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Food Saver

The Food Saver vaccum sealer can save your a lot of money. Seal your way to fresher food.
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Food Saver Review

If you are tired of throwing away food that has gone bad after only a few days, or you just want to save money by buying in bulk and safely storing the excess, then a Food Saver vacuum sealer may be the product for you.

Food Saver Claims:
FoodSaver states that the typical American consumer discards over $600 (now manufactuers site says $2700-inflation?) worth of food every year. By vacuum sealing leftovers for either the refrigerator or storing food longer term in the freezer, you can help the food last a lot longer and it will taste better too. By extracting the air, bacteria and mold growth are slowed.  Food Saver infomercials claim that food lasts up to five times as long when sealed in their special containers and sealer bags.

Food Sealer Benefits

The Food Saver sealer allows you to save money in a number of ways.
  • Seal leftovers- Now you do not have to eat the same thing two days in a row!
  • Buy excess on sale or at bulk stores and store it for later use.  Save lots of cash.
  • Avoid food loss and freezer burn from traditional frozen storage techniques.
  • Prepare meals ahead of time in larger quantities and then seal into individual meals for later use when you have less time.
  • Marinate meats quickly with sealer models which offer Marinade Mode. Marinates in minutes instead of hours.

How The Sealer Works
Food Saver food sealers are very easy to use.  You can choose from pre-made bags, bulk rolls (which need sealing on both ends), or accessories like containers, a marinade attachment, and wide mouth jar lids (does not replace canning I am afraid).

For rolled bags:
  • Simply pull off the amount of bag you want.  Leave a couple inches or so for the sealer "waste."
  • Cut with the built in cutter.
  • Create the first seal on one end.
  • Put your food in the open end.
  • Insert the open end in the sealer and close, vacuuming out the air and sealing the end.

For Pre-made bags (like quarts, etc):
  • You save the first steps of cutting and sealing one end.  Less waste of material and quicker.
  • Put in the food to be sealed.
  • Put the open end of the bag in and vacuum/seal

For Containers:
For containers you can use the accessory hose attachment.
  • Simply put your food in the container and close the lid.
  • Attach the hose to the accessory vacuum port on the sealer and the container.
  • Hit the sealer button on the machine and wait until done.
  • This also applies to the marinade and wide-mouth jar sealer accessories.

Food Saver Problems?

 There are a few issues regarding Food Saver products. First of all, you need to use vacuum sealer bags, rolls, or containers.  In other words, you cannot use just any plastic bag.  I am sure that is not a shock to you.  Most people use the Food Saver brand bags hoping for best results, but some people have been very happy using generic bags.  The bag material is not terribly thick and may puncture if you store sharp objects like dried foods.  I have pre-wrapped these types of things in plastic wrap or wax paper to prevent loosing my seal over time from punctures.  Unless you know you are going to fill the entire bag, the rolled "bags" may be the answer for you because you can cut to length and get in a couple of widths such as 8" and 11".

Sealer Gasket Failure

Most owners seem to pretty quite happy with their Food Saver, but people have had problems with the gasket which seals the bag end.  It seams that the sealer rests gasket to gasket when not in use.  This can compress the gasket over time, making sealing take longer to finish (sometimes not at all).  The manufacturer says to prevent this from happening, take out the seal (its easy), soak in hat water for a few hours and let air dry.  Then put the sealer back in and it would work properly.

When sealing with bags or rolled "bags" there will be certain amount of loss of material on the sealed end.  Some people have said that the new model sealers actually waste more material at the end than the older Food Saver models.  I have not verified this fact.

There are a number of Food Saver accessories available including: FoodSaver bags, rolls, and accessory canisters, jar sealers, a Quick Marinator, bottle sealers, as well as Produce Saver containers.


Food Saver Models

Tilia, the manufacturer of the Food Saver, has offered a variety of vacuum sealer models over the years, adding technology and features along the way. 

Model Compact
 Canister Mode
 Crush-Free
 Marinade Mode
 Auto Shutoff
 Well Liked
V2240 YES  


YES
V2040
YES YES

NO
V2440
YES YES
YES YES
 V2840 YES YES YES
YES YES
V3440
 Upright



NO
V3835
Upright YES YES
 YES
MIXED
V3840
 Upright
YES

NEW
V3860
 Upright YES
 YES
 YES
 YES
 NEW

 

 

If you are a gardener, bulk shopper, own a food dehydrator, or like to cook pre-made meals,  and like saving money, then investing in a vacuum food sealer like the Food Saver is a solid decision.

What is your experience with the Food Saver?  What do you use it for?  Does it work well?  Leave you reviews below.

Food Saver Reviews

Review the infomercial product.

FoodSaver

Posted by Nikki W at Aug 04, 2010 03:26 PM
While my Tilia FoodSaver model is not listed here, it is 15+ years old, I've used it for everything from foods, clothes, camping, etc. It has never failed me and the only replacement item necessary in all those years was a little cellulose filter. Next to my microwave, this is the most used appliance in my home. The people at Tilia were GREAT when I required the new filter and found one even tho the model was then over 10 years old.
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