Avid Armor Chamber Vacuum Sealer

Photo Egg

Anyone have any experience with either the USV32 or the smaller USV20 model?

Sent a question to their customer service a couple days ago and no response. So I guess not great Customer Service.

HeavyG

I was looking at the UV32 last week. Hadn't seen the UV20 before but it looks like it might suit my needs also.

While my Weston sealer can deal with a few tablespoons of juice from a bag I was a little careless last week and nearly overflowed its trough. Might be time to add a chamber vac to the toolkit (which would be easier than trying to get my occasional dumbassery down to zero).

Looking forward to anyone that has one sharing their experience.

Photo Egg

HeavyG said:

I was looking at the UV32 last week. Hadn't seen the UV20 before but it looks like it might suit my needs also.

While my Weston sealer can deal with a few tablespoons of juice from a bag I was a little careless last week and nearly overflowed its trough. Might be time to add a chamber vac to the toolkit (which would be easier than trying to get my occasional dumbassery down to zero).

Looking forward to anyone that has one sharing their experience.

Looking for about the same reasons. 

The smaller model might be enough for me as well. It will handle 11” wide bag across the seal bar and 10” long. The larger model is same 11” wide but will handle 13” long bags.
The UV32 is on sale for $579 and code HELLO20 will take another $20 off.
They also have Outlet section that sells open box/refurbished at a discount.

nolaegghead

I want to know about their pumps.   Price is cheap compared to Vacmaster.  Sorry "VacMaster".  Those are different companies.

Canugghead

Dry rocker pump, not oil pump.

nolaegghead

Ahhh...ok.  Those are maintenance free as long as you don't get anything in them.  I have a couple in the shop.

HeavyG

I'm not concerned that they lack an oil drenched pump.

My DeWalt air compressor, Weston sealer, and Karcher pressure washer use non oiled pumps and they have all been giving me service for many years without any hiccups.

If I run 25 bags a month thru that chamber vac I'd consider that a busy month for me. Now if I was running 250 bags a month I probably would spend the coin on the $1K sealer.

nolaegghead

The air compressor analogy doesn't apply when your "source" air is a closed, corrosive, mixed phase environment.  Decades working in a lab has exposed me to all kinds of vacuum pumps, many of which are used to pump down liquids.

Even the VacMaster oil pumps have a lot of engineering to keep liquids and solids out of the pump with filters and traps.  Air compressors only need a filter 

nolaegghead

That said, the diaphragm and dry piston pumps are much cheaper to build, but more susceptible to contamination since there's no oil to trap and dilute contamination. 

nolaegghead

..but perfectly acceptable.  (Post count about to turn over.   )

HeavyG

Ordered the USV20.

The HELLO20 discount also works for the USV20.

OhioEgger

I bought the V20 a few months ago and I'm very happy with it.

flyer_egger

thanks a lot Photo Egg.......  you just cost me $$$  lol the usv20 is on the way
My Wesson sealer was on it's last legs

Photo Egg

HeavyG said:

Ordered the USV20.

The HELLO20 discount also works for the USV20.

Yes, certainly. Discount just won’t work on the sale Outlet priced units.
All the reviews are solid on both units.

Photo Egg

flyer_egger said:

thanks a lot Photo Egg.......  you just cost me $$$  lol the usv20 is on the way
My Wesson sealer was on it's last legs

Hope you like it. Nice thing about the Wesson is almost every part is user replaceable and easy to buy online.
I wouldn’t toss it out.

Canugghead

Congrats @HeavyG @flyer_egger , don't get rid of your old sealer, they're great for making smaller bags out of larger ones. 

At my restaurant supply place they sell large bags in case of 1000, but smaller ones come in cases of 3000, 5000! I bought 1000 10x13 and cut into 1/2s and 1/4s as needed

flyer_egger

Photo Egg    guess i've used it a few times  lol

nolaegghead

I ordered the Vacmaster pro360 since my old external sealer died and it's hard to do big stuff in the chamber.  Has a 16" seal bar.

Photo Egg

flyer_egger said:

Photo Egg    guess i've used it a few times  lol

That’s great!
way to get your money’s worth.

HeavyG

Canugghead said:

Congrats @HeavyG @flyer_egger , don't get rid of your old sealer, they're great for making smaller bags out of larger ones. 

At my restaurant supply place they sell large bags in case of 1000, but smaller ones come in cases of 3000, 5000! I bought 1000 10x13 and cut into 1/2s and 1/4s as needed

My Weston Pro3000 is a beast and it ain't going anywhere. Good tip about buying/cutting down bags.

Photo Egg

flyer_egger said:

thanks a lot Photo Egg.......  you just cost me $$$  lol the usv20 is on the way
My Wesson sealer was on it's last legs

Update on new sealer?

flyer_egger

It's been working great for me  I'm using the default setting so far, haven't found the need to go manual  Like all things I kinda wish I went for the larger one but have the weston for larger needs  Seems like a quality product.

Photo Egg

flyer_egger said:

It's been working great for me  I'm using the default setting so far, haven't found the need to go manual  Like all things I kinda wish I went for the larger one but have the weston for larger needs  Seems like a quality product.

Thanks for reply.
Great information. Especially on size. I’m normally pretty good at “justifying” purchases like this. I really want one of these but just can’t pull the trigger. Like you, I have a very nice, larger sealer. 

flyer_egger

Don't get me wrong the small one is great, very easy to move from cabinet to work area and for that fact, will get used often.   The 10x11 inch bags are large enough for most of my needs also.  

nolaegghead

Photo Egg said:

flyer_egger said:

It's been working great for me  I'm using the default setting so far, haven't found the need to go manual  Like all things I kinda wish I went for the larger one but have the weston for larger needs  Seems like a quality product.

Thanks for reply.
Great information. Especially on size. I’m normally pretty good at “justifying” purchases like this. I really want one of these but just can’t pull the trigger. Like you, I have a very nice, larger sealer. 

The bag price savings are huge.  Convenience is great as this unit has a permanent location.  Ability to seal liquids and stuff with liquids is a game changer.

HeavyG

I was going to wait until I had a bit more usage with my USV20 before commenting but here's what I think so far:

- it is smaller than I had pictured in my mind. Very easily portable. The indented hand grips on the sides and light weight make it an easy carry.

- fit and finish is nice.  All the screws were tight and the gauge/faceplate was firmly in place - nothing wiggling around. No sharp edges or mismatched seams.

- The top lid is a thick piece of flat tempered glass and has a slow close mechanism so it won't just slam shut. Nice.

- the controls are the capacitive touch type on smooth glass. I prefer those to the type that are a switch underneath a plastic membrane.

- not as loud as my Weston Pro3000

- one nice touch is that Avid includes an item that was test sealed on your unit just prior to shipping. Less likely to get a DOA unit.

Use is pretty straightforward - place the bagged item in the sealer, place the unsealed edge of the bag underneath the little metal clamp which is an inch or so wide, push the clamp down, shut the lid and you're ready to start.

The bag holding mechanism in this is different from its larger sibling. The USV32 has a metal bar that closes over the full width of any bag placed inside. That seems to me that it would be helpful in keeping potential wrinkles out of the sealing area. One of the things I noticed with the USV20 is that it can be a little tricky trying to smooth out the top edge of the bag before closing the lid. It hasn't failed to make a good seal yet (it does a 2 row seal) but you can see that there is an occasional wrinkle sealed in the bag.

I've only used the default settings which sucks for about 20 seconds. That almost pegs the needle at 30. Not sure how a 60 second suck would really be of much greater use. The default seal time seems just fine.

I haven't tried the marinate function. According to Dr. Blonder home vacuum marinating is not really of any help but I might still try a couple chicken breasts anyway.

Bags:

The largest bags the USV20 can use are the 11x10 Avid Armor bags. Those bags have the unsealed side along an 11" side. That may be a bit helpful when loading bags but sealing along that full width (especially with a pretty full bag) can be a little tricky as mentioned earlier. What it also means is that this 11"opening x 10" size seems to be unique to Avid Armor. I've not been able to find any third party bags of the same size and "build". The closest I've found are 10x10 bags. Avid's bags are $30/250 vs. the generic 10x10 @ $59/1000.

For my usage rate the cost per bag is not of any significance. In a commercial setting where bagging LOTS per day I can see where the $/bag might have a meaningful payback.

I've got a lot of smaller bags for my Weston that are pint and quart sized and have the builtin ziploc on one end. They seal just fine in the Avid (I thought that perhaps the mesh might be problematic) so I'm glad to be able to use those in either sealer.

Haven't been able to test it yet but I'm hoping that I can seal a chuck roast in one of the  11x10 bags. Just eyeballing it looks like it might be kinda tight with the two that I have in the freezer at the moment. Of course I can cut them in half or just use my Weston but one bag in the Avid would be nice. Also wondering if I could seal a half chicken in those bags.

It appears that an 11x10 bag can hold about 4-5 cups of stuff so figure one quart.

Quibbles:

The only nitpick I have (and I knew this beforehand) is that the power cord is not detachable. No idea why they hardwired the V20 and used a detachable cord on the V32. Perhaps the more compact layout of the V20 lacked the room for a connector plug.

Would I buy it again?

Yes*.

As the unit is new to me I have no idea as to the longevity of the V20. I'm not a heavy user so I won't be pushing it hard so I'll be surprised if it doesn't provide me as many years of use as my Weston has/does.

*While it will handle (size wise) 95% of what I want to seal if I can't seal an average chuck roast in the 11x10 bag I may wish I had bought the V32 despite the almost $200 price difference. Plus I'd get that detachable cord.

HeavyG

I was curious about the actual liquid capacity of the Avid 11x10 bags so I got out the measuring cup and measured it out...

Six cups is what I would say the upper limit of liquids in a bag would be. Much more than that and you'll have difficulty getting the bag in the clamp without spilling. Even right at 6 cups a teaspoon or two came out of the bag when the chamber was being evacuated.

As the air pressure falls you can see air being pulled out of the liquid and all that bubbling activity is likely what pushed that small amount of liquid out of the bag.

I used the default settings which means a 20 second suck and it was pulling air out of the liquid right until it cutoff. When the bag sealed I could see that there was enough air in the bag to leave an air bubble about the same size as a drop of water (small fraction of a mL).

If you really wanted to get rid of that very tiny little bubble then you do have the ability to add 40 more seconds to the suck time.

When I had finished I could feel that there was some water underneath the heat sealing bar so I got a paper towel to start dabbing that up. Turns out that the sealing bar easily pops off which makes it a lot easier to clean up any stuff that comes out of the bag. Finished cleaning, the bar simply pops back on. Couldn't be more convenient.

Photo Egg

HeavyG said:

I was curious about the actual liquid capacity of the Avid 11x10 bags so I got out the measuring cup and measured it out...

Six cups is what I would say the upper limit of liquids in a bag would be. Much more than that and you'll have difficulty getting the bag in the clamp without spilling. Even right at 6 cups a teaspoon or two came out of the bag when the chamber was being evacuated.

As the air pressure falls you can see air being pulled out of the liquid and all that bubbling activity is likely what pushed that small amount of liquid out of the bag.

I used the default settings which means a 20 second suck and it was pulling air out of the liquid right until it cutoff. When the bag sealed I could see that there was enough air in the bag to leave an air bubble about the same size as a drop of water (small fraction of a mL).

If you really wanted to get rid of that very tiny little bubble then you do have the ability to add 40 more seconds to the suck time.

When I had finished I could feel that there was some water underneath the heat sealing bar so I got a paper towel to start dabbing that up. Turns out that the sealing bar easily pops off which makes it a lot easier to clean up any stuff that comes out of the bag. Finished cleaning, the bar simply pops back on. Couldn't be more convenient.

@HeavyG
Your 2 posts have provided more useful information than I have previously found online.
Thank you very much!

Canugghead

For sealing liquid I set suction time higher than needed at around 45 sec and watch the contents like a hawk, as soon as it starts bubbling/moving close to the seal bar I’d hit the manual stop button. I’d rather live with some bubbles than cleaning the mess. Yes, not overfilling and leaving extra headroom helps.

To avoid wrinkle (usually causes leak) make sure the bag edge over the seal bar is as flat as possible, it helps to redistribute contents or flip bag over; ‘wavy’ bag edge tends to end up with wrinkle(s). Again, extra headroom helps, wet or dry.

10x11 bags with opening on 11” side is indeed unusual. You can change the orientation... cut a slit on one 10” side with a pair of sharp scissors making sure you’re not stretching the material, seal the original 11” opening with Foodsaver, in that order.

(not to scale)

lkapigian

Just throwing this out, for those wanting a chamber sealer but worry about larger items not fitting, you can externally seal with a chamber sealer

https://youtu.be/Oe51RNVr79c

Canugghead

lkapigian said:

Just throwing this out, for those wanting a chamber sealer but worry about larger items not fitting, you can externally seal with a chamber sealer

https://youtu.be/Oe51RNVr79c

Thinking outside the chamber! Just remember in this mode it works like a foodsaver, so be careful if you have liquid, allow excess headroom and prepare to hit manual stop if needed.