VP215

This vacuum sealer is big and heavy. Make sure you find a permanent home for this thing. Only problem I had was vac master supposedly enlarged the oil reservoir for the motor. So when I added all the oil I had, it still wasn't enough to come up half way in the fill window. I gave customer service a call, and they answered all my questions. Newer units take more oil then is stated in the directions. Make sure you don't run it with low oil! I got a free quart of oil for calling, so I could finish filling my unit. This thing works amazing. It's fast, simple, and quiet. Plenty of space for sealing servings for a family of 4. The double bag seal is excellent, just make sure the bag sits perfectly flat on the seal bar for a perfect seal. If you see crinkles on the edge after sealing, it will most likely leak. It's expensive, but is worth it. Now we plan on doing some sous vide cooking.

Heavy... Big... Commercial Kitchen Appropriate... All True!!! But still, for our home we use it daily and it works AWESOME! Find a good accessible place for it and USE IT. Vacuum packed bags store excellent in fridge/freezer. Works super well with sous vide... Bags are very cheap at around .05 cents. Works great with liquids like soups, chili, marinades (just make sure liquids are cool before you press the button since they boil like crazy if warm and can make a mess). Not sure I'll ever use our traditional (external) vacuum packer again. One odd thing I noticed initially was a light vapor that came out of the exhaust of the unit. Did a little research and evidently that happens initially with the oil pump model (VP215) and not to worry about it. I would still go oil pump for sure... easy to fill and I understand the operation is quieter and the vacuum is stronger.

I am completely happy and satisfied with the performance of this vacuum chamber , I wish I would’ve done it a lot sooner. I am able to do wet brines and liquids with it. Machine is heavy, make sure you order a rolling card with it if you are not going to leave it in one spot. I process a lot of fish and it makes it so much easier even if the fish has some moisture, where my old food saver always have troubled the bag seal properly. The cost of the machine is high , but you will save a lot of money on the bags. I had a food saver for over 10 years, it worked great, but I was spending a lot of money on the rolls .

This is the real deal! Had purchased a LEM brand chamber vac, it was returned after giving it three try's. Ordered this instead, what an awesome machine. The vacuum is impressive and the bag seal is rock solid too. Can’t go wrong with this one!!

This thing sucks... In a good way. I have owned several of the traditional foodsaver external type sealers and burned them up with use. They are just not designed for heavy household use. I had many worries about sealing too many bags in a session causing it to overheat, then bags would not seal, or the vacuum was just not good enough. Worst of all was having to worry about liquids getting out of the bag and into the sealer which would basically ruin it. With the Vacmaster VP215 I have none of these worries. I have used it quite a bit the last few days and did my first oil change just to be safe. An even bigger plus is that with the foodsaver I always had to worry about making sure all of the air came out of the bag when cooking Sous Vide. With moist ingredients you could not draw a hard vacuum for fear liquid would get out. Thus some air bubbles were left behind and the bags floated. With the chamber vac design the air is drawn out leaving nothing to really float the bag except the natural buoyancy of the material being sealed. I can fill up a dozen bags of food and then seal them one right after the other without any worries about overheating. With the foodsaver I would have to fill a bag, seal it, then wait for a few minutes for it to cool down. If not, it would get very hot to the touch after a few bags and then would not draw a vacuum or it would start having issues sealing until it cooled down again. A final plus I will list is that I like to share my cooking. Giving someone a vacuum bag with the grid lines it is hard to tell exactly what is inside due to the texture of the plastic. Some people might be a little leery of opening the bag let alone eat it. With the Vacmaster bags, you can see everything inside in full glory. It actually makes things look great to eat right out of the bag. Compress some watermelon and you will see what I mean. Pros: It works, great. It looks like a tank and built like one. Simple to operate, and clean. Cons: Size, and weight. Its not as simple as tossing this in a closet like some would do with a traditional sealer unit. Its also not exactly portable. I have a cart dedicated to rolling it around the kitchen and storage when needed.

I bought this vacuum sealer after giving up on a second FoodSaver. The bags are much much less expensive if you buy them by the case (otherwise they cost about the same). My experience buying this machine through Amazon was a joke. The delivery driver dropped the machine (that weighs 100 lbs) off the back of the UPS truck. It damaged the main body. I contacted the seller (not Amazon) and was strung along offering a replacement part until the return period ended. I called the manufacturer (got a hold of them after several tries) and was told the part is not available separately anyway. I wrote an unflattering review of the seller clearly explaining their treachery. A few days later I discovered Amazon struck out my review and "took" responsibility for the poor delivery experience. I then called Amazon CS so they could remedy the problem. Mind you this thing weighs nearly 100 lbs. It should be crated to ship properly. Amazon offered to have someone pack it up for me and return it. By then the price increased 20%. We settled on a 70 dollar credit to live with the damage. I spent an hour hammering out the bent sheet metal with a chisel and body block to get it close to normal. In the end I should have purchased locally from a restaurant supplier. It appears UPS is not willing to deliver it with 2 people as required, and shipping it back is nearly impossible. It is an industrial device assembled in the USA from mostly China and some USA made parts. It can have problems and industrial equipment manufacturers are not set up to deal with consumers very well (hence the poor CS reviews). They usually deal with suppliers and professional repair techs that know how to fix the problem. Since my mechanical skill is above average I am comfortable fixing industrial equipment. If you are not then stick to FoodSaver. If you can handle the mechanical repairs then buy local. If it breaks quickly you have someone you can take it to to get it working (the seller). I love the machine. The better/cheaper bags save us $$'s and it pulls a much better vacuum then the consumer grade junk. Most of the parts are replaceable (except the main body). It can be used continuously all day without stopping. It is large and heavy. I had to buy a heavy duty cart for it and reinforce the top with sheet aluminum. Overall, I would buy it again (should not need to since every wear part can be replaced), but not via Amazon. The other brands with cycle memories may be more convenient if you use several bag thicknesses, but I chose price first.

Let's be honest, this is an expensive investment. If you are looking at this, you need to understand how it is going to fit within how your family actually works. If it has a place, then you need to look at it just like you would look at any other real tool in your life. You pay more for tools that last and those that perform consistently. We have been using our Vacmaster for the past few months and it is starting to change the way that we cook and also the way we schedule our week. We do a lot of Sous Vide in our house because it is convenient, time tolerant, and you end up with a high quality product. We Sous Vide, freeze the product, and then reheat with the microwave during the week. We also make soups/steps on the stove and other more conventional products. To date, we have had no downsides on the Vacmaster. It does what it was intended to do. It will pull a vacuum strong enough to boil water at ambient temperature. So, you need to know what you want to do with it. Because it is heavy, we had to find a permanent place for it in our basement. Once we did that, using it has been a breeze and it is working more and more into our routine. This also means that we aren't fumbling around to use our 3rd Foodsaver which was beginning to fail. Chamber sealers are MORE expensive, but once you have one, you won't want to go back to clamp sealer except for specialty applications. Once you have a chamber sealer, you will find that it is just too convenient to use for a number of applications. Update July 21, 2009: We have had this unit for 3 1/2 years now and it has seen rather heavy use for a home use. We purchase meat in bulk and we vac pac each individual package for long term storage. We still do a fair amount of Sous Vide cooking and exclusively use the Vacmaster retherm bags. We have been very pleased with the unit. I've had to change the oil several times in the pump, but that is to be expected and is normal maintenence although I didn't do it for the first few years. Lately, we were having problems with the unit pulling a vacuum and so I just replaced the gasket seal on the lid and was surprised how easy this was to do. That seemed to fix the problem. Again normal maintenance for a high end tool. Honestly, I wish I purchased this years ago instead of all of the non-chamber sealers that I went through.

First of all, I did all my homework before I purchased a chamber vacuum sealer. I chose the VP 215 because of the oil pump. It doesn't bother me that I have to change oil in that the benefits outweigh the minor task. This thing is made to run continuously without any problems. It's perfect for home or commercial use. There is enough literature to fill a library on whether or not a chamber sealer is for you. First of all, they are very heavy and bulky, making it unrealistic to consider it "mobile". One could certainly place it on a table with wheels, but setting it up as a permanent station is practical. I fought with the regular vacuum sealers and I consider them to be useless garbage. They rarely give you a fail proof seal and even in perfect conditions, they only give you about a 45% vacuum, compared to 99% of the chamber sealer. Bags for a regular sealer are special bags and cost about 80 cents a piece more than chamber bags. The seal I get from this machine is incredible to say the least. Listen, if you have a family and want to buy food in bulk to save money or want to cook meals ahead of time and store, you need a chamber sealer. Vacmaster makes a great machine and this model is awesome. It doesn't do retort sealing and it doesn't have gas flush, but one can upgrade to a model to suit their needs. This model suits me perfectly and it's a beast. I've never given a product a 5 star rating before, but I feel this deserves it.

Although expensive by some definitions, the vacmaster is a game-changer and actually saves money. The ease-of-use, quality of vacuum, automatic double seals, and speed makes it easy to use as part of everyday kitchen activities especially when doing meal prep, providing meals for the elderly and overall efficiency. It dramatically reduces food wastage and is used several times each day. The oil is easy to add and results in quiet and powerful operation. For me, it is SO much better and more versatile than standard suction machines. It is very heavy, takes up less room than one might expect, build like a tank, and does look a bit industrial - perhaps worth considering. Amazon's delivery was terrible and cost me money. They missed their "Guaranteed Delivery Date", twice. Because a signature was required, I took time off work both days only to learn it wasn't delivered and no notice was provided. Having to reschedule work, I could not be available on the third delivery day, I called Amazon and they assured me it would not be delivered on that day. To my surprise, on the agreed-to 'do not deliver' day, it was delivered first thing in the morning and was left on the front step, outside, unprotected without a signature. Having received the 'your item has been delivered' email, I had to make a call to a courier and pay a premium to have the item retrieved. I ended up being out 2 days of work and pay for premium courier charges [~$200]. Amazon dropped the ball on this one.

For most people the choice will be between the VP112S and the VP215. Both are great choices for home users. I chose the VP215 because it was the same price as the VP112S when I was deciding between the 2. The VP210 is the same as the VP215 but has the same dry pump as the VP112S. The oil pump of the 215 is amazingly quiet, almost half of the volume of my FoodSaver unit. It requires occasional oil changes but it is much better for those in humid areas than the dry pump of the 112. It is also better if you plan to do longer sealing sessions such as processing a lot of fish/game. You can keep going with the 215 while the 112 might need to cool down occasionally. The 215 is also slightly faster than the 112S The height of the 112S with the lid open is about 12 inches. The 215 is about 24" tall with the lid open so it requires a lot more clearance which is the major downside to the 215. The 112S weighs around 46 lbs while the 215 weighs 84 lbs. If you are looking for a unit that you can store and bring out when needed, the 112S is for you. I personally bought a little 3 shelf rolling cart that I put my 215 onto. This allows me to easily move it around if needed With the 215 you can order spare parts including the pump, motor, electronics, filters etc. From what I have seen with the 112S you cannot so it is not "user" serviceable, you will have to pay to send it in for repair. My 215 included wires to repair the seal bar should it ever wear out. It is possible to do the same with the 112S but I do not know if it includes a spare wire or not. If the seal bar on food saver or seal a meal sealers ever goes you you have to buy an entire new machine. I love my 215 and I have barely used it so far. The ability to seal liquids as well as the cheaper bags is a huge boon over suction sealers.

This is a VERY expensive item, clear and simple, but it is worth every penny if you use it any amount and why would you buy it if you didn't. This is a commercial grade machine with an oil pump so you will be hard pressed to wear it out. It is a vacuum chamber system, so it is much more versatile and the bags that it uses are cheaper. You can even vacuum seal jars etc. Eventually it will pay for itself in the cost of the bags. It certainly will result in huge savings by allowing you capitalize on sales and deals. This is excellent for food but it is also very useful for storing anything that is subject to deterioration from air and moisture. For example, ammunition, or sealing items to keep them waterproof on boating, camping, fishing or hunting trips (e.g.. socks). Very highly recommended!

Very expensive, but very high quality. I hope some of the money goes toward ensuring I can buy replacement parts like oil, gaskets, and sealing mesh for 10+ years. 15+ would be right for this price, honestly. Sometimes you want to do 40 bags. That's 40 minutes vac time. I desire the bigger models but with some clever design, they could have made it so I can do multiple bags at once within the space of this chamber. Still pretty good

The unit is heavier for its size than anticipated, but its solid heavy duty footprint is good. I bought a stainless steel cart to wheel it in and out of the kitchen when moving is required. Fill the pump with oil as recommended, plug it into an electrical outlet and it's ready to go. Once you cycle the pump a few times, you’re ready to begin vacuum packaging your goods. I used it initially for an entire batch of Smoked Salmon which was enough to fill my Bradley Smoker. I used 6" x 8" and 8" x 10" inch bags for my sockeye packages, and had absolutely no issues with any of the pouches made! I did shorten the vacuum cycle time since it took less time than the initial preset. This is a good solid product which I hope to use for many years and would recommend it to anyone wanting better quality vacuum packages than traditional suction sealers provide.