anyboatyourow wrote:yes, this works with Mac.
may take extra-large bags, though.

Nah, just use a MacBook Air.

Gatzby wrote:Not true. I learned how to take a two hour lunch and not get caught. *Valuable* life skill.

Doesn't Matt read these boards?

brchickery wrote:I was on the fence but then I used the "CHANGEYOURPASSWORD" coupon code which covered the $5 shipping and jumped in for the deal.

Thank you woot for having coupons. I love you guys. Just got yourself a sale.

Where can I get woot coupon codes?

jawlz wrote:Wow; had this been offered 2 weeks ago, I would have been in like flynn. But for xmas I got a sous-vide supreme and associated vacuum sealer, so it would, alas, just be redundant.

But for those considering, these are GREAT for keeping cheese from going bad. Also, it's good at preserving other foods as well.

Would you use this unit for sous vide (if you hadn't received one already with your SVS)? Is it up to the task?

NightGhost wrote:Actually, pathogens are common in raw meat, but they are killed when we cook them. If you store raw chicken in a bag, cook it and eat it, you're fine, but there can still be bacteria in that bag.

To properly wash a bag, you'd want to use heat and hot water, and I'd question whether the dollar costs/environmental costs might exceed that of the bag (and there's also the effort).

You can't technically get away from pathogens at all outside of a clean room (and even then they're still in you). But as for the ones that tend to make humans ill, it's very uncommon and they don't replicate very easily in a healthy human [so I guess that could be a problem in the western world 8o)].

I sample raw meats before I cook them and I've never had an issue even the one time I did so with beef that was recalled for e.coli. Sous-vide and especially sashimi wouldn't be so popular if it was a serious issue. Most people who cook fish sous-vide don't cook it long enough to pasteurize it (20-30 mins at ~115F).

I wash all of my bags, soap, hot water, air dry, takes about 15 seconds a bag. Especially these bags at 20-50 cents a pop!

NightGhost wrote:Regarding a cold, it's true that you cannot catch one if the "Coryza virus" isn't present in your body. But again, it's often present at low levels, and being under-dressed in cold weather taxes your system and renders you more vulnerable to the virus.

Now if only others would get that. Of course again, the healthier your immune system, the less likely you are to get sick. I get sick at most once per year...my dad has only been sick twice in the last 10 years!

---- Also...why don't people freak out about vegetables? They transport disease as well, including salmonella and e.coli (remember the big outbreaks over the last few years?). Actually most of us don't hear about the problem unless it's a huge recall. ----

You can put your weed in there...

Nobody puts Sock Monkey in the vacuum sealer, Mr. Rutledge!

woodszilla wrote:Just a heads up for anyone planning to use this for sous vide... This type of vacuum sealer will suck the liquid out of the bag (marinade etc.) along with the air.

The solution to this -- and anything you might want to seal that's moist -- is to partially freeze it first. Just toss the item in question into the freezer for a half hour or more.

Xchoppers wrote:Agree - using cheap sandwich bags will not seal correctly or just melt and mess up your machine

I've used cheap Dollar Store bags for years with these sealers and they seal just fine -- and my machine is not messed up. And yes, I use cheap sandwich bags to store chicken cutlets.

agenthucky wrote:Does this vacuum seal bags of crap?

A Woot staffer said that she uses it to seal soiled diapers so yeah, you can use it to seal crap.

swootness wrote:Looks like Jarden is the owner of both the FoodSaver and Seal-A-Meal brands (as well as Rival and many more).

http://www.jardencs.com/Brands.aspx

Great catch on how corporate monsters try to fool us with many brands under one roof. Almost all fishing brands are under just a couple of brands, including PURE FISHING. And THAT is also owned by Jarden!

So the makers of this also make:
Consumer Solutions

Bionaire®, Crock-Pot®, FoodSaver®, Harmony®, Health o meter®, Holmes®, Margaritaville Cargo®, Mr. Coffee®, Oster®, Patton®, Rival®, Seal-a-Meal®, Sunbeam®, VillaWare®, White Mountain®, and Zarafina®.

Personal Comfort & Wellness

Arius Eickert®, Oster Style®, Sunbeam Bedding®, and Sunbeam Hospitality®.

Animal Solutions

Hydrosurge®, and Oster Pro®.

Apparel and Footwear

Adio®, Cappel®, ExOfficio®, Hodgman®, Mad Dog Gear®, Marmot®, and Planet Earth®.
Leisure and Entertainment

American Painter®, Aristocrat®, Arttec®, Aviator®, Bee®, Bicycle®, Contemporary Crafts®, Forster®, Hoyle®, KEM®, Loew-Cornell®, and Totally You®.

Consumer Staples

Ball®, Bernardin®, Diamond®, Java Log®, Kerr®, Northland®, Pine Mountain®, and StarterLogg®.

Safety and Security

BRK®, Crawford®, Dicon®, First Alert®, Lehigh®, Leslie-Locke®, M&K Products®, One Link®, SecureLine®, Storehorse®, Tundra®, Ultra Hold®, and Wellington®.

Outdoor Recreation

Campingaz®, and Coleman®.
Winter Sports

5150Snowboards®, Atlas Snow Shoes®, Full Tilt®, K2 Alpine Touring®, K2 Skate ®, K2 Skis®, K2 Snowboards®, Karhu®, Line®, Madshus, Marker®, Morrow®, Ride®, Tubbs Snow Shoes®, and Volkl®.

Fishing

Abu Garcia®, All Star Rods®, Berkley®, Fenwick®, Gulp!®, Johnson®, JRC Products®, Mitchell®, Penn®, Pflueger®, Shakespeare®, Spiderwire®, Stren®, Trilene®, Ugly Stick®, and XTools®.

Team Sports

Brass Eagle®, deBeer®, Hilton®, Miken®, Rawlings®, ViewLoader®, and Worth®.

Water Sports

Helium®, Sevylor®, Sospenders®, and Stearns®.

Hardly eco-friendy making use of yet more plastic bags.

NightGhost wrote:Actually, pathogens are common in raw meat, but they are killed when we cook them. If you store raw chicken in a bag, cook it and eat it, you're fine, but there can still be bacteria in that bag.

To properly wash a bag, you'd want to use heat and hot water, and I'd question whether the dollar costs/environmental costs might exceed that of the bag (and there's also the effort).

Regarding a cold, it's true that you cannot catch one if the "Coryza virus" isn't present in your body. But again, it's often present at low levels, and being under-dressed in cold weather taxes your system and renders you more vulnerable to the virus.

I heart u

These are great for projects like swing sets, furniture and kits that have extra parts. Once you have assembled it, take the spare parts and manual, vacuum seal them together and throw them in a box together with other kit parts. Nicer than using a junk drawer, and since they are harder to open than ziploc bags, they resist tempting kids from playing with/losing spare parts.

redbarchetta wrote:Its more cost effective to buy the rolls. You can make your bag as large, or small as you need. Cut the size you need off the roll (plus an inch or so to seal each end) and there you go. If you want to use it like a zip-lock, add a few inches so you can cut off one of the sealed ends, and you have room to re-seal it.

good idea, where can you get it by the roll?

SkyGrly wrote:good idea, where can you get it by the roll?

Sam's Club

Menards also carries bags

zephalis wrote:Salmonella would've had to have already been in the chicken, which means you'd have already ingested it. Bacteria doesn't just appear from spoiled meat, especially meat residue. If that were the case, jerky would not be edible because it's dehydrated in heat while it's raw. Store bought meat very rarely has food borne pathogens in it. Even when they don't inspect them as often as they're supposed to, the chance that only one animal from a flock has salmonella is statistically irrelevant. That's like putting a person with the cold in a crowd of people for a week and no one else catching it.

And you can't catch a cold from being in cold weather either, you have to have the virus present in your system before you can catch the cold. [And salmonella poisoning is the same thing as the 24 hour flu].

1-07/overview/0107_chick_ov.htm

I hope you don't work in a restaurant. Chicken (especially) is often contaminated with salmonella. It should always be cooked thoroughly. I don't mean burnt up, but no pink. Reusing a bag that had raw chicken in it is just rolling the dice on on food poisoning. Don't even bother washing it out...just throw it away.

I've had food poisoning twice. Let me describe it for you: You throw up every 15 to 20 minutes for 6 to 8 hours straight. It gets to where you're throwing up acidic bile that burns your throat. After a bit, while you're lying on the cold tile floor wishing someone would shoot you, it occurs to you to drink as much water as you can, between vomiting, so that at least you'll have something besides bile/dry heaves to throw up...and as a side bonus maybe you won't die of dehydration....because that's a lot slower than the bullet you so desperately want to end your misery. But eventually it subsides and you're glad nobody shot you. But wait. It's not over. For the next 5 to 7 days you have little appetite and feel run down and weak. Just a nice going away present from the food poisoning that always happens to "other people". But if you want to save a few cents...have fun!

But don't believe me...click this:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/food/food-safety/chicken-safety/chicken-safety-1-07/overview/0107_chick_ov.htm

You're right about the colds though.

Monkey not included?! Well that's a deal breaker.

If you really need to suck, seal and solidify your doughnut...Freeze it First, then it won't flatten. This also works with soft fruit, like strawberries.

I went back and forth on this for a while. In for one. I know that either woot or rival will take care of me if there is any issue. I have had a good experience with woot CS dept in the past so why not just do it.

This looks like the same item but sold as Seal-a-Meal instead of Rival.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Seal-a-Meal-Vac-Sealer-Model-VS106/10660639

The only differences I see are the brand logo and slight color variation.

It seems to have decent reviews and Sold Out at $54.98. Newest review is from 11/09/2010 so I can only assume that price was somewhat recent.

Rolls of bags can be found at Wal-Mart. Sam's Club. Costco and maybe Target (not sure if I seen them there or not).

I purchased a Food Saver unit for around the same price. It is electric and has the tube attachment to use on deli containers (got those too but don't use them because I use the bags to portion out meats, chicken, pork, etc).

For those who want to use Ziploc bags, the foodies recommend cutting out the zipper portion of the bag.

I seasoned pork chops, chicken and turkey and froze them in the bags. Let it thaw out in the fridge and cooked them. It retained the seasonings well and I think it was akin to marinating the meat because it was deliciously tasty and juicy.

Jardin (Food Saver) has a ton of specials on a regular basis including buy one get 2 free (bags) or rolls. Some of their food savers go on sale at 50-75% and if you want extra discounts go to slick deals dot com or fatwallet dot com

PEACE

chiieddy wrote:There's a Lifehacker article about turning a crock pot into a sous vide immersion. My husband is itching to try it and my crock pot is old enough that I want a new one that has a digital timer.

http://lifehacker.com/5679360/hack-a-slow-cooker-into-a-temperature+controlled-sous-vide-rig

Do you recommend the thicker or thinner bags for sous vide cooking?

We have a digital timer crock pot and it's the worst thing ever. Why? It seems like every time we set it up and leave the house, there's a short power outage and the timer gets reset. It doesn't happen every time (and power outages are rare) but if power gets interrupted the pot resets and won't start cooking. An old-fashioned one with a physical switch will just start cooking right away like nothing happened. We've had enough dinners ruined by this that we've reverted to the old type.

All it would take would be a button battery to keep settings when it loses power, but I've never seen one with that feature.

I just use mine on low. The longer it cooks the better it is anyhow.

I know ya'll have moved on but just in case anyone is wondering where they can get something similar:

Same company (Food Saver brand here)with one roll and accessory hose $21.00 when you go through check out (listed at $70)

http://bit.ly/fzBAFZ (copy & paste in browser).

PEACE

What was the price?

Any idea when these will be shipped? I am a new wooter, so forgive me if I overlooked something.

bprentice20 wrote:Any idea when these will be shipped? I am a new wooter, so forgive me if I overlooked something.

Well, here's the "official" statement from woot! on my account page:
"Everything went smoothly. We'll take in all the orders, and begin shipping. You can revisit this page by clicking the order number link on the "your account" page. If your order doesn't change to "shipped" within 5 business days, check in our community forums for news of any delay, post there, and/or e-mail our service department at service@woot.com.

Again, your order will typically ship within 5 business days."

Of course, I also got an e-mail confirmation with similar information, but slightly different wording. Maybe I'm just special?

My Sous Vide Supreme arrived yesterday...it's just a doorstop until my Rival Vacuum Sealer gets in! Come on SmartPost!

Has anyone received notification of shipment yet? Obviously, I haven't. I'm just anxious to finally get it!

suzystow wrote:Has anyone received notification of shipment yet? Obviously, I haven't. I'm just anxious to finally get it!

nope. i havent received my notification for shipment either

joejoe1705 wrote:nope. i havent received my notification for shipment either

Nope. I'm a bit surprised, usually I've got a tracking number and/or my actual item by now. I was kinda hoping to use it for these roasts I've got in the fridge, but I might have to go ahead and split them up before it arrives.

Cannot wait to try sous vide with my temp-controlled crock pot, though.

When is this thing going to ship?

Any idea if it is going to ship? Seems to be taking forever. Woot guys?

Still hasn't shipped... Anyone else? Woot?

Still no evidence of this having shipped. What's up with that????????

No evidence the Sealer has been shipped. This is day 6th since the order. What gives Woot?

Cupmobile wrote:No evidence the Sealer has been shipped. This is day 6th since the order. What gives Woot?

Great News !! I posted a message about not getting the Sealer and within 2 hours I received an email that stated it has been shipped. I bow to the power of the Community !