BACOENG 3 Gallon Tempered Glass Lid Vacuum Chamber, Stainless Steel Degassing Chamber Kit for Stabilizing Wood, Degassing Silicones, Epoxies and Essential Oils

I’ll be blunt. I have three vacuum chambers. All are Bac Eng because the quality is second to none. I have a small one for epoxy, a mid sized acrylic one for short term vacuum and special projects that require visibility. And of course this 5 gallon beast. I use it for storing things that require long term vacuum storage. This chamber was purchased almost a month ago and I pulled a vacuum on it all the way down to -28.5 inHg. I just checked it and it’s reading -28 inHg after all this time. That’s absolutely astounding for a vacuum chamber to hold for that long and barely lose any vacuum. The very thick tempered glass lid is a great innovation and is the reason for the incredibly effective consistent vacuum. Easily one of the best purchases I’ve made in a long time. Highly recommended.

Very well made, nice heavy lid.

CONS:The instructions. they were vague (absent) for putting it together, but mostly intuitive. However, there was nothing said about its use. It would have been nice to read about how the process works to stabilize wood correctly. I also had to find myself a plastic pail that would fit into the unit, allowing me to stabilize much higher wood without interfering with the vacuum gauge. Other vendors include a custom fit plastic bucket with measuring lines.PROS:It holds a vacuum very well and did exactly what I needed it to do. I would recommend it to anyone .

I have seen a good number of these "emulated" at DIY websites, normally with acrylic tops. I had expected to get a pot much like what I had in the kitchen and nice piece of glass. I was flat out blown away by the quality of the this Vacuum chamber!The pot itself is very heavy stainless steel, much thicker than what I expected. A true pressure vessel! The glass top? 3/4 of an inch of tempered glass! Incredibly thick and hard to believe at this price point. Set up was a breeze, screw on the gauges and in moments I had -26 inHG.It comes with a top quality hose with 1/4" flare fittings, fit my current setup nicely.So much better than the dinky desiccator I was using, I am very pleased with every aspect of this unit! I would give a sixth star if I could.

3 gallon kitI originally purchased the kit with an Acrylic lid, ASIN B00W8ZU5FK.I needed a stabilizing chamber to stabilize very soft, 'punky' wood for turning pens and other round work. I have lots of hardwood firewood with nice figuring due to spalding in the exterior edges. I have been using CA glue to harden the soft wood but this has been expensive and time consuming, so I decided to use stabilizing.Being new to stabilizing I had several questions that weren't satisfied by online research.I registered the kit with BACO and submitted a ticket with my questions, and BACO responded the next day with detailed answers and encouragement to contact them with any further questions.I had no issues with the pump and stainless steel chamber maintaining ~28.5 Hg for 24 hours+. After reaching 28.5 I can turn the pump off with no decrease in vacuum.During the support discussion I was asked to evaluate this chamber with a glass lid and the gauge assembly mounted on the chamber instead of on the lid.I received the new chamber on Oct. 14 and have stabilized several batches of pen blanks the past week.I am very happy with the new design. Any resin splash that gets on the glass lid is easily cleaned.One concern I had was that I use a Pyrex bowl in the chamber to hold my blanks, and with the new side mounted gauge assembly being mounted 5" from the bottom of the chamber I feared resin may be drawn into the vacuum line.This proved to not be an issue so far. But I found 1000 ml glass beakers at Michaels for $5 and will start using those if necessary.BACO has indicated they will address the concern of the vacuum port location.As for stabilizing, the pic above with the 2 blanks shows the raw punky blank (soft enough to indent with a fingernail) on the left and a stabilized blank from the same piece of wood on the right. The stabilized blank weighs 2.5 oz., the raw blank 1 oz, the vacuum filled the blank to the center with resin.The pic on the right shows a Cigar style pen after turning the stabilized blank in the left pic.I haven't used other brands of stabilizing equipment so I can't compare the BACO, but for the price, quality and BACO's demonstrated concern for customer satisfaction I would not hesitate to purchase from them in the future.

This setup is built like a tank. I was hesitant to buy it, but my setup finally gave up. The glass lid is heavy and I was able to get 29in hg out of my pump with it no problem. I let it set for a couple of hours under vacuum with the valve shut off, and lost 0 Vacuum with itI needed a 5 gallon set up , but this will be a good compromise.I have seen YouTube reviews and others complaining about the handle that his pot. This is a very easy fix by simply rotating the handles 180ﾟ. No issues by doing this . I was also concerned about the sealing of the Gauge mounted on the side of the pot. This is also a non issue.They also included assortment of seals for the Gauge to the pot. This is one of the better purchases I have made.Not one regret so far.

Nice unit!I was needing a chamber for wood stabilizing and although I would have liked one with the vac port as a top mount rather than the side this unit is working out. Ran the first batches directly in the chamber, tossing the wood and stabilizer straight in the pot, but the port is really too low to allow much in there...first batch we sucked up some of the resin, not ideal.Not a huge deal on the port, since I figured most batches would be smaller containers using wide mouth jars or restaurant / utensil stainless containers...and those did work fine. But if you need bigger capacity I found the Utz 18oz Pork Rind containers work super...and you get a bonus snack! Costco had them for about $6 or $7. The container comes about an inch from the sides, half inch from the top.I'm sure there are stock pots, kettles etc that would work fine as an insert too...Nice unit, thick heavy top, seals well, holds a vac, comes with a spare air filter, does what is supposed to do.Get creative and get out there and make something!