Vacuum packing machines - Advice

[Subsonic]

Hi all, I am thinking of getting a vac pack machine to do my hops cos I have so many of them. Can anyone point me to a cheap and cheerful one? I know there have been posts about Lidl having them every now and again but everytime I have gone they never have had one. Theres some on fleabay for £40 odd but if anyone has a recommendation please let me know. Cheers Subsonic

[Scooby]

I recently researched this and found good and bad reports about nearly all the readily available sealers.

I work on the fact you get what you pay for (normally), so decided to avoid the really cheap ones, I eventually purchased a Freshield Elite II, a little above what I initially wanted to pay but it came with a reasonable amount of good quality bags and during my search around I found The freshield Aus web site. I make that about £150 so I took the plunge and I'm more than satisfied. It's well made and has a solid feel to it, and vacs as tight as any I've had from all the usual suppliers.

[Subsonic]

Scooby, as always a great reply and thanks for the info! My hops have been in my polytunnel since Saturday and are absolutely dried. At 35-40c during the day its perfect. Trouble is, the farmer wants me to pick more! He keeps ringing with more locations and I feel bad if I don't pick them! Tomorrow night I have to go again and pick some more I'm going to either get the vac packer or go down the route of my mums advice, put in strong plastic bags, insert a straw and suck the hell out! Then quickly twist and tie. I tried this with some beans from the tunnel (all bl@@dy 6 kilos) and it worked a treat! Cheers mate I'm bookmarking that one. Subsonic.

[Scooby]

My Mum always did that and that was what I was doing with my hops, I used a ziplock bag and quickly zippered it across as I withdrew the straw

[WishboneBrewery]

You lot are just a couple of suckers!

[OldSpeckledBadger]

You lot are just a couple of suckers!

Now that's the last straw I hop so anyway

[WishboneBrewery]

doh!

[Subsonic]

My lips are all suckered out tonight. I've sucked off for at least 1 hour, I feel sorry for the wife now lol. (this will probably get deleted by the mods snigger...)

[WishboneBrewery]

Does she normally do you vacuum packing??????