Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have had a clamshell version of the foodsaver vacuum sealer for many years and was very happy with it. Below is a picture of the older came show model with a separate vacuum bag roll storage and cutter. This model has built in vacuum bag roll storage and cutter. One problem with the older unit was that it would not allow you to heat seal the bags closed until it achieved a very thorough removal of all of the air. Therefore I could not use it on soft or delicate food items. I tried to bag some bagels and negative pressure resulted in squished bagel pucks. This model allows you to choose when you want it to heat seal the bags. Today when I bagged some bagels. I allowed the vacuum to remove enough air so that the plastic shrank very close to the surface of the bagels without compressing them.I included a picture of said bagels. I found that with the older vacuum sealer any liquids would also be drawn up by the vacuum. Often this would cause failure of the seal and a mess. Again the newer model allows me to seal the bags to achieve a tight shrink wrap but without making a mess. I recycled some plastic take-out Chinese containers, filled them with some delicious bean and bacon soup that my wife made today. As you can see in the picture the plastic shrinks down close to the surface of the soup but it doesn't make a mess. I bagged several helpings of soup and with the concavity achieved by the plastic containers they stack perfectly in my freezer. I am very happy that I saved so many of these plastic takeout containers. I plan to use many of them in the future for other meals. Another plus with the new vacuum system is that it automatically seals the bag for you when you insert into the slot. With the older model you had to position the bag over the vacuum gasket. Often times the Bag would kink and roll over and not allow a good vacuum seal and i would have to reposition the bag to make it work. However convenience does have a bit of a price. The newer vacuum system requires a little bit more bag to be used each time. I have always used vacuum bags from foodsaver. However I recently ordered two rolls of bags from Amazon. It is much, much cheaper. I hope they fit within the holder on the vacuum unit.these rolls are bigger then what is available from foodsaver but are much less expensive.