Receta Vacmaster VP112 Chamber Vacuum Product Review
Ever since I have gotten into sous vide cooking, I have used my vacuum sealer a lot. Now, it did get regular use even before with me sealing food that I smoked, like sausages, ribs, pulled pork and more. But since I started sous vide cooking, the vacuum sealer has…
Vacmaster VP112 Chamber Vacuum Product Review
Vacmaster VP112 Chamber Vacuum Product Review
2014-04-29
Steve Cylka
Design
Features
Performance
Value
93
A great chamber vacuum sealer for the home!
The Vacmaster VP112 brings a commercial quality sealer into the home. It does an excellent job both vacuuming and sealing. On top of that, the bags of chamber vacuums are cheap.
User Rating: 4.25 ( 2 votes)
93
Ever since I have gotten into sous vide cooking, I have used my vacuum sealer a lot. Now, it did get regular use even before with me sealing food that I smoked, like sausages, ribs, pulled pork and more. But since I started sous vide cooking, the vacuum sealer has been used multiple times each week. That regular use has made some of the cheaper home vacuum sealers crumple, not being able to last. Recently, I was able to test out the VP112, one of Vacmaster’s chamber vacuum systems and I was blown away. The technology and mechanism of the chamber vacuums is far superior to the typical home style suction vacuum sealers.
How does the chamber machine work? When sealing with a chamber machine, the vacuum pouch is placed inside the chamber and the lid is closed. Air is sucked out of the entire chamber, not just the pouch itself, allowing air pressure on both the inside and outside of the pouch to remain equal and liquids to stay inside the pouch. After the air has been removed, the pouch is fully sealed and air is returned back into the chamber.
The technique behind chamber vacuums allows bags with plenty of liquid to have air removed and sealed. Traditional sealers struggle with this, not being able to determine when all the air is removed, causing liquid to be pulled out of the bag as well. Another benefit of chamber vacuums, is that they also use a different type of bag that is significantly cheaper than the bags used for suction vacuum sealers.
Vacmaster makes quality vacuum sealers, both for home and commercial use. The Vacmaster VP112 takes the commercial grade engine and puts it into a smaller, home style unit.
The VP112 is very well built and most of the machine has a steel construction. Surprisingly heavy, the machine weighs around 50 pounds, so you may want it to find a home on your counter, or at least minimize how far you need to move it between uses. The machine is simple, the lid is lifted up with two swing arms. Once lifted, it reveals the chamber where the bagged food is placed.
The chamber is large and surprisingly deep. This is great for bags with lots of food and even liquid. It is even possible to vacuum seal a bag filled with soup.
The seal bar is at the front of the chamber and it can be removed. If over time and heavy use, the seal bar burns out, it is possible to purchase another one and pop it in place. This machine will last a long time!
To test it out, I filled a bag with pork ribs and marinade. There was plenty of liquid and a suction type vacuum sealer would struggle vacuuming only the air out and not drawing out the liquid as well. The chamber vacuum excels at these types of jobs.
I placed the bag into the chamber and rested the open part of the bag over the seal bar.
Close the lid the machine is ready to run.
The control panel is very simple. There is an auto cycle, so it is possible to turn it on and hit start. This will run the VP112 through the standard vacuuming and sealing process. There are custom settings as well and it is possible to increase or decrease the length of both the vacuuming and sealing time.
The vacuuming process removes all the air from the chamber which can be seen by the pressure indicator on the control panel.
For these ribs, I started it up. and ran it through the auto cycle. In the pic above, you can see that there is 25 seconds left of the pressuring process, where the air is removed from the chamber. At this point the pressure indicator shows the pressure within the chamber. Once the timer hits zero, the air is removed out of the bag and it is heat sealed.
Once done, the lid can be lifted and the bag removed. The ribs that I bagged were perfectly sealed and all the air was removed.
I love how well the air is removed and not one drop of liquid is removed. Since I cook sous vide a lot, I am regularly vacuum sealing bags that have marinades and other liquids with the meat. This makes a chamber vacuum an invaluable tool for the modern cook.
On top of the enhanced vacuuming ability, the bags used for chamber vacuum sealers are WAY cheaper, even up to 10 times cheaper than bags used with suction type sealers. These savings will quickly cover the increased cost of purchasing a chamber vacuum. If you use vacuum sealers regularly due to sous vide cooking, smoking meats or cheeses, or if you package up game meat that you have hunted, then a chamber vacuum sealer may be a very wise purchase. The Vacmaster VP112 is an excellent product and perfect for the home cook.
Pick this up at Cedarlane Culinary – – Buy Vacmaster VP112