Good quality vacuum sealer

I had a Foodsaver for over 10 years until it died about 3 years ago. Bought a Weston Pro-1100 for close to $400 and it died yesterday.

There is no phone number to contact Weston, so anyone looking at buying anything from them should be wary. I sent a "contact request" so we will see what happens, but not too impressed with them so far.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good unit? All we do is vacuum pack meat for the freezer. Wondering if going back to the crappy Foodsaver for less than $100 and replacing it every two or three years is better than investing $500 for a "good" one.

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Originally Posted by dverna

Wondering if going back to the crappy Foodsaver for less than $100 and replacing it every two or three years is better than investing $500 for a "good" one.

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I've burned through 3 of the el-cheapos.
2-3 years ago, I got one of the $200. foodsavers and so far, it's done real well.
I think I've used about 10-12 rolls of the bags and its still on the job.

I don't store too much food things in it.
I mostly use it for storing ammo.
I got the idea from buying some West German surplus 7.62s.
It came with the little cardboard boxes vac. sealed and they called it 'battle packs' instead of using metal ammo cans.

Got a new FS and then fixed the old original, of course they do not take the same size bag materials. Old one is a better machine, pulls a better, tighter vacuum. The PJs (pararescue) use the old food saver machines to waterproof and sterile seal their medical supplies for diving. Their combat packs are very impressive.

We’ve done ok with the cheap Food Saver vacuum sealer, we just know in the back of our mind it could quit anytime. If it does we borrow my daughter’s unit we can replace it.

I almost hate to say it but if you want to get one that is built to last, you might have to get it at Goodwill.

Do a search on Amazon for inkbird foodsaver. Yes, Chinese company that sells various electronics. Their stuff is pretty good....

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

Weston vacuum sealer are good if you never have any problems.There is no customer service my sealer worked fine for 7 years then the automatic shutoff quit working machine still works but you have to stop the vacuum manually I called Weston every couple days for three weeks got a answering machine and left a message every time they never got back to me.I never had a Food Saver last more than a couple years but they cost a lot less than the Weston.The Weston is a stronger vacuum.

we use our freeze dryer to vacuum seal, course it only works on jars so not much good for what you do but boy does it work on jars, put 10 or so jars in the chamber and they have a killer seal in a few minutes.

We had a food saver first, burned out the vac unit in about 2.5 years.

Went with a Nesco unit next. First one lasted 7 years with fairly heavy use. Vac unit was still good but the seal started getting iffy.

So we replaced with a second Nesco unit, have at least 3 years on it with no issues.

We have been known to buy big roasts and cut them up. Also our local grocery store will at times have a 20 lb bag of Ribeye uncut. One big piece of meat.
I use a fork to measure thickness and a very sharp Rapala Fillet knife to cut. Not cheap, but we have gotten some great steaks that way.

Would not dare do it without the vac sealer.

Also ran a test once, head of iceberg lettuce. Wife was complaining they were going brown in 3-4 days.
So I sucked one, lightly. 21 days later it looked exactly like the day we bought it. Tasted great.

One of the reasons I like the Nesco is it is not as bag fussy. We can find budget bags on Amazon in much bigger roll for less $$$.

Also I learned a trick with regular zipper seal bags. Clip off a corner, lay a small piece of paper towel to act as an air pipe right to the seal line. Suck it down and seal it.
If you miss figure, snip it off and try again.

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Originally Posted by wildwilly501

Weston vacuum sealer are good if you never have any problems.There is no customer service my sealer worked fine for 7 years then the automatic shutoff quit working machine still works but you have to stop the vacuum manually I called Weston every couple days for three weeks got a answering machine and left a message every time they never got back to me.I never had a Food Saver last more than a couple years but they cost a lot less than the Weston.The Weston is a stronger vacuum.

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After reading your post, I decided to buy an inexpensive unit on Amazon. Companies like Weston need to go out of businesss.

If they ever get back yto me I will update the thread.

Wife and I have been using a Cabelas Heavy Duty unit for several years. We were a little hesitant because it's all plastic but it has worked quite well.

I use a Weston Pro-2300 at my club and it has been perfect. Spares are easy to source and it gets used a lot.

That’s what mine is a 2300 I was trying to contact them to find out and purchase the parts to repair it but since they won’t return calls that’s hard to do.I know there’s some places on the internet that sell parts but I don’t know what I need.

I will never buy another Weston product. A company that will not help customers has its head up its posterior. Those of you who like their products may change your mind if you ever need service. Their stuff is not cheap but even good equipment needs service.

I have decided to buy a "disposable" sealer from Amazon, It cost less than $80. Suction is 90 Kpa which is excellent and nearly same as the Weston. It has a 5 year warranty and if I do not like it, I can return it at no charge with Amazon. It does not have the roll handler and cutter bar but I can live with manually cutting bags.

The sad thing is they weren’t always like that I have a Weston 30 lb sausage stuffer that I had issues with 4 or 5 years ago they were easy to get ahold of and sent the parts right away. I tried to call them last fall just checked there website no phone number anymore.

We bought MaxVac unit from LEM about four yeras ago. It's done a bunch of blackberries, a couple small pigs, around ten deer and roughly 150lbs of home made sausage with only one issue. One of the sealing strips developed a wrinkle so you have to work around that to make sure it fully seals. Other wise it's been a winner.

I was killing a FoodSaver every 9 months so gave up on them and went to a chamber style sealer 3 years ago. Avid Armor Ultra Series Model USV32 Chamber Vacuum Sealer https://avidarmor.com/avid-armor-ult...vacuum-sealer/

Cons: NOT CHEAP

Pros: well built and parts readily available, came with a spare seal bar and lid gasket(haven't needed either!)
Can seal cool liquids in a bag. I do mean cool, fridge temps! Higher the vacuum the lower the boiling point of a liquid.
Much higher vacuum, 29 inches vs 15 for a Foodsaver. Means less oxygen in the bag to spoil the food.
Can seal mylar bags for long term dehydrated/freeze dried food storage
Adjustable vacuum and seal times

And the biggest pro... bags are MUCH cheaper.

Mine has already paid for itself twice over in not buying new Foodsavers and cost of the bags. And in longer food storage life. Bags seem stronger with fewer losing vacuum in the freezer. I thin maybe 6 in 3 years and they were all punctured by a sharp corner off something else.

By the way, I seal my bulk clean brass, plus loaded ammo in 100 and 50 round packages with a clip on both top edges. My sealers get food, brass and ammo usage. They work great for field use small parts containers also.