Best Impulse Heat Sealers for Food Storage
If you are looking to seal plastic or mylar bags, an impulse heat sealer can make it easy. Load the bag, position the bag in the sealer, and then put the seal arm down to seal it in an instant. Easy enough, but the best impulse heat sealer does it quickly, efficiently, and doesn’t break the bank. There are several options to consider when it comes to an impulse sealer: capacity, speed, maintenance, etc.
This is where we come in. We’ve researched the best impulse heat sealers, tested them, and now the results are in: the overall best, a budget option, and an upgrade option. If you need to seal some bags for food storage (or other projects), one of our recommendations will close the deal.
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Best Impulse Sealer
Vimi PFS-300
Effective, Versatile, and Inexpensive
Seal your stuff quickly using an impulse sealer without the fluff and frills.
*Price at time of publishing; check for price changes or sales.
This impulse sealer from China will get the job done. It doesn’t claim to be more than it is- a simple sealer in a plastic frame. You wouldn’t expect to be putting this through too much abuse as a kitchen prep tool, but it is still relatively durable. The main thing is that it gets bags sealed.
Specifications
- Seal bar length: 12″
- Seal bar width: 3mm
- Frame: ABS plastic
- Power: 110V, 400W running
- Size: 16″ L x 3″ D x 6″ H
- Weight: 4 pounds
- Includes: 1 pad and 1 strip for easy maintenance
Despite being my overall best pick and favorite impulse sealer, there are some drawbacks to it as well.
Pros & Cons
The thing I like most about the Vimi sealer is the price- you can’t beat it. You get a wide 12″ seal distance, making it work for a variety of bags, both large and small. It seals mylar bags effectively with a tight stripe that is easy to position over any tear notches. It comes with a spare heat strip and press pad, but I haven’t had to swap it out yet. When I disassembled it to check out the quality, they were easy enough to remove and put back.
Some of the drawbacks include the longer seal time for thicker mylar bags. I found that the 6 setting on this model is the ‘sweet spot’ for mylar, although you can turn it down to 5 when it heats fully after a few minutes of use. The plastic feet are also slightly wobbly on my model. Not enough to affect safety or operation, but enough to notice on a flat counter.
The Vimi PFS-300 Impulse Heat Sealer can give you good value.
Mylar Impulse Sealer
Wallaby 12″
Effective, Efficient, and Easy to Use
A quality impulse sealer for those serious about consistent seals for their food storage.
*Price at time of publishing; check for price changes or sales.
Also available to buy at Wallaby. Use code TRUEPREP for an additional $5 off.
Multiple settings and a smart finish light let the Wallaby take over and make food storage easy. Designed to handle a wide range of bags, especially mylar, this impulse sealer has your pantry covered.
Specifications
- Seal bar length: 8″
- Seal bar width: 5mm
- Frame: Aluminum
- Size: 18″ L x 4″ D x 7″ H
- Power: 110V, 300W running
- Weight: 8 pounds
- Includes: 2 pads, 2 strips, and 2 fuses for easy maintenance
Although the Wallaby is a clear upgrade over my top pick, there are some drawbacks as well.
Pros & Cons
The wider seal bar allows the Wallaby to transfer a lot of energy to the seal, making it seal mylar more quickly than other options. It’s the only option we compared that was designed specifically for mylar bags. It comes with spare fuses, strips, and pads, and even includes a handle strap, making it more compact for storage.
One downside is that the 8″ length may not accommodate larger mylar bags. Wallaby does offer a 12″ and a 16″ model of this same sealer, but they cost up to twice as much.
If you are looking for the best of the best, pick up a Wallaby Impulse Sealer.
Budget Heat Sealer
Iron or Hair Straightener
DIY, Versatile, and Effective
Skip the dedicated impulse heat sealer and re-use a small tool you already own.
An impulse sealer isn’t completely necessary, especially for quick jobs or those just starting. It may take a bit more time and some practice, but you can heat seal with small appliances you may already have on hand- hair straighteners and clothes irons.
Hair straighteners are ideal since they have a long and narrow profile to reach across the opening of the bags you are trying to seal, and you don’t have to lay the bag on a surface to get it done.
Pros & Cons
The biggest pro here is that you probably already own at least one of these tools. Raid your laundry room or bathroom and get what you need- I borrowed my wife’s hair straightener long before I was using impulse sealers.
One difficulty you may encounter is having to manually move the iron as you seal. It takes some getting used to to get the timing right- too fast and you won’t seal all the way or will have gaps. Too slow and you’ll burn through, or you could damage your irons. It’s better to move quickly and go over it again than to let an iron linger and destroy the bag.
Another thing to consider is the heat setting (or lack of adjustability) on these irons. You may want to layer wax paper or other protective surfaces over thin or fast-melting bags if you plan to use these for sealing.
Save yourself a few bucks and use what you already have if you aren’t tackling large projects or an entire pantry of food storage.
Top Impulse Sealers Reviewed & Compared
Our research narrowed the field down to several heat sealers that we compared: Wallaby, Vimi, Harvest Right, MSW, Metronic, and more.
You can see our full list of review criteria below in the What to Look For section, with an explanation for each.
We focused on sealers with a maximum capacity of 12 inches or less, just as a baseline to compare costs and features. All of our picks come in a few size options, including 8″ and 16″.
We’re always looking for new and better equipment, so if you have an impulse sealer that you swear by, let us know in the comments. Also, if you have a DIY solution, as we do for our budget option, let us know. We review most of our tested equipment annually, so we can always get it in the next round and see if it makes the cut, and we can see if it will beat out our top picks.
Comparison Table
| Impulse Sealer | Recommendation | Price* | Power | Seal Length | Seal Width |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vimi PFS-300 | Best Overall | $24 | 400W | 12″ | 3mm |
| Wallaby 8″ | Best for Mylar Bags | $41 | 300W | 8″ | 5mm |
| Clothing or Hair Iron | Best Alternative for Budgets | Varies | Varies | Manual | Manual |
| Vimi PFS-200 | $21 | 300W | 8″ | 2mm | |
| Romech 12″ | $40 | 400W | 12″ | 3mm | |
| Metronic 12″ | $60 | 400W | 12″ | 3mm | |
| LinsnField Sealer Pro | $90 | 400W | 12″ | 7mm | |
| Harvest Right 12″ | $130 | 400W | 12″ | 5mm | |
| AIE-400C | $170 | 750W | 16″ | 2mm |
What to Look For
The best heat sealers have several important features to look for:
- Value
- Capacity
- Speed
- Maintenance
- Quality
When you get the right blend of these, you can find a sealer that will consistently close bags without any leaks. Below, we break down what each of these features means for the impulse sealers that truly set themselves apart.
Value: Cost vs. Benefit
The amount of money you spend on something like a heat sealer shouldn’t blow out your entire budget. Don’t go overspending or overdo it. Budget according to your risk and your needs, rather than just spending lavishly.
On the flip side, you don’t want to go too cheap or just plain get the wrong thing. There are handheld heat sealers that are no different than a hair straightener but are marketed and marked up as heat sealers. Don’t go out and get something scammy- you’ll be relying on the seal it makes.
You never want to spend too much money on one resource, especially something like a small appliance with a niche use. It’s better to diversify your preparedness gear to make sure you are covered for a wide range of scenarios.
Capacity
There is a wide range of lengths available for heat sealers, and the larger you go, the more versatile they are. For home use, you’ll find most impulse sealers go up to 18″, which can typically handle two-gallon bags.
Capacity can also be measured by the thickness of the mylar bags that the impulse sealer can close. Very thick bags may need a higher heat setting and a longer set time to completely seal.
Check the manual of your specific model to see which setting to use for the various thicknesses of plastic and mylar.
Speed
Impulse sealers are meant to be quick. You don’t need to set the arm on the bag and wait- it should only take a few seconds to seal, depending on the thickness of the bag.
Both models we suggest have a finish light, and depending on the instructions, you may want to delay a little past that to ensure a good seal.
Maintenance
The main consumable parts of an impulse heat sealer are:
- Fuses – be sure to have spares on hand to easily swap out blown fuses
- Heat strips – a heating element that can be replaced quickly when it stops working
- Pads – pads become damaged with use, so you need to be able to swap these as well.
All of these are relatively easy to swap out on most models we researched and tested, so combined with the maintenance instructions, you shouldn’t have much trouble. Our upgrade pick did come with plenty of spare parts to make maintenance much easier. The quality of the parts can extend their life, making maintenance less frequent.
Quality
When you invest in any appliance, quality is important. Especially if that appliance is a part of your emergency plans. Besides the manufacturing quality inherent in an impulse sealer, the service quality is important too.
You’ll also need a reliable supplier for your sealer because there are replaceable components inside of them that you will either need to have on hand or be able to get them quickly. In our tests, our upgrade pick (Wallaby) and Harvest Right had the two most responsive service departments.
How to Use an Impulse Heat Sealer
Using an impulse heat sealer may seem easy at first, but it can be a little finicky and require some maintenance. Most have replaceable fuses and seal bars available. You’re also dealing with heat, so you always need to be careful what you put into a sealer to make sure you aren’t starting a fire or creating toxic fumes.
Here is Dimitri on YouTube giving some great tips on how to use it with plastic:
Who Needs an Impulse Sealer?
Impulse sealers are not a necessity, but they are very nice to have on hand if you plan on doing a lot of sealing. People investing in food storage, for instance, really stand to benefit. For those who plan to use mylar bags and oxygen absorbers, it can pay off to make sure your seal is good by using a proper tool.
We recommend an impulse heat sealer for your:
There are other uses for heat sealers, and they can be used for a wide range of storage purposes.
How We Review Products: We research thoroughly before selecting the best products to review. We have vast prepping and survival experience and bring in outside experts when needed. Hours on end are spent testing gear in stressful conditions and using specialized testing gear to verify claims. We assign performance criteria and impartially rate each tested item. Learn more about how we test.
Sources & References
All of our experience and the testing we do to determine the best impulse heat sealer are useless without listing our research sources and references. We leaned on these for the book knowledge that we paired with our hands-on testing and practical military and prepping experience:
Insoo, K., et al. (2019). Development of Temperature Controlled Impulse Sealer for Preventing Cumulative Heat and Improving Sealing Quality. Korean Journal of Packaging Science & Technology. Volume 25. Issue 3. Pages 117 – 123. (Source)
Lamont, N. (2014). Using a portable heat sealer for sealing Nylon 11 (polyamide 11) arson evidence bags. Forrest 2014, Northumbria University. (Source)
Zinsmeister, G., et al. (1983). Computer Simulation of an Impulse Heat Sealing Machine. Journal of Vibrations and Acoustics. Volume 105. Issue 3. Pages 292 – 299. (Source)
Conclusion
A heat sealer can put your food storage plan on the fast track, helping you seal and store non-perishables in your pantry. They are inexpensive tools that can make the process easy and consistent, preventing any messes down the road.
Here are a few other reads our subscribers have also found helpful:
- The Best Mylar Bags for Food Storage
- The Best Oxygen Absorbers for Food Storage
- Survival Food List, Strategies, & Stockpile Checklist
See more of our expert-written guides, resources, and reviews in your search results – add TruePrepper as a preferred source.
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Hi. Thanks for the article. I am about to buy 10-mil-thick (each side is 5-mil-thick) mylar bags to store rice long-term. I would even buy 15-mil total thickness but what would seal that? Don’t want to spend much to seal them. Not $75 for a Wallaby. Was thinking more like a cheapie $11 hair iron if that would work.
Concerned whether an impulse sealer I have access to can properly seal the bags. It is not a Wallaby unit hence my concern. I dunno yet the brand of the sealer. Am borrowing it and it may be a Chinese generic unit. I know hand-held hair irons would probably fail and dunno abt a clothes iron that I can also borrow. Most of these things fail to disclose the temperature range they operate in or it is not hot enough (hair irons). Lots of stuff written abt such things and next to nothing deals in specifics so is worthless to answer my question.
If you can guide me further I would appreciate it.
David, the main concern is precision. Irons and hair straighteners apply heat to a larger area than an impulse sealer and need to be moved to seal larger bags. This can either let them miss areas when sealing or burn through if you let them linger too long. Impulse sealers apply heat in a thin line for an instant (~2-3 seconds) much like you’ll find at food manufacturer packaging, like potato chips. When you use a new mylar bag or impulse sealer, you’ll need to test the combination to find the best heat setting on the impulse sealer for effectiveness and speed.
Do these take the air out of the bag?
.
No, that would be vacuum sealer. Or use oxygen absorbers to eliminate the moisture in the bag.