Seal Plastic Bags with Bottle Caps – Does it work?

The other day I was searching through the Internet looking for inexpensive ideas for storing food that I will be taking soon on a camping trip. I wanted something that if the containers were lost or destroyed, (which is a frequent problem of mine) it wouldn't be such a big deal. In my search I came across the idea, along with lots with of pictures that showed exactly how to do this, of using the neck top and caps from empty soda bottles. Usually the series of pictures ended with plastic bags full of dried beans, cornmeal, or even in one place, green beans. I thought, “Cool. This would be perfect for so many different items.” So I tried it...

Short answer to “Does it Work?”

Not for me. That doesn't mean that it won't work for someone else though.

Longer answer to “Does it work?”

I had to try several different plastic bags with different thicknesses before I could find one that I could even get the cap to screw onto the neck which ended up being the thinnest plastic bag that I could find. While that worked, after screwing and then unscrewing the cap two times, the plastic around the top rim of the neck ripped.

What you are suppose to do:

 

Cut the neck of a plastic water bottle or soda bottle off.

Insert opening of plastic bag through the bottom of the neck, open the bag and cover the neck. Screw on the cap which is suppose to give the bag and “airtight” seal and make whatever is inside water proof.

 Ripped bag (shown inside the black oval)

Conclusion:

While this appears to work for some people, it didn't work for me. I was left with two thoughts: 1) If the bag ripped while it was empty after only two times with screwing and unscrewing the cap, I shudder to think what would had happened if there had been the extra weight of the bag being full. 2) A zip lock type storage bag works just as well, and there isn't usually a problem with the seal so why make more work for yourself than needed. Maybe though, if you tried this, you might have a different outcome.

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog. :-)