FoodSaver Vacuum Sealer Machine with Automatic Bag Detection, Sealer Bags and Roll, and Handheld Vacuum Sealer for Airtight Food Storage and Sous Vide, Silver

I cost myself hundreds if not THOUSANDS by waiting this long! Waste not, want not. Having seen the FoodSaver on TV for years I finally decided to stop waiting and get one, I cost myself hundreds if not THOUSANDS by waiting this long! Waste not, want not…Something my grandparents taught me. I must have watched the infomercials so much that I did not even need to read the instructions, I knew how…But the directions are clear and the machine should become intuitive to use for almost any buyer.. Well, taking them on their word of food life extending by using this machine as true, just knowing that using it now is saving me money. I went through my freezer and repackaged my not so old tater tots into easy to grab portions. Getting some steaks as part of a package deal at a local grocer I was able to make 3 portions of Beef Teriyaki, 2 single portions and a large portion for 2-4 people..Putting my tater tots into portions makes it so when I want some, I don’t have to fuss with a bag full of icy little tots..corn o the cob in the freezer CHECK, sealed and saved, my whole bean coffee,CHECK, sealed and saved…Giant bag of dry cat food to save money sealed and saved CHECK!!As you can tell, I am enjoying this kitchen appliance more than I thought I would, and I thought I would as I understand the science of the vacuum seal. Having had mail order meat from several companies over the years, I know they can linger around the freezer for a long time.. I do have just a couple issues, but they are not big ones. Those issues are as follows.#1. PRICE…The price is still a little higher than it could be, but not by much for the unit I have, the 4840. And while it came with a nice starter kit, a unit this nice and in this price point should have a little bit more to get people started, like at least one small container, or perhaps one of the jar sealer attachments.#2, The power cord needs to be about 12″ longer for this model. Not everyone has modern numbers of outlets in their kitchen area. Having said that, I still find the value of this unit already paying off. Just knowing I am not throwing away food that was good a few days ago is kind of a relief. I will see how much money it saves me as I already was not prone to wasting food, but was wasting money at the store due to not having a way to keep food as fresh as I want it for more than about a month in my freezer. Now I don’t have to worry about that at least.The zipper lock Fresh saver bags are really nice, being able to split a package of ham into portions so I only have to handle what we are currently eating is nice..Will be using the jar sealer tonight to store some dry goods in Ball Mason jars, potato flakes, sugar, etc. I even was able to save a nice portion of a pot roast by freezing it in a rubbermaid container, then putting the cube like frozen portion into a self made storage bag, my first one, using the roll of bag material and build in cutter…No fuss, no muss. EASY.One other point. The space I am creating in my freezer and pantry by vacuum sealing is starting to show now too as a benefit. No more superfluous packaging for my storage. Space for MORE actual food.Overall I am pleased with the units function and look. Will try and update this review with durability update as time passes.On to find more things to use my FoodSaver on tonight..If you find you are throwing a lot of food out from freezer burn, this machine will pay for itself after a month I believe. If I can manage to keep things for more than a month that is a game changer for my wallet!!! Dont wait any longer if you have been considering one of these.PS..I am a sole caregiver to my 91 year old grandma, and as she gets older money has gotten tighter. If I can make my/her money go further, or do more by spending less, then that is always a good thing. Food from a box is OK for a treat, but real food cant survive unless its stored right..

Works OK, but has a few issues. We’ve used this product for about a year now. We primarily vacuum-seal meats for the freezer but bag and seal other items occasionally. The unit does an excellent job of vacuuming the air out of the branded zip-lock bags using the accessory vacuum hose. That works great for cheese to store in the fridge. It also does a very good job at vacuuming out the plastic containers you can buy from FoodSaver. Overall we are pretty happy with this machine, but want to point out a few fairly minor issues.First off, it is sometimes frustrating to get the end of the vacuum bag into the slot for sealing. The bags have to go in quite far and sometimes the bags seem to hang up and have to be pulled out and reinserted a few times before the unit clamps the bag in place for vacuuming and sealing. Also, there seems to be quite a bit of excess material required to make the seal which seems wasteful of the expensive bag material. Another issue which sometimes really becomes a drag is you can’t seal bags in succession. Say you have ten bags cut and need to seal the bottoms of the bags so you can put in the food to be vacuum-sealed. You have to wait after sealing each bag before you can seal the next one. I haven’t timed the wait but it’s long enough to induce frustration as well as slow down the entire process. The same waiting interval is required after each vacuum and seal cycle. When sealing multiple bags the wait time between operations becomes significant.Another issue is you need to make sure you allow a lot more bag material then you would expect in order to successfully vacuum-seal food in the bags you cut from a roll. We find ourselves cutting a lot bigger bag than it would seem is necessary in order to make sure the bag is long enough to insert in the machine for vacuuming and sealing. If the bag isn’t long enough to suit the machine’s automatic sealing mechanism you might as well start over and make a new and longer bag. It just isn’t possible to make a too-short bag work.We tried some of the less-expensive bag rolls from a different bag manufacturer to try to save some money, considering how expensive the FoodSaver brand bags are. Most of the time the other brand bags worked fine, but sometimes did not. For instance, we recently bagged individual chicken breasts. It wasn’t possible to avoid getting a bit of juice inside the bag in the area where the bag would be sealed. This apparently caused all four of the bags to fail to vacuum out properly. Not too sure if the bags sealed properly since I didn’t want to squeeze a bag containing chicken juice to test the seal. Bottom line is those bags and/or the machine failed.Finally, I want to point out that this machine performs its primary task of vacuum-sealing food in bags as advertised. So far the machine has been reliable and hasn’t failed to work. The addition of the accessory vacuum hose is a great feature and in my opinion is worth a bit of added cost, though keep in mind you will have to have the right materials to use with the vacuum hose such as the FoodSaver brand zip-lock bags.

Leaves a little air in the bag. Overall it works really well. I use it for packing our butchered meat to freeze. It does leave just a little air in the package but not enough to cause any freezer burn. We use regularly and it keeps up. I like that I can make the size we need.

Bigger Isn’t Always Better. It’s a shame my prior model isn’t available. It was half the size and much simpler to understand. But this one will definitely serve my needs.

Quality. I worked on a hunting plantation and we vacuum packed wild game regularly. The machine is tough and reliable. Does a fine job. Great suction and compactness with no leakage on the seal. Quick and easy to operate. I would recommend it to anyone that would ask me. Thank you

GREAT food savor machine. This FoodSaver brand seems to be the one to buy. These cost more, but this brand is worth spending the money on. All the other brands of vacuum sealers are trying to be like this brand. I use mine a lot. FoodSaver brand bags are expensive, but you can buy any brand of bags from Amazon and they work great and save a lot of money. Just make sure they compare to FoodSaver brand bags.

GOOD SO FAR. Works good so far, and easy to use. Wish it sealed slightly better but this is not a commercial grade sealer.

Easy to use. Works very well and easy too.