What are the best vacuum sealers for the money?

[KChunter71]

Another vote for VP215. We upgraded a few years ago and it has paid for itself. My wife has almost completely quit canning and we freeze everything. Meat, fish, veggies, even sauces. That thing is amazing.

You pre freeze your sauces in the bag or change the settings?

 

[Perrin713]

Buy a in chamber vacuum sealer. Best purchase you'll ever make for a sealer. Weston makes one for a fairly decent price. There is nothing like freezing bags of soup for the freezer.

 

[CREillY]

I bought an older version of the Cabelas commercial grade 15 inch sealer off CL and it has worked awesome that last 2 seasons. 10 deer and 3 pigs. I really like that it has the dual heat strip. It doesn't work well with the cheap bags off amazon though. Has to be the food saver bags.

You can buy the rebuild kits for them as well if the gasket goes bad.

Cabela's 15" Commercial-Grade Vacuum Sealer | Cabela's

Enjoy fast, high-capacity vacuum sealing you can trust with the Cabela's® 15" Commercial-Grade Vacuum Sealer. Smart Heat Technology delivers continuous sealing with no waiting periods to help you get

www.cabelas.com

 

[CBECK61]

When I used my Foodsaver I have to make sure the fish is super, super dry which is not the end of the world but a bit of a pain. My buddy with the VP215 just seemed to rinse the fillet and throw it right in the vacuum sealer. I have done bear and deer in the foodsaver and it seemed to seal a lot better and work better for that then it does on fish for some reason.

I use to do the same thing with my fish in my $400 LEM sealer but my brother in law from wisconsin who crushes walleye showed me how to use a paper towel with fish. I cut my bags a little longer than i need and then fold a half sheet of a heavy duty paper towel in the front. You have to fold the paper towel a few times so that its maybe and inch wide x the length of the bag. It creates a barrier for the liquid so that it doesn't suck water into the vac sealer. I still let the fish drip dry on a baking rack for a few minutes after a rinse.

 

[ramses342]

I use to do the same thing with my fish in my $400 LEM sealer but my brother in law from wisconsin who crushes walleye showed me how to use a paper towel with fish. I cut my bags a little longer than i need and then fold a half sheet of a heavy duty paper towel in the front. You have to fold the paper towel a few times so that its maybe and inch wide x the length of the bag. It creates a barrier for the liquid so that it doesn't suck water into the vac sealer. I still let the fish drip dry on a baking rack for a few minutes after a rinse.

So you are sealing the paper towel in the bag with the fish?



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[CBECK61]

So you are sealing the paper towel in the bag with the fish?



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Yes the paper towel stays between the seal and the fish

 

[jwasbullfrog]

You pre freeze your sauces in the bag or change the settings?

You can pack them unfrozen. As long as you can keep it from running out it will seal it. I take the trays out inside and lay the opening over the seal bar and it works awesome. The packs lay flat in the freezer and don’t take up much room.


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[MtnMuley]

For extended trips into the wilderness on horseback or even other hunting camp situations, premaking soups, chili, stroganoff spaghetti etc and chamber sealing them flat is awesome. They then get used as ice packs in the cooler until the day they're ready to use. They thaw out very quickly in that flat bags. Sausage in the mornings doesn't even need to be thawed. Keeps good shape and is easily cut into square patties.

Nothing like turkey noodle soup cooled Coors!

 

[Davem6869]

I use a Foodsaver pro, it does the job to process the few deer i get each year.

 

[eaglemountainman]

I'm sure it's not the best, probably not even close, but I've had a Foodsaver Platinum Sportsman for about 10 years now. What's great about this model is that it runs on house current or 12vdc. I take it to deer camp and process the whole meat pole every year.

I've noticed the moisture/seal issue. To resolve it, I put the meat in the bags and into the freezer to get a good chill and "set" any moisture. Then I go ahead and vacuum/seal..

 

[lukerville]

Upset with my FoodSaver, vacuum went out

 

[ronaldquackenbush]

I’ve had several foodsavers and my personal experience has been pretty much in line with their reputation: you normally get a couple of seasons out of one and it goes in the trash. That said, I’m now on my third year with one of their more basic models (I think it was <$100 if I remember), and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. The difference this time around is that I started being a lot more careful about overheating the sealer on it. I started doing no more than two seals in succession and I wait at least thirty seconds between sets of two seals to allow it to cool off. Seems to have prolonged the life of it, because usually by now I would be having failures.

On the other hand, I have a buddy who bought the foodsaver they sell at Costco, and he just lets it burn out and takes it back for an exchange. I’m not usually one to take advantage of liberal return policies myself, but if it craps out prematurely I suppose that’s what the return policy is for.

 

[CREillY]

We just butchered a bunch of pigs and my uncle had a LEM and it worked awesome. Well worth the price tag.

 

[Couture]

I bought myself the LEM chamber sealer for Christmas and have a few hundred seals already. It allowed me to buy 7 or 8 full NY and Rib roasts at $5/lb and cut them up into steaks. I figured I saved $5/lb plus there. I use it for leftovers and tossed all of the crappy tupperware that has accumulated over the years. It also allows us to buy bulk chicken breasts and seal individually since my wife likes those for lunch. That saves a few dollars per pound. I had questions about it after getting it and when I called in I got fantastic help from a young lady who actually knew the product. I chose it over the Weston and Vacmaster similar versions because it has a 5 year warranty and a good sized chamber/sealing bar. https://www.lemproducts.com/product/maxvac-pro-chamber-sealer/maxvac-vacuum-sealers

View attachment 150736

Costco has the LEM vac sealer. Pretty good deal at $599

 

[Elkslayer67]

Chamber vacuum type. I have the vp215 but there are others out there. For everyone that thinks they aren’t worth the money and a external type works just as well. Here is a test. Take a wet sponge and vacuum seal it then squeeze the sponge. A chamber vacuum will not have air in the sponge. Where as external vacuum sealer will. Air equals freezer burn.
As a side note the bags for a chamber vacuum are dirt cheap. Cost savings will pay for the cost of the machine.

 

[eaglemountainman]

That's a lot of coin for a vacuum sealer. My FS Sportsman is about 8 y/o now. I have found meat at the bottom of my freezer that dated to be 4 y/o and fish that was 2 y/o. It looked and tasted like it was processed just the past season. Plus, it works as well on 12vdc as house current. That means I can use it on my truck tailgate, my boat or my ATV. Also, it came with a sturdy carry bag and is very potable. I think I paid $120. If it ever schitts the bed, I'll just get another. But to each his own.

 

[jwasbullfrog]

That's a lot of coin for a vacuum sealer. My FS Sportsman is about 8 y/o now. I have found meat at the bottom of my freezer that dated to be 4 y/o and fish that was 2 y/o. It looked and tasted like it was processed just the past season. Plus, it works as well on 12vdc as house current. That means I can use it on my truck tailgate, my boat or my ATV. Also, it came with a sturdy carry bag and is very potable. I think I paid $120. If it ever schitts the bed, I'll just get another. But to each his own.

You are right, it is a large sum of money, but it makes sense depending on the volume you are sealing. FS bags are roughly 20-25 cents a piece or more when you figure it out. With my Vacmaster I pay 2-5 cents a piece for bags, and I get a better seal w/ more air out than my old FS. The vacuum pump on the Vacmaster is an oil pump, so with proper maintenance it will probably outlast me. We also use it for freezing all our vegetables from the garden and sauces. We have almost completely quit canning now with the Vacmaster purchase. I do keep my old FS Sportsman and it is handy if I am on a trip somewhere, but I mostly use it to dump bulk meat/fish into a large bag and then bring it home to repack into meal size portions at home.

 

[Gen273]

LEM MaxVac 1000, they run around $450

 

[Elkslayer67]

Just got an email on this thought someone would be interested in

 

[hbc07]

I've had a foodsaver v3840 for ~11 years. It has its issues (sometimes it won't get a good vacuum on the bag, and wet items can give it fits on sealing well), but overall i've been happy with it. it gets run through it's paces whether its deer or just portioning out bulk meat from costco.