Vacuum sealer

I saw one at Costco on sale for like $100 - not sure when sale ends.
Way better than mine I paid $100.

Foodsaver might be te brand

I have a foodsaver 3800 can't remember what I paid for it but after I found the best price I called them direct. They gave me a discount and a marinating attachment. Have not had any problems with it and it work well.

I have an old foodsaver I bought new maybe 15 years ago. Still going strong, and I use it frequently. Probably been through a hundred boxes of bag rolls.
Took a while to find a picture it's so old. here's one on ebay for $25. You can find the old ones cheap and from what I hear, they're better than the new ones.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/FOODSAVER-V...765?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33a13a93ad

I found another old one (but not as old as mine) at a garage sale for $5 with two boxes of bag rolls. Snapped that up in a hurry...

I have heard nothing but good things about the Westons. But I went with the vacmaster pro 260 for the price and I dont regret it..I have had mine for 2 years now and it is a beast

I bought a Foodsaver V3880 during the Black Friday sales last year. I use it regularly for sous vide cooking and food storage and it works great. Not sure how user serviceable it is if something goes wrong. So far no issues with mine.

It's on their site now for $160 with free shipping

I have this one and was just saying the other day that it may be the best investment I've ever made.

http://www.foodsaver.com/vacuum-sea...sman-premium-kit/FSGSSL0301-DTC.html#start=10

I've never understood why, but you can either get just the vacuum sealer by itself OR the package above, which comes with a carrying case and all the accessories for the SAME PRICE.

I love the long cord, the carrying handle, the heavier vac motor, the sturdier sealing strip, the cutter.....LOVE IT.


I've had mine for a couple of years now and I've literally bagged HUNDREDS of bags with it. Maybe more than a thousand. I do a LOT of vacuum sealing. I burnt up my last one by doing so much.

For $200, I don't think you'll find a better one out there.

pbccook said:

Looking for suggestions on what vacuum sealer to buy.

Click to expand...

The bottom line is:
We will give you all kinds of recommendations and it may even confuse you in making your final choice....

pbccook said:

Would like to get a quality one that is repairable. Looking to spend no more than $400 the lesser the better.

Click to expand...

Foodsaver units are not repairable by the company unless they are under warranty. Other than that the company will not repair them or sell end user replaceable parts.

pbccook said:

I have been looking at the Weston pro 2300 and the vacmaster 350. Any recommendations?

Click to expand...

You need to figure out what you want from your sealer and just how often you will use it before making an educated choice.

I started out with a FoodSaver which made poor seals and within 4 months it bit the dust. After a second FoodSaver which lasted a little over 6 months. However, I used it a lot, much more than the average kitchen. For occasional use it probably would be a great unit. After the second FoodSaver went bad, I realized that I would have to keep buying these units for who knows how long... They are not repairable, parts are not available for them, and they are considered disposable units.

For someone who does not seal items on a regular basis, it is probably a great unit for the price and will work very well with low frequency. It is light and it stores easily between uses in a cabinet or on a shelf taking up very little space.

After my second failure, I figured I had already spent enough to buy a heavy duty unit, so now I actually figured it was time to purchased one and be done. I chose the Weston because it has dual piston pumps rather than a singe pump. Although a perfect vacuum is 0 psi, the food saver draw is -7 psi whereas the Weston is -14 psi. We all realize that neither will ever exceed the 0 psi of a vacuum, the Weston unit does get you to the vacuum state with more consistency over a shorter period of time with a stronger seal. It has both manual and automatic seal functions, so one can manually seal wet foods with "manual" operations or let it automatically seal with dry operations.

The Weston also has user serviceable parts readily available so you can repair the unit if need be, or you can send it back for repair. I have had mine for 3 years now and only recently I replaced foam seals and heater bar for less than 30 dollars. It took less than 10 minutes with minimal effort. Although the unit was still working properly, I felt preventative maintenance is also part of caring for the unit.

I choose the Weston Pro-2300 model because it had a stainless steel shell, the 2100 is identical but has an enamel finish for about fifty dollars less. Weston now has the Pro-3000 model which is the Po-2300 with a visible vacuum gauge and an adjustable seal timer.

I have had the Weston for over 3 years now without incident, sealing 10 to 20 bags a week depending upon activities for that week. The downside of the Weston is that it has a very large footprint and weighs about 40 (or more) pounds so it does not store easily unless you have a second kitchen or private prep area where you can leave it out all the time.

The Weston unit seals appears to be twice as wide as FoodSaver, and it seals flawlessly with liquids or food residue present. I have never had a weak or faulty seal with the Weston Pro-2300. The Weston bags are rated food safe for use in boiling water and they are also dishwasher safe. I have never reused bags, but many others have said they have washed and reused bags.

The marketing for some sealers is geared toward recurring sales of sealing bags. they make much more from sales of the bags than from the machine. They lead you to believe that you save money by purchasing their bags on sale, but they won't tell you that other bags of the same size are compatible with their sealer. FoodSaver regularly has sales on their bags and rolls which give you up to 50% off if you buy in volume. The sale price even at 50% off is still higher than the normal prices of Vac-Master and Weston brand bags and rolls. When you compare the prices of other micro-channel bags to FoodSaver, you can save a great deal of money.

I pay $9.99 for 100 pint bags 15.95 for 100 quart bags. Weston Pro Series will also seal the 15" X 18" bags which will easily seal 2 - 3 pulled pork butts. Weston will use any brand of micro-channel vac-seal bags including Foodsaver and vac-master. Vac-master and Weston bags are so cheap they make the use of rolls to save money an antiquated choice. However the use of rolls is still a great choice for sealing whole racks of ribs and other long items.

But don't be misled here, no vacuum sealer likes liquids, and liquids can damage the unit if it gets into the vacuum chamber. This is even true with both FoodSaver the Weston Pro. Chilling soups, stews, and chili for a few hours makes sealing these items easy without incident. You also have the manual seal button which you can press if liquids start to flow into the collection tray before they can be sucked into the the vacuum port. You can also freeze the liquid in a shallow dish and then put the frozen item into the bag and Vac-Seal. The only unit that does well with liquid content is the vacuum chamber sealer which draws the air our of the chamber rather than the bag. But the price of a good chamber sealer is usually cost prohibitive, even for the seasoned vac-seal user.

The best advice I can give you, is to do your homework before you buy, Compare, compare, and compare again!!! The final decision is yours and only you will have to live with your choice, whether it be good or bad. In today's market a higher price does not always mean higher quality, but sometimes it is just an opportunity to make a greater profit from an uneducated customer. A higher price does not always mean a better unit, that's why it is important to do your research.

Yes, sometimes you get what you pay for, but without research on the different units you could also wind up a lot less that what you paid for.

I don't think I can expound on what IamMadMan has said, that is sound advice. We bought a Vacmaster 260 because we didn't know exactly how much we would use it. We didn't want to buy something that wouldn't last if we used it a lot but didn't want to break the bank in case we hardly ever used it. Now that we have an idea of how much we use it and what we use it for we are very happy with our purchase. However, when this one does fail we will be buying a chamber unit because, yes, we find that much use for it. Your mileage and results may vary. :razz:

If you can wait see if any vp112s pop up on the vacmaster outlet store. I got one that was basically new in box without any dings or scratches, was supposed to have cosmetic issues but I couldn't find any, for $479 which is just over your budget and it comes with a full warranty. The cheaper price of bags and the benefits of a chamber sealer; liquids, hot products, etc... more than make up the extra 80 bucks. They don't have any listed now but I'm sure another batch will pop up soon.

We also have the Vacmaster 260, why? Because the Foodsaver unit would overheat and shut down. We use ours quite a bit. If you intend to buy in bulk and package up then definitely spend the money on a unit that has a cooling fan. I hate waiting for a vacuum sealer to cool itself off.

I have the same issues with the Foodsaver overheating. I can usually only seal about 6-8 items before it starts overheating, has happened with both units I've owned. I am about the toss it.

A quick note on the Foodsaver -
if you feel it is sealing less than before -
wipe the seals with a wet cloth a few times.
Moisten those gaskets.
I am on my 2nd foodsaver - if I had known the gasket trick,
I might still be using my first.

I vac pak 3 deer a year and about 200 pounds of other stuff.

Never overtax my unit, it cannot take the overheat.

It is basically a slow pos. But it has not broken - YET!

mchar69 said:

A quick note on the Foodsaver -
if you feel it is sealing less than before -
wipe the seals with a wet cloth a few times.
Moisten those gaskets.
I am on my 2nd foodsaver - if I had known the gasket trick,
I might still be using my first.

I vac pak 3 deer a year and about 200 pounds of other stuff.

Never overtax my unit, it cannot take the overheat.

It is basically a slow pos. But it has not broken - YET!

Click to expand...

The biggest issue I have is the heating element gets too hot, so it starts sealing the bag and can't pull a vacuum as the plastic starts to seal before it can suck the air out.

I have a vacmaster pro 110 and i very happy with it so far works flawlessly. Its the bottom of the vacmaster line but they have a pretty good selection all the way up to professional chamber sealers check them out.

I have a foodsaver 3880 I believe it is and have had no issues in 3-4 years. Costco has the newer version on sale right now for like $119 and I am pretty sure the newer one has a resealable bag option that sounds useful. The overheating has never been an issue with me the model I have now flashes if its not ready yet and won't start sealing. It takes maybe 30 seconds until its ready for the next item.