Food Vacum Sealers

[gunner76]

Looking at buying a food vacum sealer. The reviews I have found seem to be sponsored by the manufacture. Don't need anything with lots of bells and whistles, just a machine that will get the job done.

What machines have fellow WB's used and recommend and or recommend to stay away from and why ?

[whitelightning]

A few years ago I bought a Seal a Meal brand vacuum sealer from Target. It may not be the best on the market, but it has worked fine for me so far. I used it primarily to package food I'd prepared and dehydrated and then sent in maildrops.

At the time I'd looked at the FoodSaver brand, which cost over twice as much as the Seal a Meal. I didn't see any significant advantage as far as the features. I just figure Foodsaver spends more on advirtising - but I could be wrong about that. You can also use the foodsaver bags with the seal a meal unit. I haven't used it much since my thruhike, though.

[Wise Old Owl]

The chinsy part of all vacume sealers it the heater. a wide flat heater would be optimum. I use seal a meal but I seal twice.

[Rick500]

I've long used my FoodSaver V2040 with absolutely zero problems. I recommend it heartily.

Can be found on eBay pretty inexpensively.

[grayfox]

+1 on the wide flat sealing surface.

My first sealer had an attachment that could seal the lid on a canning jar. This saved me a lot of money, the plastic bag material is expensive and though reusable it does not always get reused in the field. I could seal food right from the dryer tray in a jar and then put it in plastic as I packed for a trip.

But simple is good too, my new one is quite reliable, it is the least expensive one from Cabela's.

[sarbar]

FoodSaver from Costco (you can get good deals where it comes with lots of accessories). Bought mine in 2003.