Wednesday, January 10, 2018

“Hot Jaw” Heat Sealer


Years back, when I first started long-term Mylar Bagged food storage, I wanted this clamshell heat sealer however back then it was $200.00. I’m not rich and couldn’t justify that amount of money then. Over the years this clamshell sealer has been dropping in price where today, it’s just $99.00! So I finally bought one!

It has an inline switch for Off, Low and High settings user selectable when sealing thin or thick Mylar Bags. Also has an LED lamp telling you the power is on.


The part number and power label:
Each jaw is independent (switch selectable, hi-low) and each jaw uses 25 watts. 50 watts total on high.
Also note: The sealer frame is molded from a poly resin and aluminum (metalized resin). This resin is as stiff and ridged as aluminum. Absolutely nothing flimsy about this “Hot Jaw Sealer”!


Here I’m verifying the actual sealing temperature:
To melt and bond the Mylar Bag inside poly liner to itself within 4 seconds, the heat needs to be 300+f degrees. On the LOW setting only one jaw heats-up for thin bags, on HIGH both jaws heat-up to the same temperature for thick bags.
Note: The handles do not get hot to the touch even when on High.

This is what the 9/16ths wide seal looks like on a new bag. No air will leak through this seal.

Here I’m re-sealing a 5-gallon bag of wheat grain I had to open. It is very easy to do with the clam-shell sealer compared to an alligator style sealer. It does not require the pressure grip of Hulk Hogan, just a firm squeeze for 4 seconds and you’re done.


The 5-gallon bag re-sealed.

After re-sealing the entire opening of the 5-gallon bag, I then cut a corner off to insert the oxygen absorber, squeeze out all the air possible and then re-seal that corner.

Corner sealed and ready to go back into storage.

 Some of the reasons why I purchased this sealer?
1.      The width of the seal. 14mm (9/16) vs 2mm found on some alligator style sealers.
2.      Two heat settings, low for thin (under 4 mils) and high for thick (over 4 mils) Mylar bags.
3.      The best tool for sealing a 5-gallon bucket with a large single bag while the bag and food is in the bucket.

Manufacturers Product Description:
Teflon coated, not just covered with Teflon cloth like the majority of sealers. The upper and lower serrated jaws on these will give a high quality, extra wide 9/16" seal x 6 inches long on any Mylar bag. Will seal 6 inches at a time. (For larger bags just make multiple seals and overlap them.)

Source to Purchase:
P/N: IPKHS-606T,  6” Teflon-Coated Hot-Jaw Sealer

Summary:
This Hot Jaw Sealer is a high-quality Mylar Bag sealing tool and easy to use.


5 comments:

  1. Mike,
    Handy tool! I used to use a hair straightener tool to seal the mylar bag.

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  2. Nice piece of equipment. I have a lot of big pails of long term storage food, sealed in nitrogen flushed mylar bags from Waldon Feeds. Once I open one, I've always just tried to use it up as soon as possible, and just rolled up the top of the bag and sealed it with a clip. Your way is much superior.

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    Replies
    1. Waldon Feed, wow I haven' heard about them in years since all the late comers of food storage folks irrupted. I'll have to look them up again.
      Within the last few years I have changed the way I long term store in buckets. I now bag and seal in one gallon quantities. Down side is I can only get 4 gallons of food in a bucket but I feel it's a small price to pay because when I need some more food I only have to open just a gallons worth and the rest is still fresh.

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    2. I bought an entire 18 wheeler load from them in August of 1999. They pulled up at the old church down on the hard surface road, and I had to tranship the whole load up the mountain in my Chevy Luv pickup.

      I still have huge stacks of pails in the large storage room on the lower level. The wife and I are slowly eating out way through it. ;-)

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  3. I picked up a ZIPLOCK sealer. It works good. I don't use it as much as we should. i have two rolls of bag material. Custom make the bag as long or short as you need.

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