FM5200

This is my second FoodSaver. I purchased my first one from BJ's and used it for 5-6 years before it stopped vacuuming properly, hence the second one. This one functions quite well. It also came with two attachments, one for the FS marinating containers and one for mason/ball jars. It vacuums well and seals tightly. Not long ago, I pulled a strip steak from the freezer, still tightly sealed, no frostbite, looked as good as when I first put it in the freezer in 2019; it was delicious! There was no degradation in the least. Also, if you freeze your vacuum-sealed veggies, or leftovers, etc., you can just pop the still sealed bags into a pot of boiling water, or the microwave, to defrost & reheat them, so it saves on washing another pot, and you can pour your hot food directly into your serving bowls. Easy-peasy. It's great for singles, e.g. if I make a tray of lasagna, I have my one portion and cut up the rest into serving size pieces and vacuum seal them for future meals. When I do this, however, I place the cut portions on a tray and freeze them overnight, then when I vacuum-seal them the next day, they retain their shape. I do this when I cut up onions, peppers, etc. so they stay separate and I can take out what I need and reseal the bag. For these, I use the zipper bag. I highly recommend this product if you want convenience and save money on not having freezer-burned foods.

This works great! I read so many reviews about these machines that my head was in a spin about which one to try. I decided to go with the one I liked best and I am so glad I did. I really like the shape and how it fits on my counter, leaving me lots of room to work on the counter making it so easy to use. I taught my son how to do it and he was rocking with it helping me out after one quick how-to lesson. Another reason I liked this model was that it has roll holding capability (25' rolls just fit). I also wanted this machine for the simple sliding cutter- so easy and so straight! Another reason I got this was that you can seal closer to the edges so less bag waste. I also like the vacuum seal option for ziplock bags and canning jars. it's so easy it's fun! I also wanted the moist dry feature though I think the best thing to do is to freeze your liquidy type of foods like other reviewers suggested as it is hard not to get some liquid up to the seal when getting the air out...though my son could do it just fine. :) The only thing I have concern for is the handle you lock down to seal the bag on the roll. It is not perfectly smooth and I hope the mechanism lasts. It does great but I am wondering about continued wear. I guess I will find out. All the machines I reviewed had positives and negatives. One negative I ran across on every machine was that sometimes the air does not all get pulled out. I had this happen because of my inexperience and as I have learned how to do it I have had no problems. I also have had no problems with air going back into the bag later the same day or a week later. Over time this probably will happen because its plastic -made up of atoms. I am so glad I purchased this item because I like things easy and fast and cheap. The cheap $ comes in is that I can reuse the bags if I want to. I make the bag a little bigger than I want and then when I cut them open I do so on the narrow side giving me more room to fill then if I sliced open the long side. Very cool and money saving!

Absolutely love this. Use it all the time. I also bought the jars sealers to go with the accessory port. Works great.

First of all, this is a terrific solution to frozen food storage. We have had this device for a year; and, after getting through the learning curve, admittedly with only intermittent use due to frustration, we have finally gotten to a routine that works. Any buyer will have to deal with the reality that it is a design compromise, combining unrelated tasks of bag sizing and cutting, portion allocation, and sealing in the manufacturer's marketing plan. Perhaps this is elementary and tolerable to you, but you should walk in with eyes open. I will leave description of the device to others, and begin with the instructions, which are sunny, enthusiastic, and in many ways incomplete and wrong. The process to use the machine must must be learned with hands-on experience. Both hands, this is NOT device that allows for multi-taskng. There are several tricks to making the device work. This is how we NOW do it, not the way the instructions suggest: 1. Plug in the machine on a counter space that will give you enough space to pull bags from the front bottom slot of the device, and to use a support to hold the food in the bag when using the vacuum sealer, and something to hold and transport the cache of sealed food. I use a thick book (in my case, Jacques Pepin's "New Complete Techniques," which is about 3" thick). This is crucial, because the way the device is designed so that, if you follow Foodsaver's instructions, after you cut and fill the bag, unless it is hugely over-sized, you must hold the bag so that it does not slip out of the sealing slot when you try to press the seal bar, which can only be done with both hands for some reason.. The method suggested by Foodsaver wastes a lot of bag, and you will go through a lot of plastic to store a relatively limited amount of food, unless you take some prudent steps to save time and money. Put a roll of the bag you want to use into the bin from either side. It is helpful to unlock the cutter bar at the bottom right, pull the cutter assembly toward the front, and feed the roll to the white line that is usually hidden from view during use. Turn on the machine, power by pressing the button at the top left, re-lock the cutter bar, and press "seal" at the top. Sometimes this is not necessary, especially if you have used the machine before and the same roll remains. One of the nice things about this machine is that its designers "tried" to make it user friendly, and in this instance, the device seals the end of the roll when you go through the process of sealing a bag. Helpful, but not really intuitive to a user. 2. Drape a towel or plastic wrap over the book or support, to prevent food juices, and there will be some no matter how careful you are, on your hands, on the bag, and ultimately on the machine. 3. Prepare, wash, and cut up the food you want to freeze/store into portions you like. 4. Unlock the cutter bar at the bottom right, and pull a bag to the desired size, re-lock the bar, and run the slider to the opposite side to cut off the bag. You will only learn the sizing with repeated use. Again, at first you will use a lot of plastic, not including mistakes and discards, of which you will have a few. Get over it. 5. Put the food in a bag. Insert the unsealed end of the bag in the sealer slot (above the cutter bar insert). If you follow my advice and SUPPORT THE FOOD IN THE BAG WITH SOMETHING ABOUT 3" THICK, you will not need to hold the bag. Insert the bag just far enough to see it through the clear plastic window at the top; if you can see about 1/4" that is enough. If you put it in crooked, or too far, the device will not seal properly. 6. At the top of the machine, there is a button that selects "dry" or "moist" foods, which seems to have no utility. Each time you use the sealer, it defaults back to "dry." Perhaps I am anal, but I try to put it on the right setting before sealing, but it never seems to make any difference in the resulting sealed bag. 7. With BOTH HANDS (if you follow my advice about a support for the bag of food, this will be a snap), grasp the sides of the device, hooking your fingers around the edges, and press BOTH SIDES of the seal bar with your thumbs. If you do not support the food bag, you will fumble, repeatedly, and not be able to satisfy the machine's inner demons to get it to vacuum and then seal the bag. Last, there is a lot of waste of bags when you first start. There will be less as you become experienced, but there still will be a lot, and I think this is by design.. The machines are not cheap, and it is not inconceivable that the manufacturers sought to increase potential profits in maximizing consumables, which you conveniently buy from Foodsaver. Like office printers, broadband, and a million other things, without the consumables, it is pointless to buy the product. The cash, it flows. And, you might try other vendor's bags, which might be cheaper, but the lure to buy bags intended for the machine might be irresistible. It is capitalism, after all.

It really sucks!!!! All the air out, I mean!! Our old one finally quit sucking so we ordered this one !! WOW, we love it....except..... Suck area is 5 inches off counter top....what idiot designd THAT? SO.... You get a plastic food container that is same height as suck area & VOILA!!! You got one fine sucker!! Don't have to try to fit end of bag into catch tray like previous models! Just stick bag end into slot & you have window to see bag...stick it just to tray & push bar to suck! One more stupid design tho...have to push BOTH ENDS of bar for it to start!! Not just one. This means that bag has to stay where you left it to properly suck & seal!! BUT........ I ain't sending this puppy back cause it REALLY SUCKS....ALL THE AIR OUT OF MY FOOD BAGS & I LOVE IT...even with all those stupid design MISTAKES!!!😁

This is my first vacuum sealer ever. I just got done vacuum sealing the meat from two deer including ground, meat sliced for jerky, tenderloins, etc. I learned a lot through this process. My meat was frozen and already in individual meat Styrofoam packing with plastic wrap from the processor. I learned that it is probably best to poke holes in the plastic wrap where there are pockets of air so that the Food Saver can suck the air out of those places, as well. When packaging two separate pounds of ground venison together in one vacuum sealed bag from a roll, there were a couple times where it would not stop vacuuming, so I had to hit the seal button and it stopped vacuuming and then sealed the bag. I believe a little bit of the vacuum pressure in the bag was released before it sealed when I did this...I will eat that meat first. It may have helped slightly lifting the bag of two packs of meat well it vacuumed and sealed as it had a tendency to rest on the vacuum seal activation bar. That is probably because I did not leave enough slack in the top of the bag before I cut it. (I am still learning using this system) The accessory tool was simple and very convenient to use with the “suction bags.” just be sure the bag is on a flat surface and you are not trying to hold the bag while vacuuming with the accessory tool...lesson learned. Even though this is my first vacuum sealer, I would highly recommend it as it is so easy to use. It is apparent where the company made tweaks to make the buttons from the original versions making this one even more convenient and simple to use. by the way, I certainly read many reviews on this machine and saw where people complained about needing to people to run it. I have to disagree as I was able to seal several pounds of meat by myself with no problem. You just have to have the machine on a flat surface with a little bit of work space on each side for your product and workspace in the front to pull out, cut, and fill the bag before sealing.

Even though this is not the newest model, it is rated by many users on YouTube as the best. I love the way I can seal the next bag as I cut the one I want to use. Seeing the size bag I need right in front with no guessing is great. The bags are reusable. The air removal feature is above and separate from the bag cutting at the bottom. I like that. Takes a few minutes to get used to it, but I can’t stop using it!! I made tomato powder with my dehydrator and with the jar sealer I bought separately, it sealed my 12 oz jars perfectly!!! I am soooo amazed and happy with this machine. It is not huge either and can be transported around your kitchen easily. I did my research before getting this one. My hubby wanted me to spend more to get the newest, bigger one and I’m so glad I got THIS one!!! July 28, 2020 - A little help for those who find pressing the bar and holding the bag to be cumbersome or a pita... lol. Here’s how I do it: Fill the bag and leave a good two or three inches of clearance at the top opening of your bag. The more you do this, the less space you’ll need... If the food is dry, be sure to press the “dry” button and if wet be sure to press the “wet” button before you start. The wet setting will pull air more gently which may be why some people think it’s not working so well on their dry foods. Make sure smooth side of the plastic bag is up when you slide the bag into the machine. I am right handed. I lift the top clear bar just a little with my right hand while I slide the bag, keeping it fairly horizontal and gently pull it across the front of the machine, keeping it under the clear plastic bar and inside the machine. When I have done this, both my hands are equally in front of the machine, one on each side. I look to be sure enough plastic is inside far enough to seal well. Then I press the bar with the orange label with both hands as I’m still holding the bag. This is a super comfortable way to do this. It may take a little getting used to, but it works great for me. The machine starts suctioning the air out and I lift the bag just a little to be sure the machine can pull out the air around the food. If the food begins to get pressed or smooshed too much, I just press the “seal” button and the suction stops and the bag seals. Be patient and wait for the bag to release to indicate it is sealed. That’s it! I’ve stored dried tomato slices, beef jerky, ice packs for coolers, other dehydrated foods, frozen meats, lunch meats, tea mixes, etc. Enjoy your sealer!!! I’m sorry to read some have gotten defective ones. Mine is still working great.

I bought this item on a recommendation from a friend who has the same model. It does have its quirks in use. It will make a bag for you from a roll, but you have to remember to seal the end of the bag first before you pull it out and cut it to length. Until you are used to it, it is easy to forget to do this. The other thing you have to get used to is holding the end of the filled bag in place while pressing the bar that starts the vacuum sealing process. This seems awkward at the beginning, but again, you get used to it after a while. One thing worth noting is that you should make sure you have an adequate length of bag between the sealing slot and the contents and that there are no folds anywhere along the length of the sealing slot. If the contents are too close to the slot or there is a fold, the machine may fail to suck all the air out properly, and will not initiate the sealing process. You can tell this is happening when the machine's suction process takes too long and the higher pitched tone of it sucking the last remnants of air out is not reached. Once you get the hang of it, it seems to do a good job, the ability easily to make bags of any size is welcome. There is also an accessory device for vacuum sealing zip seal bags, a few of which are supplied with the machine, as well as vacuum jars (not supplied) and marinade containers. I have tried the first, but not the last two, and it seems to work well. The machine is noisy when in use, but that isn't an issue for me, and I am generally very happy with it.