I recently purchased a box each of gallon and quart sized baggies with the intent of using my hand-operated vacuum pump (which pulls down to 27 inches of mercury) to pump them down and test them on a variety of survival bag goodies.

I figured by looking at the box they came in that the valve on the baggy would be ready to go--not true. Evidently, the proprietary battery operated vacuum pump offered for sale along with the bags has a method of penetrating the bag without leaving a hole for air to come back through

For now, the test/review is on hold until I get the device--I need to figure out exactly how it works.

Keep us updated.....I am interested in their usefullness. My large vacuum sealer is nice but can be a bit of a bother to bring out.....it would be nice to have an alternative.....hey there's that redundancy thing again

Billy,

I have been using one of these for several months. I've been pleased with the results so far. The pump will pull the bag pretty tight against the contents but I can't measure the vacumn. I've packed some "fluffy gear" (4x4 pads, a repacked heat sheet, etc.) and it will pull them flat.

The food I've frozen seems to resist freezer frost very well. The bags are thick and tough. Best of all they're reusable. I wiill pack things like lunch meat, frozen waffles, fish sticks (hey, I grew up in the fifties, this is my comfort food). I take some out, reseal and redo the vacumn in few seconds. Works pretty well.

One nice feature of the pump is that it has a chamber that will contain any fluids sucked out of the package, thus keeping it out of the inner workings. This chamber is removeable and washable. You could pack things like chili or sauce.

Runs on 6 AA's (included) and they lasted thru two boxes of bags. Just replaced them and fresh batteries really speed up the process. Not a tool I would EDC but very handy in the kitchen or camper. For $10 not a bad tool, especially if you re-use the bags.

Sorry for the long reply. One trick I tried was to put some FAK contents in a Aloksak (sp?) bag, put that in a larger Reynolds bag, pulled the vacumn then ziped the inside bag closed while still in the vacumn. Unzip the outer bag and got a nice flat FAK bag.

Andy

Andy,
Thanks for the ideas on the FAK. That would work on alot of other things as well.

kmat

I have to agree with Andy, I have one and like it quite a bit. I sealed my termolite bivi in one of the gallon bags a few months ago and it packed down to about 2/3 the volume. It works well for small things like tea and sugar packets and is really good for keeping a spare wool hat in the pack without taking up too much space.

I just purchased one of these tools on the basis of this thread. The pump itself seems to work really well. The bags are a different story. They just don't seem to hold the vacuum very well at all. I have tried the gallon and the quart size bags that came with the pump, all with the same result. The pump initially sucks all the air out of the bag and whatever is inside, making a really compact package. An hour or two later, however, the package is just like a regular baggie that has had some of the air forced out by hand. Hopefully, Reynolds will improve the bags.