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Are you wondering if the Stasher bag is a good option for your household? I’ve seen Stasher bags online and they piqued my interest. I’ve been looking at ways to cut my household waste and I’m always looking for things that could possibly save me money.
I wanted to give Stasher bags a try, but WOW they’re expensive! Overall, do I think Stasher bags are worth it? What’s my Stasher bag review?
While the Stasher bag offers a variety of uses, it did not seem very practical for everyday use in the home. There are other kitchen tools or containers that are more useful than the Stasher bag. The Stasher bags are not worth the investment.
What is a Stasher Bag?
So what is a Stasher bag? It is a silicone version of a zip-top bag. It’s meant to be an alternative to plastic Ziplock bags.
One difference with a stasher bag and a plastic ziplock though is if you get air in the stasher bag and you squeeze it, it will pop open. They are not truly watertight. The instructions say you should put your items inside and then squeeze the air out and then seal it. If you do that it is less likely to pop open but I’m not so sure I would trust the waterproofness of a Stasher bag.
The packaging says it is pure platinum silicone. I was curious about this. I thought, is this some kind of crazy marketing term? But I looked it up and platinum silicone is actually different.
Platinum silicone is another term for medical-grade silicone and it is a different process than your typical food-grade silicone. It lasts longer and it will not lose its shape over time like some other types of silicone. So there actually is a difference.
How to Use a Stasher bag
There are a variety of different uses listed on the Stasher bag packaging. So let’s take a look at some different things that you could use it for.
1. Using the Stasher Bag for Packing Lunch
There is a sandwich size one, so obviously you could put a sandwich in it. For me, I would rather have a firm container for a sandwich especially with the kids because I know it’s just gonna get squashed if I put it in something soft. However, if you’re just using Ziplock bags for sandwiches this could be a decent alternative to that.
2. Using the Stasher Bag for Snacks
Another thing that you might want to use it for is snacks on the go. The problem though is it’s gonna have to be only dry snacks. I would not trust this especially like in a backpack with anything wet because you don’t know for sure if it’s gonna stay sealed.
3. Using the Stasher Bag for Cooking
There are several other uses for the Stasher bag listed by Stasher. You can use it to boil food. You can put your food inside of it, seal it up and put it in boiling water. This is an interesting way to cook.
It can also be used in that way for sous-vide cooking. It’s not something I’ve done myself so I didn’t actually try out that feature.
Another thing they talked about is that you could use it in the oven, but I can’t really see why you would want to bake in a bag in the oven.
The next thing you could do with the Stasher bag is to cook in the microwave with it. I heard you could make popcorn in it. I thought that was an interesting idea, so I put a little bit of oil and some popcorn kernels in there and I cooked it for a few minutes. It actually did come out really well!
So using the Stasher bag could be a good no-waste alternative to buying microwave popcorn. I have a microwave popcorn bowl that I use in my microwave anyway so I don’t really see the use of the Stasher bag for that for me personally.
4. Using the Stasher Bag for Storing Frozen Food
The next thing that you could use it for is freezing things. This is something I was interested in because I do use Ziplock bags in the freezer. I like to make things like taco meat and then store the extra in the freezer to be used later.
I also tried the Stasher bag when I made my own homemade pizza sauce and stored it in portions so that we can use it for our pizza nights. It worked really well!
When I was ready to use the sauce I was able to just pop it in the microwave to get it thawing so that was an OK use. But to replace all of the Ziplocks I use in my freezer with Stasher bags would be pretty expensive. I’m not sure I would do that long-term.
5. Using the Stasher Bag for Traveling
The next use you could have for the Stasher bag is packing things in your suitcases. I think this might be kind of handy. You could pack toiletries or makeup or whatever small things in the Stasher bag and then place it in your suitcase.
Again the problem with the Stasher bag compared to a plastic Ziplock is you can’t depend on their water tightness. If you had anything that could potentially be wet you wouldn’t want to put it in the stasher bag. You’d be better off with a typical Ziplock bag.
Also, I did check into the TSA requirements. I wondered if you could use a Stasher bag as your TSA liquids bag in a carry-on but the requirement seemed kind of unclear. I’m not sure if the silicone is allowed because in some places they do say it needs to be specifically a plastic zip-top bag.
Cleaning the Stasher Bag
Before I got the Stasher bag I was curious about cleaning. I wondered how difficult it would be to clean a bag like this. After I put the pizza sauce in the freezer I was excited to try it out.
I just gave it a little rinse in the sink and then I put it on the top rack of the dishwasher. I just opened it up and put it where you put the glasses in the top rack. I was pleasantly surprised that it did come out quite clean, so it was actually shockingly easy to clean.
Price & Alternatives
The last thing to consider about the stasher bags is their price. I couldn’t believe that I paid so much for one bag. That’s a lot when I compared it to the price of plastic Ziplock bags.
It’s equivalent in price to about a hundred and twenty freezer Ziplock brand bags. It would take quite a while to make back the price of a Stasher bag but since they are supposed to last essentially forever you probably would eventually break even on them.
The good news is there are also some cheaper alternatives. I took a look on Amazon to see what sorts of other similar silicone bags there were. I ordered this other brand of that came in a two-pack with ones that stand up.
The two-pack was very reasonably priced. I kind of like the shape of the one that stands up. The smaller one actually fits in the car cup holder which is kind of handy if you had some snacks in the car.
These seem to be a pretty comparable quality to the Stasher bags. And they are about half the price. So if this is something you’re interested in there are cheaper alternative brands out there to the Stasher brand.
Stasher Bag Review: Summary
So overall would I recommend a Stasher bag? Personally, I felt like it was sort of a product that didn’t really have a use in my household.
We had them for over a month in my house. I was really trying to use them for all the different things I could possibly use them for. It just always felt like the wrong tool for the job.
I had lots of other things that I could use instead of the Stasher bag for the same purposes that would do the job better. I don’t think I’m going to be buying any more of these. I’ll hang on to the ones I have and I think they’ll probably come in handy occasionally.