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Food Saver Advice

I recently borrowed a friends "food saver" to freeze some meat. The food saver worked great, and I insisted on replacing the roll of bags that I had used. To my surprise, the roll cost me $10.00 at Walmart. I would like to purchase my own food saver, and remember years ago, seeing one advertised on TV that you can use on any type of plastic bag and you could also reseal plastic bags that vegetables and frozen foods were purchased in. Does anyone know of any brand(s) of food savers that the bags don't cost so much and one that you can use to reseal all types of plastic bags with?

Thanks!
Debbie from New Jersey

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RE: Food Saver Advice

Thanks for the advice about buying from ebay! I bought the food saver when my hubby was deployed to Iraq and used it for so many things. I have to agree about the lack of help from the company. My cutter is wearing out and you can't buy a replacement! How stupid is that? That told me to BUY an cutter accessory. Of ocurse I would have to pay shipping on the stupid thing...NO THANKS.. I will use my scissors to cut if I have to...what a horrible comapny.

Post by MsWolfe

RE: Food Saver Advice

Hi, I have had my, food saver for about 7 years.My friend bought a kitchin aid, did not last seson to season. No one mentioned food saver also has mason jar sealers.You can get one for, big or small mouth jars.I use mine alot for, dried beans from my garden.You could make chex mix for X-MAS, seal and give. Seal flour,rice,sugar, almost anything. I LOVE MINE, and so does my friends.

Post By Enter your name. (Guest Post)

RE: Food Saver Advice

Hi, I have had my, food saver for about 7 years.My friend bought a kitchen aid. It did not last season to season. No one mentioned food saver also has mason jar sealers.You can get one for, big or small mouth jars.I use mine a lot for, dried beans from my garden. You could make chex mix for X-MAS, seal and give. Seal flour, rice, sugar, almost anything. I LOVE MINE, and so does my friends.

Post By Enter your name. (Guest Post)

RE: Food Saver Advice

I have a friend who uses one of these sealing devices because her husband smokes salmon for Christmas/Hannuakah and they give their friends and business associates chunks of fish as gifts. The sealed bags make giving easier for everyone.

However, I use these great clips from Sweden that are widely available. Imagine a hinged piece of plastic that clips closed at one end. I use these for bread, cereal, bagged frozen veggies and more. They come in a package of 20 and are readily available in cookware stores and through the King Arthur Flour catalog. It seems to me that this a simpler, "greener" solution to the problem of resealing bags and means that you are buying less plastic landfill materials.

Post By SusanWozniak (Guest Post)

RE: Food Saver Advice

Some advice to anyone thinking about buying a Food Saver, DON'T!!!!!!! The problem is not the unit itself, but the company. No repair parts, no repair service after the warranty runs out. Jarden, who is Tilia's parent company just amazes me with their lack customer service. My Food Saver died 3 months out of warranty, I called for repair parts, after warranty service or any help at all, any of which I'm willing to pay for. Their response, sorry, buy a new one. I read about all these folk who have had great luck with their Food Saver, hey I'm happy for you. I liked mine too while it lasted. Again my gripe is with the company selling it and the fact that a year and a day after purchase and something goes wrong, you're screwed and Jarden doesn't care, in fact they're happy, you have to spend another $100-$150 with them. I'd suggest perhaps a Sear's Kenmore, in that at least Sear's typically has parts and service for appliances and seem to care at least a little about customers. But do not buy a Food Saver.

Post by vinnybob

RE: Food Saver Advice

I love using the Food Saver. It stays on our countertop and we use it to seal all sorts of bags, for example potato chip bags of all kinds, saltine cracker sleeves (be careful to get all the wrinkles out of the sealing line), cereal bags (bags inside the box), when cheese gets small enough, you can reseal those plastic bags...the list goes on and on. Try it on everything...you'll be surprised! Of course I don't vacuum the above, but seal only.

Forgot to say, I wash them out good and reuse over and over until there's not enough left to use.

Hope this info helps someone.

Post by ramonasct

RE: Food Saver Advice

Well. I have found that using just the ziplock bags with the foodsaver does not work very well. The problem is that the pump have problems creating a strong enough vacuum in the bag to have the air sucked out without the "raised pattern" inside the original foodsaver bags. BUT, If you want to save some money, and doesn't mind a little extra effort, you can do the following: Cut the ziptop of the ziptop bag, cut open either a bag or a piece of foosaver roll, and make strips about 1 1/2" wide and 6 inches long using just the raised pattern plastic side, not the plain one. Put one "foodsaver strip" inside the ziplock bag, making sure one end of the strip reach outside the bag, and the other touches the food you're about to seal. Now because this bag does not have the raised pattern across the whole bag, it may take a couple or three vacuuming sessions to get all the air out, but if you press the vacuum/seal button, and then cancel before it seals, and repeat this step a couple of times it WILL make a good vacuum and then you can just press the seal button to seal the bag.

This may seem like a lot of effort just to save a couple of bucks on bags, but after doing it for a little while, you will enjoy using regular cheap ziptop bags with your foodsaver, and you can also use the "foodsaver strips" again if it's long enough to make a channel from the vacuum to the foodstuff.. Hope this helps!

dexus.

Post By dexus (Guest Post)

RE: Food Saver Advice

Check for bags and accessories on ebay. Cheaper there.

coolchinchilla

Post by coolchinchilla

RE: Food Saver Advice

I've never tried to use the foodsaver, but would't just regular FREEZER bags work with the zip part cut off, squeeze out the air, and then use the sealing device?? Just be careful and not use the regular storage bags. I've always just gotten cheap freezer bags and never had any trouble with spoilage in the freezer, though I've always REALLY thought about one of those little foodsavers!!! (Never thought about replacing the bags...Yikes!!). Good luck!! Margie

Post By Margie (Guest Post)

Food savers

The food saver bags can be used again and may be washed in the dishwasher. I also use mine to reseal snack bags. Seems to work quite well. The only bags I don't use again are the ones that have been used for spaghetti sauce.

Post By Donna (Guest Post)

RE: Food Saver Advice

not sure what kind you are talking about, mine doesnt suck the air out, I have one that melts the ends together and have used various generic freezer bags with it. After I open the bag, I then cut the edges that were melted before and seal the bag again and continue doing this until the bag is empty. I am sure I will run across a bag one day that wont "seal/melt" well but it works so far

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