I don't have a food saver 1: because I don't buy meat in bulk, and 2: it's too expensive for vacuum sealing tea exclusively (for me).beachape wrote:Anybody use one of those food-saver vacuum machines? Vacuum and seal but cost like 100 bucks and I bet the bags are expensive.
This is what I use: http://www.pump-n-seal.com/
I've posted about it a few times over the last few years because I love it. I was wrong in my post above, it's not $20...it's around $30 for the package I bought.
It's such a simple device that there's really nothing that will break on it, except an O-ring may wear out. It's got a 10 year warranty, so if an O-ring does need replacing, it's free. I've had mine for 2 or 3 years and it's still like the day I got it. I only use this for vacuuming jars of tea (gets used every day), and it works perfectly for that. They say you can vacuum ziplock bags, but it doesn't work well due to the fact that they aren't air tight in the first place. Another cool thing about the pump-n-seal is that you can vacuum any glass jar that has a lid with a rubber seal thingy. Cheap, and a great way to avoid plastic contact with food and tea. Also, no electricity needed and it's small-n-ugly.