cheap DIY ways to degass

So I’ve been experimenting with cheap, DIY degassing options and have some results to share.

Now these are for those who just want to do a few molds for fun and/or who don’t want to spend a lot or who won’t be doing a lot of molds often enough to want to invest in something that takes up more space and money.

Option #1 : handheld accessory on a food vacuum sealer and a simple glass jar with a metal screw-on lid with a hole cut into it as the “chamber”.

Test #1:
I have a higher end FoodSaver that has a corded accessory for vacuum sealing jars so that was the first one I tested as this is something I already had on hand. So I tested it out
on two molds, doing 5 minutes on one and 10 minutes on the other. And it worked with both molds and gave me beautiful, almost bubble free molds. I also tested it at 2 minutes but that didn’t do a very good job as there were just as many bubbles as if I hadn’t used it at all.

The drawback on this is that it has an automatic shut off somewhere around the minute and a half mark and you have to keep turning it back on every five seconds (yes I timed that) until the rest of the time is up or you’ll still have bubbles in the mold. I found that the good time mark between less bubbles and my patience in standing there turning the machine back on every five seconds was the 5 minute vacuum time.

Test #2:

Now while it did work for a bit, after using it 10 times it wouldn't seal to the jar lid so it pretty much wasn't working out well. It also got very VERY hot to the touch and I had a hard time holding it in place and once it wouldn't seal to the lid that just made it useless. This one also had to run for 5 minutes before it did a good enough job of degassing and once it got hot, it would soon be too hot to hold for long and I just couldn’t hold it in place once it wouldn’t seal to the jar lid. The battery life just would not last after using it on 10 molds and it would keep getting hot faster and faster until it didn’t even have enough suction to seal to my skin and that was right after a full charge.

Option #2 : an air pump for like mattresses and such :

I used an actual air pump : Etekcity Electric Air Pump (corded) and the same glass jar with the hole in the lid.
Test #1:
This one worked even better since it didn't have an automatic shut off at one and a half minutes and being corded, it also had more power. The first one I used also got hot at one and a half minutes but it didn't get too hot to hold until almost 4 and a half minutes. And that was the first time I used it. But it did give off a hot plastic smell and shut itself off at 5 minutes. Then it wouldn't work for 15-20 minutes until it completely cooled off but by then I had already jumped on Amazon and gotten a replacement. The second one came the next day and I tested it with just 2 minutes and it seemed to do a fairly good job - still got hot but still took out enough of the bubbles to make it a success.

Test #2:
Now due to it getting too hot for me to hold in place, I had to find an alternative to holding it in my hands.

The drawback of this one is that it does shut itself off if it gets too hot and then you have to wait for it to completely cool off almost to the point of it being “stone cold” or it won’t turn back on. But the more you used it, the shorter the time between getting hot and shutting itself off. The way I figured out how to get around this was to do something I normally never would – I put it in the fridge to cool it off quickly. Be sure to UNPLUG it first but it does work to speed up the cooling process so you can move onto the next mold unless you have 30 minutes or more to wait between molds.