Has anyone ever used mylar bags and vacummed sealed? Or Used foodsaver bags and mylar together along with oxygen adsorbers?
I recently read that it was not recommded to vacuum seal mylar, but could not find out why. If anyone has info one this it would be appericated.
Well since nobody was able or willing to reply, I just said the hell with it and tried a some different stuff. If anybody is interested. This is what I came up with.
Fisrt I tired to vacuum seal the mylar and food saver bags but was unbale to get a good seal. ( both bags seem to be to thick to seal together, and the mylar would not seal on its own) I did finally get it to seal by making the mylar bag smaller than the food saver bag and trying to seal it tiwice. While this worked it was hard for me to do( the foodsaver was rather a pain in the ass to get it seal when I wanted it to). I also tried resealing with an iron but the heat seem to high, it almost appear to have damaged the foodsaver bag.
I also tired another method of cutting a small strip of a food saver bag and placing it at the top of the mylar bag(after adding contents and oxygen adsorber). Then using this small strip to vacuum and seal the bag. Once the bag was vacuumed and sealed I removed the foodsaver bag strip (which on time it did not work due to the strip being caught in the seal). I then place the sealed mylar inside a food saver bag and vacuumed sealed that as well.
Items sealed : rice,pinto beans, split peas, black beans. While the cost at first was alittle much, I believe this will be a cheaper way to prep in the future. Since listed items are cheaper than canned of the same( with not as much sodium and no worry about BPA) It should also last alot longer than canned goods.
I aslo tired to seal some M855 as well just for shits and giggles. What I found the tips of the bullets punched the mylar bag several time while sealing. I think if I had left the ammo in the cardboard it would have sealed fine. I did reseal the bag and placed it inside a food saver bag. I am interested to see how long it will last. I thought this would be helpful if I ever wanted to branch out and try using the garage as extra storage for ammo since room is kinda of an issue for me right now.
Thank you for posting this. I just starting to get into this arena and still trying to learn and figure out fact from fiction. I love how comprehensive this board can be.
I use the ziploc mylar bags and a shop vac. works good.
i have a food saver that we use. i’ve used it to vacuum seal several things in my get home bag that i keep in my car (matches, fire starting materials, and other things that i wouldn’t want to get wet.) my food saver has a “gentile” vacuum mode, not sure if yours does by that may help you with over vacuuming items that may puncture the bag.
I’ve recently been using pinto beans that we vacuum sealed 6yrs ago. Seals still holding.
I also vacuum seal mylar bags with a food saver hose and an iron. It also works well.
Ive stored a lot using mylar and oxygen absorbers. Fill the mylar bags with whatever you’re sealing, drop in an OA, seal closed with an iron. Easy.
After a few hours, as the OA absorbs oxygen it squeezes the bag in tight, essentially vaccum sealing it. The good thing is that if you accidently dont seal it 100%, you know very easily the next day cause the bag wont be real tight. If that happens I just re-bag that bag when I do my next batch.
Ive gotten the bags and absorbers for cheap from Amazon.com
Bingo. I do the same thing. I seal the mylar almostall the way, leaving about 1/4-3/8 inch, then use the accesory hose to draw the bag down. Pinch it closed below the hose, pull the hose tip out, and use the iron to finish the seal. I use an O2 absorber as well, which I suppose is overkill, there can’t be much for the absorber to do, but it can’t hurt.
John.
I just finished using mine, I wish I would have seen this an hour ago. I am going to try this method next time. As my current method is kinda of a pain in the ass.
Not saying that using a hose to suck out air is a bad thing, but Ive never done that and never had a problem. I just fold the end over flat forcing any air out of the top, then iron the end shut. The oxygen absorber I drop in after a day or two has the entire bag sucked in super tight around the food.
Things like flour or Bisquick generally dont suck in as quickly as things like rice or beans, but they do suck in eventually. I just figure theres much less free space between flour than there is with rice, so it takes longer for the OA to draw the oxygen out.
Something else to pay attention to: when sealing up flour or bisquick, make sure to wipe the inside edges of the mylar before sealing. A few times I didnt wipe it enough and the little dusting of flour on the edge prevents the mylar from sealing perfectly.
If the bag isnt sucked in after a day or two just put it aside until you do another batch, then open that bag up and reseal it. I’d say about 19/20 of my bags seal perfectly, but every so often it doesnt and its always very obvious.
What setting do you guys put the Iron on to seal the bags?
I am not sure if it matters I use mine on the same setting as my uniforms which is the hottest i can get it.
I actually use my wife’s hair straightener (the ceramic thing). It woks awesome because you don’t need a surface to put the bag on. It make like a 1to 2 inch seal on the Mylar. As stated before, when using O2 absorbers you will know in the morning if it didn’t seal well because the bag will literally look like vacuum sealed coffee.
As I understand, 450 degrees is what is needed to seal mylar, so it will need to be a pretty high setting.
Thanks guys!
I did this for my children, when they were young and still in elementary school. They had a small sealed Foodsaver bag, that had a small food bar, flashlight, a compass, map back to the house and an alternate RV site, some 550 cord, and several other small items.
I chose the items so as to not give a school administrative type a faintoid.
But it would slip into their daypack, and Daddy and Mommy could easily see if it was intact.
And I’ve got items like that in my work backpack now - food, medical and emergency gear. Thye stay organized, waterproof and compact. I score the edges so I can tear them open with my hands if needed.
I store dry food in 5 gallon buckets with Mylar bags. After I add my food contents, I squeeze the excess air out of them, add half a dozen oxy absorbers in the bag, seal bags with a ladies “Flat Iron” for straightening hair, add a few more oxy absorber packets in the bucket outside the bag, then pound the lids on. The next day you can visibly see the lids slightly concaved.
Iron on dry, not steam, and set on 5 (cotton). I use a 1x4 under the area I want to seal, so I don’t damage the surface of the table I am working on. The bags I use are 1.5mil 20x30" mylar from Sorbent Systems. They fit perfectly in 5gallon food grade (frosting) buckets.
I seal a strip about 3-4" wide across the whole bag except for about 1". There I insert the vacuum hose from the food saver and pinch the bag closed around the hose. I use the food saver to draw the vacuum on the mylar bag, and then using the iron, seal below the hose, angled up to the existing seal. Then withdraw the hose, and iron that spot shut too. Those seals have held for years.