Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Last month, I would have given this a glowing review. However, my experience since then has led me to drop a couple of stars off. When I first bought this, I knew exactly what I was getting and was not disappointed in the least. So far, I've used it to vacuum seal and freeze fish about every two weeks. It's been wonderful to buy up numerous fish fillets, freeze them then whenever I want, I'll put a bag in the refrigerator to thaw, drop it in boiling water for a few minutes and voila! Season and serve in less that ten minutes. Way faster that baking and it leaves the fish flaky, moist and... dang. Getting hungry now. Anyway, the last time I used it, I noticed that there was water getting into the bag while cooking but I really didn't give it much thought. You know, like, no big... just a failed seal. Except that it happened to each bag from that batch. Today, it wouldn't even vacuum unless I pressed down on the lid. Even then, it didn't evacuate all the air although the seal at least appears to have formed properly. I've owned this for less than six months, I've checked and cleaned the gaskets and in fact I kept the cardboard insert that it came packed with in order to keep the gaskets from touching. There are no broken parts, the latches on both sides are engaged and I hold the bag so there is no weight pulling on the unit during operation. Quality control can be good, bad or anywhere in between. Mechanical and electrical things can and do fail... no denying that, which is what leaves me on the fence. I need to decide wether or not to replace it with the same model or kick it up a notch to the next level or even to give Seal-a-Meal a shot. They're both made by Sunbeam and the Seal-a-Meal entry level machine is half the price of this one. I suppose at the forty dollar price point, the Seal-a-Meal FSSMSL0160-000 Vacuum Sealer wouldn't hurt the wallet as much if it were to be a disappointment as well.