Collected Thoughts

was fooling around on Amazon.com, and found this comment/hint:

Excellent product! I've had a Tilia FoodSaver Vac for about 5 years (I asked for it for my birthday) and have never had a problem with it. If the person who said that one corner didn't seal will check the rubber on the lid, it may have slid to one side and isn't making contact with the bag when trying to seal it. This would make it not seal completely. No one has offered hints to make using the Tilia FoodSaver Vac more economical or practical so here are some suggestions: (1) When making a bag, if the meat(as an example) is a steak 8 inches long, make the bag at least 12 inches long. The reason for this is that the bags can be washed and reused over and over until they're too small for anything to fit in and still seal.
(2) After sealing the bag, there is about an inch of waste bag material on the end you just sealed so take a felt tip marker and write on that end, what it is, the weight, and the date. When you open the bag to use the "meat", cut off the end you wrote on, wash the bag, reuse it and write on the new end when you seal it again. (3) For sanitary purposes even though I wash the bag, when I reuse it for meat, I wrap the meat in plastic wrap before putting it in the bag. (4) If you want to put liquid in a bag for sealing, put the liquid in a zip lock bag and freeze it and when it's frozen, take the contents out of the zip lock and put it in a Tilia FoodSaver Vac bag and seal it as you normally would. If you try to seal a liquid in the bag unfrozen, the vac will pull the liquid into the motor and ruin it. I hope this helps some of you.