Question for my friends that think differenty

[skeets]

OK while rooting around on You tube somehow I got in to a prepper video,, It was about food storage and vacuum packing stuff. Now in one a woman used a mason jar and a big cooler jug sealed the jug and pulled a vacuum with a sweeper and of course it sucked out the air and sealed the mason jar. NOW, my question is this, would a shop vac and a 5 gallon bucket and lid crush doing the same thing? And how much vacuum would be required to really seal a jar well. You know I aint no prepper but someone that grew up with folks that always canned and had a freezer full. And I figure for rice and beans and noodles in a jar the bugs dont get in and it would stay fresh a bit longer rather than taking up space in the freezer. Any input here?

 

[Tooljunkie]

OK while rooting around on You tube somehow I got in to a prepper video,, It was about food storage and vacuum packing stuff. Now in one a woman used a mason jar and a big cooler jug sealed the jug and pulled a vacuum with a sweeper and of course it sucked out the air and sealed the mason jar. NOW, my question is this, would a shop vac and a 5 gallon bucket and lid crush doing the same thing? And how much vacuum would be required to really seal a jar well. You know I aint no prepper but someone that grew up with folks that always canned and had a freezer full. And I figure for rice and beans and noodles in a jar the bugs dont get in and it would stay fresh a bit longer rather than taking up space in the freezer. Any input here?

Well, need to get yerself a pail and a vacum guage. Im thinking its doable.
Or put a fitting on your intake on compressor. Of course you dont want it to make pressure the same time its making vacum. I have used a small compressor as a vacum pump before. Luckily it has a threaded inlet for the air filter.
Only thing with compressor, keep an eye on your oil level, it may want to pull some past the rings.

A refrigerator compressor is ideal. Slow but will make good Vacum. Older the better.

 

[ShaunBlake]

Hmm...

A shop vac would be more powerful than a "sweeper"... prolly. Did you note what brand and type she used?

Any vacuum is good. Lots of vacuum is really good. And you don't really need a gauge unless you want to put up food for a long time, like months or even years. Just rig your shop vac to your canister, sealing it the best you can, fill your jar and cap it, put the jar under vacuum until the shop vac stalls (by stalls I mean isn't pulling out air), then take the jar out and open it very carefully and see how much of a hiss it makes. Oh, and first check the top to see if it's sucked down!

I'll check back in a few minutes and see how it worked.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

You will never mechanically exhaust all the oxygen out of the airspace above and inside the container. That is why preppers use oxygen absorbers to take that oxygen out after sealing. It prolongs the storage life and provides an oxygen free environment so when the inevitable few bugs do appear, they die immediately. You have to seal your food inside Mylar bags inside buckets to get the best results.

These are essentially like hand warmers. Once opened, you need to use the whole pack.

http://beprepared.com/oxygen-absorbers-2000-cc.html

 

[Tooljunkie]

What is the maximun inches of mercury in vacum that can be reached ?
I went looking for an answer,
I guess i should have looked first.
If i recall some larger vacum pumps hitting 21 inches is very high or i guess very low pressure.

 

[skeets]

What I was thinking of doing was a 5 gallon bucket with lid, cut a hole inthe lid same size as the shop vac hose and put jars in the bucket put the lid on and suck the air out of the bucket.. I figure that would put a negative pressure inside the bucket and pull ,at least most, of the air out of the jars, and when the vacuum was released the inrush of air would seal the jars,, Was just a thought Im not looking for end of world shit just a way to keep things a little fresher a little longer while saving freezer space

 

[Daren Todd]

What is the maximun inches of mercury in vacum that can be reached ?
I went looking for an answer,
I guess i should have looked first.
If i recall some larger vacum pumps hitting 21 inches is very high or i guess very low pressure.

My self priming pumps generate 25" of vacuum. Perfect vacuum is 33". But very hard to achieve. Not sure what the vacuum is on a jelly jar that's been heated then capped to achieve the vacuum seal.

Your average floor vacuum or shop vac is high volume, but low vacuum in inches. Probably around 10" I would guess. Now you have me wondering. I got a vac pad at the shop along with a five gallon shop vac. I'll have to experiment and see what I can get on the gauge.


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[skeets]

That would be interesting to find out

 

[sheepfarmer]

I'll be interested to hear if the jars seal and stay sealed if you are using the Kerr type canning lids. They may be partly dependent on heat as well as pressure to form a seal.

Depending on what you are trying to keep safe longer (and I too have some flour, spaghetti, and rice in the freezer) I am suspecting moisture rather than oxygen is the primary enemy, so packets of dessicant in jars might be good enough if you pulled a little vacuum and then screwed the rings down tight.

And for anyone thinking to use a vacuum pump using oil, might be a bad idea if food is involved. Very difficult valving operation to keep from having a backflow of oil mist into the chamber you are trying to evacuate. Unless you can run your pump on olive oil...

 

[ShaunBlake]

What I was thinking of doing was a 5 gallon bucket with lid, cut a hole inthe lid same size as the shop vac hose and put jars in the bucket put the lid on and suck the air out of the bucket...

DT is correct about vacuum cleaners being high-flow, low pressure. However, in one of the DIY cyclone builds I've seen (I believe it was a John Heinz post), his 5-gallon bucket partially collapsed. I would be surprised if it had developed even 10"H, but it seems it would be adequate for the foodstuff you want to store.

Although I haven't tried it (yet), I'm confident that kind of arrangement would create sufficient vacuum to properly seal Mason jars. Just need to reinforce the bucket to prevent collapsing. Perhaps with an egg-crate type baffle, wall-to-wall and top-to-bottom, that you could stack jars in.

 

[ShaunBlake]

I'll be interested to hear if the jars seal and stay sealed if you are using the Kerr type canning lids. They may be partly dependent on heat as well as pressure to form a seal.
...

They do require heat, and moisture the first time used. Generally put the lids in simmering water while preparing and filling the jars.

Depending on what you are trying to keep safe longer (and I too have some flour, spaghetti, and rice in the freezer) I am suspecting moisture rather than oxygen is the primary enemy, so packets of dessicant in jars might be good enough if you pulled a little vacuum and then screwed the rings down tight.
...

I suspect that desiccant would not help much. Those types of foodstuffs must be completely dry before being sealed. It is so critical that canners don't even warm the lids in simmering water. The common trick is to use previously-used, undamaged lids, and warm them with a heating pad. I suggest that you only vacuum-seal foods that you have newly purchased and opened at the time you are ready to fill and seal the containers. And CCR's suggestion to use Mylar bags seems to be universally regarded as the best container.

Oh, the rings don't have to be tight (in fact, shouldn't be very tight); they are just used to keep the lids in place while the vacuum is released from the chamber. After that, if no leaks, the lids will be very difficult to remove without a leaver of some kind. (Stronger than fingernails.)

 

[Daren Todd]

Hi volume, extremely low vacuum on a stihl shop vac. My estimate of 10 was extremely optimistic

The stihl shop vac came in at between 2 to 3" of vacuum

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[Tooljunkie]

Well thats one mystery solved. Its suprising what that little amound of vacum will do.