jeffshoaf

I believe the indicated "spare" part is a gas orifice. Maybe to convert to natural gas?

I'm confused by thIs statement - why would they not work for water processing? I've found several references that indicate they're fine for water bath processing. The only concern I've seen is that you shouldn't placed the bags directly on the bottom of the pot for water bath or pressure canning (be sure to use a rack).

Hmmm... I was researching canning a while back and everything I looked at still had the whole jar sanitizing thing as part of the process. It would be difficult for me to find the space to do the sanitizing and keep the jars isolated between sanitizing and filling. Without that requirement, I'd be able to do the actual pressurizing out on the screened-in deck and not heat up the kitchen. My folks always had a huge garden when I was growing up and my mother did a lot of canning in the kitchen of our non- air conditioned house and it was pretty swampy in the whole house during that process! I think the canned bags would be more convenient to store than jars as well. I tend to keep my freezers full of meat so I'm looking at alternatives to freezing for fruit and soups/sauces. Yes, I'm aware of the pressure requirement; pretty much every source I've referenced has even recommended using the jar canning pressures and times, but stress the need to add additional time (30% more time). I think you got it backwards tho (typo?) - jams/jellies/high acid foods can be water-bath canned since the acid helps kill the bad stuff that the higher temps take care of during pressure canning.

Any of you chamber vac owners tried retort canning using the retort bags? May be my next rabbit hole... Seems to be a bit less meticulous than canning in jars since you don't have to do all the sanitization steps that you do with jars before filling.

I just linked to the thread and that's the pic that's displayed! I did verify that it goes to the 1st post on the thread and not the one with your pic.

Be sure to look at Arizona BBQ Grill Works as well (https://www.azbbqgrills.com/) - I looked at Hooray and everyone else I could find before buying mine last year and ended up with AZ's brick-lined Argentinean grill. Hooray has some really nice features but the price was substantially higher than AZ's; I had good timing for once and ordered mine just shortly before they had to raise prices due to increasing material costs. I documented the journey here:

I've noticed here and on other sites dedicated to the art of cooking outdoors that a lot of folks tend to buy instead of making their sauces and rubs. While I don't really have an issue with this and I usually keep some Bone Suckin' Sauce on hand for "emergencies", it strikes me as a bit odd that folks basically out source a big component of their flavor efforts on a high percentage of all of their cooks seeing that so many of us go overboard on other ingredients, equipment, and techniques. It's it just for convenience? Not able to match a favorite commercial item? Can't find ingredients? Thoughts?

That's an average-sized chupacabra in these parts.

I've been reasonably happy with the nighttime video, but I don't have anything to compare it to. Here's a recent example. 1639754621.mp4

Amazon prime day(s) are 7/12/2022 - 7/13/2022 and they're supposed to have a lot of home automation and electronics stuff on sale so this might be good timing on your part! I don't have a full security system but I do have several Google Nest cams and doorbells that I'm reasonably happy with other than the one watching my driveway is prone to interpret heavy rain as a vehicle. One nice feature of the newest models is that they're battery powered but you can plug 'em in full time; even if plugged in, they call back to battery power so they keep recording when there's a power outage. They also have a decent amount of internal memory so they also keep recording when your WiFi is down; you can access those recordings once WiFi is restored.

I ended up getting this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09H6W27CB?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details I'm not sure that I will like that it's rechargeable and uses a propitiatory cable but I like the scale so far. It's not more accurate than the replaced scale but it does show an additional digit when in ounces mode and it responds much quicker so it's easier to hit my target weights. The instructions say to remove the batteries if immersing in water; that's an easy tradeoff since no screwdriver is needed to remove the battery cover unlike other waterproof scammed I looked at. It survived a quick rinse in the sink with the batteries in place after I got flour all over it while I was parceling out pizza flour for vacuum packing as mentioned in the vacuum sealer thread.

Avid Armor just announced a new chamber machine with an oil pump. Made in Netherlands; I haven't looked into it but since it's European, I wonder if it's just a rebranded machine from another manufacturer. https://avidarmor.com/new-avid-armor-chamber-vacuum-sealer-euro-series-es41-oil-pump-machine/

I received the Avid Armor. USV32 chamber sealer a while back; haven't used it much but I've liked the performance for everything I've done. It has a dry pump and is just a bit louder than my old foodsaver. Packaged and sealed 5 bags (four 2.2 lb bags and one 2 lb bag from an 11 lb bag - yeah, i lost a bit to distraction) of 00 pizza flour for the freezer today and made a video of one bag being pumped and sealed Sorry for the phone rotation midway - i decided portrait was a better view and thought the recording would adjust.

I just got a Maine Coon kitten last week for my 2 year old floof nugget... Meet Gumbo and Jambalaya!

I wasn't going to bring it up, but have you seen the old movie "No Time for Sargents"?

He's not claiming to be waterproof or even resistant...

Any recommendations on a reasonably priced set of digital water-proof or -resistant kitchen scales? I keep spilling water on mine and it goes crazy for a day or two as it dries out; of course, this always happens at the least convenient time. This time I'm making a loaf of sourdough for a Mum's Day potluck and I'm not an experienced enough sourdough baker to have faith in the results without weighing everything. Yes, I know "reasonably priced" is subjective - I'm talking BGE reasonable, not KK reasonable...😁

Just went and measured.... From the back to the front of the fire box is 36". The handles on the front of the fire box add another 3".

I had the dimensions written down but I tossed those notes once mine was delivered. I'll try to remember to measure tomorrow but if you call them, they can provide then in short order. I do have a few dimensions I found some dimensions in some of my pre-ordering emails. Base: 57L x 23W x 18H (note that this does not include the portion of the grill that hangs over in the back sheet the brasserio sits) Height from ground to top of wheels: 78" Width from outside to outside of hand wheels: 63"

it's a very nice cover! Even has separate pieces to cover the hand wheels.

The Avid Armor is back in stock so I ordered one via my phone before I got out of bed this morning. https://avidarmor.com/avid-armor-ultra-series-usv32-chamber-vacuum-sealer-system/

Thanks! I'm going to have to store it between uses and I think this one is a bit too heavy to move around much.

I'm leaning towards the Avid Armor chamber sealers, most likely the USV32: https://avidarmor.com/avid-armor-ultra-series-usv32-chamber-vacuum-sealer-system/, but may go with the smaller USV20 if it restocked first (they're both out of stock). The larger model is larger (😁) and had a stainless steel interior, while the smaller one has a plastic kind interior (con) and an accessory port. These do use a dry pump but I'm not prepared to pay for one with an oil pump or deal with the extra size/weight. Something I discovered while researching these is that concern about the chamber capacity can be mitigated by reversing a regular textured vac bag so it's hanging outside the chamber with the open end clamped in the sealer bar so the chamber sealer acts as a regular channel sealer. Something else I stumbled on while researching is freeze drying at home; I have absolutely no need or real use for a freeze drying appliance but...

I'm looking at chamber sealers now; any fresh advice or recommendations? I understand the difference between the dry and oil pumps and know the oil pump is more better, but have any of you actually had a dry pump fail? Any issues with using my remaining stock of the textured foodsaver material in a chamber vac machine? My sister stopped using hers and gave me her remaining rolls; she bought one of these those QVC "deals" so it's a pretty good inventory. My edge sealer is on its last leg so I won't be passing it on to anyone else. ANOVA has recently introduced a chamber sealer; anyone seen it? It's a dry pump but relatively inexpensive and they're known for they're customer service. https://anovaculinary.com/anova-precision-chamber-vacuum-sealer/

If they're like the default probes that came with my signals, you'll have to straighten them a bit for them to go thru the port. KKs walls are thick; I don't think any probe with a 90° bend will go thru. I carefully bent my signals probes and my BBQ Guru probes by sticking them in between the slats on my KK side table up to the probe bend and gently pulling them straight enough to go thru the port. If you use pliers, be careful to not squeeze the probes too tightly and crimping them.