Vacuum canning, brine in your pump??

[radioguy]

I'm up to my ears in cucumbers this summer. I've been making vacuum packed dills. I have to thank SmokinAl for his recipe and pickle thread. I am using Al's recipe just modified for my liking. I am using the food saver brand jar sealers for both narrow and wide mouth jars.
Problem is I keep getting brine in my vacuum sealer. I had tried leaving more headroom and gravity to keep it from getting in the pump.
I built this little jar to act as a trap for the brine. It works perfect!!. I was considering soldering brass tubing to a lid. But ended up getting 1/4" hose barbed fittings. Drilled a .400 hole to accept 1/8 NPT. Threaded into lid and sealed with gasket sealer. I did add a short piece of copper tube to direct fluid to the bottom of the jar.

RG

 

[Brokenhandle]

Good idea! We also got fluid into our new vacmaster 380 and took out a solenoid . We still use our old food saver for doing jars now, just leave a little more head room. I think our vacmaster was using more suction than our food saver does

Ryan

 

[daveomak]

Think about a needle valve in the lid of that trap.... Using it, you can regulate the vacuum applied and reduce the "BURPS" until they have calmed down allowing for full vacuum....
I would go with about 3/4 - 1" headspace in the jars....

 

[Steve H]

Thanks for posting your idea. I thought of the same thing for along time. But never got around to making one. I was thinking of using a small water separator that is used with air regulators. My thought was to keep the collection container small. So it doesn't increase the vacuum time too much. Proper headspace is important. And watch the hose while you are drawing a vacuum. If you are drawing liquid up the hose you should be able to see it. And stop the vacuum.

 

[radioguy]

Thanks for posting your idea. I thought of the same thing for along time. But never got around to making one. I was thinking of using a small water separator that is used with air regulators. My thought was to keep the collection container small. So it doesn't increase the vacuum time too much. Proper headspace is important. And watch the hose while you are drawing a vacuum. If you are drawing liquid up the hose you should be able to see it. And stop the vacuum.

Steve thanks for the comment. Not sure about the size, I had a pint jar and it worked perfectly using 2 cycles on my vacuum pump. I think the additional volume helped equalize things if that makes sense. Most jars I could hear the lid pop. All I know is I was getting brine in the pump from time to time.
Wide mouth jars work really well, I've had some problems with the small mouth jars but I get them to seal eventually. I did find a 1/2 pint jelly jar that I'll try next time. Be sure to use stiff hose that won't collapse.
Dave, thanks for the suggestion. I was just trying a simple thing to keep the pump dry.

RG