I need a new vacuum sealer.

Kentucky Windage

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My vacuum sealer is tired. Here’s what I disliked about it: 1. It could only seal X amount of bags before the seal strip would overheat. 2. It had automatic detection of the bag before it would begin sealing/vacuuming, so I always had to donate 1-1.5” of the end of each bag that was essentially useless. 3. I couldn’t get all the air out of the back of the bag (especially a larger bag) before the machine would think it got all the air out and begin the sealing process.

With that said, I’m not sure what the difference is between a vacuum sealer and a vacuum chamber. I need to be able to seal bags with a bit of moisture in them at times. I would like to be able to seal bags with 6-7 pounds of meat in them (deer meat for example). I want all the air out, every time.

I don’t have a budget. I’m a buy once cry once kind of guy. Sell me something gang
 


Kurtr

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i have used the chamber vac doing pheasants at the lodge and after using it and if money is not an object i would go that route. It way out performs the food saver types. cant help with brand i dont remember. I think bags are way cheaper for the chamber vacs to
 

guywhofishes

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Chamber all the way. But you need an addition to your home to house it.

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$0.04/bag for chamber bags. Only limitation is long items like whole salmon.
 

Tikka280ai

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Vacmaster vp215 is the way to go. We have one and when we make deer sausage it runs non stop all day long without an issue. Using the 10x13 bags we can seal about 5 pounds of meat per bag. Buy bags off Amazon for 5ish cents apiece depending on size and don't look back

You can seal liquids with the chamber vacs. I have in the past made a jerky brine and sealed the meat and brine in the bag. Its just a matter of finding the happy medium so the liquid doesn't flow out of the bag when you lay it in the chamber
 
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SLE

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We fought the same thing with several "food savor" vacuum sealers. They really didn't do that good of job, I was constantly fighting with them to get them to seal good, to the point I just double sealed everything, and you wasted a bunch of the bag doing this. and then to top it off, it seemed like we were having to buy a new one every other year or more. I didn't want the bulk of a chamber sealer and they have limitations to size of what you can seal, for instance we we like to debone our deer immediately and seal it in 3 or 4 bulk packages for making sausage later in the year and the chamber sealer wouldn't work for that.

We picked up a LEM Maxvac 500 (might actually be the 1000) but I can say it works wonderfully. We've had it two years and I can't believe we put up with the shitty food savor ones for so long. zero sealing issues, I've never had it overheat, and to be honest it's built like a tank. I will say the LEM bags are good also, way more puncture resistant and tougher than the food savor or other brands of bags we have tried in the past. We use it atleast once a week for 9 months of the year and I've been nothing but impressed with it thus far.
 

SLE

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I will note that I can't comment on sealing liquids so if that's one of your uses, you'd have to check that out.
 


CJR

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Vacmaster VP215. Its a buy once cry once situation, but the thing is a beast. I have ran hour and hours on it and it just doesnt quit, I buy my bags off amazon so they are relatively inexpensive. You wont regret this purchase!!

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Forgot to mention it handles liquids like a champ. You can seal up a bag of water and watch it boil as the pressure drops...pretty cool trick!
 

BrokenBackJack

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We have the [FONT=&quot]VacMaster Pro 380[/FONT][FONT=&quot]. Had a lot of the cheaper ones and finally had enough. Bought this one and works good for us. Takes quite a bit of room and it is not light. [/FONT]
 

snow

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good info,thanx guyz my old food saver needs replacing,doing fish sucks in a food saver unless you fast freeze the fillets otherwise the bags won't seal from the moisture.
 

guywhofishes

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you can bag water with a chamber vacuum

the water boils while you’re bagging it

don’t bag warm mashed potatoes

ask me why I know
 


snow

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holy hanna,checking out the vac master 215 $950, curious does the 215 have a oil chamber that needs changing or is that the 360?
 

CJR

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holy hanna,checking out the vac master 215 $950, curious does the 215 have a oil chamber that needs changing or is that the 360?
Yes...the 215 does need an oil change every once in awhile. Its super easy other than the darn thing weighs a ton making it a pain to move around.
 

Kentucky Windage

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Next question.....I’m looking at vacmasters. I’m looking at models 215, 220, and 230. Main differences appear to be oil vs dry rocker piston, 10.25” vs 12.25” seal bars and 1/4 vs 1/2 hp. Which one should I get and why?
 


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