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Vacuum Sealers?

Rico

Active Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2017
Messages
189
Location
Thibodaux, LA
I've been using a low end Cabelas vacuum sealer for the last few years. It works fine for venison freezing for 12 months or so. I'm looking for a vacuum sealer that will really pull most all of the air out and extend my freezer time with our freezer burning. I've been looking at models between $500 & $800. I'd like to stay under $500.
After a recent Meat Eater pod cast, I was going to go with the Weston Pro-2300, but there 18% of the Amazon reviews are 1 and 2 stars.

What are your recommendations for a mid-range vacuum sealer?
 
I have a food saver V4400.....it does fine with food saver bags, but I bought some “Primalock” bags that some podcast dude was pimping to help pay for his deal so I figured I’d give them a try.....they suck. For whatever reason they don’t seem to hold a vacuum. I would suspect it to be a function of their thickness and maybe my unit doesn’t get hot enough to fully seal them.
 
Chamber vacuum sealer like vacmaster is what I've been looking into. I don't own one so I don't have personal experience but they seem the best.
 
I too use a food saver vacuum sealer (with food saver bags) for my venison. Due to my poor luck/performance last year we're getting to the bottom of the freezer and we had a meal made from venison dated 2014 a couple of weeks ago. It was just fine. I never could have said that with the plastic wrap and freezer paper I used when I first started hunting.
 
I have a food saver V4400.....it does fine with food saver bags, but I bought some “Primalock” bags that some podcast dude was pimping to help pay for his deal so I figured I’d give them a try.....they suck. For whatever reason they don’t seem to hold a vacuum. I would suspect it to be a function of their thickness and maybe my unit doesn’t get hot enough to fully seal them.

Son of a gun...I bought the same bags for the same reason....
 
I am interested in recommendations as well. I grew up with everything in Ziplock bags and freezer burn was normal, but looking to invest some cash in a decent vacuum sealer. Thanks to those that have already posted.
 
I just use a black and decker sealer. buy the rolls instead of the bags off amazon. Will last a long time. I also double seal the edges when sealing because sometimes you can get a tiny tiny pin hole in the bag and not know it.
 
Chamber vacuum sealer like vacmaster is what I've been looking into. I don't own one so I don't have personal experience but they seem the best.
If you want to get the air out...these are the way to go. I have a vp215. If anything you can almost over-squish things with the vacuum it pulls. I keep an edge sealer for sealing long/odd-shaped items.

Bag cost, degree of vacuum, and speed of operation are great with the chamber machine.
 
This is what i have. While it will start out expensive, especially with the zipper bags since you have to buy so many if you hunt a lot like i do, they are reusable so in the end i save money. And they hold a seal and keep meat from getting freezer burn
 

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I've had the cabelas 15" commercial (at least that's what they call it) sealer. the stainless one. I found it worked amazing out of the box but after a couple years kinda didnt suck enough air out of the bags. I found a new seal kit for it and now it works awesome again. I usually do one or two moose and same with deer. if you have a suspect seal that maybe looks like there is a piece of meat in it or a fold just hit it with a 2nd seal and good to go

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I have a food saver as well. From eBay. Had it about 5 years with no problems. Spent around $150 for it.
 
Re-upping this to see if anyone has anything else to add. I'm looking to buy and curious to read more thoughts/reviews.
Thanks
 
The chamber sealer is what they use for commercial operations, I believe they start out at $1,000 but the bags are cheaper and the sealer and bags last for years and they pull more vacuum. Check with some commerc
 
Re-upping this to see if anyone has anything else to add. I'm looking to buy and curious to read more thoughts/reviews.
Thanks

If you can afford it go with a chamber vacuum sealer. I’ve owned many food savers which all worked ok but I’d never buy another one after having my chamber machine.


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I have had several vacuum sealers. The one that I just had was a 12" hunter's model from Cabelas. I have had it for about 4-5 years now and it's good, but not great. The seal itself is something like an 1/8" of an inch and sometimes it did not suck out enough air or I have found that it let air in after placing it in the freezer. No freezer burn yet...so the past 2-3 weeks I've been looking for a 15" industrial sealer and looked at Cabelas (299.00) and Weston 3500 (499.95) and finally LEM 500 or 1000. (309.99 & 469.99)

I found on ebay the LEM maxvac 500 with a 14" bar for 172.00 best offer from the seller. I jumped on it. It looks new and other than the box being retapped I cannot find any evidence of it being used. It works better than the cabelas light duty sealer...the seal itself is actually a 1/4" seal...very impressed with it. I just finished grinding up 21 lbs of pork trimmings to make breakfast sausage and summer sausage. As fast as I could get the bags in the machine it was vacuuming and sealing without stopping. On my cabelas model I would vacuum and seal about 3 bags and it would stop until it cooled down. There is no comparison whatsoever.
 
I use a cheap food saver. It works fine. My dad has a really nice one with a stronger pump but you have to half freeze fish and ground or it sucks a bunch of juice that can hurt the seal.
I double seal most packs but someone above mentioned folds or chunks of meat getting in the seal. Those I either put in the fridge or top of freezer.
 
I had a food saver (midline, although I can't remember the model #), It lasted for many years, and many deer, It crapped out last year. I did get the maxvac 500 from LEM, I like it, it seems heavy duty and I look forward to many years of trouble free function. It's new to me so I can't vouch for it to much, it does cycle faster than my old one and it's taken care of the limited tasks I've thrown at it so far.
 
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