I had seen advertisements on social media for a product that I thought was intriguing, and I had wondered if it actually worked very well. My sister’s fiancé had one and said it worked great, he used it all the time. I thought that one day I might buy one.

Then for Christmas, one showed up as a present. I was super excited to try it! It is a vacuum sealer for jars. You can use canning jars, and canning lids minus the rings, and seal anything that will fit into the jars (it is not a replacement for canning long-term food).

The one that I received, as best as I can tell, is from a company called Ternjai. I must say, whomever made this one did their company no favors as there is no name anywhere on the actual product. I read through the instructions and then threw away all the packaging, so without the product name on the product somewhere, it was a little harder to find in the online searches, although there are many companies making this type of product.

Having said that, that’s the only thing wrong with it. When I first received it, I decided to do some experimenting with it. I had broccoli and strawberries in my fridge, so I sealed in jars some of each one of those items, and then left some in the original grocery store packaging to see which lasted longer it.

To my surprise, it lasted almost twice as long as the produce in their original packaging. The broccoli didn’t last quite as long as the strawberries, but both lasted considerably longer in the jars because there’s less oxygen to spoil the food.

The jar sealer is battery powered and rechargeable. It uses a USB C cable that came with it, but didn’t have the block to plug into the outlet. We have plenty of those laying around the house so that wasn’t a big deal.

The sealer fits onto both narrow and wide mouth jars. It’s set up for the narrow mouth jars, but the bottom twists off and to reveal the wide mouth port.

The sealer is simple to use. There is a display screen, although there’s very little information displayed there beyond the seconds it’s been sealing and the power level. There is a power button below the display screen. It automatically shuts off when it’s done sealing, usually taking between 80-90 seconds. The charging port is located above the display.

The unit is compact, I keep mine in my window sill because I use it quite regularly. I especially like it to seal fresh fruits and vegetables. The advertisements say it works well with dry foods, like cereals, pastas, and things like that.

I haven’t tried it on anything like soups or really wet items though. I rarely have anything like that left over with my teenage boys still at home. But the advertisements say you can use it for those as well. I would like to try it with refrigerator pickles or something like that.

The seal is really tight, just like if I had used a canner to seal the jar. You cannot use it as an alternative to canning, as the heating is what kills the bacteria, but I’ve been impressed with how tightly it seals for the short term, and the jars have never lost their seal on anything I’ve used it on.

I think dry foods like dried fruits and vegetables, probably nuts and herbs/spices, would last quite a long time. I have a vacuum sealer and bags that I usually put that kind of stuff in, but I like the idea of having another way to seal that kind of stuff. Plus, the vacuum sealer bags have to be a certain size, regardless of how little the amount is, especially with herbs or mixes that I make for quick cooking. With this, I could put smaller quantities into the tiny half cup jars.

My jars are usually full of food by the end of fall, but by the spring, I have a lot of empty jars that I could put other types of food into for the spring and summer. Plus, who doesn’t need more canning jars, this is a great excuse to buy more!

Overall, I would highly recommend this jar sealer. On Amazon there is a huge variety of these sealers from many different companies. If they all work the same, I’m sure they’re all great, but this one from Ternjai I know works really well.