I bled my Avid Elixir brakes yesterday and one of the first steps is to place the brake fluid under a vacuum by pulling on the syringe plunger. I thought about this for a minute and believe I have a better way of doing it. When I raced RC cars I had a shock vacuum chamber such as the one at this link:
Ride*Large Shock Air Remover

It works great and is very easy to use. I just placed the brake fluid from the Avid Brake bleed kit into the chamber with the cap removed and created a vacuum. It's easy and effective and the chamber is relatively cheap.