Who has a vacuum sealer they like?

[Flying Lead]

I have read reviews till my eyes have started to bleed. Typical review for a sealer under $150 is all over the place.
Five star reviews with raves. Three stars with stuff like it was great till it broke at 2 months. And one stars calling out the owner of the company with death threats.

What works?

[Halfapint]

I'll have to update with the one I have when I get home. I got it off amazon for like $30. It's small light, and works better than the industrial sized one my mom uses... It's some weird name but it's worked amazing for the last 4 months. I use it pretty heavily for sous vide, for freezer, and for making ghetto spamcans of ammo

[boskone]

I have a Foodsaver v3240. I use it mostly for sous vide and freezing, never gotten around to vac-sealing ammo. I probably fire it up a couple times a week for the last couple years. I'm willing to recommend it.

On the plus side, most foods are just a couple button pokes; it has a pressure sensor, so it's start-and-ignore. You can manually vacuum and seal if you want. I often "split" bags by folding them in half and sealing along the fold, which it seems to handle easily. It has a removable liquid tray, so if you have a bit of overflow you just pull that out and wash it.

Like most such vacuum sealers (e.g. not one of the $600 or whatever chamber sealers), it doesn't handle liquids or liquid things well. Thin liquids (e.g. steak juice) it will sorta push out of the way when mashing the sealing edges down, thicker liquids (e.g. milk in sous vide potatoes) cause me issues. I'll often put things in the freezer for 15-20 minutes to thicken up the liquids (without solidifying), then vacseal that.

It's got an accessory port, but I've not used it yet. Canning attachments, my parents have a lid for e.g. coffee cans, I don't remember what all.

The only two negatives I've run into aren't major. The roll storage adds height, but barely fits Foodsaver's own rolls; I'd probably rather just omit it. The "deck" is like 1.25" off the surface, so I usually pile a couple cutting boards to bring the bag being sealed up an inch or so; it might be nice if there were a "faceplate" that folded down to serve instead.

[Halfapint]

The one I have is a waoaw

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075PXC3G2/re ... 3833796545

I think this is the newest model.

[Zembecowicz]

I have a "Food Saver". I bought the thing at Bi-Mart about five years ago or so. There's nothing about it that really gets my blood pumping but I don't remember it being expensive. Most importantly it still works.

[moab]

So much for photobucket. But here's my review of a great one and cheap bags that are thick.

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=90894&hilit=foodsaver

[mantis]

I was given a Food-Saver model for Christmas. Making a batch of Beef Jerky and a batch of Pemmican and I will be sealing it up. Can't wait to try it out.