You know, the ones from the commercials where you put your clothes or bed linens in and suck out the air?
Do they work? Can you put anything in them?
They work, to a degree. I put several large stuffed toys in one (including a 3’ tall teddy bear) and sucked it all down and it was great, but the seal didn’t hold and by the time I got to where I was going (I was moving), it had almost re-inflated. I had the same problem with all of the space bags I got, though they were a different brand than the actual Space Bag™, so YMMV.
I saw 'em at Target and thought they might be worth it for storing comforters and other fluffy things, and gave it a shot. Within a week, it had reinflated. Cool concept, but they leak and are thus basically worthless.
I got one for my queen size down comforter (it’s too hot for the summer) and it works great. The whole thing shunk down to a rectangle about a foot and a half long, a foot wide and maybe four inches thick. And it’s still sealed (and sitting on top of my dresser where I left it) after over two months. I did get a “real” space bag from the Container Store; maybe they’re made better than generics.
We’ve tried both generic and brand-name space bags, and had roughly equal failures with both brands, both in terms of re-inflating and popping entirely open.
As long as you don’t mind your stuff expanding back to original size, they’re fine for keeping dust off of things, provided the “ziplock” closure doesn’t pop open.
Ditto, I had some, used them and they reinflated.
I think the problem is in the closure. The ones I tried had a manual closure seal at the top, where if you didn’t get a perfect seal using your fingers and pressure the air would leak back in. I found it especially hard to get a perfect seal at the very edges of the seal. My mother-in-law has a newer kind that has a pull-tab sealer. Like this. She’s never had the reinflation problem.
Twiddle
I have never used them, nor do I intend to.
I do go hiking and backpacking often and sleeping bags, particularly down bags come with a stuff sack, which allows you to ‘stuff’ the bags into a sack which is pretty small. The bags I’ve used state don’t store them in the stuff sacks for storage, just for actual backpacking as it will cause some of the loft to crush if left long term.
Yup, I’ve got them and I use them. I have only tried the actual Space Bag brand, so I can’t speak for generics.
They’ve worked amazingly well for us. I’ve never had one re-inflate during years of use. We squish all our winter bedding, extra pillows and out of season clothes. I’ve been very pleased with the product and it has saved us a lot of desperately needed space in our little apartment.
We’ve tried them a couple of times. They’ve leaked every time. I’ll go so far as to call them a waste of money.