Check the price of the plastic bags you will have to buy for the foodsaver before you buy the foodsaver. I have two or three of those air-extractor-sealer machines that I got from freecycle. Once I priced the roll of plastic you have to buy for it, I went back to using baggies and never used the machine.

I have that same model purchased at Costco, maybe 2 years ago or less - I paid $129.95 with one of the Costco dollars off coupons, and it came with the marinating kit, a supply of bags, and roll of cut to fit - $159.95 for the boxed set, $30 discount coupon (and they seem to have the coupons for it about twice a year or every several months)

I've been quite happy with the performance, some time back I had one of the more compact models and I didn't get the reliable tight vacuum with that one like I can with the 3825. No issues or problems.

I'm not sure $100 is knock-your-socks-off bargain for unboxed and second hand, you'd have to decide that for yourself. Do any of the accessories/supplies come with it?

Here is a link that might be useful: Costco foodsaver

Agree. If you do some research online I think you'll find that isn't a very good price for used when you could have NIB with accessories for only a little bit more. I have the earlier version of it purchased 3 years ago with several accessories for only $129 and can't imagine getting along without it. The quality of food preservation with it is 10x better than what you get using regular baggies.

As to the cost of the bags and rolls, we have often discussed that aspect here and you'll find many of us use one of the alternate sources for the supplies or order from FS only during one of their monthly sales.

Dave

I'll chime in as a devoted Foodsaver fan.

Like morz8, I too think $100 is a bit rich for the 2nd hand unit offered.

I'm with Dave regarding "can't imagine getting along without it".

With all due respect to happyday, baggies vs. cost of Foodsaver bags is a matter of what you want to achieve with vacuum sealing, not the cost of associated bags.

If you're just sealing stuff up for 3 months, baggies will do the trick. If you're like me and my signif other who freezes garden produce or bulk meat orders for 6 - 12+ months, you can not (repeat can not) beat the quality of food sealed in a foodsaver (or copy cat foodsaver bags) when you defrost it. It tastes like the day you sealed it a year or even two later. In fact, we're making blueberry and raspberry pie filling this weekend using fresh local fruit we sealed up and froze in 2009 (we need the freezer space).

Just my humble opinion,

Bill

p.s. We need more freezer space because I'm a bonehead. My GF picked up a fresh turkey for Thanksgiving (we celebrate earlier in Canada). There was going to be 10 of us. I looked at the label and thought it was 4.? kilos (8 or 9 pounds). Thinking it wasn't big enough I went out and bought the smallest fresh turkey I could find to compliment it, 22 lbs.

I got home with the monster bird and she pointed out the 4.? on the bird she bought was the price per pound, not the weight. Turned out it was a 15 pound bird. Long story short, we cooked both and vacuum sealed one for our Xmas feast. Using our Foodsaver, it'll be as fresh and moist as the day we cooked it. I got ribbed during Thanksgiving but I'll be a hero when it comes to preping Xmas dinner!

OK, you guys sold me. I have a Foodsaver Vac 550 and an Ultrex Pack n Save, model 14013. Anybody know where I can find bags for them for less than the price of baggies?

A local hardware store here carries a generic brand pre-cut bag and the rolls for less. As a Costco shopper, I've found coupons for bulk FoodSaver bags/rolls too from time to time. (Some of the Costcos seem to require the actual paper coupon, others, like the one I frequent most often, have the discount in their registers and automatically take off the discount at checkout).

Dave has mentioned this site more than once, I haven't ordered from them yet but have bookmarked the site:

Here is a link that might be useful: Sweetattack

I 'think' the 550 is a Tilia, one of the older copycat models rather than a regular Foodsaver. And am not familiar at all with the other one so I don't know if the heavy FS bags and rolls will work with them or not or if they require the thinner Demi-brand type bags and rolls. Do they have a wide band seal strip and an adjustable vacuum or just a hot wire sealer?

But if they will use the heavy ones then you need to check out the bulk prices from sweetattack.com for one source. There are several sources online that others have listed here in the past and you can read through the many other discussions here about vacuum sealers for even more links. uline.com is another one and there is also sealerbags.com

Shoot even Walmart sells the bags and rolls cheaper than FS online does except during specials and if you sign up at foodsaver.com for email notices you get all sorts of coupons and discounted sales from them.

Dave

I am thinking about getting an FS this summer, as I expect to have quite a pile of peas and beans to freeze. I looked into professional vacuum-packers but I guess I am not ready to spend $1500 or more just yet.

A question: I have a lot of used ziplock freezer bags. Can I cut off the zip and use them in a food-saver machine?

thanks

My guess is they'd melt. They're not designed for the heat a Foodsaver puts out.

For anyone interested in a FoodSaver it's worth signing up for emails from the company itself. Several times a year they offer bonus specials on bags, accessories and occasionally 50% off on selected models. No obligation and it's a worthwhile price comparison, if nothing else.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: FoodSaver Site

I haven't tried regular zip locks material in mine, but something I read made it sound like the lack of texture in the product made the end result less of a tight vacuum, that the textured bags made specifically for the vacuum machines aids in the vacuum working to its fullest capacity.

Thanks. I figured not.

For those of you that have some FS model, if you were going to buy one again, would you get a different model?

I would be concerned for two reasons.

1) I love my foodsaver and can't imagine why someone would want to get rid of it. Something wrong with it? Did they not use it right and caused something to be wrong with it?

2) For just a little extra you can get a brand new one that will be covered by a warranty should there be something wrong with it. Better to pay 150.00 for something that will be returnable/warranted than to pay 100.00 for something used you'll be stuck with if there is something wrong with it. Of course by now you've probably already decided that one way or another.

Also, the foodsaver bags rely on the channels on the plastic (looks like a grid pattern) to pull the air from the entire bag. You could probably use a different kind of bag but you wont get the same results.