I went through two new food savers in less than a month, both quit on me. I bought a small Rival,it works like a charm.

John

By the way, about three moonths after I got my FoodSaver it stopped working with the rolls. It would work fine with bags, only. The company sent me another FoodSaver, and told me to keep the old one if I wanted.

I don’t know what I’d do without my VAC 1200. I too have many recipes for a crowd but am now down to just myself. No problem I make it anyway & use pint bags for individual servings. As PapaJoe said, if the item is juicy I put it in the bag & place in the freezer until set (often about an hour) Then I seal & toss back in the freezer. To keep them from spilling in freezer I set them upright in a plastic basket, you know the type, 3 for a dollar at the dollar store! Being alone buying in bulk means pretty much anything I buy in the fresh meats department, again I separate out & put in small bags. I usually put the small vac bags in a larger zip lock so I can keep track of what I have in the freezer.
I have reused bags but never when they held meats or tomato sauce. Also use it to reseal chip & frozen food bags – just to seal not vacuum.
Don’t forget to use this great little machine for other areas of your house, it’s not just for the kitchen anymore!! Use it to organize all the little things in your life – so they won’t get lost.

I’m on my second food saver, and wouldn’t be without one. The first one inexplicably crapped out one day, and I was lost without it. My SO gave me a new one recently, and the new one has extra features, missing with the original, stripped-down model. As the instructions state, simply partially freezing "wet" foods will eliminate any problems with liquid leaching out into the seal area. Also, the paper towel method works fine. I find that the rolls are really handy for larger items, such as half chickens, pot roasts, etc. Do yourself a favor, kman, and get one soon!

Thank you,papajoe.

Yep Xannie, I reuse the bags but they stop sealing after awhile. You can turn them inside out to wash good.

About the liquid stuff, just put it in the bag, then stand up in the freezer, just till it freezes, then vac seal it. I roll it closed and clip w/ a closepin or something till it does. Be carefull, don’t spill it! After it’s frozen it seals with no liquid coming out cause there is no liquid.

The bags work real well for saving cheese also.
Joe

I have the Rival Vacuum Food Sealer. Much cheaper than the Food Saver brand and I’ve found it very effective, for my use at least. I use it often, but not all the time. When I buy alot of steaks and meats from Sam’s, for instance, I will definitely wrap them up individually and seal them with the vacuum sealer and store in the freezer. I had bought some generic brand bags somewhere and they seem to work fine, although one brand (can’t remember which) did not work well with the Rival Sealer. No, I haven’t re-used the bags, but I have re-used the zip lock bags sometimes if I didn’t store meat in them and after I washed them out and reversed the bags to dry out. The Food Saver rarely ever goes on a real sale and they maintain a fairly high price for it and I doubt their mechanism is really that superior to some others. Many years ago I bought a "pump-it-yourself" vacuum sealer and it worked rather well. I just got tired of all the exertion in pumping it and now let the electricity run the show.

I have a model V840 and I use it all the time. It’s one of those things that gets you wondering how you ever lived without it.

has anyone reused the bags?

I love my food saver

I buy meats in bulk and freeze the portions I need.

I also pack the leftovers, really wet things can be a problem.

I have tried the bags and the rolls, the bags work great for X amount if something
but the rolls work better if you need to be a little more creative in your packing needs.

I also use the rolls and vaccum pack my silver from turkey day to turkey day, saves a lot of time on polishing.

Great invention, with just the two of us at home now we always have leftovers.( I have yet learned to cook for two) We seal individual meals with the food saver and it a great convenience for a quick lunch. I have yet to try the bags but I’ll be on the lookout for them, the rolls are sometime a pain.

One way to avoid the liquid getting into the machine is to either place a folded paper towel between the meat and where the seal will be created or wrapping the meat itself with a paper towel or even butcher’s paper. I have used this technique ever since I acquired my Food Saver a few weeks ago and it works well. I prefer the canisters for things like soups, stews, or anything that might crush under the pressure of the vacuum.

Phil

I m with MilwFoodlovers on this one, it works great unless liquid is involved. I like to freeze individual servings of spaghetti sauce, but the machines (at least mine) don t work very well on anything wet. A bit of the liquid gets sucked up into where the mechanics are going on and you don t get a good seal. Otherwise they seem to work great.

Wal-Mart has their own brand of FoodSaver bags at an excellent price. They work just fine. I love my FoodSaver–the kids got it for me last Christmas–and I now can preserve all those nice ripe cheeses I like, the fish I bring back from NC, etc.

I’m glad you brought up this topic we were talking about buying one this weekend but I wanted to ask around. There are only two of us and I haven’t learned to cook for two yet so we throw away a lot of leftovers. Thanks for the input.

joe