Vacuum Sealers
 

I have a question about Vacuum Sealers. Last night I fried another FoodSaver. I go through one about every 2 years. The main reason is I do a lot of fish. This year has been an epic tuna season and we’re still catching Yellowfin, Bluefin, Albacore, Yellowtail and Dorado. Seriously, my house is a wreck, the screen door fell off 2 weeks ago, my lawn is badly overgrown, my dog barks at me when I come home (she’s forgotten who I am) but I’ve got a freezer full of tuna! So now it’s time to start smoking and processing all this fish. Before I go out and buy another FoodSaver, I want to consider some options.

Do any of you have any experience with the VacMaster chamber style vacuum sealer? I’ve been looking at the SVP-15 and the new VP-215. I know they cost more but the bags are like 4 cents apiece instead of the 30 cent cost of a FoodSaver bag. I’m thinking it will last me a lot longer. Any thoughts or even a recommendation on another manufacturer or model would be appreciated.

Thanks,

mick

Is there a reason that you keep roasting vacuume sealers? I've had mine for two years and no problems at all.....you may want to check voltage under load to make sure you don't have a voltage drop.....that will smoke an appliance pretty quick.

I was thinking the same thing... What died? The vacume pump or the sealer?

My bigest problem was burning out the sealer strips... Then I started leaving the unit open between seals and never doing more than 2 seals a minute...

Sorry, no experiance with the VacMaster...

It's the motor or pump. The problem with external vacuum sealers is they draw liquids toward the mouth of the bag. Once that liquid gets into the system it's toast. A chamber vac can handle the liquid with no problem.

mick

Sounds interesting, what's the cost on the new unit? Do you have a site we can look at?

Here is a site with a video

http://www.kitchengadgetry.com/kitch...hannelid=FROOG

This site has the best price I've found

http://www.davisonsbutcher.com/cart....t_detail&p=478

thanks for you help

mick

Do you leave a lot of empty bag space between the fish and the sealing location to allow for the liquid? Do you put a single folded up paper towel all the way across the bag between the fish and the sealing location to catch the excess liquid as called for in the instructional CD?



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For heavy duty ones this one comes to mind as well as the ones Cabela's sells.

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/sh...=vacuum+sealer

While I like the unit and the whole concept... There is no way I can pull off $1,175.00 for the unit... Way out of my price range....

Great ideas. I leave plenty of room but it still will draw the liquid through the top. The paper towel trick does work but you need to fold it so it fits all the way across the top. That's fine for 1 or 2 fish but it's been limits for my buddy and I. That means hours of cleaning and packing. It just seems like I need something better suited to my needs and having to use a paper towel is a pain. That's why I'm considering a better unit.

mick

Even if you're going through them every 2 years, it would take 20 years of burning through FoodSavers to spend the equivalent to this new unit!

Just sayin'.

Embo500 has the right idea. Buy two this time and double up. You should easily get your moneys worth.

You need to consider the cost of the bags. 30 cents per bag vs. 4 cents per bag. BTW, the better grade of foodsaver is about $150, so that's 16 years to the break even point plus the savings on the bags.

mick

Try partially freezing the fish then vac sealing. That will solve the liquid problem.

That method works great for a lot of food. I make up a bunch of hamburgers at a time and pre-freeze them so they wont crush when I vacu-suck them individually. Anytime we want a quick burger I just take out what we need and toss them on the grill frozen (less the bag of course) works great.