FoodSaver V2244 Vacuum Sealer Machine for Food Preservation with Bags and Rolls Starter Kit | Number 1 Vacuum Sealer System | Compact and Easy Clean | UL Safety Certified | Silver

UPDATE - 01/06/2020 - After 6 years and 10 months the unit finally died. It actually didn't die. The lever on the right side to lock the lid broke. I spent a couple of hours trying to do a fix but I couldn't salvage the lever. I am buying another one - same model. I always use two hands to lock the top down. Left hand pushing the lid down and the right hand actually using the lever to lock the lid so I'm surprised the lever was the thing that killed it off. It lasted 2 months shy of 7 years. I paid $69.99 for it so it cost me $10/year. I have to say I have changed my mind about the value. I think it was well worth the money. I found that I used it every day. As stated in my original review, I have it on the counter so it's always ready to use. I use it to seal a lot more than just food. I've used it to seal tools; rain jackets - regular jackets for my pickup (so they don't get dirty) and a myriad of other things I want to keep in storage for awhile - clothes, tools, ink cartridges, etc.. I found it better to freeze liquids before sealing. I freeze liquids, leftovers, etc and and then seal them the next day. I purchase strawberries in season, cut the green off, place them on a cookie sheet, freeze and then seal in portions the next day. Then whenever in the microwave for 15 seconds or so (6-7 strawberries), in the blender with some skim milk, a little yogurt, protein powder and whatever else you want your kid (or you) to eat and you have a great smoothie. Works great. Oviously, blueberries, peaches (cut up of course) and other fruit can be frozen, sealed and used for smoothies. My unit came with two small pieces of black foam stuff and before I close the lid I place them where the lid prongs contact the base. It started not sealing very well about two years ago and thought oh boy it's going to the landfill. Well, I started doing some searching on the net and found all I needed to do was purchase new rubber seal strips - very inexpensive - voila, like brand new. The other thing I would like to clarify is that the actual sealing is about 10 seconds. I don't know how I lived without one. I don't buy Food Saver bags, pouches, rolls. There are many places on Amazon and "other" places to purchase them. I found them just as good as the FS ones. I hope this has helped someone out there. (-: END OF UPDATE Food Savers in my opinion are over priced but I bought one anyway. I used it all the time when I first purchased it and was afraid I wouldn't continue to use it after the "novelty" wore off so made a space for it on my counter top (I am a divorced male sharing our 9 year old daughter) so I wouldn't have one of those "out of sight, out of mind" things. I have to admit, I use it all the time, not only for food but for other items as well. I have it in a very convenient place so it is easy to get at and easy to use. I don't buy the Food Saver branded bags/rolls so can't comment on the branded bags other than the ones that came with the unit were fine. The ones I found on eBay were just as good at a MUCH lower price. The only thing I don't like about this unit is it takes longer than I think it should to "seal" the plastic bags - not vacuum, but just the sealing part. I had a business where I had purchased a plastic bag sealer and it seals and cools really, really quickly. This thing takes a good dozen minutes from the actual hot sealing to the 4 second cool down. I read other reviewers stating that the rubber gasket didn't last long or they weren't satisfied with it, it leaked, etc. My unit came with two small oblong black rubber thingies that I guess are suppose to go where the pins on the top part meet the bottom part of the unit. After I use the sealer, I place one of these rubber foam things on each side to hold the lid off the bottom part and have had no problems whatsoever with the actual rubber sealing gasket getting flattened. SEE MY UPDATE ABOVE ABOUT THE SEAL STRIPS.

I was looking at FoodSaver reviews and chose this model because the more expensive ones seemed to have no benefit, and the automatic bag detection is supposedly a pain. I'm so glad I got this model. I also got the mason jar attachment and it works great. Here's a list of what I like about this unit, mostly influenced by my experience being completely different from some of the negative reviews I've read. PROS: - Incredibly easy to use. One touch to vacuum and seal, you can force a seal before vacuuming is complete (to protect fragile items), you can cancel the process before sealing in the rare case you don't get a good vacuum (although, see the Cons list about this), or you can just seal bags without vacuuming, if you just want to seal up a cereal bag or something. - Accessories. I only have the mason jar accessory so far but it works so well, I now have my eye on some of the vacuum containers they offer. This unit comes with the accessory hose, so you only need to buy the accessories that it would plug into. - Manual bag alignment. This is a pro to me because with practice you can waste less bag material with clever placement of the bag. I'd rather insert the bag myself and twist the handle to lock it in place than have an automatic sensor tell me when enough is in the unit. Also on that note, this handle is easy to twist, I don't know how anybody has problems with it. - Seals most bags, and vacuums many bags. I was curious as to whether I could use this to vacuum seal cereal bags, tortilla chip bags, and other plastic bags. It does! I vacuum-sealed half our pantry just to see if i could do it. I haven't run across a bag yet I could not seal, but some, like potato chip bags, I could not vacuum. This is fine, since I didn't really expect the unit to successfully do this at all. It's more like a bonus to me. CONS (minor): - I have had great luck with vacuuming, I've only had two FoodSaver bags (out of at least 40) fail to vacuum first try. The first time I had it happen, I didn't realize it, so it sealed the bag without vacuuming. I had to cut it open and re-seal. The second time this happened, I was prepared and I cancelled the vacuum process, re-aligned the bag, and vacuumed fine. I don't really see a problem with an inability to vacuum, my only minor complaint is that if you don't pay attention, it will seal without actually creating a vacuum. Seems to me like it should be able to detect when this has happened, but it doesn't. But if you pay attention, you're fine. (I have been unable to vacuum a couple non-FoodSaver bags, but that was completely expected.) - Bag waste. It's not as bad as I had been expecting. You can seal one end pretty close to the edge of the plastic. Vacuuming does require a good inch and a half, or more, of space. You can get to be pretty good at minimizing waste, but I feel like they could change the design slightly to handle this better. I really am not complaining, just pointing out this reality. One last note: I have not once had an issue with overheating. The instructions say to wait 20 seconds between sealing, and you would have to have quite the assembly line going to actually seal 2 bags in 20 seconds over and over. At my best speed I was sealing every 30 - 45 seconds and after a dozen or so seals at that speed, I had no issues at all. I recommend this FoodSaver for all uses. I have not seen one thing that I would want on a more expensive model, this one does it all, and was precisely what I needed.

I'll admit I was skeptical at first - I wasn't convinced that vacuum-sealing would make any impact in reducing the outrageous quantity of food my family wastes in the deep, dark, forgotten recesses of the freezer. But in just two months of use, it actually has. Granted, much of the savings are attributable to more enthusiastic management of the freezer, but it's working. We are now also purchasing meats, cheeses, poultry, etc. in quantity when they're on sale and also cooking sauces in quantity and sealing in multiple bags. The unit has officially paid for itself in our two months of use. The ability to freeze "pre-leftovers" is convenient and saves money. And the quality of the vacuum sealed foods is practically the same as fresh-prepared. Based on reviews (though mostly of other models), I was concerned about the quality and durability of the sealer, but this unit is well built and performs very consistently. No doubt in my mind that it wouldn't hold up to commercial use, but for family use - weekly and occasionally in-between - I'm confident it will last at least one or two years without problems. Certainly, vacuum pumps are never long-lived and will probably be the demise of the unit, but a unit with a serviceable, commercial grade vacuum pump would cost much, much more and would also require periodic maintenance. This unit is inexpensive enough to justify replacement should it fail. When ordering we also purchased an assortment of rolls along with the two standard sized bags. I wish we had passed on the rolls - we haven't sealed anything yet that didn't easily fit into either the quart or gallon bags, but I suppose if you are sealing excessively long (and narrow) items like full racks of ribs the rolls would be helpful. The bags are far more convenient and not that much more expensive. Here's another trick - when you need an ice pack immediately or for food transport, just seal some cubes in a bag. For some reason, the ice seems to melt much more slowly in a vacuum bag, and you can even reuse it. So, my advice is go ahead and try it. If you're not running a home meat packing business I'll bet it will be a good fit for any average family. Read the instructions - an hour of pre-freezing before sealing prevents the vacuum from sucking out juices and is essential when packing sauces and liquids. Doing this I have not even had to clean the sump tray even once. And besides quantity of use, I'm certain aspiration of contents into the vacuum pump is the primary reason the units fail.

The food saver works as promised overall. Not perfect, but it usually does what it needs to do and is small enough to stick in a drawer when I am not using it. Sometimes it doesn't suck -- which is to say sometimes it fails to draw the air out of the bag and may proceed to sealing if I don't stop the process and reposition the bag. It is generally obvious right after starting if it is working or not because when it works the collapse of the bag around whatever is in it is prompt. It also tends to suck liquids and marinades out of the bag, but there are a couple of fixes for that: Either use the rigid plastic marinading containers (sold separately) or I freeze liquid marinades and stocks in a ice cube tray, then drop them in with meat, seal, and stick it in the refrigerator. I use it mainly for sous vide cooking, and have on three occasions had the seals fail, this is what cost them a star. In all three cases it was the seal that failed, not the bag breaking at some other point. The first time I had 3 pounds of carnitas spill out the bottom as I was lifting the bag out of the water bath. The other two times the seals simply leaked and created a soup at some point during the cooking. This is particularly annoying because the whole point of sous vide cooking is it is a setup and walkaway process that should not have to babysit and troubleshoot the whole time it is running. I have taken to double sealing each bag (at both ends if I am using a roll). I vacuum and seal, make sure the area above the seal is completely clean and dry, then seal again above the initial seal. Also folks, get your bags here on Amazon, don't order them directly from the company. I tried that, even set up an account. It came with a 10% discount for first time users, but at the site there was a buy one, get one offer for bags and some free stuff if your order was over a certain amount, neither of which I could use and none of the specials came up in my total. I placed the same order here at Amazon and sent the FoodSaver folks an email. They told me to call their customer service to fix the problem. Uhhh... No. Just no. I will take the time to deal with technicians at customer service when I am having problems with software or need help getting something to run. When it comes to placing an order if the ordering system doesn't simply work it is easier to place the order somewhere else. Like here at Amazon where I got bags cheaper with one click.

If I had more counter space I’d have it ready to use ALL the time! Fast, easy, and reliable! (3 must-be’s in our kitchen!)

I've used this item about 10 times since getting it shipped from Amazon. It's a terrible item!! After doing what I felt was some pretty good research, I settled on this FoodSaver and was pretty excited when I vacuumed my first item, a couple of steaks. They got labeled and put in the freezer; a couple of weeks later, when it was time to put them in to cook, I noticed that the bag had lost all of it's vacuum. I'd since sealed several other items for storage like some chicken and bratwursts. After seeing the results from the steaks, I went and checked on everything else to find that every other package had lost it's vacuum. As an experiment, I vacuum sealed some ice cubes and stood the bag in my sink over night. When I took a look the next morning, the bag was drained of the water it should have held. I've taken to trying to seal the bags twice and am having luck with that holding vacuum for at least 30 minutes...which is how long it's been since I last vacuumed anything and put it in the freezer after deciding to give it a bad review. After vacuuming anything that has a little juice, there is some mess left to clean up from the process; not a big deal, and it seems like it should be easily taken care of with the little drip tray that comes installed in the unit but it somehow misses a good portion of the fluid, allowing quite a bit to seep between the drip tray and the machine. The tray is easily removeable and cleans simply enough, even being dishwasher safe, but when trying to clean the un-removable portion under the catch tray there are some little corners that are very difficult to clean. Not a pleasant thing with chicken juice! Also, the two buttons on top and the locking lever have lost the words they used to have on them. I'd have expected the labels on them to last longer than just a few uses but, once again, this machine has let me know that I expect too much from it. The description of the item claims reliable food storage will be yours with this magical kitchen gadget but I haven't found a single reliable feature of this sealer. In fact, as far as I can tell, every single claim on the product page is bogus. I went to the FoodSaver web site to make sure that nothing important had been omitted from the instructions and followed some hints that suggested at marginal excuses for the poor performance. I inspected, cleaned and re-seated the seals and no change; cleaned and inspected the heating elements with no change; finally, I tried sealing a spoon as directed and, sure enough, it performed marginally. The only other thing I can test on this item is how the warranty works. Good luck if you decide to purchase this failure of technology. UPDATE: 14JAN15 So, after weeks of back and forth with customer service, a new unit was sent out to me. Marginal customer support rounds out the terrible experience I've had with this product. They asked me to pay shipping both to return the defective unit and for the replacement to be sent out. Long story short, the new unit seals somewhat better than the first, but is still temperamental when it comes to consistent sealing but the lettering for the buttons has still work off very quickly.

OK, I guess it is finally time to review my FoodSaver. I have had it for a little over a year. I think the two big problems people have is a) it breaks really quickly, or b) it sounds great and they want to save food, but they never really end up using it because it's an extra step and then they have wasted money. I did not have problem "a". Mine is still chugging along. Of the many many seals I have made, maybe one or two were not perfect (my fault, though), and once or twice it didn't want to vacuum correctly. Overall, my FoodSaver has worked for a year as well as I could hope. How much do I use it? Usually, when I do use it, I seal between 3 and 6 bags in a row. I use it maybe once every two weeks, but then I might also go for a month and not use it. For some people, that might seem like not enough to justify the purchase, but I don't feel like I have problem "b" either - after a year, my FoodSaver is taking up one of my most easily-accessible shelves in the kitchen and I am stocked on bags because I do very much "need it when I need it". I use it for all kinds of things. I like buying meat and veggies at a warehouse-type store and then portioning them out and sealing them. When I read a recipe that says "sweet red pepper", I don't have to imagine myself spending $2 on one - I already have it chopped in strips and ready to go in the freezer, for much less, even if you take the price of the bag into account, which of course you should. I also love to make my own chicken broth - so much better than store-bought! I freeze it in 2-cup or 1-cup portions in plastic containers, then move it to FoodSaver bags and seal - I could leave it in the container, but then it would get frostbitten and take up a lot more room in the freezer. Basically, I like having it because I have specific things I use it for - things that are consistently present in my life, even if they are not daily. I feel like it helps me save money and food and to organize my freezer. Before you buy one, really think about whether you will use it. Whether you are OK with taking the time to put something in the freezer for 30 mins before you actually apply vacuum to it because you can't seal something that's wet. It will be a great tool for some, dust collector for others.

I did a lot of research before deciding which FoodSaver would be best for me. I watched You-Tube videos and read the reviews here. The reason I chose this style vs. the most expensive was that it's NOT automatic. The more expensive models cut the roll for you and it wastes a lot of plastic. It takes no time at all to cut the size you need and the plastic isn't cheap! Being an "empty nest" now, I noticed food was ruining due to freezer burn before my husband and I could eat it. I got used to buying in bulk when we had a house full of kids and now I don't want to pay a higher price for a smaller amount of food. I saw many reviews complaining about their FoodSaver not working well. Most of these were the more expensive models. This one is perfect! Now I can continue to buy in bulk and our food wont freezer burn. If you're cooking your meat first (like meatballs), make sure you refrigerate them before packing so the juice won't be pulled out. I do dap off any excess liquid - like on chicken before I seal because it does pull a lot of juice and can keep it from completely sealing. I wiped off the edges and re-sealed just above the first seal and it worked perfectly. Great save! I've used it about 5 times - make sure you let it cool for 20 seconds in between each sealing process - and it will work fine. I've had no problems with it. You can cook your food in the bag, too! Low and slow is the way to go! Heat a pot of water to about 180 degrees, place the frozen food in the water and it will be ready in about 30 minutes. I cooked a 4 oz. piece of frozen salmon and it was delicious! Moist and flaky and I didn't have to use the oven! Let the food rest for about 5 minutes before opening the bag.

So disappointed! Comes with 110 Volts input although bought from amazon UAE, had to by a converting adapter. Only works with channeled plastic bags, needs LOTS of plastic bag excess space around the food in order to get proper vacuum. Complete waste of money!

does not seal properly.from day one. Please see if you can give me another one or a better one . I would pay the difference

This is one of the best appliances I have ever used. It works great and so simple to operate. Love it!!

PRODUCTO MUY PRACTICO, SELLA PERFECTAMENTE LA BOLSA, LO GUARDO FACILMENTE EL UNICO DETALLE ES LA BOLSA SALE UN POCO COSTOSA EL CONSEGUIRLA

pathatick... i want to change it but i wont find any solution.