Hi Josh I've made posts on this in the past. Should be in the archives.
I have a more expensive one that I have been using for 3 years or more now without any problems. It has a 15" wide seal bar. It will take 15" wide material. This is really handy and allows me to seal most anything I run into. Whole cakes, pies, etc. Large pieces of meat and other stuff. Full casseroles, etc. Using roll bag material from 6,8,11,15" widths also adds tons of flexibility of odd sized items. And you can make your own bags from the rolls themselves if you want. A heavier duty unit is handy for that as well. I don't, I just keep roll stock on hand as well as bags.
It will also seal the smaller bags two at a time due to that width.
It can also be used with the accessories from foodsaver. I have used the canisters, but now just use them for storage as I found they did't hold vacuum reliably. I have used the jar attachments but they can be a pain as you have to fiddle with them a lot and the lid seal has to be almost perfect. Find some jars that work and some that don't.
The seal on this unit is really wide too .22". So it is very reliable and less particular if there is fine debris or other issue. More forgiving. You never have to hold down on the bar/lid while the unit is sealing. Might have to just touch it lightly sometimes at the start but that's about it.
It is fan cooled and has an almost non existent cycle time if you are bagging a lot. Pretty much continuous duty in my experience so far. The instructions say to wait 20 seconds between seals but I never have over total time of ownership and never had an issue. Maybe if you were doing 100 bags at a time it might matter.
It has a double pump and goes to 28.5 inches Hg of vacuum according to spec. It's fast by comparison and vacs very tight. There are controls to manual seal.
All of the parts for the machine are available. Meaning you can repair them if something breaks. Which was a big issue for me. Since owning it I had to replace the teflon tape over the sealer element once. Cost about a dollar. I simply bought a roll of the teflon tape and will never have to buy tape again.
I use bulk bags and have always used the mesh type because they are cheaper, but it will use standard FS bags as well. Note that foodsafer/tilia will also use the mesh type bags that you can typically buy much cheaper. I never buy bags at a department store. I have always bought mesh bags mail order.
Now that said, this is probably considered a semi commercial unit. Anything higher in quality is pretty much true commercial and is typically internal cavity type. So way more expensive. This unit is not cheap either and I look at it as the Home Kitchen Aid stand mixer of the vac sealer world
I paid $350 for mine several years ago. They are currently at 375-400 now depending on where you buy.
Cablelas and Basspro sell their version of this unit but they remove the fan. They have more electronic controls that this standard one doesn't have. I like this one better because of the cooling fan and the cord storage it has.
Foodsaver makes a dual pump unit that has much better vaccuum that is called Gamesaver Pro. I bought one of these for my parents and it has worked fine without issue for just about 2 years now. It has a wider seal than the standard FS and better cycle time. It also has more vacuum. You can't get parts for it though if it breaks. I think you are still in the same boat in that you can't send it in for repairs either like the other FS products. That unit cost about $275-$300 including shipping when I bought it for them.
Below that are the various FS, Tillia, and other sealers that are more econocmically priced. You can't repair them but some would certainly say you can replace a number of them without hitting the price of the unit.
The unit I have is called Pro 2100(white) or Pro 2300 (SS). I have the stainless steel. They are not the most counter top friendly in that your interior decorator may gasp. I keep mine stored on one of my rolling shelves and set it up on the counter when I need it.
The FS Gamesaver Turbo Pro is smaller as it is only 11" and less bulikier and is more counter top friendly. This is NOT the same as the Gamesaver Pro which looks the same but is single pump and less vac capacity. The GS Pro runs around $200. Not sure if they still sell the Turbo Pro version.
Some sources for Pro 2100/2300:
Provaccuum
Sealers Unlimited
They are also branded as Weston and available there.
Weston
If you search on Pro 2100 you will find a number of sellers.
Cablas and Basspro are good sources of other models and duty rating of vac sealers that you can get a look feel for what you are looking for. They have a decent variety and different levels beyond the typical consumer version sold in the department stores/mail order houses. I'm not knocking FS at all. It's all what you are looking for, want to spend, and can justify for your purpose.
Cabelas (two pages)
Basspro
There are even book on selecting one. Just search on vacuum sealer guide.
Otherwise there are plenty of foodsaver users out there that can give testimony and loads of folks use them and are happy. I had different selection criteria than most I suppose. Very happy with this unit.