The wife and I are busy packaging up the bounty from our recent Hood Canal trip, but old old vacuum sealer went T.U, and I don't mean Trout Unlimited.

How bout suggestions for a top-notch, heavy duty unit. Price is a consideration but quality is probably even more important, as we use our a lot and I want one that will hold a seal all winter long. I'm tired of diggin out seafood only to find that the seal is broken.

Dave, I bought a Vacmaster SVP-5 years ago and love it. It's a semi commercial machine and has handled tons of vacuum packing for me. They cost around $450 but you probably won't buy another one. There's a shop right in Seattle that sells and sevices them but I will be damned if I can find there number right now. Try a google search for the above machine.

Dave,
A very important thing to remember, dont break the seal of the vacume bag in the freezer. If you shuffle things around it will cause the bag to get a tiny tear and lose the vacume. It's not the machine that causes the leaks, its the guy digging around for something tasty. One way to prevent this is using paper bags with the sealed bags in them, just dont shuffle, take from the top, each paper bag reperesnts a successful trip>>>nice

Dr.

I have an extra vacume-sealer if you need one in a pinch?

Thats a nice offer FD.

Dave,
I am currently using a Kenmore Super Seal and Save, ~$180.00 at Fred Meyer. Works really well on both fillets and bulkier items. Bags/Bag rolls are not too expensive. I will usually double seal all items about .5cm apart to give the seal added strength.

Cabelas has a few different models

http://cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/...%2Fen%2Fcommon% 2Fcatalog%2Fcategory-link.jhtml_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20075


I wish their links were a little shorter I have been using a food saver 1050 my wife got a good deal on it from the QVC tv show that sells all the kitchen items so far we've been happy with it and the other items purchased there.

Get a commercial grade "chamber" vacuum packer. Expensive, but no comparison to the residential "suck-the-air-out-of-the-bag" units.
And they really last - you can pass it along to your heires. Bags are a lot cheaper as well. Grandpa can tell you...

Nothing like storage of your catch in a vacuum and freezing it for that fresh taste and quality, that keeps for a year of longer. I usually fill a seperate freezer with fresh caught fish each season and have excellent fish, through till the next season. Vacuum packaging insures this and I will have beautiful filets without freezer burn. The unit I use has lasted for 7 or 8 years and is stilll going strong. It is the large one that is called the Professional Model II.

I believe that your choice of bags makes a difference with this machines performance. After having a few problems with the seals breaking on the rough Mil Pouches which was recommended, I switched to the Micro-Layer Vacuum Pouches. They are so much easier to us and the seal holds much better. I now buy these bags from a company called DOUG CARE EQUIPMENT, out of California. http://www.dougcare.com. Buy the way the Micro-bags are a lot cheaper. I usually get 100/pkg @ 21.60. That's half the price of the other rough Mil bags. They also have every Vacuum Packer imaginable. Check them out.

The local resource the I believe HogHunter refered to, is call Professionall Marketing Group Inc. They use to be located on Rainier Ave. South but they resently moved to a warehouse while they were looking for another retail location. Landlord raised the rent so they decided it was the right time for a move. I talked to one of their representatives at the Monroe Fishing Expo a few weeks back, that's how I know. There phone number still works. Call Toll Free @ 1-800-227-3769 or go to their Web site @ http://www.pmgquality.com.

Hope this helps and thanks for being a valued member of this board. Let us know what your final choices are, as it could be helpful to myself and others in the future.

I visited that professional marketing group on Rainier ave..They specialize in going to fairs and shows to sell their products. The prices the had on bags were double what you can find on the internet.

The main thing, Dave, is to find a good "chamber" vacuum system. Then use a 5 mil bag.

I am lucky enought to have a professional chamber machine and use 5 mil bags. Even those bags can puncture sometimes but not often. The chamber machine is fun to watch work. It basically evacuates all the air out of the chamber that you bag is sitting in and then all of a sudden lets air rush back in causing the vaccum bag to collapse. Once you use one of these the Food SAver will seem like a toy.

Well the wife went out and bought a Food Saver 1500. She has a discount card from the store where she used to work and got it there. I looked hard at the professional models but just couldn't pull the trigger on something like $1200.00. I will let you know how I like it later. Right now we are putting up oysters and crab meat.

Dave, How was the crabbing over there?