How-To: Vacuum-Seal Cheap Ziploc Bags

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By Sean Michael Ragan
Posted 2011/05/18 @ 9:56 am
Category Electronics, Food & Beverage, Home

Really great tip from forum member cashsale, who didn’t want to shell out for a purpose-built vacuum sealer and dedicated vacuum bags for his home sous-vide cooking:

Put whatever you want to seal in a smaller ziploc bag that’s open just a bit.
Then put that bag in a larger ziploc bag.
Insert the business end of a cheap hand-operated vacuum pump (maybe a sink aspirator would work, too?) into the larger bag, and close the seal tightly around the hose.
Pump out the air, which evacuates both outer and inner bags.
While it’s pumped out, seal the inner bag the rest of the way with hand pressure through both bags.
Finally, open the outer bag and take out the inner.

It may not hold as long as a pricey purpose-made vacuum bag, but cashsale reports that it works just fine over sous-vide timescales. Nice work!

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11 Responses to How-To: Vacuum-Seal Cheap Ziploc Bags

Robert George on May 18th, 2011 at 5:03 pm said:

Save the hassle…

0. Put precious item in small bag.
1. Mostly close the smaller bag.
2. Put your mouth over the small opening left in the smaller bag.
3. Suck and Seal.

I’ve been doing this for years with my cellphone while I’m out in the rain.

Reply ↓
Robert George on May 18th, 2011 at 5:03 pm said:

Save the hassle…

0. Put precious item in small bag.
1. Mostly close the smaller bag.
2. Put your mouth over the small opening left in the smaller bag.
3. Suck and Seal.

I’ve been doing this for years with my cellphone while I’m out in the rain.

Reply ↓
Anonymous on May 18th, 2011 at 6:16 pm said:

If you use a purpose-made -outer- bag, you can still use the cheap inner bag while managing a very good vacuum, and they allow the use of a standard vacuum cleaner for your source of vacuum.

Amazon://”vacuum bags storage”

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- John Stoner on May 18th, 2011 at 6:43 pm said:
  
  Oooh, like those storage bags? I have some for under my bed. And they’re big, too, so you could do a bunch of stuff at once. Great for a big sous vide barbeque.
  
  Reply ↓
- John Stoner on May 18th, 2011 at 6:43 pm said:
  
  Oooh, like those storage bags? I have some for under my bed. And they’re big, too, so you could do a bunch of stuff at once. Great for a big sous vide barbeque.
  
  Reply ↓
Anonymous on May 18th, 2011 at 7:19 pm said:

you know there IS an easier way. Put the item in the bag, and then dip the bag into a container of water. The water squeezes the air out, simple!

Obviously the seal isn’t perfect, particularly for irregularly shaped objects, but good enough for sous-vide and far less fiddly than the method above

Reply ↓
Anonymous on May 18th, 2011 at 7:19 pm said:

you know there IS an easier way. Put the item in the bag, and then dip the bag into a container of water. The water squeezes the air out, simple!

Obviously the seal isn’t perfect, particularly for irregularly shaped objects, but good enough for sous-vide and far less fiddly than the method above

Reply ↓
Jocelyn Tomkinson on June 2nd, 2011 at 6:15 am said:

I love tools and hacks and all, but nothing is really as clean, fast, or green as my own mouth vacuum to quickly suck the air out of a bag. it even works on individually packing meat for the freezer – you can just use a short straw to avoid touching your lips to the bag-zip if you are worried about contamination with raw meat.

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Jocelyn Tomkinson on June 2nd, 2011 at 6:15 am said:

I love tools and hacks and all, but nothing is really as clean, fast, or green as my own mouth vacuum to quickly suck the air out of a bag. it even works on individually packing meat for the freezer – you can just use a short straw to avoid touching your lips to the bag-zip if you are worried about contamination with raw meat.

Reply ↓
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Lou Lawrence on August 22nd, 2012 at 4:50 pm said:

Good idea but if one uses one of those Vacumm ziplos with a small pump you can pull out all the air and it will not return to the outer bag then seal the inner bag and remove the outer (which can be used over and over again. Also because the zipper seal sometimes leaks over time it might be a god idea to heat seal the bag containing the produce.

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