Vacuum Sealer+5 Free Vac Bags

Contrary to what some reviewers say, this is actually very easy to use. I practiced once (where I look about 3 minutes trying to figure out how this contraption works). Subsequent uses are very fast and easy. I was hesitant at first whether I should fork more money to get one of those motorized vacuum sealers out there. In the end, I decided to get the Thrifty Food Vacuum Packing System instead as I was curious to see if I could save more money by using normal ziploc bags. (those vacuum bags used on sealing machines are really expensive. Remember, you are likely to use more than one food item for each meal, so the cost of bags add up quickly). I just use a double seal zip ziploc bag but a normal one should work fine. While it is not the strongest vacuum, this presents a nice weak to medium vacuum solution. Contrary to a reviewer on this page, the vacuum is certainly better than using the "submerge the bag in a bowl of water and then seal it up" technique. I used to use that technique. Trust me: the ThrifyVac food vacuum is certainly better.The real cost of vacuum packing machines is not the vacuum machines themselves, but the bags you need to purchase to use with those machines. At 40 of 50 cents a piece, a meal using a few items or portions would easily cost $2 each time I cook. Now imagine doing that over a year. For many people, their vacuum packing machine just ends up sitting in a corner of the house after a while. It is like a printer, where the real cost is with the ink. With the ThriftyVac Food Vacuum Packing System, it is the cost of a ziplock bag - which you would probably already use anyway to store food in your refrigerator,I bought this to be used in Sou Vide cooking, and to individually vacuum pack meat that I buy in bulk at the market so that it stays fresh for much longer in the freezer. Much much longer. I live alone, so packing my food this way in portion size packets makes things more convenient when I have to thaw something for a meal. With the ThrifyVac Food Vacuum Packing System, I now purchase food in bulk and save a lot as the food last a lot longer in the freezer.

Probably like many people, I bought this product because of its promise to vacuum-seal normal store-bought zip-top bags. It won't. Don't be deceived by the reviews (I wish I hadn't been); it will never work with normal bags and there's a very simple reason: the plastic in normal store-bought zip-top bags is incapable of holding a vacuum.If you Google around (which I did), you'll see that polyethylene, which is what Ziploc freezer bags are made of for instance, is porous and can't hold a vacuum. In other words, to make the product work, you have to buy special bags... which kind of defeats the whole purpose of buying the product and which is what, to me, makes the advertising of the product deceptive.There's nothing this product can do to make a normal Ziploc or Glad bag - which wasn't designed to hold a vacuum in the first place - hold a vacuum. The maker of this product should make this clear in the product description.Oh, and this product falls under some "hazardous items" heading here at Amazon meaning it's unreturnable. $22 down the toilet I guess.

Does what it claims to do, but the major flaw is that it relies on creating a vacuum in zip top bags; most of which are not designed to hold a vacuum. Most zip top bags that I have tried (and I have tried at least 3 different brands) will lose 1/4 of the vacuum within the first few minutes and then another 1/4 over a few days so what you are left with is a vacuum not much better than you could have done by hand. Of course this is not the fault of the product but the concept of it is slightly flawed.If you do intend on using this product you will need an 8 inch impulse / heat sealer that you need to use to permanently seal the bag shortly after you vacuum the air out using this product.

I want to explain that I bought this with a single purpose in mind, fishing.I like to spend some time fishing in Alaska and over the last ten years or so, I have tried various methods of storing and bringing my fish home. The nice thing that makes the ThriftyVac stand out above all others is the fact that I can cut, chop, fillet, and vaccum seal fish on the bank of a remote river in the middle of nowhere. Sure, there are some electric models that do this, but again, they require batteries, special bags, and can break down or simply not work. Thriftvac works flawlessly every singe time.For those of you complaining about a lack of seal, I would counter with this, buy better bags. I am storing Sockeye Salmon that I fished for myself in Alaska. I am not going to think of storing my priceless fish into some dollar store generic chinese bags. You may not have to spend $1 a bag like the pro models, but go ahead and drop a quarter on a good zip-top freezer grade food storage or vaccum bag if you plan on putting a decent cut of meat or expensive item in it.I love the comments from the chefs in here stating that they can't get their zip locks to seal with their boiled in a bag recipes. Most standard zip locks are not made for cooking in, why would you think this system changes the properties of the bag? This contraption is made for one thing, economically removing the air from a standard zip-top bag. It doesn't claim to be better than vaccum sealers, it claims to be cheaper.Does this work as well as my old industrial grade vaccum sealer? Nope, but not having to pack mine when I fish in Alaska is well worth it.

I used the product as directed to seal a variety of foods (meat, vegetables, etc), but unfortunately air kept getting into the bags. After a day or two, it was as if the bags had not even been vacuum sealed. I even tried switching to sturdier Ziploc freezer bags of various sizes, and it didn't help. When I ordered this, I was expecting a more robust system with a dedicated vacuum bag, but when I received the unit it came with a bag that seemed to me no different than any Ziploc bag you could buy in the store. It's too bad, I had high hopes for this item. I would pass on this product.