RE: Has anyone used a Food Vac for camping?

[JonesFamilyJayco]

 
I have been looking at the Tilia Food Vacs for a while.  I believe it would be a valuable tool for organizing our food when camping. No more open zip lock bags to get water in and no longer worry that meat may contaminate our cooler.
 
 There are lots of options as far as size.  The price seems to varry alot from the small units (around $60) to the larger units ($100).   Would the small unit be enough since I plan on using it to help with camping food, or will I like it so much that I will want to use it more & wish I had the bigger size?
 
 I also saw some units on ebay for around $25.00.  They were the small size.
 
 Any help from your experiences would help
 
 Thanks!

[Tim5055]

 JonesFamilyJayco
I would say go for the big one.  You can pick them up at places like BJ s Wholsale club, Outdoor World, Kohl s Department Store and other locations.
 
 They come in three basic levels:
 
 
 [ul]
 

• The lowest level only seals bags
• The middle level seals bags and has a port to allow sealing of jars, bottles and their plastic containers
• The highest level does both, plus has the ability to manually seal at any point in the process
[/ul]
 
 We purchased the middle level and use it all the time.  We now purchase meats in bulk and seal it up in amounts we would cook at one time then freeze it.  I also make large batches of things like Chili, and then freeze it in an open tupperware.  Once frozen, place it in a vacuum bag and seal.
 
 When camping we use the frozen meats and " Chili Cubes"  as additional ice in the cooler.
 
 We are now looking at upgrading to the unit with the manual seal ability.  When you are sealing a bag, on the bottom two levels the vacuum must reach a certain pressure before the unit will automatically seal the bag.  There are times that a bag will not really get to that level of vacuum, so it would be nice to override the automatic system and just seal the bag.  Additionally, with the manual control you can re-seal bags like chips without using the vacuum which would crush the contents.
 
 Good luck.

[vjm1639]

 JonesFamilyJayco
We have the small version and use it for packaging homemade dehydrated meals  and snacks for backpacking.  All the ideas from Tim on the freezing are wonderful too!  I may have to pull it out more often.

[campingboaters]

 JonesFamilyJayco
I m with Tim5055 all the way.  I have the middle of the line model and WISH I had the better model with manual seal.  You can t seal things like chili or fruit or cookeis until they are frozen because they would get crushed/sucked out.  While having to freeze things first is only a minor inconvenience, I don t have time for it.  While trying to package my christmas cookies last year (I made them a month in advance since I was due to have a baby a week before Christmas), having that manual override would have prevented me from cracking MANY cookies (even when frozen) -- the suction is that strong.  I also used the jar attachment for Christmas cookies.  I placed cookies in wide mouth mason jars and sucked the air out of them.  I put the screw lid on and tied a ribbon around the jar.  They made AWESOME gifts and the cookies actually stayed fresh for a month.  I also made fudge for Christmas gifts and vaccum sealed that.  Still very creamy a month later!
 
 As for using it camping... I LOVE it. I do the same as tim5055 with buying my meats in bulk and packaging serving sizes.  I also marinate my meats first, then freeze them.  That way, I just have to thaw them and we re ready to cook.  They do make great chunks of ice too!  
 
 If you aren t sure how you will use it or if you ll like it, get the cheap model from EBay first and if you like it enough to get a more expensive model, then you haven t spent too much money so far.   If you don t like it, you haven t spent that much money.  [8D]  Oh, and I like the rolls of bags because I feel like I waste less material.  The pre-made bags tend to be too big for things that I seal.

[jpreiser]

 JonesFamilyJayco
THey are great we have the bigger one so it helps in sealing just about everything from chips to meats. And I dont have to worry about meat juices dripping, I hate that !!! I love that I can seal up 4 burgers and not have them drip, my neighbor thinks im crazy... always says what if they want more then one burger each... I said I always have   Pb and J on hand. I hate bringing extra food on trips only to be wasted and trown out. plus  in the cooler, the extreams I have works well but does not  hold very much. so the food saver packs work great I dont have bulky containers to worry about or ziplocks that drip.

[vjm1639]

 JonesFamilyJayco
oooooooooooo....ICE in these???  that s an idea! I hate water in the bottom of my coolers!

[Jo Ann]

 JonesFamilyJayco
I love the ice idea....
 
 I still use my old ancient Daizy Seal a meal (IN TH ORIGINAL BOX) from the 1970 s..i still have bags too from then i never used... []

[vjm1639]

 JonesFamilyJayco
guess what JoAnn...LOL..I have one of those too!  LOL...is yours harvest gold?
 
 []
 
 

[tlhdoc]

 JonesFamilyJayco
We have had a Tilia Food sucker for 15 years or so.  I don t know how it compares to the new ones but I like it and still use it.  
 
 My machine only has manual seal.  I didn t know they had auto seal.

[oldmoose]

 JonesFamilyJayco
We use ours all the time. We buy food & meats in bulk and then freeze them. Since there are only two of us, it works great. Having frozen packages in the Coleman Extreme, it helps keep everthing cold. On a week long trip, all of the frozen food goes in one cooler. We also vacuum seal dry goods in the canisters.

[cb]

 JonesFamilyJayco
I bought ours to use for camping after a trip where a bunch of food got water-soaked and had to be thrown away.  I figure the Foodsaver has more than paid for itself since then.  In addition to the camping stuff, I can now buy in bulk at Costco, etc., bring the stuff home and repackage in portions for the two of us.  To me, this thing ranks right up there with BAL leveler, Xtreme Coolers and sliced bread!

[Campntime]

 JonesFamilyJayco
M-a-a--n--n--n-n   Just when I thought I had every camping gadget I needed!  The food vac sounds worthy of investigating.

[Miss-Teri]

 JonesFamilyJayco
Wal-mart now carries the Foodsaver brand sealers and plastic.  The Foodsavers are $100 and $120.  There s also a Black & Decker brand for $60, but the display model didn t appear to be as good quality as the FS brand.

[wssfetch]

 JonesFamilyJayco
Sams Club sometimes has the Food Savers too.  Next time I am out there I ll check out the prices.  Sounds like a great idea for camping (as well as saving money on food!)

[Camping Coxes]

 JonesFamilyJayco
I have one and use it for camping all the time too.  I put the frozen burger patties in the bag, put in the seasoning and marinade, and then seal it.  I avoid having to bring the Worcestershire with us, but the best part is the patties hold together when they start defrosting because they re held so tight by the sealing process.  When I used ziplocs, they would be falling apart before we got to cook them.
 
 I also buy the chicken at Sam s Club in the big bags, but couldn t use it before it would freezer burn.  I now seal the appropriate number of pieces I ll need for a meal and haven t had to throw any out.
 
 Only problem I have -- all of a sudden mine s not working right.  Over this past weekend, we got to the CG to discover my burgers weren t sealed and I had Worcestershire in my ice [:@].  So now I have to see if I can return/exchange mine today, before we leave on vacation next week.  I may wait for DH to do it.  He has better luck at these things.  I m too wimpy, I guess.