For the last few years, I've had a basic external suction-vac (knockoff Foodsaver) & use the FoodVacBag brand off Amazon. I haven't had any break & don't have to double-seal them with the heat bar: (I also use them for sous-viding & freezing food in general)
For this size (8x10"), it's $26.49 divided by a 200-pack, which works out to just north of $13 cents each. Otherwise I would use Ziploc Gallon Freezer Bags, which at $8.84 (Amazon online price, which is sometimes better than my local grocery store, depending on the sales) for a 60-pack works out to just under 15 cents each.
This year I upgraded to a chamber-vac (VacMaster VP210, quite an investment but will pay for itself within a year!), which uses non-mesh 3-mil bags (regular vac sealers use full mesh bottom bags). A box of 8x10" bags comes in a 1,000-pack for $49.87, which works out to just under 5 cents a bag:
So price-wise:
- Ziploc Gallon Freezer bag = 15 cents
- 8x10" Mesh suction-vac bags = 13 cents
- 8x10" 3-mil chamber-vac bags = 5 cents
It's not a huge savings per se, but every 1,000 bags (which is a LOT) works out to a $100 cost-savings over Ziploc bags (15 cents vs. 5 cents), so it does add up over time! The chamber vac has quite a few benefits:
- It can seal liquid in a bag (doesn't use suction to evacuate the air). This is the biggest feature difference over a suction vac, imo. You can literally fill the bag with water & it will seal it with no air, it's amazing lol. So if you want to freeze liquid stuff like soup or broth to freeze flat, it's a piece of cake! Or any liquidy stuff like chili, leftover pasta, etc. Also good for sealing in a marinade with a meat to cook in the future, doing fruit infusions & compressions, and even doing quick vacuum-pickling.
- It can use regular pouches as well as mesh pouches. Regular pouches are way cheaper! Plus the regular pouches also come in 4-mil & 5-mil thicknesses for spiky & boney things, so if you want to do bone-in meat like a pork chop or steak, it holds up better. There are also zipper-top bags available for doing stuff like homemade dehydrated jerky, as well as black-backed bags for showcasing foods like cheeses (I think FoodVacBag has those as well now for suction vacs).
- It can seal mason jars without the attachment. Not a huge deal, but convenient as you don't have to get out the hose & lid attachment!. With a suction-vac, you can use that setup to dry-can cookies! The only catch with the chamber vac is that you can't use super-huge jars, like in this in-depth cookie-canning tutorial, which is one of the reasons I'm keeping my suction-vac (that, and for really large items...you can get gusseted bags with expandable flaps for vac-sealing really large items like roasts).
- Lately I've been chamber-vac-sealing plastic meal-prep containers with really good results. Gets all of the air out & then I can reheat it in my Anova combi oven, Hot Logic Mini heated lunchbox, microwave, etc. The convenience of this system is OUSTANDING! Also possible with a suction-vac, but the chamber vac does a better job & gets ALL of the air out! This is a picture of chicken Alfredo in a meal-prep container.
I'll take a picture later of chamber-vac-sealed cookie dough balls later!
