After Thanksgiving dinner at my mothers, I set up her Tilia machine to
take care of leftovers. I noticed that the bags were textured and I know
they are expensive. I called up an aquaintance who works in the food
industry and asked if there was a cheaper way to go.

He told me that some machines can use the smooth (and MUCH less
expensive) bags with no problem and said "just test it and see". It
seemed to work just fine on her machine.

Now, any opinions? Is there and advantage to the user of switching to
the non-textured bags (at about 1/10th the price)?

Thanks.

deMille wrote:
>
> After Thanksgiving dinner at my mothers, I set up her Tilia machine to
> take care of leftovers. I noticed that the bags were textured and I know
> they are expensive. I called up an aquaintance who works in the food
> industry and asked if there was a cheaper way to go.
>
> He told me that some machines can use the smooth (and MUCH less
> expensive) bags with no problem and said "just test it and see". It
> seemed to work just fine on her machine.
>
> Now, any opinions? Is there and advantage to the user of switching to
> the non-textured bags (at about 1/10th the price)?
>
> Thanks.

I think the texture, in the form of a grid of grooves, is there
to allow air to be pulled from the back of the package and form
a better vacuum. Other than that I'd say smooth bags could be
used, assuming they're suitable for heat sealing.

Rich McCormack wrote:

> deMille wrote:
>
>>After Thanksgiving dinner at my mothers, I set up her Tilia machine to
>>take care of leftovers. I noticed that the bags were textured and I know
>>they are expensive. I called up an aquaintance who works in the food
>>industry and asked if there was a cheaper way to go.
>>
>>He told me that some machines can use the smooth (and MUCH less
>>expensive) bags with no problem and said "just test it and see". It
>>seemed to work just fine on her machine.
>>
>>Now, any opinions? Is there and advantage to the user of switching to
>>the non-textured bags (at about 1/10th the price)?
>>
>>Thanks.
>
>
> I think the texture, in the form of a grid of grooves, is there
> to allow air to be pulled from the back of the package and form
> a better vacuum. Other than that I'd say smooth bags could be
> used, assuming they're suitable for heat sealing.

Thanks for the response.

It seemed to work just fine. I'll have to give her a call and see how
they look, after being in the freezer a bit. I am looking to buy a
machine of some kind but as mentioned, my buddy says to watch out for
the machines that will only seal proprietary bags and save the cost
difference.

Any other experience?

deMille wrote:

> After Thanksgiving dinner at my mothers, I set up her Tilia machine to
> take care of leftovers. I noticed that the bags were textured and I know
> they are expensive. I called up an aquaintance who works in the food
> industry and asked if there was a cheaper way to go.
>
> He told me that some machines can use the smooth (and MUCH less
> expensive) bags with no problem and said "just test it and see". It
> seemed to work just fine on her machine.
>
> Now, any opinions? Is there and advantage to the user of switching to
> the non-textured bags (at about 1/10th the price)?

I've tried both textured and smooth bags. The FoodSaver didn't do a
very good job with smooth bags.

Pastorio

deMille > wrote:

>After Thanksgiving dinner at my mothers, I set up her Tilia machine to
>take care of leftovers. I noticed that the bags were textured and I know
>they are expensive. I called up an aquaintance who works in the food
>industry and asked if there was a cheaper way to go.
>
>He told me that some machines can use the smooth (and MUCH less
>expensive) bags with no problem and said "just test it and see". It
>seemed to work just fine on her machine.
>
>Now, any opinions? Is there and advantage to the user of switching to
>the non-textured bags (at about 1/10th the price)?
>
>Thanks.

I've tried several different makes and thicknesses of smooth bags in
my Tilia with extremely poor results. The textured bags allow the
machine to draw a very good vacuum before switching on the heat
sealing strip. However, with the smooth bags, it switches to seal
almost immediately, pulling little or no vacuum.
That's just my experience, YMMV.

Ross

Found a great website for bags, that will work with the foodsaver, they
are pre-cut but instead on of like a $1 a bag they can be a low as .15
cents a bag.
http://www.davisonsbutcher.com/DeptC...sp?deptcode=41

Found a great website for bags, that will work with the foodsaver, they
are pre-cut but instead on of like a $1 a bag they can be a low as .15
cents a bag.
http://www.davisonsbutcher.com/DeptC...sp?deptcode=41