I'll bite. I've used those "space bag" products that hook up to the vaccuum
cleaner and i think its a cool idea, but they never seemed to live up to
what their glory, or their price. Instead, a longtime trick i've used when
backpacking and now in general packing for all trips, is to put clothes and
things in Ziplock bags. If you put about 2 or 3 shirts in a gallon bag, or
one pair of slacks, then you zip it most of the way, sit on it, and zip it
the rest of the way, you'll be golden. This way, you can also keep things
more organized and crisper (maybe each clothing item gets its own bag?), and
when trouble strikes.....everything's dry. The Freezer bags tend too work
best, and they make sizes up to something like 5 gallon, which is great for
packing. They probably don't work quite as well as the space bags (which
never worked well for me anyway), but they are alot cheaper.

-Craig
'85GL

On Dec 31, 2007 12:29 AM, Troy <colorworks@gci.net> wrote:

> Kai:
>
> Last summer I bought one of the large size "space bags" to reduce the size
> of a 2 inch memory foam topper mattress, which is quite bulky. I also use
> some of the smaller ones to reduce the size of pillows. A vacuum cleaner
> definitely works better than rolling by hand, but you can get quite a bit of
> air out of those bags without a vacuum. While there are some 12 volt vacuum
> cleaners on the market, I don't think they would be powerful enough to
> really help on the road, and they take up even more space. The problem I had
> was the bags tend to leak. I purchased a second set with identical problems.
> My mom claimed she had the same problems with hers too. Seems like within 24
> hours or at the most 2 days, air seeps in, which basically defeats the
> purpose of having them to begin when. Cabela's I think has a heavier duty
> type bag (at considerably more money). Like a lot of  ideas that start out
> great, mass production in China kills the quality.  Stay away from the
> "space bag" brand. My two cents worth.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Troy