Foodsaver died!

[BarbaraL]

My Foodsaver just died; it will still pull out air, but will no longer seal. Looking on the Foodsaver website, there are several models to choose from. Any recommendations (or conversely, models to stay away from)?
I use my machine mostly to divide and package bulk meats that I purchase from Costco.

[mcgee]

How old was yours? Mine still vacuums but I have to manually seal it while pressing down on the lid. Very inconvenient. I don't know if I want to spend the money on another one since this didn't last very long. I'll be interested to hear what others say.

[Valerie226]

I bought the one costco sells. bought it maybe 6 months ago? I don't know the model offhand. it works better than my first one although you have to kind of blindly shove the bag edges inside the machine until it triggers the start mechanism. my old one you could see what was going on. this one is black and silver and taller.

My old one stopped sealing completely. there were always a couple small spots that would leak air immediately and not seal at all, or slowly so sealed packages would "air up" over a few days.
the new one makes a thicker, better seal. It uses more bag material than my first one, but overall, it seals much more reliably and I love having lots of kinds of cheese on hand, happily sealed in the frig, rather than growing mold or drying out. we hike and backpack and I use it for those meals too. I thought the first one was easier to use ( when it used to work) but this one is more reliable, kind of a trade off.

[BarbaraL]

My current Foodsaver is at least a couple of years old. My first Foodsaver worked great, then had a problem and I replaced it with this one under Costco's extended warranty. This one's always been more persnickety than the first one about sealing; it didn't like to autoseal if the bag ends weren't cut just so, but could manually seal. Now the manual seal doesn't work; DH says the heating strip (or something) is shot.

I'm not using the Foodsaver as much now that Costco packs their chicken in 2-breasts per pack multipacks. I like to buy an entire pork roast and cut it into smaller roasts and pork chops (Costco cuts pork chops too thick for my tastes). I also buy big hunks of Parmesan cheese and vacumn seal them. I'm debating whether to buy a new one or not, but I do miss it.

[LakeMartinGal]

I bought the one costco sells. bought it maybe 6 months ago? I don't know the model offhand. it works better than my first one although you have to kind of blindly shove the bag edges inside the machine until it triggers the start mechanism. my old one you could see what was going on. this one is black and silver and taller.

My old one stopped sealing completely. there were always a couple small spots that would leak air immediately and not seal at all, or slowly so sealed packages would "air up" over a few days.
the new one makes a thicker, better seal. It uses more bag material than my first one, but overall, it seals much more reliably and I love having lots of kinds of cheese on hand, happily sealed in the frig, rather than growing mold or drying out. we hike and backpack and I use it for those meals too. I thought the first one was easier to use ( when it used to work) but this one is more reliable, kind of a trade off.Mine died a few weeks ago (stopped drawing a vacuum), and I bought one like the above on ebay for ~$75. I love it! I've not had any problems with the bags not tripping the mechanism at all. Check ebay, there are always some available there, and some good deals!:)