Thread: Vacuum Food Sealers?

Anyone use these things? Ive read a few reviews but it seems they're all over the place without a clear winner.

I see "food saver" brand everywhere, but from the reviews, it looks like they suck (or lack suck).

Id prefer not to spend over $150 but if I can find something that is reliable and has readily available bags/roll plastic, for slightly over $150, I'd buy it.

Thanks!

My friend has one. I'll ask her how much she likes it.

I do know that right after she got it, she had made some cookies and was playing with the sealer so she put some cookies and a note for me in the food sealer and vacuumed it shut for me. Within minutes, the paper was so oily from the butter in the cookies you couldn't read it. That was pretty gross.

I haven't read the Foodsaver reviews, but if people are having problems it may be user issues. There are a few tricks, but it should be WAY too simple to **** up. We've used one everyday on damn near everything for at least 5 years, and have no complaints whatsoever. Was so enamored I even started a thread on it here several years back. If ours died I'd replace it immediately.

We did upgrade to a newer model a few months ago (relegating our original machine - which still works - to the office kitchen), and one thing I can tell you is to avoid the upright version at all costs:



It was returned within a day. HATED it. IMO a perfectly stupid design that was wasteful on the bags (their intention?) and difficult to use.

Luckily they still make the original horizontal design also, which is way easier and updated with better control over your airflow:



If you don't get this brand, get something. You'll love it. **** keeps fresh (cheese and frozen stuff for damn near ever), endless uses, and you'll absolutely save money in the long run.

Thanks for the input D & J.

J, Im glad you mentioned not buying the upright version. I was looking at that exact same style at Sams Club yesterday. It seemed kind of clunky and the fit and finish were too plasticy. Sams wanted $200 for it. Seemed a little high for a plastic POS.

How long can you store food like that? I do a bunch of fishing during the summer months and have been using the old "Ziploc Handi Vac" handheld vacuum. It works but the little valve on the bags seems to crap out after a month or 2 in the chest freezer. Ive had probably 10lbs of flounder go bad because of the bags. Can I get say 6 months or more of cold storage with use of a proper vac system?

Originally Posted by nocturn

How long can you store food like that? I do a bunch of fishing during the summer months and have been using the old "Ziploc Handi Vac" handheld vacuum. It works but the little valve on the bags seems to crap out after a month or 2 in the chest freezer. Ive had probably 10lbs of flounder go bad because of the bags. Can I get say 6 months or more of cold storage with use of a proper vac system?

EASILY 6 mos. Actually, If sealed properly you could get a year or even two on some things. For storage of fresh fish fillets and steaks and such, I like to freeze them un-vacuumed for just one night to get stiff enough so that you can really crank the suction to the max without squeezing out juice. When you've got a nice tight-ass bag and all that oxygen is gone, degradation damn near stops.

There may be better and more economical systems out there, but I'm not familiar. Never felt the need to look further. With the occasional bag failure (pin hole, slow leak, etc) our success rate is still probably 95%. Good enough for me.