Sealer not working, burn spots, unsealed spots

[Jon Sawyer]

*EDIT* Thank you Umai for making it right, I’m cooking my steak tonight! Woot.

I just got out the kit my wife ordered me for christmas, been waiting to use it.

$120 at the butcher later, and I’m stuck.

The sealer burns some spots, doesnt even melt others. I’m down to a single bag big enough for this slab of beef, and I really don’t know what to do now.

Any suggestions?

[Ron Pratt]

When you consider the price of the bag if you mess them up then you might want to use a far simpler method to be practical. First of all a perfect vacuum is not critical. Knowing that then here is the way to get the task done without a FS at all.

Slip the un-rinsed sub-primal into the UMAi bag following the directions and then start pressing the air out by pushing it toward the open end. This starts making the bag adhere to the meat as well. Then gather the open end and bunch it like you do to close a bag of bread. But first insert a piece of tubing or a long straw, but a flexible tubing works best. Then while continuing to press out as much air as you can start sucking the remaining air out. Actually if you can get assistance then 3 hands are better than 1 since one hand will be busy grasping the bag end closely against the tubing. Once it appears you have a good simple vacuum then quickly remove the tube and close the bag with a bread twisty wire.

If you are aging a boneless rib eye sub-primal lay the meat on its fat side so that you can see the “hills and valleys” where the bones were cut out. Pay attention to fairly well getting the air out of the valleys.

Sorry to hear this – that’s why I always tell people to use their first bag as a practice bag and seal it and reseal it in another place until you get the hang of how your sealer will react rather than go through all your bags. I must have sealed my first one 6 or 7 times.

BTW were you using the VacMouse which is that white plastic mesh?
Ron

[Jon Sawyer]

Sorry for my less clear OP.

I’m saying that the element in the sealer has hotspots, that damages the, and doesnt provide anything remotely near a seal. ITs not usable. The hotspots burn and melt some spots of the “seal” while completely not touching inch or more at a time.

When you consider the price of the kit, you would think that Umai would employ some QC before shipping.

Yes I tried using the vacmouse, it burns holes in them.

I need a suggestion of a readily available sealer than I might be able to obtain locally, instead of the low quality defective on that comes with the kit.

[Jim]

If you are having trouble with the sealer UMAi Dry® will replace it along with the bags you lost.

[Jon Sawyer]

Jim,

That would be awesome, how do I go about that.

FWIW My neighboor gave me an old one, food saver i think, that worked perfect first try. Now I’m just excited that I have it done. Some how I just need to manage to wait a month for steak, which is probably the hardest part.

[Jim]

It’s my understanding that we have your information through the contact page and your order, so we will be sending out a replacement on Monday. We have been using these model units for a couple of years now and we hardly ever get this type of complaint. But every once in a while a rotten apple can slip through.

[Michele]

:unsure: I messed up my first Umai dry steak bag 10 minutes ago.
Learning curve they call it! We pulled out another bag and started it all over again.
Problem is also that people get confused between Vaccum packed and Umai packed, it looks like a common mistake.
But I had zero problem with my 1st salami attempt.

[Jon Sawyer]

My issue was a faulty sealer that came with the set. It wont even seal normal bags. Umai more than made up for it! Glad they stand behind their product.

[Ron Pratt]

quote michoutim” post=7858:

:unsure: I messed up my first Umai dry steak bag 10 minutes ago.
Learning curve they call it! We pulled out another bag and started it all over again.
Problem is also that people get confused between Vaccum packed and Umai packed, it looks like a common mistake.
But I had zero problem with my 1st salami attempt.

Sorry you had a problem, but here I go again like a broken record…after you failed your first attempt, why get out another new bag? Why not use the first bag to practice with? I must have sealed my first one 6 or 7 times until I got the hang of how my sealer was going to react with the UMAi Bag material. Now I’m off my soap box! Ron

[Jon Sawyer]

quote RRP” post=7908:

quote michoutim” post=7858:

:unsure: I messed up my first Umai dry steak bag 10 minutes ago.
Learning curve they call it! We pulled out another bag and started it all over again.
Problem is also that people get confused between Vaccum packed and Umai packed, it looks like a common mistake.
But I had zero problem with my 1st salami attempt.

Sorry you had a problem, but here I go again like a broken record…after you failed your first attempt, why get out another new bag? Why not use the first bag to practice with? I must have sealed my first one 6 or 7 times until I got the hang of how my sealer was going to react with the UMAi Bag material. Now I’m off my soap box! Ron

I found the actual sealing easy and trivial, once I had a working sealer. Just went perfect once I had working equipment.

[Michele]

Yes, many thanks RRP! I’ll do that next time, though next time will be much better.

[Michele]

My Luvelo sealer works fine, the Umai is still clinging firmly to the roast 😛 and I’ll taste it next week, when it is 3 weeks old.
I’ll only have to decide whether I want to peel it off a bit or not! :S
I am very glad i found out about this beautiful Umai concept. Quite by “chance”, by the way!

[Anthony Caronia]

I have an old Sicilian way of vacuum packing your Prime cut….Place in new UMAi bag then dip it in a 5 gal bucket of water, this with will cause all the air to escape thru the top of the bag as you lower the bag into the bucket. Then pull it out twist the top and use a twisty….This will get about 90%+ air out of the bag…There you go….I just saved you $125.00 for a new vac sealer…No buy more bags.

[Jim]

Nice! We call it the Archimedes method. Was he from Sicily? :unsure: I am guessing not from Syracuse, NY

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