FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer Machine and Express Vacuum Seal Bag Maker with Sealer Bags and Roll and Handheld Vacuum Sealer for Airtight Food Storage and Sous Vide, Silver

Easy, Fast and Cheap! This was the 1 for me. This works great! I read so many reviews about these machines that my head was in a spin about which one to try. I decided to go with the one I liked best and I am so glad I did. I really like the shape and how it fits on my counter, leaving me lots of room to work on the counter making it so easy to use. I taught my son how to do it and he was rocking with it helping me out after one quick how-to lesson.Another reason I liked this model was that it has roll holding capability (25′ rolls just fit). I also wanted this machine for the simple sliding cutter- so easy and so straight! Another reason I got this was that you can seal closer to the edges so less bag waste. I also like the vacuum seal option for ziplock bags and canning jars. it’s so easy it’s fun! I also wanted the moist dry feature though I think the best thing to do is to freeze your liquidy type of foods like other reviewers suggested as it is hard not to get some liquid up to the seal when getting the air out…though my son could do it just fine. :)The only thing I have concern for is the handle you lock down to seal the bag on the roll. It is not perfectly smooth and I hope the mechanism lasts. It does great but I am wondering about continued wear. I guess I will find out. All the machines I reviewed had positives and negatives. One negative I ran across on every machine was that sometimes the air does not all get pulled out. I had this happen because of my inexperience and as I have learned how to do it I have had no problems. I also have had no problems with air going back into the bag later the same day or a week later. Over time this probably will happen because its plastic -made up of atoms.I am so glad I purchased this item because I like things easy and fast and cheap. The cheap $ comes in is that I can reuse the bags if I want to. I make the bag a little bigger than I want and then when I cut them open I do so on the narrow side giving me more room to fill then if I sliced open the long side. Very cool and money saving!

Good idea, definitely a design work in progress. First of all, this is a terrific solution to frozen food storage. We have had this device for a year; and, after getting through the learning curve, admittedly with only intermittent use due to frustration, we have finally gotten to a routine that works. Any buyer will have to deal with the reality that it is a design compromise, combining unrelated tasks of bag sizing and cutting, portion allocation, and sealing in the manufacturer’s marketing plan. Perhaps this is elementary and tolerable to you, but you should walk in with eyes open.I will leave description of the device to others, and begin with the instructions, which are sunny, enthusiastic, and in many ways incomplete and wrong. The process to use the machine must must be learned with hands-on experience. Both hands, this is NOT device that allows for multi-taskng. There are several tricks to making the device work. This is how we NOW do it, not the way the instructions suggest:1. Plug in the machine on a counter space that will give you enough space to pull bags from the front bottom slot of the device, and to use a support to hold the food in the bag when using the vacuum sealer, and something to hold and transport the cache of sealed food. I use a thick book (in my case, Jacques Pepin’s “New Complete Techniques,” which is about 3″ thick). This is crucial, because the way the device is designed so that, if you follow Foodsaver’s instructions, after you cut and fill the bag, unless it is hugely over-sized, you must hold the bag so that it does not slip out of the sealing slot when you try to press the seal bar, which can only be done with both hands for some reason.. The method suggested by Foodsaver wastes a lot of bag, and you will go through a lot of plastic to store a relatively limited amount of food, unless you take some prudent steps to save time and money. Put a roll of the bag you want to use into the bin from either side. It is helpful to unlock the cutter bar at the bottom right, pull the cutter assembly toward the front, and feed the roll to the white line that is usually hidden from view during use. Turn on the machine, power by pressing the button at the top left, re-lock the cutter bar, and press “seal” at the top. Sometimes this is not necessary, especially if you have used the machine before and the same roll remains. One of the nice things about this machine is that its designers “tried” to make it user friendly, and in this instance, the device seals the end of the roll when you go through the process of sealing a bag. Helpful, but not really intuitive to a user.2. Drape a towel or plastic wrap over the book or support, to prevent food juices, and there will be some no matter how careful you are, on your hands, on the bag, and ultimately on the machine.3. Prepare, wash, and cut up the food you want to freeze/store into portions you like.4. Unlock the cutter bar at the bottom right, and pull a bag to the desired size, re-lock the bar, and run the slider to the opposite side to cut off the bag. You will only learn the sizing with repeated use. Again, at first you will use a lot of plastic, not including mistakes and discards, of which you will have a few. Get over it.5. Put the food in a bag. Insert the unsealed end of the bag in the sealer slot (above the cutter bar insert). If you follow my advice and SUPPORT THE FOOD IN THE BAG WITH SOMETHING ABOUT 3″ THICK, you will not need to hold the bag. Insert the bag just far enough to see it through the clear plastic window at the top; if you can see about 1/4″ that is enough. If you put it in crooked, or too far, the device will not seal properly.6. At the top of the machine, there is a button that selects “dry” or “moist” foods, which seems to have no utility. Each time you use the sealer, it defaults back to “dry.” Perhaps I am anal, but I try to put it on the right setting before sealing, but it never seems to make any difference in the resulting sealed bag.7. With BOTH HANDS (if you follow my advice about a support for the bag of food, this will be a snap), grasp the sides of the device, hooking your fingers around the edges, and press BOTH SIDES of the seal bar with your thumbs. If you do not support the food bag, you will fumble, repeatedly, and not be able to satisfy the machine’s inner demons to get it to vacuum and then seal the bag.Last, there is a lot of waste of bags when you first start. There will be less as you become experienced, but there still will be a lot, and I think this is by design.. The machines are not cheap, and it is not inconceivable that the manufacturers sought to increase potential profits in maximizing consumables, which you conveniently buy from Foodsaver. Like office printers, broadband, and a million other things, without the consumables, it is pointless to buy the product. The cash, it flows. And, you might try other vendor’s bags, which might be cheaper, but the lure to buy bags intended for the machine might be irresistible. It is capitalism, after all.

This is a great product, but. I bought this because I wanted a more versatile vacuum sealer than the one I had. I really like this product as I have owned FoodSaver in the past. I only have one issue with this unit and that is that the drip tray is not removeable for cleaning, it is hard to get to it to make sure that it is cleaned properly. Other than that one thing, I really am enjoying this product. It performs wonderfully.

GREAT MACHINE. My new food saver works soooo good, I’m in hog heaven! The suction is amazing both with the bags and the attachments, and the seal is perfect. So easy to operate, seriously, power on and it’s ready to go!

Money saver & Convenient. This is my second FoodSaver. I purchased my first one from BJ’s and used it for 5-6 years before it stopped vacuuming properly, hence the second one. This one functions quite well. It also came with two attachments, one for the FS marinating containers and one for mason/ball jars. It vacuums well and seals tightly. Not long ago, I pulled a strip steak from the freezer, still tightly sealed, no frostbite, looked as good as when I first put it in the freezer in 2019; it was delicious! There was no degradation in the least. Also, if you freeze your vacuum-sealed veggies, or leftovers, etc., you can just pop the still sealed bags into a pot of boiling water, or the microwave, to defrost & reheat them, so it saves on washing another pot, and you can pour your hot food directly into your serving bowls. Easy-peasy.It’s great for singles, e.g. if I make a tray of lasagna, I have my one portion and cut up the rest into serving size pieces and vacuum seal them for future meals. When I do this, however, I place the cut portions on a tray and freeze them overnight, then when I vacuum-seal them the next day, they retain their shape. I do this when I cut up onions, peppers, etc. so they stay separate and I can take out what I need and reseal the bag. For these, I use the zipper bag. I highly recommend this product if you want convenience and save money on not having freezer-burned foods.