Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

At first I had the problem with it not sealing the lid also. After some investigation, I notice that the pump is acutally holding the lid up and away from the jar during vacuuming. When the pump stopped, the air slowly flowed back around the lid and into the jar. (Excuse me for I'm about to go scientific here) This slow movement of the air creates a pretty much equal pressure on both sides of the lid, therefore keeping the lid "afloat". The solution is to create a greater pressue on the topside of the lid than the bottom side of the lid. However, the clear plastic tube that's attached to the jar sealer has such a narrow channel that it won't allow the pressure to build up fast enough to "press" the lid down before air is leaked back into the jar. The trick is to remove the tube quickly from the jar sealer while holding the jar sealer down on the lid. The hole on the jar sealer itself is large enough to build up air pressure quickly, but you must do it fast or else you'll let air back into the jar. This is exactly how I do it: 1) Move the jar right next to the food saver 2) Hold the jar sealer on top of the jar with the thumb and index finger while pressing the power button on the food saver with other fingers of the same hand. Not very easy at first, but with practice it should become second nature. 3) With the other hand, hold the plug of the tube that's attached to the jar sealer. 4) Once the FoodSaver switches from vacuum to seal, quickly yank out the plug of the tube. Now the lid should be tightly sealed against the jar. I gave it 2 stars for bad engineering, but I don't regret buying it.