Kitchen

[58Meezer]

Seems like my Food Savers last barely a couple of years. So I bought a more expensive brand that supposedly had a 5 year warranty - VacUPack. What I didn't see in the fine print was yes, warranty for 5 years, but a $65 flat fee plus having to spent money to ship the unit for repair. I could have bought 3 or 4 FoodSavers for the price I paid. This went on the fritz after 2 years! Since I wasn't going to send it out to Washington my husband tore it apart and found out it was a couple of pieces cracked inside. I never dropped it, neither did my husband and there are no children here. So now that is working - but I don't know for how long. I just got through buying another FoodSaver pretty similar to the one Q has on this evening at Bed Bath and Beyond. I like the FoodSavers where you lay the bag on the sealer rather than the auto grab and seal. I had two of those and didn't work well for me.

I made up my mind to do some things differently now -

1) partially freeze meat so that juices are inadvertently drawn into the vac sealer - even thought there is a moisture feature...I figure partially freeze for about 20 to 30 minutes

2) when vac sealing make sure what I am vac seailng is about the same height as the sealer - to raise up the package put a box underneath

3) put the textured size of the bag toward me with the smooth side of the bag nearest the vac sealer

I'm hoping by doing these things my vac sealer will last longer. They really are great and do keep food fresh. I love the mason jar attachment you can buy separately to vac seal coffee, beans, dehydrated food to keep food fresh. Nice to buy the big bags/cans of peanuts or mixed nuts and then vac seal..