VacMaster VP215 Chamber Vacuum Sealer

This vacuum sealer is big and heavy. Make sure you find a permanent home for this thing. Only problem I had was vac master supposedly enlarged the oil reservoir for the motor. So when I added all the oil I had, it still wasn't enough to come up half way in the fill window. I gave customer service a call, and they answered all my questions. Newer units take more oil then is stated in the directions. Make sure you don't run it with low oil! I got a free quart of oil for calling, so I could finish filling my unit.This thing works amazing. It's fast, simple, and quiet. Plenty of space for sealing servings for a family of 4. The double bag seal is excellent, just make sure the bag sits perfectly flat on the seal bar for a perfect seal. If you see crinkles on the edge after sealing, it will most likely leak. It's expensive, but is worth it. Now we plan on doing some sous vide cooking.

Heavy... Big... Commercial Kitchen Appropriate... All True!!!But still, for our home we use it daily and it works AWESOME! Find a good accessible place for it and USE IT.Vacuum packed bags store excellent in fridge/freezer. Works super well with sous vide... Bags are very cheap at around .05 cents. Works great with liquids like soups, chili, marinades (just make sure liquids are cool before you press the button since they boil like crazy if warm and can make a mess). Not sure I'll ever use our traditional (external) vacuum packer again.One odd thing I noticed initially was a light vapor that came out of the exhaust of the unit. Did a little research and evidently that happens initially with the oil pump model (VP215) and not to worry about it. I would still go oil pump for sure... easy to fill and I understand the operation is quieter and the vacuum is stronger.

The media could not be loaded. I am completely happy and satisfied with the performance of this vacuum chamber , I wish I would’ve done it a lot sooner.I am able to do wet brines and liquids with it.Machine is heavy, make sure you order a rolling card with it if you are not going to leave it in one spot.I process a lot of fish and it makes it so much easier even if the fish has some moisture, where my old food saver always have troubled the bag seal properly.The cost of the machine is high , but you will save a lot of money on the bags.I had a food saver for over 10 years, it worked great, but I was spending a lot of money on the rolls .

This thing sucks... In a good way. I have owned several of the traditional foodsaver external type sealers and burned them up with use. They are just not designed for heavy household use. I had many worries about sealing too many bags in a session causing it to overheat, then bags would not seal, or the vacuum was just not good enough. Worst of all was having to worry about liquids getting out of the bag and into the sealer which would basically ruin it. With the Vacmaster VP215 I have none of these worries. I have used it quite a bit the last few days and did my first oil change just to be safe.An even bigger plus is that with the foodsaver I always had to worry about making sure all of the air came out of the bag when cooking Sous Vide. With moist ingredients you could not draw a hard vacuum for fear liquid would get out. Thus some air bubbles were left behind and the bags floated. With the chamber vac design the air is drawn out leaving nothing to really float the bag except the natural buoyancy of the material being sealed.I can fill up a dozen bags of food and then seal them one right after the other without any worries about overheating. With the foodsaver I would have to fill a bag, seal it, then wait for a few minutes for it to cool down. If not, it would get very hot to the touch after a few bags and then would not draw a vacuum or it would start having issues sealing until it cooled down again.A final plus I will list is that I like to share my cooking. Giving someone a vacuum bag with the grid lines it is hard to tell exactly what is inside due to the texture of the plastic. Some people might be a little leery of opening the bag let alone eat it. With the Vacmaster bags, you can see everything inside in full glory. It actually makes things look great to eat right out of the bag. Compress some watermelon and you will see what I mean.Pros: It works, great. It looks like a tank and built like one. Simple to operate, and clean.Cons: Size, and weight. Its not as simple as tossing this in a closet like some would do with a traditional sealer unit. Its also not exactly portable. I have a cart dedicated to rolling it around the kitchen and storage when needed.