Well, I killed my Foodsaver

Notice that I did not say that it died. I killed it. I have had it for 7 years and had no trouble with it. I have had a few bad seals along the way, but, usually, it is because I misused it or got inpatient.

I broke down some chicken last night and was sealing it up to freeze. The last bag is always backs, wings and Giblets. I use them for stock when I get enough.

Well, as I was vacuuming, I saw some water go through the seal, I have seen that before, note to self, dry the vacuum channel after the bag seals. All of a sudden the motor locks up. Now I've done it. I open the unit and the vacuum channel is ful to overflowing. The pump got a big drink of liquid. I dumped it out as best as I could. I even opened it and looked inside. I don't see any liquid anywhere. The machine now runs, but when it really starts to pull a vacuum, the motor freezes.

I will give it a day or so to dry, maybe take the pump apart to see if I can fix it. If not, hold a requiem and move on. I would buy another. It has served well and I feel tht this failure is my own laziness.

Sorry to hear that Andy!! I will say a prayer..........
If you do need to get a new one the one I have has a "wet" vacuum seal. It works great. What I usually would do was freeze the contents in the bag first then vacuum it so the liquid wouldn't get in the tubing..............I know hindsight. lol

Andy, I want to get one. Do you have any recommendations? My thinking is to prepare a big meal and freeze single protions for later use.

Well, on the bright side... you can get a State of the Art model.
But hope that one makes a miraculous recovery!

I just ate some perfectly fine beef sealed up on Oct 10, 2008 with mine.

homecook said:

Sorry to hear that Andy!! I will say a prayer..........
If you do need to get a new one the one I have has a "wet" vacuum seal. It works great. What I usually would do was freeze the contents in the bag first then vacuum it so the liquid wouldn't get in the tubing..............I know hindsight. lol

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Somone else I know mentioned that. I understand it better the way you explain it. Thanks

Barb - Thank you for the prayers. I feel the requiem is it's destination though. LOL

Lefty - I so love the handivac for what you suggest as that is what I do. I go to the fish monger and get a whole king salmon and other fish and portion them and freeze in gallon bags,open ant take what I want and revacuum. You can do it with a foodsaver as well if you make the bags long. You will loose an inch or so off the bag every time you open.

The up side of Foodsaves is you can boil in the bag, microwave and send it through the dishwasher and reuse them. They are expensive, but reuse brings the cost down to OK (I think). Handivac is not made any more. Someone has a hand pump one tht will work. I also use(d) my handivac for dry goods as well.

Barb has a great idea with freezing first and I see that hers will supposedly dring water as well. My unit is / was older and you could not tell it when to seal. The newer ones can seal when you want them and should be a problem.

Sherman has a thread here someplace saying he has had a few and had problems. There are alo links in that thread fro from the rediculous to the sublime with prices to go with that.

I will probably get another foodsaver, I will post on the site whit I do.

Kimchee - Barb and I are doing incantations. LOL I do like the newer ones.

Seven years, Andy??

That's four more years than the longest of the last 3 Foodsavers I've bought!

Lee

That is scary Lee. What happened to them? Just stopped or did they give warning/

homecook said:

Sorry to hear that Andy!! I will say a prayer..........

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Is there a patron saint for food savers? Catholics have a patron saint for almost everything else. Sorry for your loss, Andy.

If not, one could probably be set up fairly quickly. LOL

Joe - It was my friend, we did fish, chicken, beef, Heck all sorts of animals together. I will miss her.

LMAO........Andy, the new one I have now is 3 years old and working great. My older one is close to 10 and my daughter is now using it.........

So I guess it doesn't suck anymore, huh? Couldn't be saved either? lmao

Adillo303 said:

Notice that I did not say that it died. I killed it. I have had it for 7 years and had no trouble with it. I have had a few bad seals along the way, but, usually, it is because I misused it or got inpatient.

I broke down some chicken last night and was sealing it up to freeze. The last bag is always backs, wings and Giblets. I use them for stock when I get enough.

Well, as I was vacuuming, I saw some water go through the seal, I have seen that before, note to self, dry the vacuum channel after the bag seals. All of a sudden the motor locks up. Now I've done it. I open the unit and the vacuum channel is ful to overflowing. The pump got a big drink of liquid. I dumped it out as best as I could. I even opened it and looked inside. I don't see any liquid anywhere. The machine now runs, but when it really starts to pull a vacuum, the motor freezes.

I will give it a day or so to dry, maybe take the pump apart to see if I can fix it. If not, hold a requiem and move on. I would buy another. It has served well and I feel tht this failure is my own laziness.

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I'm so sorry that this has happened to you, Adillo303. I feel for ya.

Seven years is probably as high as those crappy machines go.

One that I had, had just made a year before it started acting up. One other was about 1-1/2 years.

And the most recent one that I got, their top-of-the-line unit, I had just gotten that one in October last year. It wasn't even three months before THAT one had begun acting up!! I had four of them, all different models, and they all were short-lived.

Who on earth is the brain child who thinks of and designs these machines? Seems to me like they are just not tested enough before they put them on the market! There are certainly some issues and design flaws with these units.

I took both units back to BB&B where I had gotten both of them from. The manager, at first, wasn't going to take back the older one, but because of a foul-up caused by the cashier who rung up the newer one when I was paying for it, he decided at the time to give me a merchandise credit for it (in exchange for something else in the store).

On the newer one, I got a cash refund for it. But on the older one, I happily accepted the offer of the merchandise credit with no problem at all because it meant dumping that unit as well - completely washing my hands of those ill-fated machines once and for all -for good!!

While looking for something to get on the merchandise credit, I DID see a large Waring Pro Deep Fryer and happily got it. Guess it couldn't have come at a better time.

But I think I read somewhere in one of the manuals that you must give the machines a "rest" period between vacuum sealings, so that the heater strip does not overload itself and burn out. I had allowed for this, and STILL the thing had crapped out.

The reason behind the thread that I started when I said that I'm looking for a commercial one. I'm so completely DONE with FoodSaver!

I now mainly stick with the Ziplock hand pump for vacuum sealing. Not the best thing, but it cerain is the NEXT best thing! Hard to believe that an elcheapo hand-pump unit beat out a machine that is supposed to be so superior to everything else that's out there!

At least I have SOMETHING to fight off air & freezer-burnt food until I can get something better than FoodSaver. I wouldn't buy another one of those machines if someone GAVE me the money to do it! What a piece of crap THEY are!

As has been said before Sherman...........ALOT of people have had NO problems with their FoodSavers, me included. I think it's a wise investment and it has worked for me! I don't consider it a piece of crap at all. My 10 year old one is still going strong............my newer one is going on 3 years.

You've just had some bad luck on yours, unfortunately!

homecook said:

As has been said before Sherman...........ALOT of people have had NO problems with their FoodSavers, me included. I think it's a wise investment and it has worked for me! I don't consider it a piece of crap at all. My 10 year old one is still going strong............my newer one is going on 3 years.

You've just had some bad luck on yours, unfortunately!

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You older one and maybe the one that you bought later was probably designed and made better than they are now.

Guess it's true what they say; Things aren't made the way that they used to be.

I'm not knocking you or anyone else for praising them to the utmost. They just won't work for me. Like you said, I've have no good luck with those units. They only last for a short time and that's it.

I have a couple of them, Andy. A FoodSaver at the coast and a Rival Seal-A-Meal here at home. The Rival is just like this one except it isn't cordless. [ame]http://www.amazon.com/Rival-VS125-S-Cordless-Rechargeable-Vacuum/dp/B000ASFZZC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1264447359&sr=1-3[/ame] I got both of mine at BigLots. I know the Rival was a refurb but the FoodSaver probably wasn't. I think I like the Rival a little better. It has a roll holder and cutter and it is compact. The only difference I can see is that you really have to press down hard on both corners of the Rival to get it to lock in place so you can vacuum. (There is an audible click when you get it locked.) I've had the Rival for well over 3 years and it's working great. I paid $30 for it.

The one pitured in the link that you spoke of, is THAT the one that you have now?

I was thinking about getting a Rival, but when I went to Amazon.com to read some of the reviews there on it, I found out that there were quite a few dissatisified users.

Maybe not against the one like yours.

But I might look into getting the one like yours. If it doesnt work or stops working too prematurely, I guess I can always return it. Maybe I'll have better luck with THAT brand instead.

No, it's not the same model as mine, Sherman. Mine looks exactly like that, but mine is not cordless. If you have a BigLots near you, check it out. They carry them here all the time for way less than anyplace else.

I wouldn't know where one is, and it might be too far away to get to - even driving there, but I'll look online. Thanks.

Hopefully, I can drive to one. it might be worth the try.

I had an early model that I picked up at Home Depot on a clearance table for $15. I loved it! It lasted about 10 years before it died.

I replaced it with the 'latest and greatest' model. It was terrible. Half the time it wouldn't suck air. It sometimes didn't seal. I took it back to Costco. By that time there was a newer 'latest and greatest 'model. I bought that one instead. It's only marginally better.

It wastes bags. Sometimes it decides not to suck the air out before it seals. After 4 or 5 bags it quits and has to cool down before resuming. I wish I could get the reliable older model back.

I always loved my Foodsaver, but no longer. Sunbeam bought them a few years ago, and it's now part of Jarden Corp. It seems Tilia built a great reputation on these things, but Sunbeam/Jarden has a totally different business model.

Found their website, but it's not on there.

The nearest store to me is the one up north in Lynn, MA.. I'll call there first before making the trip up there. Otherwise, it's wasted gas.

SilverSage said:

I had an early model that I picked up at Home Depot on a clearance table for $15. I loved it! It lasted about 10 years before it died.

I replaced it with the 'latest and greatest' model. It was terrible. Half the time it wouldn't suck air. It sometimes didn't seal. I took it back to Costco. By that time there was a newer 'latest and greatest 'model. I bought that one instead. It's only marginally better.

It wastes bags. Sometimes it decides not to suck the air out before it seals. After 4 or 5 bags it quits and has to cool down before resuming. I wish I could get the reliable older model back.

I always loved my Foodsaver, but no longer. Sunbeam bought them a few years ago, and it's now part of Jarden Corp. It seems Tilia built a great reputation on these things, but Sunbeam/Jarden has a totally different business model.

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Oh,no. That's the latest one that I had also before I returned it!

So you're saying that Tilia doesn't make them any more? The darkness has come to light! I didn't know that!

Seems that every time production of a product is bought out by another co, the product isn't the same any more. Just like with Cuisinart food processors. Conair owns the co now, and I was about to get another one by that brand until I heard bad things about them.

I thought that all that sweetness and hype was just too good to be true! That probably explains why we've had such bad luck with them.

And THAT was the problem with mine. First the heaterstrip had stopped working. Then it fixed itself back, then the thing just wouldn't suck all of the air out any more, and had started sealing the bags too prematurely with air still in them.