Vacuum Sealer Recommendations needed


 
I was wrong...I paid more for the Weston. I just looked and I bought the Weston at an eBay auction for $122.49 + tax & shipping on 1/10/20, total purchase = $161.53. I bought the GameSaver for $110.60 on 6/01/15 from Red's Gear on Amazon, no tax and free shipping. I was surprised when I won the auction with such a low bid! We still have the GameSaver for a backup.

We use ours quite a bit...with just the two of us, it's a necessity. I've got a pork loin roast ($1.99/lb) to cut into pork chops today. We routinely buy the limit (usually 10#) of hamburger when it goes on sale ($1.99/lb) and divide it into 1lb portions. We bought the limit (10#) of country-style ribs ($1.99/lb) for the slow cooker. She bought 9# of bacon recently, I don't remember the price. I double-seal each end of a bag with a label between seals at one end, a holdover from the early days with FoodSaver, so that's 4 seals per bag. I'm just not comfortable with a single seal, it doesn't look right to me, force of habit. I've got shopping bags of pork, beef, and chicken, all stuff we buy when it's on sale, and whenever anything goes on sale, we take inventory and see if there is anything we need.

I think we ended up with 10 steaks and 3 roasts from the rib roast sale, and I've got a ribeye steak in the fridge for dinner tonight that I'm probably going to cut in half it's so thick, and we both love a good crust so there's an opportunity for more crust there.

My wife would prefer that I seal in individual portions, but with so many things in the freezer, it's more of an organizational thing for me.

I created a sheet of labels in Excel to put between seals. With the GameSaver there is a lot of space at the top between the edge of the bag and the seal, not so much with the Weston. I'd post it but the file format isn't permitted, but it's easy to create your own. Since I double-seal anyway, it makes sense to me to do it this way., and I've been doing it this way for years...YMMV
 

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If you want to you can post it in the generic Excel format or simply convert to PDF. When I email my final work order/receipts to my customers I always convert to PDF so they can open them
 
Ed Pinnell said:
What will happen at some point is, there is a vacuum switch that has to see a certain minimum vacuum before the unit will seal, and one day you got a load of food to do and the unit runs and runs and won't seal. You clean the chamber seals and it still won't seal. You replace the chamber seals and it still won't seal. Your pump has worn out or the switch has failed and it's time for a new sealer. With a commercial sealer there are parts and support, but they are built to last day in and day out, too. I bought this one second-hand for less than I paid for the GameSaver so I put up with the big and heavy downside. FoodSaver sucks for parts and support on the GameSaver model I have, BTW...couldn't even buy a set of replacement chamber seals, had to buy aftermarket, which work great.
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We killed 2 Foodsaver branded machines, and as noted elsewhere..... Rival's customer service is non-existent. I am not hard on kitchen gear, and they just flat-out are cheap <BEEEEEEP> machines.

I bought an Ary VacMaster Pro260 (no longer available, unfortunately,) and am quite happy with it. While it may not be a commercial rated unit, customer service is responsive and knowledgeable ("I'll sell you the parts, but I'm pretty sure that you really don't need them,") and I've been able to disassemble it for a thorough cleaning when I've mistakenly gotten liquid inside. Even the vacuum servos can be disassembled, cleaned, serviced, and reassembled fairly quickly. I've also never managed to exceed it's duty cycle, and it's never stopped due to overheating (not uncommon for for me to do 12-24 seals in short succession.)

Probably the biggest secret, IMO, is to find a purveyor of good roll and/or bag media. I've been buying bags from https://webstaurantstore.com. Last order of pint bags was $3.99/50, something like $0.08 each, and their customer service is darned good. The bags are cheap enough that I only use roll media for big stuff like prime rib roasts.
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
Well, thanks Dan! I will be re packing some ribeyes and setting up a tri tip for later! I’ve never used one before, any “tips”?
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Practice?

I double seal each end.

If I'm vac bagging something big I use the canister setting to get it close then hit vac seal.

Wet if it has moisture.

Edit. What I meant was "wet setting"
 
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Brett-EDH said:
Anyone using Avid Armor A100? Any reviews or thoughts?

Avid Armor Vacuum Sealer Machine - A100 Stainless Construction, Clear Lid, Commercial Double Piston Pump Heavy Duty 12" Wide Seal Bar Built in Cooling Fan Includes 30 Pre-cut Bags and Accessory Hose
More information: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HFC8V9M/?tag=tvwb-20
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Based on the appearance, I'd rather strongly suspect that's actually built by Weston, a fairly reputable brand at least.
 
To me, the important thing is to be able to buy the chamber seals and sealing tape when needed, 2 or 3 years down the road. Having an adjustable heat or seal time setting is a also a big plus for me because I prefer the heavier bag material...I move stuff around a lot in our freezer and heavier bags are more cut resistant. If you plan on doing consecutive seals, with the commercial sealers the heat tends to build up on the sealer bar and it helps if you can adjust the seal time to allow for that. The consumer models just shut down and wait for the temp to drop.
 
Ed Pinnell said:
To me, the important thing is to be able to buy the chamber seals and sealing tape when needed, 2 or 3 years down the road. Having an adjustable heat or seal time setting is a also a big plus for me because I prefer the heavier bag material...I move stuff around a lot in our freezer and heavier bags are more cut resistant. If you plan on doing consecutive seals, with the commercial sealers the heat tends to build up on the sealer bar and it helps if you can adjust the seal time to allow for that. The consumer models just shut down and wait for the temp to drop.
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Excellent feedback. Thank you!
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
I just suck sealed a frozen tri tip, no problem at all. Pre freezing some ribeyes to seal for later!
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Nothing wrong with doing it that way, but if you wrap the ribeye with saran wrap you can seal it without freezing first. I don't like freezing first because it takes too much time and then it's not flexible enough to conform to the bag and sometimes you get frost on it.
 
Ed Pinnell said:
Nothing wrong with doing it that way, but if you wrap the ribeye with saran wrap you can seal it without freezing first. I don't like freezing first because it takes too much time and then it's not flexible enough to conform to the bag and sometimes you get frost on it.
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My wife has been freezing all the meat we've been buying with the "brand name" sealer. She's not freezing them first. Not having any issues with them. Pulling out a strip for tonight's supper as I write. I have noticed though since buying a non frost free freezer we don't have issues with the bags unsealing. I think those defrost cycles screw things up. I just pulled out a piece of london broil from the upstairs freezer we put in there vacuum sealed about 8 mos ago and it was not "tightly" sealed. There was air space around it. But, anything we put in the manual defrost unit stays just fine
 
LMichaels said:
My wife has been freezing all the meat we've been buying with the "brand name" sealer. She's not freezing them first. Not having any issues with them. Pulling out a strip for tonight's supper as I write. I have noticed though since buying a non frost free freezer we don't have issues with the bags unsealing. I think those defrost cycles screw things up. I just pulled out a piece of london broil from the upstairs freezer we put in there vacuum sealed about 8 mos ago and it was not "tightly" sealed. There was air space around it. But, anything we put in the manual defrost unit stays just fine
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Sometimes during the vacuum phase the juices from the meat will get sucked up into the sealing area and mess up the seal, or even into the vacuum chamber and then you have to clean that out, so if you wrap it first it slows it down enough to prevent that from happening. Also, when you freeze several pieces into one bag like I do, it helps keep the items from freezing together solidly so you can more easily separate them. They still are frozen together but I can break them apart when they are wrapped. Here's some London Broil we did last year, divided into portions, wrapped and sealed. I've already taken a couple of portions out and when I do, I just cut off the label and stick it back in the bag when I re-seal. You can see that, even with it wrapped, the Weston will still suck the juice out but the bag is already sealed by the time that happens.
 

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When I vacuum seal fresh meat, I've been setting the vacuum just so the juices run up not quite to the rubber gasket. That should get the majority of the air out, and with good bags, I've never had a problem.

Yes, the bag needs to be dry where it rests on the heat strip, and fatty liquids are the worst, IMO. I'm still on the original heat strip in our Vacmaster, and I do have a spare strip and rubber gasket on the shelf.
 
OK, well I guess we avoid that as I put the steaks on toweling to get all surface moisture removed and since it's just me and the boss, and I cut my steaks 1.5" thick, she only freezes one per unit. So I guess because of that we have avoided any issues. But I get it now
 
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