the look out for less expensive embossed rolls.

 

[Woodsmoke]

Still love my LaVa had it for years but constantly on the look out for less expensive embossed rolls.

My wee Andrew James one has been superb (and still is) but the volume of work I've been getting recently is resulting in my packaging overhead becoming ridiculous. I recently had three pig carcasses to butcher, cure, and package. The customer wanted bacon, sausages, gammons, picnic hams, and pancetta. Below is just the bacon! Using the embossed bags cost me a small fortune and seriously took a chunk out of the profit. I only work with small producers, so try to keep costs as low as possible

 

[Woodsmoke]

Well, it's here! Pretty decent wee piece of kit at first look. Only immediate criticism is poor deburring of the bottom edges, but for a cheap (relatively speaking) unit I can live with that. Sealing width isn't as generous as the Andrew James unit, but again I can live with that. If I need to real anything larger than this can handle I can revert to the Andrew James. Pretty decent thickness of stainless steel, comes with a bottle of vacuum pump oil, spare seal material, and instructions, and seems pretty intuitive to use. Need the packaging materials to appear (from Butcherssundries, so should be here at some point today) and I can put it through it's paces. Been promising myself one for a while now, and it looks as though it's going to prove itself invaluable so far. Very pleased

 

[jb1]

Looks pretty decent.

 

[Mike L]

I buy 12m of 280mm wide bag in a roll for £7,for my strip sealer, it's been working fine.

 

[Woodsmoke]

I buy 12m of 280mm wide bag in a roll for £7,for my strip sealer, it's been working fine.

Yeah, they work great. Cutting bags to size off a roll just sucks up so much time when I have a big job on though. The pre-made embossed bags are brilliant, no question, but when I'm using 150 of them on one job I'd far rather pay 3p per unit than 20!

 

[hoodwink]

Well, it's here! Pretty decent wee piece of kit at first look. Only immediate criticism is poor deburring of the bottom edges, but for a cheap (relatively speaking) unit I can live with that. Sealing width isn't as generous as the Andrew James unit, but again I can live with that. If I need to real anything larger than this can handle I can revert to the Andrew James. Pretty decent thickness of stainless steel, comes with a bottle of vacuum pump oil, spare seal material, and instructions, and seems pretty intuitive to use. Need the packaging materials to appear (from Butcherssundries, so should be here at some point today) and I can put it through it's paces. Been promising myself one for a while now, and it looks as though it's going to prove itself invaluable so far. Very pleased

View attachment 250352View attachment 250353

How long does it take to do a complete cycle? What depth of joint could it do? Thanks Chris

 

[Woodsmoke]

How long does it take to do a complete cycle? What depth of joint could it do? Thanks Chris

You can alter the vacuum time to suit. I've found around 20 seconds works for me. You can set it to pull vacuum for 99 seconds without sealing too, which will be great for marinading. Think it could handle an entire roe haunch no problem.

 

[jb1]

The 1st time i ever used a vacuum sealer was well over 30 years ago, i experimented with a shop bought Victoria sandwich cake.

Try it, i was very impressed with what it did. not what i expected at all.

 

[Woodsmoke]

The 1st time i ever used a vacuum sealer was well over 30 years ago, i experimented with a shop bought Victoria sandwich cake.

Try it, i was very impressed with what it did. not what i expected at all.

I did an egg with the Foodsaver once. Only once, mind . . . . .

 

[aris]

When buying something like this - I like to look at the service and spare options too. These machines don't run forever, and unless you can get them serviced/fixed and spares are available, it is just money down the pan in the long run.

 

[The Singing Stalker]

@Woodsmoke how you getting on with your machine? Interested to hear how it preforming now you have had it a few months.

 

[Woodsmoke]

@Woodsmoke how you getting on with your machine? Interested to hear how it preforming now you have had it a few months.

Thanks for reminding me to follow up!

I'm really impressed with it, to be honest. Not only have my packaging costs plummeted, but the range of bags available is brilliant. Cycle times are around 25 seconds for most of my stuff, which I thought would be unbearably slow, but in fact works out just fine. It'd be nice to be able to handle two bags at a time, but that's just me being picky, and I can't justify the outlay on a larger machine that would let me do that. All in all, I'm pleased as punch with it. Highly recommended!

 

[SussexSteve]

Buffalo around 500 quid or push the boat and get a henkelman jumbo 42 1500 quid there or thereabouts

 

[The Singing Stalker]

Just had a measure up and looks like a row haunch won’t go into a vacuum chamber, measured haunch at 18 inches. I presume people break these down into separate joints.

 

[Freeforester]

Bought a multivac years ago, doesn’t owe me a penny, still looks great, works perfectly and has retained its value. 485mm sealing bar, 3packs x160 width at a go, or a 250/350 plus a 200/300 etc at one go. Busch 21cu.ft pump, easy to maintain. I hate to think what the cost of literally tens of thousands of packs would have cost if the (pig ugly) embossed bags would have been, had they have had to be used, presentationally inefficient and definitely ‘not my bag’,lol. Typically paid from around £12 per thousand bag packs.

From times past:

 

[Woodsmoke]

Just had a measure up and looks like a row haunch won’t go into a vacuum chamber, measured haunch at 18 inches. I presume people break these down into separate joints.

You need to take the shank off at the knee. Best to do so anyway, as the shank takes long and slow cooking to become tender

 

[roaring_stag]

Thanks for reminding me to follow up!

I'm really impressed with it, to be honest. Not only have my packaging costs plummeted, but the range of bags available is brilliant. Cycle times are around 25 seconds for most of my stuff, which I thought would be unbearably slow, but in fact works out just fine. It'd be nice to be able to handle two bags at a time, but that's just me being picky, and I can't justify the outlay on a larger machine that would let me do that. All in all, I'm pleased as punch with it. Highly recommended!View attachment 264145

Looks like a great stand Woodsmoke....

Can I ask where you purchase your seal bags from? I like the look of the red/white checked ones.

Also, do you have any advice on labelling of food products? do you have a special labelling machine?

My experience on Vac machines - I have a strip type one that I picked up from LIDL about 4 years ago. It is okay, but giving up the ghost now I think... will be looking to upgrade possibly to the Buffalo one soon.

RS

 

[T.eddie]

Well, it's here! Pretty decent wee piece of kit at first look. Only immediate criticism is poor deburring of the bottom edges, but for a cheap (relatively speaking) unit I can live with that. Sealing width isn't as generous as the Andrew James unit, but again I can live with that. If I need to real anything larger than this can handle I can revert to the Andrew James. Pretty decent thickness of stainless steel, comes with a bottle of vacuum pump oil, spare seal material, and instructions, and seems pretty intuitive to use. Need the packaging materials to appear (from Butcherssundries, so should be here at some point today) and I can put it through it's paces. Been promising myself one for a while now, and it looks as though it's going to prove itself invaluable so far. Very pleased

View attachment 250352View attachment 250353

I bought one of these after seeing this thread when they had a sale on, only done a couple of pigeons in it so far but I like it and look forward to doing some Venison at some point in (I hope) the not to distant future. Your packaging looks great by the way

 

[petlowe]

Anyone use blood absorption pads and have a source of less than 3000 at a go from Butchers Sundries?