There’s a good deal on this one that I bought two and a half years ago. It has performed flawlessly, has a built in bag cutter and bag storage…👈YOU WANT THESE FEATURES…You can seal as many bags in a row as you want without having to wait for a cool down period. Has manual or automatic sealing. I’ve never had a bag seal fail on me. Highly recommended, especially for the price.
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There’s a good deal on this one that I bought two and a half years ago. It has performed flawlessly, has a built in bag cutter and bag storage…👈YOU WANT THESE FEATURES…You can seal as many bags in a row as you want without having to wait for a cool down period. Has manual or automatic sealing. I’ve never had a bag seal fail on me. Highly recommended, especially for the price. -
Like J-Melt, I'm also in the market for a new vac sealer. I've had the Meat Your Maker entry-level model for the past couple of years and it has done well, but lately it is starting to take many, many attempts to get the bags to evacuate and seal, very frustrating.
The unit that Panhead John posted above from Potane does look pretty good - John, are you still a satisfied customer? And yep, it's on Black Friday special, 32% off the regular price.
Very interested in any other recommendations - and to be clear, I'm sticking with this style rather than a chamber type.
EDIT: Whoops, PJ was posting at the same moment I was! Still likes that Potane - good to hear.
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Yep! Another feature I like is the front handle, you can open or close it with one hand. For $118. you can’t beat it, I paid $150. for it back then.Last edited by Panhead John; November 28, 2024, 08:19 AM.
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If anyone’s in the market for food sealer bags, I’ve been using these for a few years with good luck. Great quality and a good price. No need to pay Food Saver bag prices. As an aside, the food sealer I mentioned above will hold up to a 20’ roll in its storage bin. Some of the rolls out there are up to 50’ long. If you buy a roll that big you would need to cut it in 20’ lengths, kind of a hassle. I buy the bag rolls that are 20’ or less.
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Both, but I use way more of the 8” than the 11”. But the 11” is good to keep on hand for larger pieces, like maybe chicken halves, which I’ve done recently. The Potane food sealer above, comes with an 8” roll and an 11” roll.Last edited by Panhead John; November 29, 2024, 08:54 AM.
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Alan Brice and others….when sealing bags with lots of moisture, here’s a great way to stop juices from flowing up into the sealing chamber. Fold up a paper towel to fit the width of your bag, then place it into the bag just above the contents and allow enough room at the top of the bag to seal it. The paper towel will then absorb and stop any juices from passing into the sealing chamber. The paper towel will not change how well it seals either…. Works great! Here’s a picture of a half chicken I did using this method, and using an 11” bag.
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Yeah, for soups, stews and liquidy meals, the paper towel thing wouldn’t work. But I’m talking about doing it for meats or solid food. For soups, stews or chili etc. I just put them in plastic containers with lids. I fill the container to almost full, then snap the lid on. It doesn’t get freezer burn that way. -
I put mine into a Tupperware like container and refrigerate over night. By then the juices are cold and do not flow out as I seal.
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I ended up getting a Nesco VS-12 vac sealer to replace the Meat Your Maker unit (which, to be fair, is about the least expensive sealer out there, one does get what one pays for...). Saw them compared to the Potane in many reviews, a couple of which included head-to-head comparisons, and ended up being sold on the Nesco in the end.
It's very similar in features to the Potane, including the one-handed operation, built-in cutter, and space to store a roll up to 60ft/18m long accommodating any roll width up to 11"/280mm. Only about five bucks different in price from the Potane (currently $115 on Amazon on Black Friday) as well. I packaged up some of the turkey remains for eventual soup plus half a rack of spare ribs from a couple of nights ago that I could not get a decent vacuum on when I packaged it with my old sealer (and made me finally cry uncle and get another unit), and it was one touch and done, no muss, no fuss.
One thing I noticed is that the bags that came with the unit are textured on every surface, compared to the Meat Your Maker bags, in which one layer only has texture, with the other being sheer/smooth. Thus there is no "right side up", and Nesco claims it's a deliberate choice to maximize the ability to draw the vac, and they also detail how one need to ensure there are no wrinkles or creases in the seal zone, which can inhibit a full seal. The bags I got from Meat Your Maker are lousy with creases and wrinkles, clearly from the production process, and I suspect that has had a lot to do with not being able to get that thing to work properly.
The vac chamber has two curved plastic guides, and these make it very easy to simply slip the open end of the bag in place and let the natural curl of the rolled bag material slide right up against those guides. On the MYM unit one has to really fiddle to get the open end seated properly, adding to my frustration. In fact, my lovely bride finally called out from the other room in response to my stream of invective "Will you just buy a new damn sealer already!?"
The Nesco manual also emphasizes not to leave the locking handle engaged when not using the unit, because keeping the gaskets under constant load will eventually deform them. I should have thought of that sooner - I have always latched my MYM sealer shut when not in use just because it's fiddly to pick it up and move it otherwise (its bag holder is a flimsy plastic tray that hangs off the back, not something integrated in the interior like in the Potane and Nesco units). So I may have contributed to the problem that way. It's all good, I certainly got more than my money's worth out of it.
Pics, you can see the many design similarities to the Potane. I'll report back after more use, but so far so good.
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Looks like you found a good one Dave, congrats! Nice review. Yeah, I never have locked my lever in place when not using it, I figured the constant pressure could weaken the gasket over time. Glad they mentioned that in the manual. The Potane said the same thing. In fact, the Potane comes with an extra gasket, I thought that was a nice touch. -
DaveD Just curious, in the head to head reviews you mentioned, what made you buy the Nesco over the Potane? -
Panhead John The two were very close, no question, and I guess two things tipped the scales for me. One is the auto double-seal feature, which seals two separate stripes a few mm apart in one go - not essential but nice to have. Also like the two suction intensities (but the Potane has that too I think). The other is just the seeming preponderance of higher ratings from buyers overall - and this is admittedly completely subjective. I'm sure either unit would be great.
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I had a really, really cheap one that worked great for years. Finally one of the clips that held it shut broke, and I tossed it and got out the Foodsaver that I’ve had for years but never used.
Idk. The Foodsaver is slow, but it definitely works, and lays down a decent seal. I’ll keep using it until I get disgusted with it, I guess. But I’ll probably replace it with a chamber sealer.Comment
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I've had this chamber sealer for a year now. Chamber bags are dirt cheap, work fine in the microwave or simmering in water. You can also seal liquids like soup.
Really good black Friday deal!
Posted from my phone.
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Can't believe I haven't shared this in the group yet but since this post got bumped here you go.
For my wife's business we bought a Vacmaster VP540 a couple months back. Works like a dream! Haven't had a chance to seal up anything at home yet since it is at the commercial kitchen but it did mean we got our smaller Vacmaster Pro 380 back at the house for our day to day sealing.
The VP540 is a beast. Dual 20 inch sealing bars so we can do 4 bags at a time. This cut our sealing time in half. Not really practical for at home doing a couple bags a week but in a commercial setting doing 100-200 seals in a day it is awesome.
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Hey, quick followup now that I've been using the Nesco for a couple weeks. The point I made a few posts above about the Meat Your Maker bags being creased and wrinkly turns out to be irrelevant: The Nesco seals those bags just fine. The MYM unit's design has the latch on one end of the vac chamber, and it is a small plastic tab basically, far less substantial than the much beefier closure bar on the Nesco and Potane sealers that are center-mounted. I suspect that's the reason why the MYM gradually degraded, it just didn't have the strength after some use to hold the seal together at the opposite end, but I am guessing.
As I said before, this is the entry level model and at about $60 close to the cheapest one could get. That price point can't be achieved without making sacrifices in design and manufacturing. I got almost two years out of the thing, so it's no biggy, but it's a great relief to have a reliable sealer now! No more "how many tries will it take me this time?"
Finally, here's a shot of the result of using the auto-double-seal feature. If you embiggen the photo you can just make out the two heating element strips under the copper tape on the sealing surface. Non-essential but quite nice to have.
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Hey, dredging this one back up to report on something I hadn't noticed before on this Nesco sealer. The vac tray where the top of the bag goes is not removable, so if you are working with juicy foods and liquids and some escapes into that tray, it's not as easy to clean. My Meat Your Maker sealer's tray just lifted out, very handy. Panhead John, does the Potane unit's tray lift out like that, or is it permanent like this one? If the former, that's a big plus in the Potane's favor over the Nesco, since so many other features are so similar.
I will say I find I'm using the double-seal option pretty much on every seal, it adds only a few seconds to the process and gives a bit more peace of mind.Comment
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I’ve been using the Foodsaver for about a month now. It’s… okay. It’s slow and noisy. But it does pull a decent vacuum and put a decent seal on the bag. I guess I’ll use it until it frustrates me too much. For now though it’s good enough.Comment
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My brother has used a vacuum sealer for many years, and he gave me one tip. He told me not to store it with the lid locked because it compresses the gasket, which shortens the life of it. At least that has been his experience with it. Take it for what it is, an unsolicited, and untested tid-bit.
I don't lock mine for long-term storage, and I keep a towel on top of it to keep dust out.
Now, I need to separate and vacuum seal the large bag of pecans I just got from Costco. They are nice pecans for cheaper than what you get at the local grocer, which are crappy, shriveled pecans. 😬 I was lucky enough to grow up across the street from a huge, producing pecan tree and had all of the fresh pecans I wanted thanks to my Great Grandfather.Comment
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This is a fantastic thread on vacuum sealers!! I love this community. I have been slowly building my catering business and one of my staples is Sous Vide Que Tritips. So, when I have a job, I can be sealing 12-24 tritips with my food saver, lol. It works like a champ but it just takes a while to do such a large batch of tritips. Ive been buying the Amazon 11 x 16 pre made bags that fit the tritips well but now Im wondering if one of my next purchases should be to make the process my efficient. Any problems with fitting a whole tritp in something like the USV32? I know it wont fit the 16" length bag, but maybe I dont need it and my understanding is the chamber vac bags are cheaper anyways? I also run through a lot of brisket fat and trimmings that I save and either render for tallow or grind for brisket smash burgers. A faster process is definitely what I am after!Comment
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The bags for your food saver and your chamber bags are the same. Don’t skimp on that quality. I have ran through several food savers. I never have ever had a problem with them.
They’re like disposable pens you just throw them away and get another one. But I get it.
Get yourself a professional chamber vac and you’re good to go. The one I use is about $8000 and we have more problems with that thing then you can count. Plus, you gotta change the oil and all that jazz. I don’t have a problem with -
HouseHomey I used to have to bring our vac sealer to “the shop” for maintenance. It sucked!
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I bought a Vac Master chamber vac and so far really like the job it is doing. I won't have to worry about air in the packs a day after they are froze.Comment
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