Food saver??

[paulito]

I used my Cabelas sealer this past weekend to put up some venison breakfast sausage. Noticed for the first time its actually a food saver. Just stuck their logo on it.

 

[Dustin Pate]

Add me to the Food Saver club. I've had my current one 10 years and it hasn't given me a lick of trouble. I couldn't begin to count how much it has been used. I use all brands of bags and currently Costco bags have been working well.

 

[ucfireman]

And, you can wash and re-use those bags over and over several times.

yep
Tip I do is place the meat in a zip lock bag and leave the zipper open a little and then place in a vacuum bag and seal, I find the ziplock bags easier to wash out than the vacuum bags. or wrap in plastic wrap or paper. my 0.02

For bag sealing issues, I usually double seal both ends of the stuff I am putting up for a longer time.

Always do this, mine I seal once and then just hit the seal button again.

One tip for re-using bags. On your first vacuum, cut your bags an inch or two longer than you need. At first glance it may seem wasteful but it allows you enough length to re-use the bag a second time.

yep.
see above too.

I have noticed on occasions food can get sucked up into the vacuum hole and can get clogged leading to not vacuuming well. That hole can be cleaned out and the sealing strips too.

 

[DannyW]

Some good info in here on using vacuum sealers...I especially like the alternate use tips like sealing up tools to keep them dry on a boat.

 

[shdw633]

I'll bet I've had over half a dozen Foodsaver sealers over the years and I have used them a lot and burned everyone of them up. Even now, the one I have the sealing strip will only seal about 3 bags before it overheats and I have to wait for it to cool down to continue. I'm done with them and am going to a chamber unit next. Most likely the Vevor because I can get it for somewhere between $200 to $300 on Amazon. I enjoy sous vide cooking so I use the sealer quite a bit and the chamber seems like an easier and quicker way to do it. I will keep a Foodsaver around for the big items I seal up, like a whole boston butt or whole rack of ribs but for everyday use I am going to a chamber here soon.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

The best thing you can do is keep it on the counter so you can use it when you want without having to drag it out of the pantry/wherever. I haven't been successfully able to negotiate counter space with the kitchen manager, lol.

It will heat seal chip bags, spice mixes, essentially anything in a plastic type bag.

Try to keep liquids to minimum, if the pump sucks up liquid it will severely shorten it's life.

Buy the heavier bags, we have a chest freezer and the cheaper bags develop holes if you're moving things around often.

Wipe down the seals if they get cruddy, empty the liquid chamber and clean if you are sealing really moist food. (The seals are replaceable, I fixed my parent's that wasn't sealing with a new set of seals for less than $20)

I sous-vide weekly and we get about 3-4 years out of a Food Saver before the pump goes out or the heat sealer bar dies.

I'm going to look at a commercial chamber model next time we are up for a replacement. Cooking is a hobby for me and while I'm certainly not wealthy, $1k for a commercial model is less than the cost of a new rifle/scope combo, deer lease, week of vacation, woodworking tools, etc.

 

[DannyW]

The best thing you can do is keep it on the counter so you can use it when you want without having to drag it out of the pantry/wherever. I haven't been successfully able to negotiate counter space with the kitchen manager, lol.

Glad to see I am not the only one fighting this battle.

What makes it worse is she has all kinds of useless stuff, decor as she call it, sitting on the counter while the useful vacuum sealer gets put in the pantry.