Foodsavers - what're your thoughts?

[Pupsnpullets]

I've been offered a used Foodsaver by my girlfriend because it's 'too tricky to deal with'. Who else uses them, what do you think, and are some brands better than others?

 

[turnerstar31]

I have a seal a meal which is like a food saver and absolutely love it. I have frozen tons of things. The one thing that I do is buy the premade bags the rolls I can never get to work right. Also I do a quick freeze on just about everthing that would have some water content to it because if there is any water that it sucks up it will not seal. There really is not much to it at all. Just put your stuff in a bag and it sucks the air out and seals it. Good luck with it.

 

[JohnL11935]

My wife has one of the original versions that she found to be too much of a bother to frequently use.


Several weeks ago I bought her the latest & greatest at Costco. Now she uses it quite often. She said it is much easier to use and she especially likes the vacuum seal canisters that came with the set.


I was kidding her the other night that she seemed to be vacuum sealing everything and that I was afraid if I sat still long enough I might find myself stuck in one of those bags.


She got this look on her face that I may be on to something. Go figure.

 

[Stephen in SoKY]

I use my Food Saver brand quite often. I learned to avoid the Walmart brand bags/rolls at all times. Once I switched back to Food Saver brand bags I was much more pleased.

 

[nccountrygirl]

I have a Black and Decker that I love.

 

[BettyR]

I have a cheap Black and Decker “food saver” I got many long years ago and I love it. It’s the only one I’ve ever had (I guess the stupid thing is going to last forever) so I can’t give any advice on any other brands.

The only thing I would change about it if I could would be the fact that you have to go through a whole cycle of it “sucking air” before it seals. When you are sealing the bottom of a bag in order to fill it…it seems like such a waist of my time to have to sit there and wait for it to finish the whole cycle before it seals the bag. Other than that I have no complaints…I use it a lot when I’m buying in bulk and especially when I’m packaging meat.

Another thing I like about it is when you freeze leftovers in it you can just grab a bag out of the freezer and throw it into a pot of boiling water and let it boil while you do other things. There’s no drying the food out, no melting your container in the microwave, no having to stop every few minutes and stir….and the food tastes just as good when it’s reheated that way as it did before you stuck it in the freezer.

When DH cranks up the smoker I throw tons of meat on it then I package up enough for one meal and freeze it. When I’m busy doing other things and don’t have time to cook I grab a bag out of the freezer throw it in a pot of water….throw together a salad, slice up some bread and we are good to go.

I’m sure they have added to and improved them over the years (mine is just very basic) but I wouldn’t be with out one.

 

[Wynette]

I've got the original-type FoodSaver and absolutely love it. I haven't found it to be difficult to work at all. I buy replacement bags on huge rolls off eBay; there's a butcher on there that sells them in bulk, and I've saved tons of $ on the bags; they can be expensive.

I use mine quite often! I feel it's saved a lot of money over the years, as I can purchase large quantities of items when they are on sale.

 

[Wildsky]

I use my foodsaver almost on a daily basis.

I don't like the canisters - but the bags are great, I do use the bags for liquid even, like left over sauce etc...
I repackaged all my dry goods, sugar, flour, rice etc... so its air tight and safe from any kind of bug.....

I use it to seal cereal bags, etc. as well - you can't suck the air out of those, but you can seal them.

Mine is a new model - I only bought it a few months ago.

 

[brandywine]

I use my Foodsaver a lot; not "daily," but whenever I'm putting up meat or produce for the freezer, packaging trail food, etc. Don't find it too troublesome.

When I went to Mississippi for a post-Katrina search and recovery mission, I vacuum sealed dry socks and underwear in Foodsaver bags!

The canisters are nice, but I wish they would stack.

 

[Wildsky]

I'm making up this today:
http://www.realfood4realpeople.com/potatoes.html

I have my potato's in the dehydrator now - and will package up into the correct servings for our family, and I'll mix up some of the sauce powder - to make it nice and quick and easy when I want to make something.