# normal behavior from a foodsaver vacuum sealer?



## Dakine (Sep 4, 2012)

So today I wanted to try something new. As odd as this might sound, today was the first time I've used my foodsaver for the bags. I've used it to marinate meat, and also do powdered eggs in mason jars, but this was the first time making and sealing bags.

my test project was to take powdered milk, 1/3 cup (which makes 1 cup) and vacuum seal that into individual use portions. easy right?

so the first thing I learned was that I was underestimating greatly how much 1/3 cup of powder fills a pocket bag I was making out of the roll. So I switched to using 2 instead of 3 bags per... what would you call it? length... blank... ?? basically I was pulling out about maybe 5+ inches of the bag, using the cutting tool and now I'm only cutting that bag in half instead of thirds. Cool right? more bag space, should work fine... except something odd happens..

If you consider the bag, factory sealed on only one end right? and my first 2 attempts were fine, vacuum sealed and worked great, so I rolled out and made 10 more bags, only I got the idea, if I leave the long edge open, and fill that, then seal, it would be easier to put the powder in.... right? WRONG!!!

So what I learned and then proved by succeeding twice on filling narrow end, then failing 4x in a row, and cleaning the machine, and then failing again, and then succeeding 2x in a row going back to sealing one of the narrow ends last is that this is the only way that produces a good vacuum sealed pouch. 

my question is... why does the foodsaver care at all? There's ample bag material to trigger the cycle, but the vacuum fails every time if I'm doing the longest edge last. It does the heat seam, no problem, but it's not vacuum sealed whatsoever. And I was reading some of the threads and I tried submersing in water to see if I could find pinpoint leaks like OCH had thought and also tried checking the seams like I think UJ suggested... all of that was fine! I have a water-tight, well sealed NON-vacuum bag. 

As soon as I went back to sealing one of the narrow ends last, it worked perfectly again, on demand.

Is this normal behavior? Are there some mechanics behind this that I'm not understanding which will help me reduce wasting rolls of bags?

Thanks!!!
Dak


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

Dakine said:


> So today I wanted to try something new. As odd as this might sound, today was the first time I've used my foodsaver for the bags. I've used it to marinate meat, and also do powdered eggs in mason jars, but this was the first time making and sealing bags.
> 
> my test project was to take powdered milk, 1/3 cup (which makes 1 cup) and vacuum seal that into individual use portions. easy right?
> 
> ...


If I recall correctly, the bags are made to be vacuumed from the narrow end. there's some way that the bag is made that allows for the vacuum to occur and then to seal. That's why it's hard to vacuum seal Mylar bags, I can get the seal okay, but the vacuum is, much of the time, little to non-existent.


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## Moose33 (Jan 1, 2011)

If i understood what you said, i'agree with what camo2460 said. Could be the machine can only pull "with" the ridges in the bag. Trying to pull "against" them may be to difficult.


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## grakita (Dec 13, 2013)

Dakine said:


> So today I wanted to try something new. As odd as this might sound, today was the first time I've used my foodsaver for the bags. I've used it to marinate meat, and also do powdered eggs in mason jars, but this was the first time making and sealing bags.
> 
> my test project was to take powdered milk, 1/3 cup (which makes 1 cup) and vacuum seal that into individual use portions. easy right?
> 
> ...


I can't answer why it is doing it, but I do have a suggestion. When I am sealing anything that resembles a fine powder I always put it in a paperbag , like the old lunch bags, first, fold the paperbag over, then cut a slit along the edge. Doing it this way I have never had a bag not vacuum. I will speculate on the cause of the fail for sealing on the long edge... volume. With the same amount of product on the short edge it holds the plastic apart far enough to allow the ridges to allow the air to be sucked out, on the long edge the product is so shallow that the air can't be pulled. This is a guess but I have had the same problem.


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## drgnhntr37 (Apr 13, 2012)

My sealer started doing the same thing. It was not a bag issue. It turned out that the pump had lost its sucking power. Solution bought a new sealer


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