Delivery of the LAVA vacuum equipment
by jean-francois on Apr.30, 2009, under Equipments & Accessories
I felt excited when receiving today the LAVA parcel as I knew this purchase represents the starting point of my experiments with sous vide cooking at low and constant temperature.
I took some nice picture showing details of this machine. This vacuum device looks easy to use and very robust. One thing is for sure…the design of the LAVA machine is not attractive but this is not the reason why I chose it.
In my opinion, on particular thing differentiates the Lava 100 from its competitors (in the same range of price approx. EUR 250). It is the “security box” located in the middle of the panel of the vacuum machine. The main issue when vacuuming is that you can’t do it with liquids except if you benefit from a professional vacuum machine. Nevertheless accidents can also happen with professional vacuum machine. The funny video below illustrates what I am saying. This video is funny because a professional cook explains (in French) how to avoid leakage of liquids when vacuuming…the moral of this video could be “do what I say not what I am doing”. 
The "security box" of the LAVA 100 vacuum machine
This “security box” allows minor mistake when vacuuming with a juicy ingredient. The manual of the LAVA also indicates a way to include, for example, a marinade in a sachet to be vacuumed. You freeze the marinade and then include it in the sachet. Why didn’t I think about it before! The manual says that you don’t need to get the marinade totally frozen, just hard enough not to leak.
Jean-François
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March 31st, 2011 on 7:58 PM
Good article and I bought the machine a month or so later. I do have a question and wonder you know it. I am trying to get some oil for the pump, but do not know what kind of oil should I be getting. Do you know the specification of the oil that is best for the pump? Thanks.
April 1st, 2011 on 6:58 AM
Daniel,
This is strange, I thought LAVA clamp machines don’t need oil. Where did you see oil should be added for the pump. This is usually required for vacuum chamber sealer not clamp machines.
JF