[pct-l] Sealing Machines

[brentramsby-pct at yahoo.com (Teflon)]

I used a foodsaver model 1050 vacuum sealer to package dehydrated
food for my 2003 thru-hike.  It worked fairly well for the most part.

Usage:
- I packaged breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 2 people for the entire
5.5 month trip.  (that's a lot of packaging!)

Pro's:
- Granola packaged in March was still crunchy in october
- I encountered no food spoilage for the entire trip.  Meals packaged
in January were still good 10 months later.  I never froze anything. 
I just packaged the food and put it in a box. 


Con's:
- The model i used was never meant to handle the amount of use i put
it through.  You could perform about 10 seals in a row before the
sealing bar became too hot and melted the vac-seal bags instead of
sealing them.  The sealing bar eventually developed "hot spots" which
caused a lot of sealing problems.
- The foodsaver vac-seal bags puncture easily if the contents have
sharp edges.  The was a big problem with several types of granola.

Summary
- I would definitely use a vacuum sealer for packaging food for my
next thru-hike.  However, I'm going to look for something a little
more "commercial-grade" next time -- both in the vacuum sealer and
the vacuum sealer bags.  


I hope that helps

-Brent



--- Jeff Moorehead <jeffmoorehead1@cox.net> wrote:

> I think the real expensive ones ($$?) produce a hermetic seal and
> can
> greatly extend the shelf life of foods-- especially dehydrated
> foods. I am
> also in the market but haven't done the research so I'll just
> repeat your
> general query here.
>  Along similar lines, I am pretty sure I'll be investing in both a
> quality
> dehydrator and one of those vacuum-seal machines. I would be
> interested in
> whether anyone has set up a system, specifically to dry and seal
> their
> backpacking pantry items. hat do you think?-- well worth the
> investment of
> money and time?
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <Hiker97@aol.com>
> To: <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
> Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2004 2:57 PM
> Subject: [pct-l] Sealing Machines
> 
> 
> > What is everyone's opinion about those sealer/vacuum machines for
> bags
> that
> > you can buy at SAMs and other stores.  I saw a demo today and it
> looks
> > interesting for backpacking foods.  But I have heard that for
> resupply
> boxes they will
> > leak eventually.  May be they would be good for general
> backpacking and
> not
> > for long term use.  I think the kit at SAMs was $100 and the
> extra bags
> box was
> > $30.  Probably the best buy around.  Thanks, Switchback
> >
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