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Trouble with VP112 Chamber Vac

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  • Trouble with VP112 Chamber Vac

    This may not be the best place for this question, but here goes anyway.

    I recently bought a VacMaster VP112 from Lisa (great service), and have tried it on a variety of things with good success. However, did something today that blew up. Literally.

    We tried to bag apple pie filling, which forms a syrupy liquid that has air trapped in the mix. As the vacuum starts to form, the trapped air starts to "boil", which then fills the bag and spills out. Switched to the largest bag I have to make room for it all, and still no joy. Boiled over and made an awful mess as the contents came up out of the bag to spill out into the chamber.

    Does the same thing happen with chili, sauces, etc? Is there anyway to prevent liquid contents from "boiling" out, short of freezing the stuff first?

    One of the first things I tried was a bag of water and it boiled too, but didn't spill out. It worked fine .

  • #2
    I would freeze it in the bag first, then seal.
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    • #3
      I had the same thing happen with some beef stew in my Duo550 sealer. It made a hell of a mess inside the chamber. I try to leave a bit more expansion room inside the bag before sealing. I like Bassman's recommendation to freeze it first them seal.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by AJ View Post
        I like Bassman's recommendation to freeze it first them seal.
        Huh,,kinda defeats the purpose of a chamber unit no? I can do that with my bag unit.
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        • #5
          Originally posted by Richtee View Post
          Huh,,kinda defeats the purpose of a chamber unit no? I can do that with my bag unit.
          Kinda what I thought
          Craig
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          • #6
            It appears to me the problem is not so much the way these units work. The problem is inherent in the contents. Anything liquid has a certain amount of air trapped or entrained within. As the vacuum starts to form, the gas starts to expand and "boil" off. This happens even with water.

            Where the problem seems to lie is with thick, viscous stuff (like my pie filling). The whole thing started to expand and filled the contents of the bag....and then some......so it bubbled up and out. Not unlike what happens when a pot cooks over on the stove. The bubbles that form are big and they don't pop to allow the liquid to fall back like water does.

            In doing some searching on this, it seems one solution is to set the seal bar end of the unit up on something to give the while thing a severe tilt. That way, instead of the bags laying flat, they tilt vertically away from the seal bar to give the contents some head space to bubble in and quickly drain back into, before it can boil out. But that would then mean weight is hanging on the clip, but the clip isn't strong enough to hold any weight. Normally, the bag and it's contents lay flat and the edge of the bag is simply resting on the seal bar. The clip just holds the edge of the bag in place.

            Another alternative may be to cut way back on the extent of vacuum by shortening the amount of time before the package is sealed, but that too seems to defeat the purpose, which is to evacuate all the air. That wouldn't be much different than using a ziploc freezer bag and sucking on it before you seal it up and freeze it. Freezing the contents, then placing in the chamber vac is a variation on this. The only thing you gain is what small amount of additional air you can suck out........plus maybe a sealed bag may stay sealed better over time than a ziploc.

            Yet another alternative might be a prequel suck.......putting the contents into a large container, then pulling a vacuum on it somehow to let vast majority of the air "boil" off before you put it in the bag for the final suck and seal.

            Or in the end, it may be these don't work with some liquid foods, in which case that needs to be known and understood before you buy one.

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            • #7
              I don't have one of these units, but a friend of mine does(this is his 2nd unit) and I have helped seal some things over at his place. I asked him about this and he gave me several reasons it might happen.

              1. Liquid not cooled to a proper sealing temp. Room temp is not cold enough, it should be cooled in ice water if in a hurry or the best is to let the liquid cool in the fridge til it's 40° or less. These machines are not meant to seal full bags with hot liquids. These are home units, not full commercial units that may be made to handle hot liquids.

              2. The chamber vacuum is set wrong. Too high for liquids

              3. The bags are filled too full. Not enough head space

              He said it also could be a combination of these things.

              He said you could raise the sealing bar side about 1", he said he has never had to.
              Last edited by BYBBQ; 08-14-2017, 10:05 AM.
              Jim

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