I picked up a Mason Jar Sealer off amazon. Seems to work. 30 day return/warranty . The whole shebang relies on a custom gasket, I'm sure no parts available for it. Wide mouth is one gasket, and for the regular mouth, there is an extra screw on piece, and I think it might rely on the wide mouth gasket and then the regular mouth gasket.

I wanted something to seal jars for shelf or freezer...this seems to work, but how long is the question.
This was tallow I just rendered over last day. I left it on the full 90 seconds. Sounds like the instructions say to leave headspace "below the threads". And not tip and allow water up in the vac.


So, has anyone used something like this, or similar room temp vacuum sealer? How well do they work long term? What do you use them for?
I was thinking dehydrated eggplant/tomatoes etc. But first use was for this tallow.

JRinPA wrote: ↑Tue Aug 20, 2024 4:04 pm I picked up a Mason Jar Sealer off amazon. Seems to work. 30 day return/warranty . The whole shebang relies on a custom gasket, I'm sure no parts available for it. Wide mouth is one gasket, and for the regular mouth, there is an extra screw on piece, and I think it might rely on the wide mouth gasket and then the regular mouth gasket.

I wanted something to seal jars for shelf or freezer...this seems to work, but how long is the question.

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This was tallow I just rendered over last day. I left it on the full 90 seconds. Sounds like the instructions say to leave headspace "below the threads". And not tip and allow water up in the vac.


So, has anyone used something like this, or similar room temp vacuum sealer? How well do they work long term? What do you use them for?
I was thinking dehydrated eggplant/tomatoes etc. But first use was for this tallow.

I haven't used one but in my opinion it's a waste of time for the tallow.
Consider you're putting really hot tallow in the jar around maybe 300F or so screw the lid on and it'll seal itself.
Whatever the case it's killing anything big enough to die.

Yeah maybe tomorrow I'll do that with the next batch. The big problem is moisture in the jars. Some of the jars I saved last winter started going bad in a just a few week. Those were allowed to harden up in a bowl, then cut into chunks. Then stored at room temp, without vacuuming at all. I'm trying to find a better way.

I'm hoping this works well for dried stuff. Just wondering who has used one and how long they last.

I have a few vacuum canning sealer setups. I have the Food Saver brand of caps of both regular and wide mouth. I also have their kit of hand held pump, caps and tubing.

I did have their battery powered hand pump. It doesn't have a replaceable battery so now it sits unused. I use the hand pump and the caps. I splash a little water on the rubber ring inside the cap to facilitate removal and replacement.

It's hit or miss on how long the seal lasts. After creating the seal I gently screw down the ring and the jar has always held its seal.

I use a double prong cap remover to unseal the jar without damaging the lid so I can use it again.

For a stronger faster way I put together an HVAC pump and accessories system. I used some adapters/barbs, tubing and silicone drilled rubber stoppers to get to the sealing cap. The hose ends with a one inch +/- drilled rubber stopper.

To seal the jar I place a one inch PVC couple on the rubber stopper end of HVAC sealing hose. I place the sealing cap on the jar. I place a rubber washer on top of the cap. Turn on the pump and it takes about five seconds to seal a jar. I have extra caps so I can set three up and do them at the same time.

The HVAC system makes a stronger vacuum. The seal at the higher vacuum seams to be more reliable but to be sure I will screw on the outer ring.
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I poured 5 or 6 more jars of tallow last night. This is out of a crock pot on high. Don't know the temp, hot enough to burn, hot enough to boil out the water, but I don't know if it is 300F. Ladled Into a washed, well dried jar.

The one I tested by just putting a lid on and screwing down did not seal. And there is condensate on the underside of the lid. That is the problem I expected. You don't want any water in there. I just wiped down the lid and will let that air off some before sealing with the super awesome 30 day jar vac.

The rest of last night's batch I did like the first couple batches this week, in that I allowed it to cool uncovered to prevent condensation in that 1/2" of headspace. Then used the sealer to make a seal.

Hey @zeuspaul , what type product have you used the vacuum sealer to seal up? Good shelf life or do things still spoil on you?

I do use a piece of hardwood as a wedge/lever to open all my jars, so 99% of the time the lid does not get deformed. Certainly that would be very important in this application.

I did another test earlier...I forget exactly what, but I think I put water up to the "under the threads" point that the instructions say to use. Then put kosher salt in so it fell to the bottom. Then applied the sealer. It sucks the salt from the bottom up through the water column. I'm not sure how that happens, from vibration? or what. But it was unexpected and at the time, gratifying. Hey, this thing does work!?

I use it to seal dried herbs. I haven't had anything spoil yet.