I rarely post, but I read all forum messages. I have to jump in with my 2 cents on this product. I wasted my money on 2 of these Food Savers before deciding to bite the bullet and get a quality product. These Food Savers are great if you need to save a PB&J till tomorrow, but for quantity use, a waste of money. As you noted, getting the end in just right takes care, they get too hot and have to cool down for a couple minutes about every 4-6 seals if you're bagging quickly. And, of course, you don't know this until you get the bag in the slot, pull the vacuum and then get the error message, Too Hot! The vacuum seal starts to leak in about 200-250 seals and must be replaced. The bags and rolls are too expensive for the thin material they are. The liquid residue container is too small and fills up quickly when sealing any products with moisture in them and then must be taken out, drained, and reassembled. All minor annoyances you say. Maybe, but they add up to a high frustration level when you are trying to put up 25 or more chickens. I usually do a minimum of 50 at a time. Also, the largest size, 11", would not fit some of the larger X-Cornish that I raise and I ended up having to halve them, which I didn't really want to do. I want whole chickens to bake and roast.
I spent the money on a Weston Pro-2300 and haven't looked back. My neighbor, who also does X-Cornish, and I split the cost of the machine and we each buy our own 3-mil bags. Also, on the Food Saver, be sure the inside of the bag where the seal will be made is dry or I guarantee you will lose the vacuum over time.
