Arguments for vacuum sealing vs. oxygen absorbers alone
 

I'm a relative newcomer to food preservation. Even so, I've learned a few things recently that I thought I would pass along.

I debated about whether to get a vacuum sealer or to just go with oxygen absorbers, which will produce a mild vacuum on their own. I ended up getting one, and I'm very happy I did -- but for a reason I didn't think of in advance. What I've noticed is that it's much easier to detect leaks in vacuum-sealed bags. I've only had a two leaks so far, but without vacuum sealing I would have missed them. One was in a gallon-sized bag, where a small fold in the mylar caused a leak at the heat seal. The other was a bag of pasta, where the pasta poked a hole in the bag (I'm using thicker mylar now for stuff like that).

In addition to the oxygen permeability problems with large plastic buckets, I've decided that storing food in them is a bad idea for the same reason. Detecting leaks or bad seals in a mylar bag that entirely fills a 5 or 6 gallon bucket is all but impossible. I've decided to stay with a maximum 1 gallon bag size for that reason. That's about 5 pounds of flour, which is also a pretty convenient size for cooking, etc.

Re: Arguments for vacuum sealing vs. oxygen absorbers alone
 

can one use both at once ?

put an oxygen absorber into a bag and then vacuum seal it ?

Re: Arguments for vacuum sealing vs. oxygen absorbers alone
 

Yes, absolutely. A vacuum sealer won't remove all of the oxygen, and of course oxygen can still get into the bag through the mylar over time -- so the absorbers are definitely needed either way.

Re: Arguments for vacuum sealing vs. oxygen absorbers alone
 

I've thought about using mason jars -- and will probably end up using some for canning when the time comes -- but I wonder about the permeability of the seal. The glass isn't a problem, but do you know of any tests that have been done to verify the quality of the seals?

That's basically what I do too: a light, temporary seal with the vacuum sealer, followed up immediately by the Hot Jaws.

Can you post a link to where I can get more info about the LDS bags?

Are they the foil-embedded mylar, or the clear stuff? I get the 7 mil mylar + foil bags from Sorbent (PAKDRY1500), but the case price on the 10x20 inch ones are more than twice as much as LDS.