# Best Vacuum sealer for the money



## EZHOOPS (Feb 6, 2008)

Looking to make the jump into the Vacuum sealer world. I am a Charter Capt'n so I deal with a lot of fresh fish. Currently, I freeze in Zip loc bags with the fish just covered in water with no ill effects. This technique has worked well for me. Some bags are up to 1 year old and taste just fine when thawed. The issue is the large space a small bag of fish takes up.

A few questions of those Vacuum sealer owners.

1. if sealing fish, can you place more than a few fillets in a bag? ( I ask because typically in the markets you see a single fillet in a bag.)

2. Do you find the sealer to be more of a pain than its worth? Such as, is it easy to find the bags, does it take more time to actually seal it than to freeze it in water?

3. What was the cost of your sealer and bags

4. Are you "Sold" on Vacuum sealing or is it a "dozen of one and 12 of another" type thing.

5. Who makes the best sealer for the money?

Thanks


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## onlinebiker (Sep 19, 2019)

We have an obsolete Kenmore that we bought at a garage sale. It works so good we bought a second one we found on Ebay. It has worked perfectly for years.

Don' t buy bags. Buy rolls and you can make any length bag you need.


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## Clairebear (Mar 28, 2021)

I still prefer to ziplock all my fillets in water and lay flat on cookie sheet in freezer. Once frozen the fit like books on a library shelf. I use a vac packer for
a lot of things but anything wet or moist like fish or steaks the vacumn pulls moisture and then the hot sealer doesn't seal properly at the seam. When I buy a whole loin of beef I steak it and then freeze on cookie sheets and then next day vac them.
Hope this helps.


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## Clairebear (Mar 28, 2021)

A bit off topic but here goes. Last year I bought some Triple 7 x 50 gr muzzle loader pellets and a few 100 primers and took them home and separately vac packed the packages so they wouldn't go through all the seasons humitity changes. Just open a pack as needed.


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## WALLEYE MIKE (Jan 7, 2001)

I too buy rolls and size the bags for what you need. I also flash freeze the fillets before using the bags. Reason for that is you can take out what you want without thawing the whole bag.


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## Scottygvsu (Apr 19, 2003)

If you make your own bags, they can be as big or little as you wish. I only use pre-fab 1 gallon bags for large fillets. The pre-fab are worth the $$. The previous posters are much more patient than I. I despise making bags. The 30 seconds it takes makes me grind my teeth to powder for some reason.
If you have sopping wet fillets, you can fold a piece of paper towel and stuff it in just behind where your seal will be. This will help prevent moisture from ruining your seal.
I’ve had two Food Savers in the last 15 years. I vacuum pack multiple deer and fish throughout the year. 
That’s enough durability for me to stick with that brand.


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## textox (Jan 30, 2020)

Vacuum sealer all the way,paper towel as Scottygvsu explained and buy 200 bags on Amazon for a few bucks.
I put as many as 6 Walleye fillets per bag and double seal. ...Have kept fish 3 years no freezer burn.....


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## brookie1 (Jan 26, 2011)

Almost everything in my freezer is sealed with a food saver. I have a second one that only goes to deer camp. A few pointers:

- Buy a food saver sealer with a "moist" or "stop" button. When sealing fish you can press the button as soon as the air is gone and the food saver will finish the seal without sucking the water out of the fish. Less hassle than prefreezing or trying to stop the problem with paper towel.

- I haven't had much luck with the non food saver brand bags and getting a good seal.

- Use the food saver site to buy rolls of bag material to make your own bags. You can get a significant discount on both sealers and bags during sales. There is a buy 2 get 2 free sale on rolls right now.

- There is an 11 inch roll which is split in the middle, basically creating 2 5.5 inch bags at one time. I have found this most useful for single serve portions of fish, ground beef, etc and a cost savings over using the 8 inch rolls.

- It's less about money and more about preserving expensive meats or hard won fish and game.


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## Luv2hunteup (Mar 22, 2003)

Xtravac makes an affordable commercial model.


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## jjlrrw (May 1, 2006)

I have purchased a "Food Saver" about 10 - 12 years ago buy rolls of a couple different size bags 8" and 12", I replaced the seal gaskets once. One gripe with my design is the slot is a few inches off the table top so I place a shim under the package to make it easier to seal without having to hold onto it. I see some of the newer designs this has changed. Lots of uses and if you make the bags a bit larger the first time they can be used over and over again.


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## jjlrrw (May 1, 2006)

brookie1 said:


> - There is an 11 inch roll which is split in the middle, basically creating 2 5.5 inch bags at one time. I have found this most useful for single serve portions of fish, ground beef, etc and a cost savings over using the 8 inch rolls.


I am going to look for these, is there a double seal in the middle so you can open only one bag at a time or do you just need to stop short when cutting open? I picked up some 11 or 12" bags that had a outside pocket (maybe for a label) I would not recommend as they were hard to get to seal compared to the normal bags.


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## bobcolenso (Sep 11, 2003)

When freezing doughy things like bread or cake, freeze it FIRST before vacuuming it. (We still laugh about that!)
.


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## GuppyII (Sep 14, 2008)

Don't even bother with the foodsaver style sealers, you will just be disappointed. Get a chamber vac, you don't have to freeze the fish first, or put a paper towel in the bag, or use a moist setting. You can seal liquids in a chamber vac, wet fish are easy. I've done as much as 600 pounds of fish in a day without having to stop and let it cool down. Chamber vac bags are also pennies compared to the bags used in foodsaver type sealers. In fact if you look at bag costs it will pay for itself in less than 2000 bags! I use mine way more than I ever used the foodsavers I had. Meat has a decent unit under 700, several knockoffs hitting the market lately as well, prices seem to be coming down on even the expensive models. The Vacmaster VP215 I have was 1400 a year or two ago and is now under 1000.


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## brookie1 (Jan 26, 2011)

jjlrrw said:


> I am going to look for these, is there a double seal in the middle so you can open only one bag at a time or do you just need to stop short when cutting open?


They are on a roll and the perforation runs the length of the roll, so you cut to size and seal one end to create two bags. The left and right sides of the bags are already sealed if I am explaining this correctly and are connected by a perforation. You can then separate them before sealing or fill both and seal at one time. They are called portion pouch rolls.


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## grapestomper (Jan 9, 2012)

Foodsavers work great. 
Buy rolls and make bags. 
We thru ours in our checked baggage for an alaska trip and bought bags when we got there. 
Worked great.


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## Scottygvsu (Apr 19, 2003)

jjlrrw said:


> I am going to look for these, is there a double seal in the middle so you can open only one bag at a time or do you just need to stop short when cutting open? I picked up some 11 or 12" bags that had a outside pocket (maybe for a label) I would not recommend as they were hard to get to seal compared to the normal bags.


Edit: search for “food saver portion pouch”
I tried to post a Walmart link and instead it asked “robot or human”


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## jjlrrw (May 1, 2006)

Scottygvsu said:


> Edit: search for “food saver portion pouch”
> I tried to post a Walmart link and instead it asked “robot or human”


Thanks - will give these a try, I feel they will work out great for chicken breasts and venison steak as I freeze ~10 oz packages at a time, the 8" are good for 1 lb burger and the 11" work good for 3# of burger


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## brookie1 (Jan 26, 2011)

jjlrrw said:


> Thanks - will give these a try, I feel they will work out great for chicken breasts and venison steak as I freeze ~10 oz packages at a time, the 8" are good for 1 lb burger and the 11" work good for 3# of burger


Watch the prices. One roll of the portion pouches on the Walmart site was listed at 26.50 which seems way high. They are 12 bucks on the food saver site (out of stock though) and I normally get them for a lot less on sale. Maybe google it and check some other sites.


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## jjlrrw (May 1, 2006)

brookie1 said:


> Watch the prices. One roll of the portion pouches on the Walmart site was listed at 26.50 which seems way high. They are 12 bucks on the food saver site (out of stock though) and I normally get them for a lot less on sale. Maybe google it and check some other sites.


Thanks for the heads up, I did notice that when I searched for them $12 - $36 looks like walmart in my area has them in stock available for pickup for $12


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## ajkulish (Nov 16, 2013)

I use a foodsaver, I disagree with the rolls over bags. 

When using a roll, the process takes that much longer because you have to size the bag how you want it, cut it, then seal an end, then fill with food, then vacuum and seal. Whereas, if I have premade bags, I can just put the food in and vacuum, then while it is sealing I can immediately begin filling the next precut bag rather than waiting for the machine to finish sealing so that I can make my next bag. The rolls just make the process about 3x slower, but if you are worried about saving a couple dollars in wasted bag material, I guess the rolls are good. The other downside is that you have to manually seal both ends of the bag, which introduces risk of not getting a perfect seal at one end, and ending up with freezer burnt meat.


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