Ziploc Air Removal Pump
January 1, 2009
I have been looking around to find a vacuum sealer to help freeze left over foods. I was at Kroger and came across a little hand pump that pulls the air out of special Ziploc bags. It was only $3.99 so I decided to give it a try. It is kinda a neat system. There is a special valve on the Ziploc bags that allows air to be pulled out but does not let it back in. The bags themselves are $2.99 and come in a couple different sizes. Here are the three items that I purchased…
The top one is the pump and the bottom two are the extra bags. One problem I see with this system so far is that you can not do liquid type foods like soups. The liquid would just be pulled out of the bag with the air. One thing I really like is that you can put the bags in the microwave to heat the food back up again. Here is a better photo of what the bags and pump look like…
The first food I tried to seal was a couple of large meatballs. I even added a lot of juice in the bag. It seems to have pulled out all of the air. Here is what it looked like after using the pump…
For such a low price I think this will help reduce freezer burn. I guess only time will tell. Has anyone else used this or similar products?
Solitary Refinement 
There is a new trend in some high end restaurants, boil in the bag. You should talk to Mr. T about ideas. Maybe you could prepare some dished in the bags, pull one out of the freezer and put it into boiling water to cook. How easy would that be?
I just got this, too. It works great once, but I found that you couldn’t reseal a bag after the first time.
However, I just now tried something that I think will work: I got a bag out of the freezer with hamburger buns in it. Got one bun out. Then I repumped it, and slapped a piece of duct tape over the valve in the bag. I think that will enable it to retain the seal even though it was used once
I see my comment and I see I missed a point (which may be apparent): you can repump the bag, but it won’t retain the seal a second time. So that’s why I used the duct tape.
Bruce – Thanks for the heads up! Great idea using duct tape.