Sealing mylar

Grey Lady - September 7, 2020

Gear

OK, help a n00b out. I have an iron, of the “hey I have an interview tomorrow let’s make the suit look nice” variety. I want to do some mylar bag/bucket sealing using this tool and some O2 absorbers. I’ve asked some mylar bag sources and they say my iron won’t work for their bags; some other sources just aren’t responsive (understandable – it is 2020 after all).

Any ideas what mylar bag sources I’ll be able to seal with my existing iron, those of you who may have done this before? Bonus if they actually have bags to sell me right now. 😬

6  

Why do they say your iron would not work? How thick are the bags?

I will offer one quick tip: don’t open the O2 absorbers until you’re ready to use all of them at once. I haven’t had any success storing them for later.

 

Specific reasons weren’t given. I asked (not wanting to buy things I wouldn’t be able to use without a big investment in other tools), and they said no. 🤷‍♀️

I will be careful on the oxygen absorbers! Thank you for the tip. I’m hoping to get all my bags set up and partly sealed (with a gap) before I get into the oxygen absorbers and finish the job. We’ll see how that goes.

 

That doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve read multiple times that a normal iron is fine to use. Which company said it wouldn’t? Maybe it’s a warranty thing and they can’t advise it officially?

 

Pleasant Hill Grain did for sure; I think another source or two did as well, but I’m not finding a record of the exchange just now.

 

I think Supersonic is right.  They don’t want to officially advise as you may not get a complete seal due to technique and could potentially ruin the iron if you don’t protected it from melting mylar.   I’ve gotten gunk on my iron from fabrics.  Your clothes iron can certainly get hot enough.   I’ve never worked with mylar before so I’m guessing.  Here’s a you tube video showing how to do it.  

 

I use my flat iron (for hair) to seal all my Mylar bags, no problem. I don’t see why a clothing iron would be any different. When I have extra O2 absorbers I keep them in the smallest canning jar I have tightly sealed and they are fine. If you have a food saver the jar / lid attachment comes in handy too for removing additional oxygen to keep leftover O2 absorbers fresher.