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Mylar bags - are they around locally in SE MA or RI?
- Thread starter SpiderMA
- Start date
Hiltonizer
Banned
I had kept an eye out in my area too, as most online deals I found were either killed by shipping or in quantities too large.
But I recently found discountmylarbags.com and pulled the trigger on fifty 1-gallons with matching absorbers for $22.50 shipped.
But I recently found discountmylarbags.com and pulled the trigger on fifty 1-gallons with matching absorbers for $22.50 shipped.
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Mainer
NES Member
The LDS store online (store.lds.org) has both 1 gallon bags and O2 absorbers and while shipping is free, they will add tax. Service is fast and I've never been disappointed. In fact, I'm still working through the box of LDS mylar 1 gallon bags I ordered 3+ years ago... For the 5 gallon mylar bags, we go through Sorbent (www.sorbentsystems.com) and get the 24V4C28. The shipping cost, IIRC, for 150 bags was on the order of ~$30.
-chiefsaj, they are used for long term storage of whatever you like. The mylar can be heat sealed and the 02 packets remove any 02 not squeezed from the bag prior to the last seal (You can always add more absorbers than necessary).
-chiefsaj, they are used for long term storage of whatever you like. The mylar can be heat sealed and the 02 packets remove any 02 not squeezed from the bag prior to the last seal (You can always add more absorbers than necessary).
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In God We Trust
NES Member
Long term storage of food.
Thanks for this tip. I also ordered the fifty 1-gallon bags with O2 absorbers, and they arrived yesterday. I was a little surprised at the packing method, they just stuffed everything into a Priority Mail envelope, and it was busted open when I got it, but everything inside was OK.
I am a little concerned about how to use all 50 O2 absorbers within the working time limit of 10-15 minutes. That is going to be a mad scramble of opening the absorbers, passing them out into pre-filled bags, squeezing out the final air, and sealing 50 bags in that amount of time.
I just did a little more shopping today on my lunch break, and picked up a Food Saver and a bunch of bags from WalMart, and I picked up 8 more food-grade 5 gallon buckets from Lowe's. They are on sale for less than $4 plus $1.50 for lids.
Next I need to pick up some actual food product to place into all of this storage capacity...
Hiltonizer
Banned
My wife and I are attempting this over the weekend. We will probably not do all 50 in one sitting, maybe half.
My plan is to fill all the bags, and seal them partially before taking out the o2 absorbers... one if us will secure the unused o2's in a canning jar while the other dispenses the rest into the food bags. The jarring the unused o2's will follow behind and finish off sealing the bags.
If it wasn't two of us, I reckon the best option would be to just do smaller increments, 10 bags at a time maybe.
That sounds like a good strategy. I was also thinking of trying to split the absorbers into 4-5 small batches and seal them up really fast with the Food Saver.
Mainer
NES Member
I put the absorbers into a glass jar, the kind that has the rubber ring and snap do-hickey on top. A small mason jar should work as well too. I pull out just what I need in order to work on one bag at a time. We use a clam shell heater and have never tried the foodsaver. If your foodsaver can't seal the mylar due to thickness or some other reason, have a hot iron handy as backup. We too seal 90% of each bag before we are ready to start inserting the 02. Good luck and have fun.
I wasn't planning on using the Food Saver for the mylar bags. The instructions say that you can seal mylar with it, but not using the vacuum. I just think it would be too awkward to try and position a series of full bags into the sealer and do it quickly.
I have a small iron from my RC airplane hobby that should get hot enough, otherwise I will just use my clothes iron. I could also swipe one of my daughter's hair irons, which actually looks like a good way to go for sealing up the last 2-3 inches after the O2 absorber, since it's a one handed operation.
I have a small iron from my RC airplane hobby that should get hot enough, otherwise I will just use my clothes iron. I could also swipe one of my daughter's hair irons, which actually looks like a good way to go for sealing up the last 2-3 inches after the O2 absorber, since it's a one handed operation.
Hiltonizer
Banned
Put it to the test tonight with the 1 gallon bags, and dividing the unused o2 absorbers in canning jars. For a sealer we used her flat iron, she's a stylist and is a friggin' boss with that thing. In about half an hour we did this:
(18lbs of quick oats, 12lbs of mashed taters, 25lbs of parboiled rice)
Later this week we'll dive into the rest of what I picked up at sam's club today... got dinner to make and settled in for the walking dead.
59c a lb for pure cane granulated (50lb bag) and both the AP flour and Bread flour work out to less than $2 per what would be a 5lb bag at the store (25lb bags). Despite the flour being something that needs to be rotated out in 2 years, the bulk discount pays for the mylar/o2 absorber. I wouldn't have done so much though had we not been people that use a lot of flower.
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Nice. I did a bunch of flour, sugar, and rice this weekend. I did the sugar first, since it doesn't need the O2 absorbers. It let me practice my ironing technique without the time pressure.
I used my model airplane covering iron, with a 12" chunk of 2x4 as a backer block, and it worked great. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXHZ17&P=ML I wouldn't buy one just for this purpose, but since I had it, it works nice.
The first thing I did was to use my Food Saver to split the O2 absorbers into packs of 10. I pre-made the bags, and they were exposed for less than a minute.
I just used 5 pound bags of flour, because I was afraid it would go all over if I tried to pour from a large bag. I just dumped one 5 pound bag into each 1 gallon mylar, and there was very little dust. I have a 20 pound bag in a pail with a gamma seal that I'm using for short-term storage.
Next I want to put away some whole grain wheat and pinto beans. I ordered some 5 gallon bags and larger O2 absorbers to make it a little easier.
I used my model airplane covering iron, with a 12" chunk of 2x4 as a backer block, and it worked great. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXHZ17&P=ML I wouldn't buy one just for this purpose, but since I had it, it works nice.
The first thing I did was to use my Food Saver to split the O2 absorbers into packs of 10. I pre-made the bags, and they were exposed for less than a minute.
I just used 5 pound bags of flour, because I was afraid it would go all over if I tried to pour from a large bag. I just dumped one 5 pound bag into each 1 gallon mylar, and there was very little dust. I have a 20 pound bag in a pail with a gamma seal that I'm using for short-term storage.
Next I want to put away some whole grain wheat and pinto beans. I ordered some 5 gallon bags and larger O2 absorbers to make it a little easier.
Mainer
NES Member
I've experimented with pinto's in standard canning jars. Cleaned the jars and dried them. Heated the canning lids in very hot (near boiling) water to soften the gasket, filled the jars with beans, dried the lids, inserted 02 and finally hand tightened the band.
I looked at few jars we did 3+ years ago and the lids are still pulled down tight. It was an experiment....I'm not sure when we'll get to using them, but it's really nice to be able to both check the seal dimple as well as check/see the contents....
-ed
Hiltonizer
Banned
FYI:
The last 2 weeks market basket has had some great stuff for mylar bagging.
-Their brand of quick oats are 2/$4 for the big 42oz canisters
-They have a good assortment of 79c/lb pasta, primo? prima? some shit made it in Italy, its in a white bag.. they had all the types. I put up 25lbs, mostly spaghetti.
-99c/lb bags of beans... not a sale and not great when compared to bulk.. but I haven't had any luck finding dry beans at the warehouse stores... and this is still cheaper than any mail ordering. Only way I know to beat it is going to the LDS. I mention this as I've never noticed them before... I put away about 20lbs of Navy beans to go with my brown sugar
also this week, their 15~oz canned veggies are 50c a piece... I just put a bunch of these away. These were getting cleaned out FAST today. They also have 28oz cans of most variety tomatoes for 79c to go with all that pasta.
The last 2 weeks market basket has had some great stuff for mylar bagging.
-Their brand of quick oats are 2/$4 for the big 42oz canisters
-They have a good assortment of 79c/lb pasta, primo? prima? some shit made it in Italy, its in a white bag.. they had all the types. I put up 25lbs, mostly spaghetti.
-99c/lb bags of beans... not a sale and not great when compared to bulk.. but I haven't had any luck finding dry beans at the warehouse stores... and this is still cheaper than any mail ordering. Only way I know to beat it is going to the LDS. I mention this as I've never noticed them before... I put away about 20lbs of Navy beans to go with my brown sugar
also this week, their 15~oz canned veggies are 50c a piece... I just put a bunch of these away. These were getting cleaned out FAST today. They also have 28oz cans of most variety tomatoes for 79c to go with all that pasta.
I bought my pinto beans at the recently renovated Walmart in Tewksbury. It's not quite a Super Walmart, but it's got the big grocery section.
They have 8 pound bags for about $8, which is not really cheaper than buying 1 pound bags at Market Basket, but it's less work. They also have 20# bags of flour, but it's about the same $/lb as the 5 pound bags, and the 5 pound bags are a bit easier to dump into the mylar.
I've stored a couple of buckets of flour, but I really need to find a source of wheat.
I've bought all of my 20# bags of rice at Market Basket for about 50 cents/pound.
They have 8 pound bags for about $8, which is not really cheaper than buying 1 pound bags at Market Basket, but it's less work. They also have 20# bags of flour, but it's about the same $/lb as the 5 pound bags, and the 5 pound bags are a bit easier to dump into the mylar.
I've stored a couple of buckets of flour, but I really need to find a source of wheat.
I've bought all of my 20# bags of rice at Market Basket for about 50 cents/pound.
Hiltonizer
Banned
I started a blog and reached out to the DiscountMylarBags.com guys for a sponsorship... got 5% off if anyone is in need: http://www.foodstoragecooking.com/index.php/coupon-from-discountmylarbags/
xtry51
NES Member
The plastic ziplock part will allow oxygen in over time, but certainly better than nothing. A regular bag can be sealed with a household iron, as in the one used to take wrinkles out of clothes. I only use Mylar bags for storing stuff very long term >5years, so I only use the regular ones. I suppose if you're going to use them for foods you cycle through over the course of 12-24 months they would make sense.
Hiltonizer
Banned
For long term storage, that's fine for things like sugar and salt that don't require an oxygen barrier to prevent spoilage. I wouldn't recommend that for much else though if you are looking at it for something more than a few to 6 months. Oats, dry beans and rice might be OK for 1-2 years like that as something you rotate... but decent ziploc bags now are so damn expensive these days might as well just go with the mylar.
richc
NES Member
I've watched a few videos on YouTube that talk about sucking the air out of these mylar bags, using a variety of techniques, all of which are really hacks.
Is this really necessary? Or do the oxygen eaters do everything that we need to do?
Thanks,
Rich
Is this really necessary? Or do the oxygen eaters do everything that we need to do?
Thanks,
Rich
richc
NES Member
When air is sucked out of the bags the bag is pulled tightly around the food items such that you can see, for example, the shape of items (i.e. macaroni shape).
Do the oxygen absorbers cause this same type of collapse of the bag?
Just curious...
Thanks,
Rich
Hiltonizer
Banned
An oxygen absorber is just that, it absorbs oxygen not air. When an appropriately sized one is used, its the equivalent of a nitrogen flush. The bag doesn't need to be sucked in tight for oxygen to be absent..
xtry51
NES Member
Yes, though an absorber can obviously only remove so much, hence why I push out as much air as possible before sealing.
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