I got a Bean Vac for Christmas this year. I thought the gadget was a great idea. But I noticed that it went through batteries quickly because it activated every few hours when air would get in.

I called Exceptional Design and they told me there was a new electronically-timed version that had a better seal, and wouldn’t drain batteries. I got my new version and I can set it for how often I want it to reactivate (12, 24 or 48 hours). The seal holds great and now I’ve been on the same set of batteries for months…and my coffee tastes great!

Make sure to buy the new version with the electric timer. It works great.

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By 

Jacob Hantla “hantla.com” (Chandler, AZ United States) –

  

  

I got this bean vac from my wife for Christmas. It was a thoughtful gift. I love coffee and freshness of beans is important. This bean vac protects the beans from light as well as vacuum seals them after each opening. I noticed the difference in freshness that my coffee had using this vac. The beans kept better longer. HOWEVER

Freshly roasted coffee beans naturally release a large amount of carbon dioxide. It is for this reason that many bags have the air-release valves to let out the released carbon dioxide. This bean vac eliminates the released carbon dioxide by monitoring the pressure inside the canister. When the vacuum dissipates (from expelled carbon dioxide or poor seal) the canister automatically activates the vacuum motor and enhances the seal by eliminating the gas from within.

This takes battery power. Each time you open and then re-close the canister: Battery Power. If you don’t use the canister, the canister must reseal itself: Battery Power. The result was that my canister would go through batteries EVERY-OTHER-DAY or EVERY THIRD DAY. That renders this canister pointless. For want of batteries I ended up using this canister without the vacuum function for a while and then returned it to Sharper Image 3 months after my wife purchased it.

What a great idea! What a poor implementation! There is no need for battery power. The coffee maker is next to an outlet. The coffee grinder is next to an outlet. Why couldn’t they just attach a power cord to this so I could plug it in? It is certainly used where AC power is available. I just don’t understand the reasoning for it.

In summary, the idea is great (as soon as they make this with a power adapter I will buy it), but the implementation (due to battery power) is so poor that it renders the product unusable. I wonder if that is why my local Sharper Image doesn’t carry this bean vac anymore. Hopefully, they go back to the drawing board and next year I’ll get a Christmas present that I can keep.

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OK..I gotta be fair..I wrote several weeks ago that I put furniture stickies on the bottom of the inner container to raise it slightly to, hopefully, improve the seal so the batteries wouldn’t be called into service every few hours..I thought it worked but I was back to dead batteries right after I wrote the earlier review because the thing was going on every 4 hours…Exceptional Design replaced it free. They told me the new model was improved…I really had doubts..but I did notice the seal was a lot beefier. As another reviewer pointed out tho, this new model will not go on automatically each time air leaks in as the old one did..it can be set to go on every 12, 24 or 48 hrs or each time the canister is opened and closed…so I thought it was a scam..a way to have the batteries last a long time but only because they wouldn’t be able to work every 4 hours or so when the seal was broken. I was wrong. It has been sitting empty, closed, on my counter now for 37 hours and the seal is still intact…so, at this point, I love this product..and I loved their customer service.

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