 Silicon Gasket Maker
My Foodsaver has a couple of small areas where the teflon strip has deteriorated/burned, consequently these areas get too hot and melt through the bag frequently ruining the seal.
I saw a post that suggested using RTV red gasket maker purchased from an auto parts or hardware store. Ace Hardware didn't have red but had "Ultra Copper" by Permatex which has a higher temperature rating (700 F) than red, about $9.00 for a 3 oz tube. Using the supplied application nozzle cut open just below the tip at its smallest diameter I applied a 1/8 inch bead down the center of the teflon sealing strip along its entire length then lightly ran my finger down the bead to spread it out in a very thin layer along the entire width of the sealing strip making sure there weren't any thin/bare spots. I let it cure for about 6 hours (the instruction on the tube say 24 hours) and tried sealing a bag and it worked. Also did 10 repetitive seals at the highest setting and each came out fine and the gasket material remained in tact with no smoke or fumes.
Trial and error tips and discoveries:
1. When running your finger down the bead do it with one motion from end to end. If you stop in the middle you'll leave a ripple.
2. Once cured the gasket material it is a little fragile because of its thinness and can tear. Very light rubbing with hot water and soap to clean is about all it will tolerate, no scrubbing.
3. If the gasket material does tear after it's cured, you can peal the whole thing off and do a new application. Nice to know once you've done it you can go back to where you started and haven't made things worse.
4. The technical sheet for the gasket maker says it's non-toxic.
5. Don't know if you can just make "spot" repairs or not. The gasket material doesn't adhere strongly to the teflon and may peal off after a short time.
6. I don't know what the longevity of the repair will be.
7. You'll (I am) more likely to misplace or lose the tube of gasket maker before you ever use it up.
8. It looks a little tacky, at least when I do it, so you may not want to use your vacuum packer as a display model.
Hope this is of help to some.
Mike  |