Vacuum sealers, I know, another thread about

vacuum sealers. I'm looking for one that will get used quite a bit. Do you guys like what you have and can make a recommendation? I'm looking for another way to store food besides canning.

Good for long term storage of ammo too

Define "quite a bit"

Hi Sniper. Ideally a deer, a hog, rabbits, chickens, plus a lot of dry goods. Leftovers like a big pot of beans or chili. I do can but don't want all my eggs in one basket. Plus it will get used by family and friends.

always had good luck with food saver

Only you can determine how much you will use it. They are not cheap to use. We have had a couple food savers. Great for meat. We use our more for the freezer than canning. Great for when you dehydrate items.

Jeff, vac sealing is not a substitute for canning... I have had a VP 215C for a few years (this has a oil pump) and it is a very heavy duty unit.
It's not cheap, but in the long run it is worth it. You can get 1,000 bags for about .12 cents ea. It is a heavy unit weighing about 80lbs and takes up quite a bit of counter space. I have a friend that uses hers constantly and neither of us has ever had a problem. I freeze venison and when it's time to defrost I just put it in a sink of cold water and its defrosted in 30 minutes... You can actually seal wet items like spaghetti sauce too.

There are lots of videos on these units here is one making instant pickle with watermelon rine ...













,.,.

This guy does a great demonstration....









,.,.

Thanks bud! I do like those, but whewey, pricey. I don't plan on trying to can with them. I'm looking for other ways to put up food and thought a vacuum sealer would be nice to freeze some stuff long term, and make meals to freeze. The bags for yours are a lot cheaper from what I see on the other ones. I wonder if that would pay for itself?

Chamber vacs are fine if you’re doing volumes near commercial levels and only seal small items. Oh, and if you’re okay spending an outrageous amount of money. I like to cut backstraps in half and freeze them like that. I also make trail bologna and like to seal the entire log. Can’t do either with a normal home vac chamber. I just butchered a 1400 lb steer and a lot of the cuts wouldn’t have fit in a 12” square chamber vac. I spent less than $30 on rolls of bags for the whole thing, and I kept everything from tongue to tail. I don’t want to recommend a certain brand, because there are a lot of good ones, and I’ve yet to find one that works exactly how I want even if they all sork fine. But check through Amazon for the ones with a double seal strip, it cuts the odds of a poor seal way down.

I have a food saver but it’s time for a new one. Had it about 5-6 years and it’s loosing suction power. I like it because you can get bags about anywhere.

I wrap the stuff I know will be stored long term in freezer paper after sealing. The stuff I’m planning on getting to in 3-4 months I use zip lock or vacuumed sealer on but don’t wrap in paper. Helps me keep track of what to use first, and no need to go the extra mile for stuff used that quick. The paper helps prevent the frozen bags from cracking when handeling or digging through freezer looking for something.

Check with food service, restaurant supply business. Might have a trade-in. Select one that doesn't need expensive bags. The better ones run on 220V.

I thought all of the foodsaver type ones use the same bags???

Pretty sure all Foodsaver brand do use same bag. Charles is talking about “food service” vacuums.

my wife got me a food saver, we put up 6-10 deer, ducks & Geese, parted out chickens and domestic rabbits (whole chickens & rabbits we heat shrink) every year. This thing is awesome. I wish we had bought one sooner.

Does it keep up pretty good pintail, I've seen where some need a rest because of over heating.

6 to 10 deer! what is your limit or do you have a large family?

They all need a "rest period between seals" to prevent overheating. Some are shorter than others. The one I have now says 40 seconds, I've seen 30 seconds and I've seen 2 minutes. Many don't make it easy to find, but it's listed somewhere.

I wore out a Cabelas brand after about 5 years. I got a food saver to replace it. Function is the same but the Cabelas had a much quicker recovery and was more efficient

I have always used food savers. Have probably had 4 or 5 different ones over the years. They work just fine. About a month ago a few of us made 70 lbs of potato sausage and it sealed all of it with out any trouble and I have never had to wait for it to cool down. Sealing fish works best if you freeze it for an hour or so first.

There are models that will seal two bags at once. I have used them a lot when I worked at a seafood business. Some will do four at once but the four bag models use 3-phase current.

There are models that will seal two bags at once. I have used them a lot when I worked at a seafood business. Some will do four at once but the four bag models use 3-phase current.

I have been using a Foodsaver Gamesaver Bronze for about 5 years with no trouble. Looks like the current wingman series. It had some of the best reviews when I purchased it. You can buy bags cheaper at Amazon but they are not the Foodsaver brand.

I have had one of those for about 10-11 years.

I’ve been thinking of purchasing one myself, how much longer is the shelf life of food I’m the freezer when stored in one of these bags?

I have had the Vac-Master for as I said 10-11 years. For me it paid for its self within a year. The food saver bags are crazy expensive. You can get Vac-Master bags for $45-55 per thousand. If you do the math it really dosent take long to pay for one.

I have had wild game frozen for several years when the odd package gets buried and still great. It makes a big difference if your careful not to handle the frozen packages rough. If the plastic gets banged up it will leak.

I wondering if you could use Vac-Master bags in a food saver machine.?

Nope, unfortunately. The ones for the foodsaver types has little ribs on the inside of them to make the suction. That's what I've been seeing online anyway. I looked at the Weston Pro 3000 and for an expensive machine it doesn't have a roll holder or a cutter on it. I'm looking at this one as a good possibility.

Vac-Master Pro 380

No offense, but the popular narrative that a chamber vac can "pay for itself in bags" is laughable unless you're packing thousands of things per year. For normal people, they'll never get back what was spent on the machine. A "decent" one is around $1000, lets say a "decent" suction unit is $100 for arguments sake. So some are suggesting that in the first year or two, a person can save over $900 in bags. Even if you cut the machine price difference to $600, it would take years and years to spend $600 on vacuum sealer bags. Most folks would never make up the difference. I can buy 100' of 11" rolls for $17. For reference, that's only slightly less than I used to package an entire steer, minus the ground burger. And like mentioned before, chamber vacs severely limit the size you can package.
Chamber vacs are great for certain things, but for most people wanting to freeze game meat at home they have fewer benefits at 5x the cost.

The Food Saver bags they add up fast. We spent $200 on bags to do one moose when we had the Cabela's sealer

I don't know where/when you got your bags, but I promise they're nowhere near that now. Actually, your numbers don't make sense. Even at $.40/bag, $200 would mean using 500 bags. Obviously one moose doesn't take 500 bags to package?
Like I mentioned, I spent less than $30 on bags for an entire 1400 lb steer. Of course I didn't buy boxes of bags at Walmart. They're much cheaper off of Amazon for other brands.

https://www.kohls.com/product/prd-4...lAu_Aw-WwRoC3GEQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
You do well to package up a whole steer for $30

Here’s a great place to buy bags....

https://www.webstaurantstore.com/14281/vacuum-packaging-machine-bags.html?filter=freezer-safe:yes

We use ours quit a bit. We used to go through a food saver a year every 2 years on the better ones (More Expense food Saver).

We bought the Vac Master 380 5 years ago and have run several thousand bags through it. Great unit !!

Up to 15 in wide bags up to as long as you need. Or 6 inch bags with enough fillets for a meal and everything in-between.

But with any external vacuum machine freeze it before you seal it if it has water in it. fish, corn, most meat that wet or bloody

Thanks Bigbrownie! great price on 1000 I see these are 3mil I usually use 4mil do you have any issues with the thinner bags? tonight I found a pack of fish from over a year and a half ago surprisingly it came out great....



















,.,.

Funny.....just had backstraps from Nov 2017. I thought it said 2019 when I got them out. I didn't say anything to my son beforehand. He said they were fine. I do two deer a year, various waterfowl, bulk cheese, nuts, soups. I'm getting each of my kids one for xmas presents.