Do you use a Food Saver ?


 
I use my foodsaver every week.
I love my foodsaver.
I'm on my 2nd. 1st one lasted 11 years? SLT...
and i'll buy another if this one ever dies.
 
I'm always sniffing in the dog food section of the meat department looking for bargains on marked down meat. With the food saver I don't have to worry about shelf life, I've cooked steaks that have been in the dark corners of our big freezer that are two years old and were just fine.
When Safeway (Barb works there) has their whole in the bag bone in rib roasts we get two of them and have them sliced into 1 1/2" steaks at about $3.50 a pound we end up with about 12-14 steaks. That's about a six month supply, freeze em and were good to go. And you can't beat the price.
 
KToliver said:
For those of you that own them, without considering the value of saving food that might get disposed of; are they cheaper than buying ziplock freezer bags?
Click to expand...

They can be. But probably not.
To scrimp on bag size costs time.
And eventually one bag thats too small to seal, negates a lot of attempts to minimize.

You can reuse bags....you can.....not me. Im not washing out used plastic bags.

In reality, the bags or roll material, are pretty pricey. Its a cost that cant be ignored when "saving money" by buying bulk, if your honest with yourself.

For instance, say i buy 10 lb pork belly for $30. Maple syrup-$7. Smoke wood and charcoal....$4.....vacuum bags $4 My bacon comes out to $4.50 /lb. Plastic bags were almost 10% of cost! And, i can buy bacon on sale for same price. Just an illustration, but the plastic is truly expensive
 
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The bags are not cheap. We fish a lot and freezing filets is where we use it the most.

To me the real value is being able to capture leftovers from a fantastic meal to enjoy again later.

It's like fishing and hunting, NEVER calculate the price per pound, especially in front of the wife!
 
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I don't know... when I consider this price https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00I1OM7TO/tvwb-20 (currently $19.87), I personally consider it a no-brainer to pay $.20 per foot to seal meals. About a 12" length will seal leftovers that will later feed our family of four. When the choice is between wasting leftovers or a shortened freezer life I'm pleased to invest twenty cents, or five cents per person on a future meal.
 
We bought one years ago. It sits on a shelf in the basement because it never would "seal" reliably. The bags cost a ton and I still threw out the food. I think the stupid thing cost us like $150 too. Live and learn
 
I bought 200 bags earlier this year for about $.13/bag. I think 1qt Ziploc freezer bags are about the same price. Between buying in bulk, freezing leftover BBQ, and sous vide, our 10 year old Cabelas vacuum sealer gets regular use. We had a Foodsaver brand before that with the roll of "bags" that required you to make two seals for one bag. Damn thing and the roll never worked right and it was returned.

In the hierarchy of small electrics in our kitchen in terms of use, first is the Breville Smart Oven, second is the Vitamix, and third is the Cabelas vacuum sealer.
 
Another food saver user. My first one was a hand-me-down from my dad. I don't know how long he had used it but it was old enough it was yellowing. I used it for another 6-8 years. I finally retired it because it seemed the motor was struggling. Bought another and it has been perfect for probably 5 years now.
 
A few weeks ago Costco had them on sale along with a box of various bag sizes so I grabbed them. I had one years ago but felt the replacement bags were too expensive so I don't know exactly what made me buy another one. Some of my reasoning was how much cheaper bags have become with online shopping bringing the replacement bags down to a price that's easier to stomach.

On a side note. My wife has been using the one I just got to reseal chip bags.
 
KToliver said:
For those of you that own them, without considering the value of saving food that might get disposed of; are they cheaper than buying ziplock freezer bags?
Click to expand...

I smoked my first cheese this week, so I needed to vac seal them. I took the plunge and bought the FoodSaver V2244 for $59.
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0044XDA3S/tvwb-20

My concern has always been the cost of bags versus the good ol' ZipLock. Costco quart freezer ZipLocks are abut 13 cents each. Now that I see Amazon carrying sealer rolls for a competitive price, I'm no longer concerned. https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00I1OM7TO/tvwb-20

PLUS...I saw this great hack on how to use the ZipLocks in the FoodSaver. IT WORKS! Tested it this morning. With a freezer bag that has a thicker pinch seal, you just have to hit "seal" a second time to get it to completely melt that seam shut. For some reason the link won't work when I paste it here, so just go to YouTube and search this: "Use Ziploc Bags with Your Vacuum Bagger".

El6vNFJ.jpg


The upper line is with one "seal"; as you can see, the blue zip seals did not melt. The lower line is after hitting the "seal" button twice. Perfect.
2rU99LP.jpg


Now I get the best of both worlds!
 
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I bought this one in December at Amazon already used it 4 or 5 times, its actually $10 less now then when I bought mine. I have used it 4 or 5 times and happy with it who knows how long it will hold up. Its a continuous roll so there is some waste and I have found it works better using the manual vac and seal.

I had bought the 3 pack of St Louis ribs at Costco we generally eat a rack and 1/2 when one of the kids come over so it was nice to be able to seal individually the rest. We also buy the rib eyes there and the filet's so its nice to be able to wrap what we don't use as generally those steaks are pretty large and my wife and I split one maybe grill a few shrimp to go with it.

I pulled one of the rib eyes out a few nights ago no freezer burn it was great, kind of wish I had not waited so long to get one of these. Funny though when there is only 2 of you something like this becomes more valuable to have.

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B07TPSG2CN/tvwb-20
 
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