Help me pick a vacuum sealer please

[lovemygirls]

I am wanting to purchase a vacuum sealer for our family to help freeze food or vacuum seal veggies so they last longer. What type of vacuum sealer do you have? Any pros or cons anyone would like to share? What should I look for? What is a good price?

Thank you in advance for your help

[catara]

I borrowed one from a friend to try out. What I discovered was that the refill bags are pretty expensive. I also discovered that it wasn't really convenient to pull the machine out every time I needed to use it. Within a month, I was pretty disenchanted with the whole operation and sent it back to it's owner. BTW, she let me use hers because she never used it either! Sorry!

[rbunnymom]

I have a Foodsaver. I recently upgraded (see my ad in the classified for my old version). I liked the convenience of that one, esp that I could use Ziploc vacuum bags but I got a really great deal on a more "sophisticated" version from Foodsaver when they were doing a sale around Christmas. Check out their website for more ideas.

[$Saving!]

I'm on my second one in 10 years

In fact, my basic model died two days ago and since I use it so much, I immediately went out and bought another.

They don't seem to sell my basic model anymore so I had to upgrade to another.

I bought my new one at Kohls. It is Model V2450 on sale for $105.29. But I had a $10 gift card Kohls sent me for my birthday plus an email coupon for $5 plus 15% of any purchases for two days, which one just happened to be the day my ol' reliable Food Saver died. Then there was the bonus of getting $10 Kohls Cash for each $50 spent, so 'got back' $20 there.

So if I count the Kohls Cash I made on that purchase, all together I saved $50 off the $105 price.

The new model I bought has a bag cutter, a space inside the unit that holds a roll of bag material which makes it easy to seal/cut and pull out the size I need. There is another nice feature my basic one did not have. It has the ability to click to "seal" when you're happy with the level of vacuum achieved or you can let it vacuum and then seal on it's own.

But sometimes I want to stop the vacuum so as not to crush items, this option to hit "seal" and stop the vacuum and go directly into sealing is very nice.

Plus it's a lot quieter than my old one ever was. Which is nice too.

I have a cabinet that I keep it in that's easy to access when I put it away, but sometimes it stays on the counter for days because I'm doing a lot of batch cooking or shopping that needs to be sealed up for the freezer.

I know my two SIL's don't use theirs hardly at all, you have to really consider IF you'll use it or if it's something that might/might not be used enough to warrant buying one. For me, I absolutely use it a lot. I love getting things out of my freezer that is not ice burned and ruined.

I even use it for loaves of bread I get on sale cheap - flash freeze it in it's original package for a couple hours then vacuum seal it - nor more hard edges from being freezer burned.

You would be amazed all the foods and items you can safely freeze for long periods of time without losing them to freezer burn! Let's me take advantage of sales because I don't have to think about how long something is in the freezer

[Smee]

I borrowed one from a friend to try out. What I discovered was that the refill bags are pretty expensive. I also discovered that it wasn't really convenient to pull the machine out every time I needed to use it. Within a month, I was pretty disenchanted with the whole operation and sent it back to it's owner. BTW, she let me use hers because she never used it either! Sorry!

This is kind of my experience. We have a Foodsaver and like it ok, but I don't think we use it enough to justify the price or the cost of the bags. I am more focused on the longterm storage of shelf stable goods (canning), though, than frozen. I can't say anything bad about the Foodsaver. It's just not as convenient as I'd expected it to be, or rather we don't use it as much as I thought we would. I don't have much problem with food loss just compressing the air out of Ziplocs, but I don't do a lot of super longterm freezing. I guess it is one of those things that's handy to have when you do need it. As far as performance and doing what it claims, it does work well. Be aware that you'll need to freeze juicy or wet stuff before sealing. That extra step annoys me probably way more than is rational. I can get a dang near airtight seal on wet stuff with plain zippy bags for much less effort. Meat and stuff that doesn't squish out a lot of juice and blood when compressed is pretty easy.

[Merczilla]

I've read reviews on these though that parts and service are about non-existant. So I don't know what to think about them. The bags do seem expensive. I love my Reynolds sealer, but of course you can't get the bags anymore. I'm out of gallon size and just have quart size left. I dislike the Ziploc one and those bags don't seem to work with the Reynolds one.

I refuse to pay Debbie whats-her-name on HSN or whatever it is her price for the Reynolds bags. Just looked...$14.90 for 40 or $34.90 for 100...and those are only quart size. pfffft Food Saver did come out with a handheld one that uses bags just recently. I bought a box of the bags hoping they'ed work with the Reynolds, but no. They didn't. Poo.

[stacyloucks]

I'm on my second one in 10 years

In fact, my basic model died two days ago and since I use it so much, I immediately went out and bought another.

They don't seem to sell my basic model anymore so I had to upgrade to another.

I bought my new one at Kohls. It is Model V2450 on sale for $105.29. But I had a $10 gift card Kohls sent me for my birthday plus an email coupon for $5 plus 15% of any purchases for two days, which one just happened to be the day my ol' reliable Food Saver died. Then there was the bonus of getting $10 Kohls Cash for each $50 spent, so 'got back' $20 there.

So if I count the Kohls Cash I made on that purchase, all together I saved $50 off the $105 price.

The new model I bought has a bag cutter, a space inside the unit that holds a roll of bag material which makes it easy to seal/cut and pull out the size I need. There is another nice feature my basic one did not have. It has the ability to click to "seal" when you're happy with the level of vacuum achieved or you can let it vacuum and then seal on it's own.

But sometimes I want to stop the vacuum so as not to crush items, this option to hit "seal" and stop the vacuum and go directly into sealing is very nice.

Plus it's a lot quieter than my old one ever was. Which is nice too.

I have a cabinet that I keep it in that's easy to access when I put it away, but sometimes it stays on the counter for days because I'm doing a lot of batch cooking or shopping that needs to be sealed up for the freezer.

I know my two SIL's don't use theirs hardly at all, you have to really consider IF you'll use it or if it's something that might/might not be used enough to warrant buying one. For me, I absolutely use it a lot. I love getting things out of my freezer that is not ice burned and ruined.

I even use it for loaves of bread I get on sale cheap - flash freeze it in it's original package for a couple hours then vacuum seal it - nor more hard edges from being freezer burned.

You would be amazed all the foods and items you can safely freeze for long periods of time without losing them to freezer burn! Let's me take advantage of sales because I don't have to think about how long something is in the freezer

I have the 3840 model and had another model for 8 years before that. I highly recommend it! I just moved to a home with a smaller kitchen and the electric can opener and toaster went under the cupboard to make room for my food saver. The newer models with the "stop vacuuming - that's enough" is a great feature.

The bags can be expensive, but so can throwing away food. I got an incredible deal on the bags last year that amounted to about 75% off. I had to buy $160 worth though. Worth it for me! Join their mailing list and you'll receive all kinds of deals on the bags. When I first bought my first foodsaver, my biggest concern was the price of the bags. Now that I know how to get a deal, it's a piece of cake.

Like others have said, think about how much you'll use it. I use mine all the time! For me it's one of my favorite and useful appliances. My mom owns one and never uses it, so usage is critical in the decision.

Like PP, I purchased it through Kohls on a 30% off plus Kohl's cash. Made it a great deal!

Good luck!

HTH

[$Saving!]

The bags can be expensive, but so can throwing away food. I got an incredible deal on the bags last year that amounted to about 75% off. I had to buy $160 worth though. Worth it for me! Join their mailing list and you'll receive all kinds of deals on the bags. When I first bought my first foodsaver, my biggest concern was the price of the bags. Now that I know how to get a deal, it's a piece of cake.

Like others have said, think about how much you'll use it. I use mine all the time! For me it's one of my favorite and useful appliances. My mom owns one and never uses it, so usage is critical in the decision.

Like PP, I purchased it through Kohls on a 30% off plus Kohl's cash. Made it a great deal!

Good luck!

HTH

Are you referring to the premade quart/gallon size bags? I've never bought the premade bags, always get just the rolls so I can make the size I need.

There are 3 small appliances in my kitchen I won't live without and this is one of them, the other two are my crockpot and breadmaker - any one of these goes kaput and I will run to the store, not walk, to replace them

And I don't use it just for frozen food either. I've already got all my halloween candy (free/cheap M&M deals from recent coupons) and vacuum sealed those to keep them fresh - even though I think the half life of chocolate is 50 years And then all the free packs of gum with coupons - no one in our house chews gum so that goes into the Halloween hand outs too, vacuum sealed by flavors grouped together. And the Twizzlers deal I did as well, got 10 packages of those for 25 cents a package and vacuum sealed those two to a bag to keep those fresh, even though they expire in Jan, no way will 10 bags be consumed by then and nothing is worse than un-fresh Twizzlers!

And dried pasta, crackers, cookies, cereal etc. Anything can be vacuum sealed with these newer versions with 'stop and seal' options.

[lovemygirls]

Thank you all so much for your opinions. I really do appreciate the time and effort that was put in on giving me the best suggestions. I'm going to keep my eye open for a good deal now

[saversavory]

ive had a black an decker model and now i have the foodsaver, which i like better.

the bags are not brand specific, any sealer bags are usable with the foodsaver. a large roll costs about $12 at walmart and lasts a while( unless you are processing chickens, which ive done and went through 2 rolls but its worth it to ward off freezer burn)

buying precut bags is a waste of money IMHO. possibly more convenient, if you know exactly what you will use them for, but you can also just cut from the roll.

I dont wanna go look at my model but i have the one that has the bag cutter on it. I also agree that its something that you want to use all the time, but forgo sometimes when you are putting something in the freezer or fridge, etc. Just yesterday i didnt even wanna check if i had bags in it to vacbag sweet peppers, but i have SO MANY to do, im going to have to check, as my lungs hurt from sucking the air out. sweet peppers my ass,, LOL