Mylar bags
- Thread starter geirove
- Start date
- Status
I use them for short term storage. I would be interested to hear from the guys who vacuum seal them as well.
I just started using them because guys here said they were good for long term use.
I don't vacuum out the air from the bags; I just use a hot iron to seal the bags.
I put pouches of Country Gentleman and American Pride in them, and Carter Hall; square tins, too.
I have a few pounds of bulk tobacco in them, too.
I'll let you know in a couple years.
I don't vacuum out the air from the bags; I just use a hot iron to seal the bags.
I put pouches of Country Gentleman and American Pride in them, and Carter Hall; square tins, too.
I have a few pounds of bulk tobacco in them, too.
I'll let you know in a couple years.
I've been experimenting with Mylar bags for tobacco storage for the past three years or so. Mylar, used in a laminate with other plastics and foil, can provide an absolute moisture, oxygen and light barrier. The quality of Mylar-laminate bags however varies considerably. I suspect that some of the cheaper bags don't contain much, if any Mylar. My observations:
1) The thicker the bag, the better. 4 or 5 mil is what you want for long-term storage.
2) The Ziploc seal is the weak link in the chain. Some bags seal well initially, but all bags will leak over time. More so if they are opened closed more than a few times.
3) The cheap ESD, transparent Mylar laminate bags are great for short-term storage, not so good in the long-term. It's the zip seal that fails. I put up some blends two years ago in cheap ESD bags, and opened them last month. Some were still perfect, others bone dry. Bad zip seals.
4) Your best bet is to repackage your baccy into 50gr. amounts, then heat seal the bag. That eliminates long-term zip seal problems.
5) Keep in mind that the FoodSaver-type vacuum bags aren't Mylar laminates.
In short, storing tobacco in Mylar-laminate bags can be a good way to go. You have to be certain of the quality of the bag, though and with the market flooded with cheap Chinese goods, that task becomes difficult. Sorbent Systems is a good vendor, but their website is difficult to navigate, and their minimums can be high.
I now use zip-seal Mylar bags for short-term use only. I store all my open tins in these bags, and so far, it's working out great.
I use heat-sealed Mylar laminate vacuum bags for some long-term storage, primarily for large amounts of whole leaf, but still use Ball jars for everything else. I've never had a jar seal fail, and glass proven itself over lo these thousands of years.
1) The thicker the bag, the better. 4 or 5 mil is what you want for long-term storage.
2) The Ziploc seal is the weak link in the chain. Some bags seal well initially, but all bags will leak over time. More so if they are opened closed more than a few times.
3) The cheap ESD, transparent Mylar laminate bags are great for short-term storage, not so good in the long-term. It's the zip seal that fails. I put up some blends two years ago in cheap ESD bags, and opened them last month. Some were still perfect, others bone dry. Bad zip seals.
4) Your best bet is to repackage your baccy into 50gr. amounts, then heat seal the bag. That eliminates long-term zip seal problems.
5) Keep in mind that the FoodSaver-type vacuum bags aren't Mylar laminates.
In short, storing tobacco in Mylar-laminate bags can be a good way to go. You have to be certain of the quality of the bag, though and with the market flooded with cheap Chinese goods, that task becomes difficult. Sorbent Systems is a good vendor, but their website is difficult to navigate, and their minimums can be high.
I now use zip-seal Mylar bags for short-term use only. I store all my open tins in these bags, and so far, it's working out great.
I use heat-sealed Mylar laminate vacuum bags for some long-term storage, primarily for large amounts of whole leaf, but still use Ball jars for everything else. I've never had a jar seal fail, and glass proven itself over lo these thousands of years.
I'm going on about 3 years too. I only buy the thick mylar bags from Mylar Pro. I've bought cheap little "mylar bags" from China and I might as well have wrapped by tobacco in a paper towel. A fair amount of my tobacco gets an O2 absorber added to it. I don't know how that affects anything though.I use the O2 absorber for trying to prevent the decay of things like Latakia and Aromatics. Maybe I'll pop one of those bags open and check. I've taken a sealed mylar bag with 1 year of age on it, opened it and the tobacco was as fresh as the day I put it in. I haven't opened any of my 3 year stuff though.
The bags I buy are the ziplock style. After I zip them shut I seal the ends with an impulse sealer.
The bags I buy are the ziplock style. After I zip them shut I seal the ends with an impulse sealer.
I stored a fresh bulk purchase of Rattray's Hal O'The Wynd in one of Iwan Ries' PermaMoist zip-lock Tobacco Pouches, and after 5 yrs. it was just fine. Another bag, after 8 yrs., needed a little re-hydrating. I think Woodsroad's theory about the Ziploc seal being the weak link is probably right. I think this is a great product (given these limits).
I have sealed my mylar bags with an iron. But its the quality of the bags im worried about, they are from an Chinese ebay seller. As I wrote this post I did a quality check, I filled a bucket of water and held a 50g bag under for a minute. And its sealed. But for how long?
The bags just seems fine to me.
Thank you for your responses, I will look into this. But in my country (Norway) we dont have balljars amd alot of american sellers wont ship here.
Another thing, I store my tins in one big storage container. When I open the box the one with tins smell, the one with bags dont. I guess I just have to monitor my tobacco very frequently
The bags just seems fine to me.
Thank you for your responses, I will look into this. But in my country (Norway) we dont have balljars amd alot of american sellers wont ship here.
Another thing, I store my tins in one big storage container. When I open the box the one with tins smell, the one with bags dont. I guess I just have to monitor my tobacco very frequently
You can probably heat seal them, but it's really not necessary.
Iwan Ries ships internationally -- if you opt for the PermaMoist bags.
Iwan Ries ships internationally -- if you opt for the PermaMoist bags.
I put any square tins I'm ageing into Mylar bags that are just big enough for one tin. All my bulk goes into Mason jars.
I also only buy from Mylar Pro. I believe they are available now on Amazon. I heat sealed 100s of pairs of tins in bags about two years ago and store them in large airtight trunks I picked up from The Container Store.
Recently I purchased larger size Mylar Pro bags with the purpose of sealing some of the 1.5 lb boxes of flakes and some of the Sam Gawith 250g boxes along with bags of Esoterica I've got tucked away.
Moving my cellar into mylar bags has given me peace of mind. In the next year or so I will be moving overseas for a couple years and while I'm gone I know my cellar will be fine in storage.
Recently I purchased larger size Mylar Pro bags with the purpose of sealing some of the 1.5 lb boxes of flakes and some of the Sam Gawith 250g boxes along with bags of Esoterica I've got tucked away.
Moving my cellar into mylar bags has given me peace of mind. In the next year or so I will be moving overseas for a couple years and while I'm gone I know my cellar will be fine in storage.
So I don't have to look for other threads, what size Mylar bags do you guys use.
1.) for regular size round tins?
2.) for Esoterica bags?
3.) for Penzance size tins?
4.) for square tins?
Thanks
1.) for regular size round tins?
2.) for Esoterica bags?
3.) for Penzance size tins?
4.) for square tins?
Thanks
I use MylarPro bags. Each manufacturer's dimensions might be slightly different but here's what I get with mine.
A quart bag with ziplock: I can fit 1 round tin or 2 square tins. The squares a pretty tight but they do fit.
For a 1 gallon with ziplock I can fit 4 rounds tins completely flat in the bag and 5 tins with the bag bulged out. Hope that helps.
For 1# of bulk I take the tobacco out of the bag it came in and pour it into a 1 gallon Mylar bag.
A quart bag with ziplock: I can fit 1 round tin or 2 square tins. The squares a pretty tight but they do fit.
For a 1 gallon with ziplock I can fit 4 rounds tins completely flat in the bag and 5 tins with the bag bulged out. Hope that helps.
For 1# of bulk I take the tobacco out of the bag it came in and pour it into a 1 gallon Mylar bag.
My experience with MylarPro bags accords well with that stated above. I've had a substantial amount of bulk in heat-sealed gallon bags for over two years and which are stored in Rubbermaid tubs. Tellingly there is no smell of tobacco in those tubs whereas other tubs with sealed tins are saturated with tobacco smell. The ziplocks are obviously not as efficient as heat-sealing but they are still far better than the seals on conventional bags. I've kept opened tins in zipped only bags for up to a year with no dehydration at all. I can't say enough good things about the MylarPro bags.
- Status