S C Johnson Wax Ziploc Vacuum Pump/Bags Food Storage Bags & Wrap

by ZipLoc

Product Features

• Manufactured to the Highest Quality Available.
• Design is stylish and innovative. Satisfaction Ensured.
• Vacuum seal your food at home
• Allows more food to fit in the freezer and fridge
• NO freezer burn

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 1.8 x 9 x 3.5 inches ; 4.5 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B001DRNESE
• Item model number: 70055
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,575 in Patio, Lawn & Garden (See Top 100 in Patio, Lawn & Garden)

Product Description

Ziploc Vacuum Pump & Bags, For Vacuum Storage To Keep Frozen Food Fresh Longer & Prevent Freezer Burn, Bags Have Built-In Valve For Removing Air, Seal Food In Bag With Zipper, Place Pump Over Valve & Remove Excess Air With A Few Pumps, No Batteries.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Works way better than expected., March 13, 2009

By 

Sam Ramsey "Sam" (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: S C Johnson Wax Ziploc Vacuum Pump/Bags Food Storage Bags & Wrap

Former Reynolds Handi-Vac user here. I like the Handi-Vac, but the bags are no longer for sale at any stores around here. Saw the Ziploc Vacuum Pump at a local store for a few bucks and decided to give it a shot. This review will focus on comparing the two since they are a similar product.

Key points:

* Ziplock pump does not use batteries; it is a manual pump. Reynolds Handi-vac is a battery hog.
* Ziploc pump is extremely easy to use. Doesn't require you to find a "sweet spot" like the Reynolds one. Takes maybe 3-4 pumps to get all the air out of a bag. With the Reynolds pump you sometimes have to sit and fiddle with the position of the bag/pump to get it just right before it will start vacuuming the air out (all while wasting battery life). This is a non-issue with the Ziploc vacuum.
* The Ziploc bags are much higher quality than the Reynolds bags. They just seem thicker/more durable.
* Cost of replacement bags isn't bad. $2.75 for them on sale locally
* Ziploc vacuum can be disassembled to clean it in the event that you vacuum liquids into it.
* The Reynolds Handi-Vac works with the Ziploc vacuum bags (but not vice-versa), I don't know that you get a better seal with one pump or the other. This is worth mentioning in case any Handi-Vac users can't find replacement bags -- the Ziploc bags work fine with it.

I really have no complaints at all. It is smaller, easier to use, doesn't require batteries, and the bags are higher quality than the Reynolds bags. I'm of the belief that simple designs are far superior when they work. This thing is about as simple as it can get and works great. No need to spend $100 on a commercial food vacuum when this thing does the job and only costs a few dollars. Definitely a winner.

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not as good a seal as a melting vac sealer, but handy and good for cuts of meat in particuluar, November 1, 2008

By 

gutter-scrounger - See all my reviews

This review is from: S C Johnson Wax Ziploc Vacuum Pump/Bags Food Storage Bags & Wrap

A couple of reviewers noted that although the vacuum forms well, the bag doesn't hold the vacuum well. That's true, but that doesn't obviate the usefulness of this device. Using this you can get MUCH more air out than by the old method of "pressing"the air out, yet you don't have to pay $50-$100 for a more expensive system.

Users should note the simple valve design: it's just a hole in the bag, covered by a stiffer piece of plastic that has a semicircular cut in it. So under vacuum, the stiffer plastic seals against the bag.

So, logically, if you want the vacuum to hold better, I suggest taking a 2" square of clear packing tape and taping over the valve, making sure there are no seams. That should do the trick.

Also, note that it's a ziploc-style bag--I doubt that the ziploc seal itself is capable of withstanding a vacuum perfectly for that long. If you have a $15 handheld bag heat sealer, you could heat seal parallel to the ziploc for a much longer lasting seal. If you do it on the "open" side of the ziploc, you could even be able to cut off the heat sealed part and reuse the bag.

Try the packing tape over the valve, though, as that "seams" to be the lowest hanging fruit here. That's what I'm going to use on mine, and I'll leave a little "flippy" section so I can peel it off without damaging the valve. (Put a little square of paper over the valve flapper itself to protect it from being torn when you pull the tape, and just overlap it on all sides with packing tape).

I may post back when I see how it works. It seems like it could be a useful product as long as you understand how it works and know how to work with it. I would guess it would be a better product in general for storing meat in the freezer, as opposed to beans, because once the meat freezes with the vacuum sealed plastic hard up against it, the plastic will stay on and the air will stay off, even if the vacuum starts to give.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I'm really disappointed, November 11, 2008

By 

W. Beaver - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: S C Johnson Wax Ziploc Vacuum Pump/Bags Food Storage Bags & Wrap

I bought this product at a local store specifically so that I could store dog food. It's much more economical to buy a big bag of food than several smaller ones, but the food in the big bag goes stale before my small dog can eat it all, so I was excited to try the vacuum bags. I bought the starter set and a box of gallon bags, figuring I could buy refills online.

First of all, the instructions should explain that you need to leave about an inch or so of space at the top of the bag so that both layers of the area where the vacuum seal is can lie flat on the countertop. If this area is not perfectly flat, the pump won't work.

The pump itself works great--I confess I got a little thrill to see it actually removing the air, and to pick up a bag of dog food that was now seemingly solid as a rock. I quickly filled, sealed, and vacuumed the second bag, with similar results.

When I picked up the first bag to stack them and put them in my pantry, however, the previously immovable block of dog food pieces was...movable pieces. The vacuum was gone. I thought perhaps I'd done it incorrectly, but when I looked at the second bag, I realized that it, too, had already lost its seal. It didn't even last five minutes. I even re-vacuumed both bags, but the seal did not hold.

I disagree with the above poster who suggested using tape to reinforce the seal. If the product is flawed--and it seems to be--SC Johnson should fix it, not the consumers!