I have a Foodsaver, FM3945, bought at Sam's Club, so it came with extra bags and things.
I hated it at first and struggled to get it to work, which I talked about here earlier. I even spent quite a while on the phone with support, and they told me to return it if I wanted. I wasn't really happy with them.
After watching several videos online, I finally figured out how to use mine, and now it love it. The unit is extremely picky with getting the top of the bag lined up so that it'll vacuum properly, but once you know how to do it, I rarely have a failure.
A couple of things I don't like:
1. A lot of foods, either due to moisture or softness, are recommended to be frozen first before sealing. Probably just me, it's annoying to have to freeze something before I seal it...to freeze.
It does come with a "moist" button, that's supposed to work with soft items - still crushes the living crap out of them, so that's useless.
2. They make reusable bags for thing things you want to seal and reopen and reseal, so maybe something like nuts - you can seal them up (like a ziploc bag), open them, have a few nuts, then seal them again, over and over.
Those don't really hold a seal for very long. By the next day, air seeps in, so it's kind of pointless.
I usually just buy the rolls and cut my own bags to fit. It's not cheap, but probably cheaper than throwing out a bunch of food. I do like the fat-bottomed precut bags for soups, though. Easy to fill and store.
Another thing is like is the ability to reseal plastic bags, like maybe you opened a bag of pretzels...you can squeeze the air out and just pop the top of the original bag on the sealer strip, close the lid, press seal, and it reseals the original bag.
My brother talked me into it, and when I talked to him after buying it, that's when he filled me in on all the problems I was having, saying they were common ones, and that led him to buy a commercial-grade one. This tabletop one I have, you do have to let it cool down a bit, if you're trying to do a whole bunch at once.
My sister has a very old Foodsaver. She sent me a pic, it's about the size of an old laser printer
laugh
, but she's still using it. She loves it.
So, overall, I'd recommend it, though I'd warn you about the frustration level, until you figure it out. If you buy the same model I have, I'll offer my services as Foodsaver consultant, free of charge, to show you how to get it to work. Seriously, I was about to throw that thing through the window, I was so mad at it!
