Comments on: Foodsaver Vacuum Sealer: Which one to buy?

By: Pete Curtis

Pete Curtis — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 03:04:30 +0000

I have owned 4 food saver products as I fish alot and live in a remote area and use them to preserve my meats and fish.. each one has been an update of the last and all have been great until I purchased the V3460.. and It has been a disaster.. it only vacumn every second bag and the sealing strip over heats after just 3 sealings.. it is a pain in the butt.. time to look elsewhere for a professional sealer

By: bob

bob — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 22:29:46 +0000

On my third one. Loved the first one. Worked great till it turned on by itself and started to smoke. Purchased another and it never vacuumed well. Made a strange whistle along with the loud motor. Found a deal on the top of the line model. I’ll let you know if third time is a charm.

By: Sandra

Sandra — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 20:49:13 +0000

I am on my second foodsaver, the first one finally quit sucking air. I use mine probably daily, as I buy & store huge quantities of meat. Buy cheese in large blocks, cut in forths & seal, last for months without mold. Also use for leftovers. The canisters have never bee a problem for me, I store uncut lettuce with the leftover peppers & cukes set on top, & it lasts for 2 weeks. Great for keeping marshmallows fresh, as I use them rarely. I do not use the cannisters for much else, however. Make large quantities of tomato sauce or chili, pour in bag & seal-lay flat to freeze. Make an extra lasagne, freeze, then seal-wonderful!! Reused bags only seal about 2/3 of time, hi failure rate once used-too bad..Love my foodsaver!

By: Ellie Pierce

Ellie Pierce — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:33:46 +0000

I purchased a foodsaver V3840 less than 2 years ago. At first I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I am a widow, live alone, and was able to purchase foods and package them into smaller amounts for myself. The product was not used that much or abused. I tried to use it recently, and the light would go on, but no seal, no nothing. A friend of mine opened it up and found that the vacuum tube was cracked. I called customer service only to find out that opening it up would negate the “warranty” which I didn’t realize was even in effect. To make a long story short, DO NOT BUY this piece of crap! It does not last, it needs something more done as far as it’s mechanical design and engineering, and their customer support SUCKS (no pun intended. This is the only thing that does suck related to the machine) I got absolutely no satisfaction whatsoever from them and they did not seem to care that they had an unhappy customer. I will never recommend this product to anyone and will go back to using freezer bags again!

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 05:28:26 +0000

Rex – I have occasionally had the seals not be as tight as I would like because (a) the number of Vegetables in the bag does not allow the lid to close as well as it should while keeping the bag in the vacuum channel and/or (b) I am vacuuming items I have just washed or are juicy — what I have started to do when working with these situations is putting a double seal on the bag – after the vacuum/seal process, I move the bag about 1/4 or 1/2 inch and run it again – not worrying about the vacuum channel. This way, if my first seal fails due to moisture on the surface or something, the second seal I put in will keep the air from entering the bag

By: Renate Koenig

Renate Koenig — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 22:55:11 +0000

I love my Foodsaver! This is my second one, and I only bought it to upgrade. I wanted the one-hand option. My first one went to an appreciative relative.

I was hoping that I could vaccuum-pack moist foods without freezing them. I didn’t want to add the paper towel as I wanted these meals to put in boiling water to heat while camping. It didn’t work, so I’m disappointed in that. But I did find a way! I freeze the food by placing the filled open bags in plastic containers and draping the top of the bag over the lip of the container. This allows me to freeze the food in a block and my liquid doesn’t spill out. After it’s frozen I just seal it.

I have pies and baked goods that taste as fresh as I put them in months before. I actually found some foods that have been in the freezer for 5 years and they tasted as good as if I had put them in yesterday! I’ve dehydrated apple chips and used jars to store them in.

I wouldn’t be without my Foodsaver!

By: Terry Olson

Terry Olson — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 15:15:33 +0000

I have honesty tried three of the foodsaver models and find their products unreliable. Slow, frustrating. I wouldn’t use this company or their products if such were a gift! A nightmare!

By: Reinier

Reinier — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 03:49:45 +0000

Firstly I want to address the morons that say that if I have a problem with this machine they are wise and the rest of us that have pro0blems are stupid.

People who make comments like that are in desperate need of psychiatric help and if you don’t get it your more stupid than the machines you brag about.

I came here looking for answers, not to find insults.

I have now purchased 2 Foodsavers that worked great for about 20 bags, then slowly the amount of suction was less and less and it’s kicking out as though sufficient vacuum has been made. The last machine I bought was a v2040 and it wasted about 10 bags now, and by the way buying the machine is cheap compared to the price of Foodsaver bags.

Now I would love for someone from Foodsaver to give me and the rest of us with similar problems an answer as to how to either fix it. If not maybe starting a nation wide recall may be the answer.

By: Larry

Larry — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 21:18:32 +0000

Purchased moded V2440 February 2008. Used intermittenly. Now Jarden customer support advises motor has gone bad and machine needs to be replaced. Where is the food price savings if a machine only lasts two years? Not pleased with performance of this applicance.

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 21:21:51 +0000

I’ve had 3 prior foodsaver (pretty basic models) over 15 years of foodsaver and used them a lot for bulk food puchases and repetitive sealing (40-50 seals) when going camping and could not live without one. When the strip on the last 2 gave out.. I bit the bullet and paid around 250 for the professional III plus since it was recommended for repetitive sealing and had a wider strip, no crush feature etc. I tried to use it to prep for vacation and was totally frustrated with the sealing ability (this from a user with a lot of experience at getting tight seals and conservatively using bagging material) that I was able to accomplish with past machines. The next time I went to use the machine it only intermittently vacuumed or didn’t vacuum at all when the vacuum button is pushed. If the button is held manually it will vacuum about 80% but never seal unless you hold down the top to keep the air from going back in and push the seal button.. but the result is that air is inside so you never have a vacuum seal resulting in ice forming inside. Since I have experienced wonderful air tight results in the past with all prior machines this is very frustrating. I didn’t address the problem with foodsaver in time so now am stuck with this expensive machine that is only good for presealing the bags when making them (which by the way it very good at.. and with the one touch button frees up my time) I’m prepping for vacation now I am planning to purchase a second (non-Foodsaver brand) machine for vacuuming and will use this one for prepping bags for that machine.