We have all at some point of time needed to stash away some perishable produce, keep it fresh for long and when that happens, the best home vacuum sealer is going to be our best friend. And for some of you, who have a propensity to have a lot of leftovers every day, having a top rated vacuum sealer in your home will definitely help you save some big bucks at the end of the month. Choosing the right vacuum sealer for your need is critical to ensure that you really realize that savings on your food bill that you were looking for with the best kitchen vacuum sealer.
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Best Home Vacuum Sealer
A good vacuum sealer can certainly enhance the longevity of poultry, fish, other meats or vegetables that you want to store away in your refrigerator or kitchen cabinets. What would normally last a few days would last months in the vacuum sealed bags, fresh and as crisp as when you brought it home from your store.
Would you rather compare vacuum cleaners to know which one is best for you? The best way to know the best product for you if there’s no prior knowledge about them is to have a pool of options so you can easily compare and contrast and that’s the same with professional vacuum sealers.
How Does the Vacuum Sealer Save Your Food?
Vacuum sealing is also termed as reduced oxygen packaging, where oxygen is removed or reduced from the sealing bag as the vacuum is created. What happens after this is the biology that we are all familiar with.
In the absence of oxygen, bacteria and fungi cannot thrive in the sealing bags that contain the food. The food, therefore, remains protected for a long time just as when you can eat food materials.
You can get better results by combining vacuum sealing with other storage methods like freezing. You can also use heavy duty Mylar bags along with vacuum sealing to further increase the longevity of your food.
What are some of the Great Ways to Put Your New Vacuum Sealer to Good Use?
The first and foremost reason to use a vacuum sealer is to preserve your food, give it more shelf-life than it would otherwise have in the refrigerator or in the kitchen cabinet. And of course, like already mentioned, preserving your food means you save money on your food bills by increasing the longevity of your food materials.
Here is something else you want to consider. You can cook the meals for your entire week together during the weekends and store them away for later use, sealed away in vacuum sealed bags. Just about the same way, you can do all your grocery shopping in one go, buying all those perishable proteins and vegetables and sealing them will keep them safe for months. Definitely helps you save time, in your busy life, big time!
Seal your opened wine bottle/crackers/chips:
You can also use a vacuum sealer for resealing your opened wine bottles and oil containers. No more reason for you to polish off that bottle of wine just because you have opened it! The same goes for crackers and chips, no more finishing off the bags just because they had been opened.
Preserve your memories:
Would you like to preserve that one large piece of your wedding cake for the first anniversary? Freeze the wedding cake for an hour and vacuum seal it for freezer storage. Your piece of memory from that perfect day in your life is good to go for another year and you can revisit your memories on your first anniversary. It goes for cakes done for any other occasion too.
Preserve baking staples:
Your baking staples such as flour, sugar, and spices are pretty safe too for perhaps even years, with vacuum sealing. It has all been about preservation so far, but there are some pretty nifty cooking tricks you can get done with your home vacuum sealer.
Go easy marinating:
Did you know that marinating your meats and other proteins are going to be much easier with a vacuum sealer? It’s physics 101. Generate a vacuum in the bag containing the protein and the marinade, and the vacuum forces the marinade into the protein faster and more effectively than you would otherwise be able to do.
Best for sous vide method of cooking:
And if you want to try out the sous vide method of cooking, you would definitely find a vacuum sealer to be a handy tool. The vacuum sealed bags with the food will not float in the water bath while cooking and will definitely give you consistent results.
What are some of the Other Uses of Vacuum Sealing?
Enough about food! Isn’t it? Your vacuum sealer can be used around the home for some other pretty cool stuff too. You can put your new vacuum sealer to good use to seal metal containers or artifacts and store them away, protecting them against corrosion.
Vacuum seal kids toys from dust:
Maybe you want to preserve some of your child’s toys like the miniature green army men your kids used to be so fond of, and store them away forever. Your new vacuum sealer can certainly come in handy. You can pretty much save these precious memories from dust, moisture, and corrosion with vacuum sealing.
Preserve your precious photographs:
Talking about memories you can save with vacuum sealing; if you do not completely believe in the digital age and would like to keep some of your precious photographs offline, you can make an extra set of copies which you can store away in vacuum sealed bags. No dust, no moisture, and no fungi – your photographs are safe from all the elements that destroy them.
Keep your medical supplies safe:
If you have your own stash of medical supplies that you want to keep safe from sun, moisture and other elements, you can definitely vacuum seal them as well. You can do the same with your first aid supply, keep them safe and keep them organized in those airless pouches.
Keeps your small stuff organized:
There is great news for you if you are slightly disorganized and tend to lose stuff, like your board game pieces or pens, well, literally anything that is small enough to be sealed. Well, you guessed it already, seal them all together and keep them together.
Vacuum seal hardware tools:
And if you or your partner is the tool-wielding type going around the house fixing stuff all the time, the chances are that you must have a ton of surplus hardware lying around the house. You can use the vacuum sealing to do some organizing and save the hardware from corrosion and rust too.
Seal pack ice cubes:
It also saves you a lot of money on ice packs when you have your trusty Vacuum Sealer in the kitchen sealing away ice cubes in those sealing bags. You can use them for kid’s lunches or can help save quite a bit of money on gel packs for your cooler. It can also help for some immediate pain relief when you need an ice pack for a sports injury.
Vacuum seal your important documents:
You can seal your important documents in a vacuum seal bag and protect it against dampness or insects. Or maybe some of your clothing materials that you use once in a year need to be protected against insects or dampness and vacuum sealing them can definitely help.
The bottom line is you can use vacuum sealers to protect anything in your home that needs protection. You are only limited by your imagination and the size of the item you want to protect; but fair warning – once you unleash your imagination, you might not be able to stop vacuum sealing everything that you can get your hands on!
How Much Longer Can You Get Your Food to Stay Fresh With Vacuum Sealing?
You know that vacuum sealed food lasts longer than other normal methods of storage. But do you really know by how much? Well, if you are going to vacuum seal your food to keep them fresh and save from wastage, you ought to know how long you can keep your food fresh with vacuum sealing. And of course, every type of food has drastically different shelf lives after being vacuum sealed.
Beef:
Beef that is vacuum sealed will stay fresh for about 2-3 years compared to about 6 months of shelf life with freezer storage. So does poultry and most of your vegetables, increasing their shelf size by four to six folds with vacuum sealing.
Fish:
Fish, which lasts for 6 months in the freezer, will remain fresh for up to 2 years with vacuum sealing.
Preserve bread and coffee beans:
Bread and coffee beans which can be stored healthy for durations of 6-12 months and 6-9 months respectively get to keep their freshness for a period of 1-3 years and 2-3 years respectively.
Preserve soups and stews:
Soups and stews that can be frozen and stored away for 3-6 months can stay edible for up to 1-2 years after being vacuum sealed and stored away.
Preserve berries:
Berries which have a life of about 1-6 days in the refrigerator can last for up to 1-2 weeks with a vacuum seal and Lettuce which normally has a 3-6 days shelf life in the refrigerator stays fresh about 2 weeks in the vacuum seal.
Preserve Cheese:
You might have all stored cheese away for some time in the refrigerator and got some dry, inedible stuff after it overstays its welcome inside the refrigerator. Normally what would last for about 1-2 weeks in the refrigerator can last for about 4-8 months if you vacuum seal the extra cheese.
Preserve food staples:
Flour, sugar, rice, and pasta which all have a pantry shelf life of 6 months can survive fresh up to 1-2 years thanks to the strictly no-contact-with-air policy of the vacuum seals. And cookies too can retain their crunch for about 3-6 weeks as opposed to the normal 1-2 weeks on the pantry shelf.
Know what you are storing away and how long it’s going to stay fresh there. If you do not, you will end up losing a whole lot more money than you originally tried to save.
What Are the Considerations You Give While on the Prowl for the Best Home Vacuum Sealer?
Before we go into the detailed study we conducted online and offline in our labs to find the best home vacuum sealer in the market in 2021, we would like to point out some of the features you would have to look out for in your search for the perfect home vacuum sealer for your kitchen. While we can give you some of our picks for the best home vacuum sealer for your kitchen, you are the ultimate judge of what is best for you and you cannot judge without knowing the critical factors on which you have to base your judgment.
So to see what vacuum sealer will fit your needs the best, here are the things that you need to consider.
Does Type Really Matter?
There are many different types of food sealing machines in the market, and it kind of goes without saying that as far as vacuum sealers are concerned, type really matters.
Your home vacuum sealer has to be the type that really fits your needs. Don’t worry! We will help you figure out the types of vacuum sealers that are available in the market. And once you know them, you can intuitively judge which type is a good fit for your requirement.
To kick things off, the home vacuum sealers come in electrically-operated countertop models and hand pump countertop models. The electrically-operated model is either powered by plugging into your power supply or they can be battery powered. Of course, by now you might have already guessed that compared to the ones powered by AC power, it is more powerful than the battery-operated and hand pump versions. Meaning, the motor that creates the vacuum inside the vacuum bags are more efficient and powerful in the AC powered ones.
Then there are the handheld models or models that come with a handheld accessory that can be used to create the vacuum seal. These models are great when you would like to seal cans or jars of food, which is an efficient but difficult and time-consuming way of preserving food.
External Sealer or Chamber Sealer?
For the home countertop vacuum sealer, you can also choose between an external vacuum sealer and a chamber sealer.
External Sealer:
If you take the case of an average home kitchen, you will find that external sealers are more popular than the more expensive chamber sealers.
The external vacuum sealer enables you to insert the vacuum seal bag into its sealing section and the vacuum pump in the sealer pumps out the air in the bag creating a vacuum.
Chamber Sealer:
On the other hand, with a chamber sealer, you simply deposit the food in a vacuum seal bag or jars in the sealing chamber, where vacuum created will effectively suck out the air from the chamber and subsequently from the bag.
The chamber sealers are typically used in commercial kitchens, where they are put to heavy-duty use. And therefore, these vacuum sealers can be used to put large chunks of meat and other food materials in the vacuum sealed bags.
Typically, your kitchen would only need an external vacuum sealer, unless you are into some heavy food lifting.
Some Frequently Asked Questions
What’s Within Your Price Range?
Well, this is a question that you need to ask yourself before you go about reviewing and purchasing your new vacuum sealer. There are choices in the market that fit your price considerations; you just need to be certain what you are looking for!
Will You Be Comfortable with Your Vacuum Sealer?
How comfortable are you with using your vacuum sealer is something you are going to have to consider before you take your purchase decision. There are some models that require a bit more effort and skill on the part of the user than other models.
For example, a handheld model might be useful for certain specific sealing requirements, but it requires a bit more practice to use it than your normal external countertop vacuum sealer. Or your chamber vacuum sealer may be easier to use, but more expensive!
What Are You Packing?
Of course, we are talking about your food packing needs. If you are planning on sealing away large quantities of meat, something you have killed and prepped in your usual hunting trip, then a chamber vacuum sealer would be an ideal choice for you than a home vacuum sealer. And as we already discussed, if there are a lot of jars and cans you want to pack away you are better off with a handheld model or a model that has a handheld sealing accessory.
Is There Ever a Size that Fits All?
Literally, not all sizes of meat or produce can fit in your vacuum sealer. But that’s not what we meant here. Not all vacuum sealers will be a perfect fit for your kitchen. So giving your space constraints a consideration before buying the vacuum sealer can prove to be a good idea.
What Happens after Buying?
Buying the vacuum sealer is the first step. The next step is to ensure that your vacuum sealer gets proper after sales service. Like most of the other kitchen appliances you have, the vacuum sealer also comes with some heavy duty moving parts. And it has a pretty tough job too, sucking the air out of bags. So there can be damage to the motor or other parts with the passing of time; so it’s only prudent that you get a vacuum sealer brand that is known to give some good after-sales service.
Time for the Best food vacuum sealer review
So many people want to know the importance of vacuum cleaners and how they operate but also, one of the most asked questions remains; What’s the best vacuum cleaner?
Now it’s time for the review you had been waiting for – the best home vacuum sealer in the market in 2021. We have gone through some thorough research, both automated and manual, to come to a conclusion of the 5 best home vacuum sealers you can use for your home. The automated search ensures that we have exhaustively reviewed all the available choices of vacuum sealers in the market, performed a thorough research into the consumer reports vacuum sealers have garnered and compared them against a set of criteria that would isolate the best ones among the lot. From such an exclusive list we have handpicked the best under each price category so that you can have a pick of the best in the price range that you are looking for.
So here are some of the best and the reasons that make them the best of the lot.
The Overall Winner – FoodSaver V4440Y
The FoodSaver V4440 comes out in our research as the uncontested overall winner when it comes to selecting the best vacuum sealer for meat, and for food generally. Be it the ease of use or the feature-rich versatility of the product or the efficiency and power the vacuum pump inside the device uses, there isn’t another product on the market that does better. The customers love it too; it’s not just that it’s one of the most popular models out there, but our research shows that the model has garnered some pretty impressive customer reports.
We give this FoodSaver vacuum sealer a whopping 98 out of 100 for these reasons.
Pros:
- Versatile 2-in-1 vacuum sealer which comes with both a retractable handheld sealer and standard vacuum sealer ideal for canisters and jars and also bags, for those of you who like multi-utility.
- Don’t require complicated additional attachments for its retractable hand held sealers, which is a huge plus when it comes to ease of use.
- Equipped with automatic bag detection and sealing, the V4440 is easy to use and saves precious time when you are struggling to seal a bag of meat. You just have to insert the bag into the sealer and the V4440 does the rest for you.
- Do you like to save your food in big bags? The FoodSaver V4440 comes with a sealer that can accommodate bags that are as wide as 11 inches. Pretty good for any normal household!
- When it comes to cleaning up, the retractable tray in the FoodSaver makes it very convenient and easy.
- For those of you who have experience with food sealing, you know that sealing a wet food item is not the same as sealing a dry food item. This model comes with a toggle switch that gives you a perfect seal every time; it doesn’t matter if the food is dry or wet.
- The motor creates very high suction power; the quality of the seal is perfect each time, every time.
- There are the marinating function and zipper bags that can come in handy for the home user with this model.
- Comes ready with a starter kit.
- It’s a great value for money buy, having a reasonable price point with some great functionalities and high-performance vacuum motors.
Cons:
- The whole process can become a little slow, taking up to 45 seconds to seal the bags and then waiting for another 10-20 seconds for the motor to recover to do the next round of sealing.
- The wet food sealing can get a bit messy with the tray filling out faster than we expected.
Best in the Premium Category – FoodSaver Premium Silver 5860
This one tops the list in the premium category, and there is no surprise there that this one is another from the stables of the FoodSaver brand. They simply have some of the best vacuum sealers in the market. It has all the features of the V4440 and some more. Of course, you have to pay a premium for those additional features. But if you have the money to indulge, the FoodSaver Premium 5860 is a great vacuum sealer for food and it is always ideal to have one in your kitchen.
Pros:
- It does one better than the V4440 when it comes to automating the process. The 5860 comes equipped with an automatic bag dispense & rewind and automatic bag-cut and seal features that make working with this kitchen beast a pleasure. Saves you time and headache, big time!
- It also comes with a one-touch marinate and vacuum modes.
- Airtight heat seal is something that’s an add-on feature in this model and can be very useful when it comes to getting a very efficient seal. This is in addition to the retractable handheld sealing unit that comes with the model.
- And the FoodSaver brand gives this one a long 5-year warranty.
- The sealer is quick with about a 10-second turn around time and the vacuum is powerful too like the other machines in the FoodSaver family.
Cons:
- The sealer is seated way back in the machine which requires a bit of the bag to go to waste.
- It doesn’t fit the larger than 11.5-inch bags for sealing and also cannot hold the large 50 feet rolls.
Best in the Budget Category – Geyron Vacuum Sealer
This Geyron vacuum sealer has been satisfying the budget sensitive vacuum sealer user for the past 3 years and it continues to do so even now which is why it is the best affordable vacuum sealer on our list. The vacuum sealer, the best budget vacuum sealer on this list, comes with a fair price tag and has given consistent performance and is the most highly rated vacuum sealer in its category as per our customer reports. The compact and sleek machine is good for any kitchen and it takes care of all your basic vacuum sealing needs.
Pros:
- The biggest pro of this model is obviously the price point and the decent features that go with the budget-friendly model.
- It’s compact and sleek for any kitchen, so besides the budget, if space is a constraint for you this Geyron vacuum sealer is a great choice.
- It comes with a handheld sealer for containers and jars.
- The vacuum pump is powerful enough to give you a great vacuum seal for your produce and food materials.
- Free starter kit which includes 5 hot-seal bags, to help you start off with sealing right away.
Cons:
- Doesn’t work well with generic bags and rolls.
- Not fit for heavy use – heating issues are there.
Runner-up – FoodSaver VS0150
The FoodSaver VS0150 is our choice for the first runner-up because it is regarded as a large vacuum sealer as well as boasting quite a few high-end features. So that practically places this one at the higher end of the mid-range options that are available for you. The VS0150 comes with some additional cool features that you might find useful.
Pros:
- Fully automatic operation, almost matching the automation in the FoodSaver V4440 model.
- Equipped for processing both wet and dry food items.
- Apart from these features, the model has all the other standard features that come with the V4440.
Cons:
- The automation slows the sealing process down a bit sometimes.
Are There Other Models Out There that Are Good for You?
Well, we have already discussed with you in detail about the best products that featured in our vacuum food sealers ratings, and we absolutely love these models. But then, we understand that you may have some personal preferences that stand in the way of buying the best of the vacuum food sealers rated above.
That’s the reason why we have decided to include three other models that we love, besides the best we have already listed out. These are models that have barely missed the top spots in our review and taking into consideration the close vacuum food sealers ratings, we thought that it would be a good idea to share a word or two about these models with you as well.
What Are the Best of the Rest that Didn’t Quite Make the Best List?
So here goes a not-so-quick rundown on some of the other great home vacuum sealer products out there in the market!
Almost Made It No. 1 – FoodSaver V4840
The first among the rest that we thought had just missed the list is the FoodSaver V4840. In fact, we had given the last spot to the budget model of the FoodSaver and if the last slot wasn’t dedicated for a budget model, we would have definitely bumped this beauty up one spot to take its rightful place in the Best Food Vacuum Sealer list.
Pros:
- Comes with a retractable handheld sealer accessory that most of the high-end models of FoodSaver brand has and it is very convenient to use in sealing jars and canisters.
- The V4840 comes with the twin Wet and Dry modes of operation for perfect sealing every time a V4840 is used.
- It comes with convenient roll storage and bag cutter for your ease of use, and it really does make a difference.
- The drip tray is removable and is also dishwasher-safe for easy cleaning up after a wet vacuum sealing job.
- Comes with a free starter kit like most of the other models.
Cons:
- The drip tray can sometimes be the cause of malfunctions. At times, you are getting the error code even when the drip tray is empty.
- May have some trouble sealing with moisture content.
Almost Made It No.2 – NutriChef Vacuum Sealer
The NutriChef Vacuum Sealer is another great budget model that deserves an honorable mention here. The only thing that it lacked was the FoodSaver Brand label when it went head-to-head against the last placeholder in our Best Vacuum Sealer List. But we suppose the quality of this Vacuum Sealer is superior or comparable to the FoodSaver V2244.
Pros:
- It is one of the easier units to operate – fully automatic and running on AC power, with top panel control center for easy work and high-end soft-touch digital buttons.
- The NutriChef too has two heating modes like the other good vacuum sealers and are designed for wet and dry usage.
- NutriChef claims to have increased the lifespan of the food packed away in its vacuum bags.
- It is also laboratory tested for providing maximum food safety.
- Like with the other brands, the NutriChef also comes with a fully-equipped Starter Kit.
- The NutriChef Vacuum Sealer comes at a very affordable price point but packs all the basic functionalities required in a vacuum sealer.
Cons:
- The vacuum pump is only moderately powerful which means that the unit is not great for heavy duty sealing jobs.
- Sometimes we have seen that it lacks consistency in its work, leaving pockets of air in the bag or not sealing properly. This may be due to the fact that sometimes during the sealing process the unit is unable to maintain the vacuum.
- Accommodates only smaller bag sizes (under 8 in) for sealing.
Do You Know Your Sealing Bags?
When you are buying your new vacuum sealers there is some thought to be given to the sealing bags you use for sealing as well. The machines can only suck out the air but if the bags don’t hold, all your effort will be wasted, not to mention your money and food.
All the brands recommend that you use compatible sealing bags with their vacuum sealers, and this is something that we recommend too. Go for branded, high quality sealing bags than the generic ones which might save you a couple of bucks but end up causing more damage than good.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do vacuum sealers need special bags?
It is safe to know that not all seal bags will work with your vacuum sealer. More often than not, only seal bags that are compatible with your brand of vacuum cleaner will work effectively on them. However, there are some vacuum sealers that work with any bag at all.
What should I not vacuum seal?
Vacuum sealing is good but of course, there are a few exceptions and these exceptions include raw mushrooms, freshly cooked foods (unless they are at room temperature), garlic, and many others.
Does vacuum sealing prevent freezer burn?
Freezer burn can only happen when your foods come in contact with food but what a vacuum bag does is to keep your foods protected from air so that moisture will not be able to evaporate, thereby preventing it from freezer burn.
Rounding Off…
In winding up, we know that you want to do a lot of things with your new vacuum sealer, but you can’t have fun sealing your food unless you choose the best home vacuum sealer matching your exact requirements. Buy only the best of the ‘suckers’! Don’t get sucked into buying the bad ones.
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