Category Archives: chamber vacuum sealer guide

Chamber Vacuum Sealers: Everything that you need to know in one place.

In a past post, I wrote about the benefits of vacuum sealers, touching on both external and chamber sealers.  Today, I briefly summarize the benefits of vacuum sealing but spend the bulk of this post talking about chamber vacuum sealers, their difference from external sealers, and their benefits and limitations.  My goal is to help a potential buyer determine if a chamber vacuum sealer is the right choice for them. 

A brief history.

Vacuum sealing was developed in the 1940s and became a common way for grocers to extend the life of foods in the 1960s.  During the mid-sixties, a home vacuum sealer was introduced, but it didn’t gain popularity.  The Seal-A-Meal brand was launched in the late 1970s, and the FoodSaver brand was introduced in the late 1980s. These machines became popular with the help of late-night infomercials. I purchased my first FoodSaver vacuum sealer in the early/mid-1990s and have been using an external vacuum sealer since that time.  Additionally, I have been using a chamber vacuum sealer for over two years.  This post is from the perspective of a home cook (me) who has been vacuum sealing for almost 30 years. If you are a professional, your needs may vary. 

This is my original FoodSaver from the 1990s. It was built to a higher standard than many new units. It is very basic and manual, but it still works today.

The benefits of vacuum sealing.

Vacuum sealers produce a partial vacuum in a thick plastic bag. The bag is then sealed, and its contents now reside in a very low-oxygen environment.  All fungi/mold, as well as many bacteria, require oxygen to grow. A partial vacuum can dramatically slow down microbial growth.  Lastly, little critters (like cereal bugs) can’t hatch in a low oxygen environment. 

On its own, oxygen degrades food by a process called oxidation.  This process makes nuts and grains go rancid.  Additionally, oxidation is responsible for turning cut vegetables, like potatoes and avocados dark. Vacuum sealing can dramatically reduce oxidation issues. 

A standard method of preserving many foods is freezing.  However, poorly packaged frozen foods can suffer significant degradation.  Moisture can enter a package and form ice crystals that can destroy the texture of foods. Improperly wrapped foods can cause dehydration (called freezer burn), which can ruin a food’s flavor. Vacuum sealing can effectively eliminate these two issues.

Dry foods, like rice, can stay fresh and bug free when vacuum sealed and kept at a cool temperature.

Meats and cheese can stay fresh 3-5 times longer when vacuum sealed and refrigerated  as opposed to being refrigerated alone.

Delicate foods like strawberries will stay fresh longer in a vacuum container.

Frozen foods, like vacuum-sealed meats, can retain their high quality for years in the freezer.

Sous vide-style cooking involves cooking vacuum-sealed foods in a temperature-controlled water bath.

Lastly, chefs will often use a vacuum sealer to marinate foods in minutes instead of hours.

What vacuum sealing is not.

Vacuum sealing is different from canning. You will still need to refrigerate or freeze foods that normally require this.  Vacuum sealing is complementary to other methods of food preservation and not a substitute.  

A word of caution.

Be aware that some foods, like raw mushrooms and bananas should not be vacuumed sealed as they will spoil faster.  Vacuum sealing foods like raw onions and cabbage produce off-gasses that can degrade vacuum sealing bags. Additionally, certain bacteria found on some vegetables don’t require oxygen to grow (they are called facultative anaerobes).  Reducing oxygen levels by vacuum sealing can give these pathogenic bacteria a competitive advantage by eliminating all of the oxygen using bacteria, allowing them to grow faster.  Cooked vegetables are usually fine to vacuum seal.

What do I vacuum seal?

I buy meats and cheeses in bulk, divide them into meal packets, and freeze them.  Likewise, I buy dry goods, like rice, in large sacks, divide them up into smaller packages, and store them in my cool basement.  I’ll vacuum seal opened packages of bacon or cut avocados and refrigerate them. They will stay fresh much longer than when refrigerated alone. I’ll blanch vegetables, like carrots and celery and vacuum seal and freeze them in one dish portions so I always have vegetables to make a soup or stew. If I have leftover homemade soups, stews, and casseroles, I’ll vacuum seal and freeze individual portions for a quick meal at a later date. You can “boil-in-bag” or microwave vented vacuum seal bags for no-mess reheating.  

I’ll buy a cheap roasted Costco chicken, take the meat off the carcass, and freeze it in a vacuum sealed bag for a future easy-to-make casserole. I have used vacuum canisters to keep delicate items, like strawberries, fresh longer.  I also have vacuum-sealed non-food items.  For instance, I’ll vacuum seal my car keys and phone when I go canoeing or kayaking. Vacuum sealing has dramatically reduced waste in our home and reduced food costs by allowing us to buy in bulk.  

Using my Vevor chamber sealer to process bulk meat.
Packaged in individual meal portions and now ready for the freezer.

External vs chamber vacuum sealers.

External vacuum sealers are the most common home sealers and are typified by the FoodSaver brand. Food is placed in a specially textured plastic bag whose open end is placed in the machine.  A small vacuum pump sucks the air out of the bag, which is then sealed by a heating strip.  

Advantages of an external vacuum sealer.

These devices are inexpensive, with consumer units ranging from under $100 to several hundred dollars. Many are lightweight and small; they only take up a little counter space and are easily stored.  They are straightforward to use.  Since the bags are external to the unit, you can create very long bags (using special rolls of vacuum-sealing bags) to vacuum seal bulky foods. Many units have a port that allows you to vacuum seal external canisters and mason jars.  However, you will need to buy additional accessories for these functions. 

Disadvantages of an external vacuum sealer.

Although you can buy heavy duty pro-machines, most home devices are inexpensively made, and they will often need to be replaced every few years if heavily used. Most commonly, the bag-sealing heating element will fail, but the plastic vacuum pumps can also falter.  These problems are less of an issue for a home cook as their sealing needs are relatively low, but can be significant for high volume users, like hunters who process game, green thumbs who need to preserve a backyard harvest, and preppers who store large quantities of vacuum sealed foods. Additionally, home external sealers often have a limit on how many bags they can seal in a row and how long you have to wait between sealing cycles.  Professional external sealers are built to run nearly continuously, but they will be bulkier and cost significantly more than a home unit. 

External vacuum sealers require specially engineered textured bags to operate, as the bag’s ridges allow air to be sucked out of the bag.  FoodSaver branded bags can be expensive.  Off-brand bags will cost less but can still be pricey.  

Moist foods, like fresh meats and liquids, require special handling as liquids can get sucked into the sealing zone, which can cause a seal to fail. If the operator is careless, a machine may suck up the liquid into its internals and foul it.  

The pumps on these machines are much smaller than on a chamber vacuum and will produce less of a vacuum, which could result in shorter long-term food preservation.  That could be an issue for preppers who store foods for very extended periods of time. 

Chamber vacuum sealers.

Once the purvey of commercial operations, like grocery stores and restaurants, these types of vacuum sealers are now becoming popular in the home market.

How are chamber vacuum sealers different from external vacuum sealers?

External sealers suck the air from the bag along with other things like meat juices.  A chamber vacuum sealer removes the air from the chamber where the bag resides.  Nothing is sucked out of the bag as both the bag and the chamber are at the same pressure (there is no pressure differential between the bag and the chamber).  While under vacuum, the bag is sealed, and then a valve opens the chamber to the outside atmosphere.  This new pressure differential collapses the bag.  

The seal created with a chamber vacuum sealer is typically thicker than the thin seal from a FoodSaver device.

When most users first try a chamber sealer, they find it entertaining to watch the process as the end is dramatic.  If you watch YouTube videos, most operators will gasp, followed by saying something like, “Wow, that was cool,” as the bag instantly shrinks and clings to the food. 

Advantages of chamber vacuum sealers.

These are heavy duty machines that can be used continuously without stopping.  They have much larger vacuum pumps, which are often made of metal instead of plastic.  These pumps can pull a greater vacuum than external sealers, so they provide the greatest preservation protection for individuals who need very long term storage.  The machines’ cases are typically made of stainless steel and have a commercial feel.  

The internals of a chamber vacuum sealer are more robust than on a cheap home external vacuum sealer. You can see the metal, heavy duty vacuum pump in the lower right corner.

Most chamber sealers allow some type of programming so you can  tailor them to your needs. Some will allow you to create and store multiple programs.  For instance a program for maximum vacuum, and another one for delicate foods. Multiple programs are handy in commercial operations, but they are less important for the  home cook as it is very easy to adjust parameters, like vacuum time, on all chamber vacuum sealers.

Most Chamber sealers will allow you to adjust the sealing parameters. Some will even store those parameters as programs. This later function is less important for most home cooks as it is easy to adjust parameters, like vacuum time, on the fly.
My machine can control the same things as its larger sibling, but it has a slightly different interface.

Chamber Sealers are able to use the same type of textured bag that external sealers use, but they are designed to use much less expensive chamber sealer bags that cost around the price (or less) of a ZipLoc freezer bag.  As of this writing you can buy 8″ x 10″ bags in bulk for less than four cents a bag. 

You can use expensive FoodSaver type bags in a chamber sealer, but they also work with non-textured chamber sealer bags which are significantly less expensive.

Many machines have replaceable parts, so you can swap out a failed sealing bar instead of having to buy a new machine. 

Some machines are capable of vacuum sealing Retort bags, which can then be pressure canned making their contents shelf stable for long periods. Retort bags are the flexible canning bags used in MRE’s, soft packs of tuna, and other foods.

Chamber vacuum sealers are fantastic for sealing moist and liquid foods.  You can seal liquids, like soups, without any special preparation.  However, all liquids should be at room temperature or cooler to prevent them from boiling over.

Why do liquids boil in a vacuum sealer?

The boiling point of a liquid is determined by atmospheric pressure.  Water boils at sea level at 212F/100C, but at 10,000 ft, it boils at 200F/93C.  This is because the atmosphere is thinner at 10,000 feet and it pushes down on the liquid with less pressure.  Under a near vacuum there is very little pressure, so warm liquids can boil at room temperatures.  To avoid a mess, only seal liquids that are cool to the touch or chilled. You will still see some bubbles, but the bag won’t boil over. You need to allow space for those additional bubbles, so only fill bags with liquid halfway. 

Disadvantages of a chamber vacuum sealer.

Chamber vacuum sealers come in different sizes, but all of them are big, bulky, and hefty.  Some manufacturers are now making smaller home units, but they still will take up a lot of counter space.

Since they are big, it is best to have a dedicated spot to park them.  These are not gadgets to retrieve from the basement when needed.

I have a dedicated spot for my chamber vacuum sealer. It is too heavy to move and by having it accessible I am more likely to use it. Next to it is an external vacuum sealer that I now rarely use. I store other appliances on this cart. What can I say, I love gadgets!

Chamber vacuum sealers can only vacuum seal items that will fit inside of their chamber.  You can’t vacuum seal a huge rack of ribs.  However, you can cut up the ribs into smaller chunks and seal them.  

The initial cost of a chamber vacuum sealer is higher than a home external sealer.  Tabletop professional machines start around $1000.  However, many off-brand chamber vacuum sealers are now available in the US market. You can find a number of off-brand machines in the $220-$500 range.

Brand name vs. no-name.

Is a $1000 branded machine better than a $250 off-brand model?  Well, sure.  The fit and finish will likely be better.  It is also probable that a branded machine will use a higher-quality vacuum pump.  Additionally, a known company is more likely to stand behind its product and is more likely to carry replacement parts.  Many branded machines are spec’ed for commercial operations and near continuous use.

Are off brand machines junk?

Not in my estimation. I have been using an inexpensive Vevor chamber vacuum extensively for over two years, and it has worked very well.  I have had no problems whatsoever. However, your mileage may vary.  Like most things in life, spend extra money for peace of mind; pay less for a bit more risk but possibly a better value. 

Oil pump vs. dry pump?

Many commercial-style chamber machines use an oil vacuum pump.  Special vacuum pump oil has to be added to the pump when you get the machine.  This is a straightforward process.  Oil pumps may last longer, can be quieter, and are likely to pull a stronger vacuum than a dry pump.  Vacuum pump oil traps moisture, so you have to change out the oil every now and then.  How often?  That would depend on the humidity of your environment and the moisture of the food that you are vacuum-sealing.  One company advises changing out the oil every 800 hours of operation.  It takes less than a minute to vacuum seal something, but for math’s sake, let’s say it takes 1 minute.  800 hours x 60 = 48,000 seals. That is a lifetime of seals for a home cook!  Other manufactures advise changing the oil every 500 hours of operation, or changing the oil based on a calendar cycle. Follow your manufacture’s guidelines. If your oil looks cloudy or milky, it is full of moisture, and it is time to change it.  

Out of the box the Vevor unit gives you vacuum pump oil, and replacements for the heating strip.
You need to add vacuum pump oil when you get a chamber sealer that uses an oil vacuum pump. It is a very easy process.
Oil should be filled between half and three-quarters full. You determine this by monitoring the oil in a round window.

The advantage of a dry vacuum pump (also called a maintenance free pump) is that it requires no maintenance and a machine will likely cost less. A dry pump in a chamber vacuum sealer will pull a higher vacuum than a dry pump in an external vacuum sealer. Both oil and dry pumps are OK for a home user.  

Bag vs. roll?

Chamber vacuum sealers always use premade bags of various sizes. Premade bags are much easier to use than having to make a bag from a bag roll. They are inexpensive to buy, so there is no reason to use a roll of traditional textured bags. 

Can you use a bag roll in a chamber sealer if it is leftover from your external sealer? The answer is yes, as long as the bag that you make fits in the chamber.  To create a bag, run a cycle,  and seal the end of the bag just like you would on an external machine.  Some home oriented machines will include a seal button making the task even simpler. FoodSaver styled textured bags and rolls will vacuum seal in a chamber vacuum, but they are more expensive, so it makes little sense to buy them.  Unless you are space-constrained, I would suggest that you keep your old external vacuum sealer to use up your bag rolls. 

Can you vacuum seal a bag outside of a chamber vacuum sealer’s chamber?

There are a few YouTube videos that show people hanging a textured FoodSaver-type bag outside of a chamber sealer chamber.  However, I have never tried this, and this ability may be specific to particular machines.  If I needed to do this often, I would use a standard external vacuum sealer. There is one machine, the Wevac CV10, that is a combination of a small chamber vacuum sealer and an external sealer. 

Does size matter?

I already talked about the limitation of a chamber’s size, but it should also be noted that the chambers in this class of vacuum sealers come in different sizes, and the sealing bars also come in various lengths. The bigger the unit, the bigger the chamber, and the heavier the unit’s weight. My Vevor unit has a 10″ sealing bar and can accommodate a bag up to 10″ wide and around 13″ long. Some larger tabletop units can accommodate 12″ wide bags that are 14″ -16″ long (depending on the machine). Larger commercial units have sealing bars that are longer than twelve inches and can also accommodate huge bags. 

Here is my machine (left) with a 10″ seal bar, and a machine with a 12″ seal bar. You can see that the 12″ seal bar machine is significantly larger.
This top-down view demonstrate the size difference better. Both take up a lot of counter space, but the larger machine would dominate most kitchens.
A view of the two machines from the rear.

For home use the largest realistic size of a chamber sealer would have a 12″ sealing bar, and these chamber sealers are huge. Units with 10″ sealing bars are often adequate for home purposes.

This huge machine has 4 sealing bars, and two separate vacuum chambers. Great for speedy production, but not for home use.

Some units have a chamber that is deeper, or have a dome that is larger to accommodate thicker cuts of meat.  My inexpensive Vevor’s chamber is around 2″ deep, with an additional 1″ or so available in the dome.  I have vacuum sealed all sorts of foods, including medium/smaller-sized whole chickens (with a little pushing on the lid).  

My Vevor has a chamber that is 2 inches deep and a dome that adds an additional 1 inch. This size has been adequate for just about any job that I needed to do.
The model with the 12″ seal bar has a chamber that is 2 3/4 inches deep with a dome that is around 2 inches, yielding almost 5 inches of space.
The larger machine (far) has a dome that is around 1″ deeper, giving the user a little more chamber space.
A view of the vacuum chamber of the larger unit. The bag is placed over the tan colored sealing rod which will melt/seal the bag once vacuum is achieved.

Chamber vacuum bags come in many sizes, and it is possible to use bags smaller than the maximum bag limit of a machine.  I mentioned that my machine can handle a 10″ x 13″ bag, but I also use 8″ x 12″ and 6″ x 10″ bags for smaller items.  The smaller the bag, the cheaper its unit price.

There are now chamber machines designed for home use.  These machines are priced in the $300-$800 range and usually use a dry-type vacuum pump instead of an oil vacuum pump. Their footprint and height are generally smaller than a commercial machine, but they will still require counter space. Their aesthetic is more of a home appliance as opposed to an industrial restaurant tool.  Since their overall dimensions are smaller, their chamber may be smaller in width, length, or depth (or all three). Naturally, this will impact the size of the chamber bag that you can use, which will vary from machine to machine. These units may have additional consumer level features like a seal function. Many of these home machines have an accessory port to vacuum seal external items, like vacuum canisters. Pro-machines often do not have accessory ports. 

Home machines are smaller, and will likely have smaller chambers.

Should you toss out your external vacuum sealer and buy a chamber sealer?

I kept my old external sealer for those times when I needed to seal exceptionally long items. It has no resale value, and I have the space to store it. However, I use it very rarely.  My chamber sealer is extremely easy to use, creates a greater vacuum, has a much thicker seal, handles liquids and moist food better, and uses bags that are significantly less expensive than FoodSaver-type bags.  

With that said, if you are happy enough with your external sealer, keep it. There are tricks to do some of the things that a chamber sealer can do.  For instance, in the past when using my external sealer I would freeze individual portions of soup in “Souper Cubes” and then remove them from that container and vacuum seal them in a FoodSaver type bag for storage.  Additionally, I would vacuum seal powdery foods, like four, in a paper bag and place that bag in a FoodSaver-type bag.  Sucking flour into a traditional external machine will ruin it. 

It is possible to vacuum seal liquids with an external vacuum sealer. Here, I froze some soup in a “Souper Cube,” removed it from that container and sealed using an external sealer. Note the textured bag needed for these machines.

Some brands.

VacMaster, LEM, Avid Armor, Weston, and JVR are popular brand-name machines.  I have a Vevor machine.  Vevor is a company that buys Chinese made products and rebrands them.  I have been delighted with my chamber vacuum sealer from Vevor.  It works well and has performed flawlessly over the more than two years that I have owned it. 

The bottom line.

I am a fan of vacuum sealers of any type. They will save you money and are well worth the investment.  A chamber vac is especially useful for high volume users, individuals who want to preserve their foods for extended periods of time, those who often seal liquids, chefs who do sous vide cooking with moist meats, cooks that frequently marinate foods, home users who easily want to vacuum seal powdery foods (like flour), and geeks like me.  In addition, chamber seal bags are significantly less expensive than the bags needed for external vacuum sealers.  

Many YouTube influences will tout the fact that, in the long run, a chamber vacuum sealer will save you money over an external sealer as the bags are less expensive.  I just checked the Walmart website, and a ten-count of a 12.5″ x 11″ FoodSaver branded bag is selling for around $1.50/bag.  You can buy a 10″ x 13″ chamber bag for only 6.5 cents a bag.  Using this information, you could quickly offset the cost of a chamber vacuum based on bag savings alone.  However, that isn’t the complete story as you can buy off-brand textured bags for a lot less than $1.50/bag, and to get the 6.5 cent price for the chamber bag, I would have to buy them in a case of 1000 bags.  Nevertheless, chamber bags are significantly cheaper than textured bags, making it more likely that you will use them for basic tasks, like keeping half of an avocado fresh.  Avocados are pretty expensive, so who wants to throw out a cut one? Since chamber bags are cheap, I’ll also bag and freeze relatively inexpensive foods, like a partially used jar of pizza sauce (pouring the sauce into a small chamber bag). This saves a bit of money, reduces food waste, and offers the convenience of having the sauce on hand when I need it to make a late night emergency pizza.

Happy preserving!

Peace

Mike