Chamber Vacuum Sealers

[gallion_t]

I al looking to make the jump to a chamber vacuum sealer from the old Food Saver I inherited from my grandparents ~20 years ago. I've been doing some research and I still really have no idea what I should look for. The two main areas of discussion I see popping up in reviews are:

Bag size - if it's under 12" people seem to complain. Is this really an issue? I've always used 11" bags and never felt like I needed something bigger.

Oil vs oil less pump - seems the higher end ones are the oiled pumps, but with that comes more maintenance.

I have been browsing a few different options that seem to regularly pop up on the best buy options or from brands I'm familiar with:

Avid Armor USV20 or 32 model. Just depends on how big you want to go.

LEM MaxVac Pro Chamber Vacuum Sealer - I have a LEM bigbite grinder that I love so that pushes this option up the list.

Meat! Your Maker Chamber Vacuum Sealer with oil less pump

Vacmaster - various sizes. Originally this was the direction I thought I was going to go, but after seeing the size of them I'm a bit hesitant. At 80lbs+ these are really bulky and I just don't think it would be easy

Walton's Compact Chamber Vac Sealer - no real input other than they're pretty big in the meat processing world.

If anyone has experience with any of these, another suggestion, or just features I should look for id very much appreciate it.

Thank you!

[Wolfdog2314]

I’ve got the MEAT chamber sealer with the oiled pump. Like u said some more maintenance but at the same time, from what I understand, this will last you a lifetime. I’m sure the oil-less pump would probably outlast you also, but this was the last sealer I wanted to buy for decades. I haven’t had a problem at all using the MEAT small and medium bags in the sealer. I haven’t done an oil chance yet but I think it will take minutes.

I’m sure any of the ones u have listed will do you fine. Major upgrade from the old food saver styles. I went through a few of these before upgrading to the chamber.

[CP]

I have the USV20.  Smaller chamber size is a plus IMHO.  I've never regretted the purchase nor wished for the ability to vac seal giant bags of food.

 

[gallion_t]

I have the USV20.  Smaller chamber size is a plus IMHO.  I've never regretted the purchase nor wished for the ability to vac seal giant bags of food.

Why do you feel it's better? Just less waste of a bag or smaller storage in the freezer? I don't really do big stuff so I'm leaning more towards convenience of storing the sealer and pulling it out.

[CP]

I have the USV20.  Smaller chamber size is a plus IMHO.  I've never regretted the purchase nor wished for the ability to vac seal giant bags of food.

Why do you feel it's better? Just less waste of a bag or smaller storage in the freezer? I don't really do big stuff so I'm leaning more towards convenience of storing the sealer and pulling it out.

Less air to remove, chamber empties faster, requires less power, therefore a smaller pump works fine.  Less stress on the pump, etc.

And yeah, I just put the unit on shelf between uses, very easy to store.

[3boys]

I have the LEM Maxvac.  Approaching 1,500 bags ran. Just did some pumpkin seeds last night.  Zero issues so far. 

[syoungs]

You'll want an oil pump for longevity.
I'm not familiar with the brands you posted, but I have one from Vevor and absolutely love it. my dad has the same one that's about a year older then mine and its awesome too.

[gallion_t]

You'll want an oil pump for longevity.
I'm not familiar with the brands you posted, but I have one from Vevor and absolutely love it. my dad has the same one that's about a year older then mine and its awesome too.

I've seen those Vevor brand also. Almost added one to the list.

[luvmystang67]

I have the vacmaster VP215 and love it.  I put it on a heavy-duty steel cart on wheels, and just wheel it in from the garage (or pantry) when its time to do some sealing.  I don't do super little things with it, but for bigger stuff this works well.

[Reidus]

I have the vacmaster VP215 and love it.  I put it on a heavy-duty steel cart on wheels, and just wheel it in from the garage (or pantry) when its time to do some sealing.  I don't do super little things with it, but for bigger stuff this works well.

 

Every part is replaceable on the vacmaster.

[Boss .300 winmag]

I bought the Max vac pro this summer, obviously not long term usage yet. But it meets our needs. Got it at Costco, if it breaks it goes back.👍

If you are going to seal noodles and crunchable stuff you have to turn down the settings.🤣

It comes with a guide telling you what type of stuff needs different settings.

It says you can put jars on their side in it, but it freaks me out thinking the jar will implode. I just bought the jars sealers on line, and love sealing dry goods in them.

[gallion_t]

Thanks again for the feedback.

It might help if I mention that I won't be doing huge quantities regularly. Other than processing a deer it will mostly be used for breaking down Costco/family packs of meat into two person servings. I also have a tendency to make a decent variety of sausages so packaging that up also. All of this is to say I'll probably only be at most a couple hundred bags a year.

[syoungs]

Thanks again for the feedback.

It might help if I mention that I won't be doing huge quantities regularly. Other than processing a deer it will mostly be used for breaking down Costco/family packs of meat into two person servings. I also have a tendency to make a decent variety of sausages so packaging that up also. All of this is to say I'll probably only be at most a couple hundred bags a year.

This is how I used mine. I have it on a kitchen cart so i can bring it out when I want to use it, and its not far from the main kitchen area to do small stuff.
I have started to use it for everything though lately. the bags are cheap when you buy em in bulk, and once you get the hang of adjusting the times per what your doing, you can package leftovers quickly and not worry about em at all. I even pack most my lunches for work with it.
The first time I did pizza with it, without adjusting the settings, it made a nice brick of pizza even when opened. little learning curve 

[steeleywhopper]

The wife bought us a Vacmaster VP215 last year and it's one of the best purchases we've made in a long time. I found a heavy duty cart on craigslist to put it on .
The only thing I'd do different is buy a bigger one so I could do multiple bags at once when doing fish or game, but that would come at a much steeper price.

[lewy]

We got the lem vac master pro on sale at Costco it’s been great. Only complaint is the wide bags they sell are a touch wide and occasionally don’t seal

[Born2late]

I bought a vevor this summer and it is awesome for the price. Of all places Home Depot had it the cheapest,it was like 330.00 shipped to me.
I was looking at the bigger one they sold and decided on this for a couple reasons. One is price, I could buy 2 for the price of the other one. It had so many good reviews and was small enough I can move it around easily.
I cut a salmon filet in half and put the two halves in a half a bag.the chamber isn’t big enough to fit a whole one easily.
The heat bar has a great feature my buddy vac master in Alaska that I’ve used a lot doesn’t have. It has a stainless bar that flips down in the bag to hold it once you let go and it keeps from getting the little wrinkles in the end that sometimes happens when the bag is really full.

[grimace]

I bought the "Meat" chamber sealer last year when they had a black Friday sale. It's been good, and has worked as it should.

[huntnnw]

vacmaster for me and my brother has a meat shop and he runs the big 6 bag sealer in his

[Dhoey07]

https://www.instrotek.com/products/corelok

[GWP]

Another Vacmaster VM215 here. Would buy again.
At the time (quite a while ago) I researched them all and picked this one. We had gone through a number of the non chamber type, but wanted to be able to vac liquids.
We bought a heavy duty cabinet (Ikea) with a slide out shelf to put it in that lives in the kitchen. We had to put around 75 lbs of weight in the back of the cab base to keep it from tipping over when pulling the sliding shelf out. If I remember correctly the vac unit weighs around 80 lbs.
Breaking up bulk buy foods and prep for freezing of game/fish of all sorts are the main uses.
We bought bulk bags, both cook in (for Sous Vide and boil) and regular and have yet to run out.
If I had it to do over I would have bought all cook in bags, smaller and larger, so there was no checking to see which it is before using them for cook in.
Once we got the times (all are adjustable) set I have not done any maintenance other than changing the oil every couple years.

[gallion_t]

Thanks for all of the advice everyone. From what it sounds like everyone is happy with the purchases they've made and haven't had an issues. Right now I'm leaning towards the LEM, positive reviews here, my experiences with LEM equipment, and the fact Costco has it for a reasonable price.

https://www.costco.com/maxvac-pro-chamber-vacuum-sealer.product.4000276563.html

[Whitpirate]

I have the vacmaster VP215 and love it.  I put it on a heavy-duty steel cart on wheels, and just wheel it in from the garage (or pantry) when its time to do some sealing.  I don't do super little things with it, but for bigger stuff this works well.

 

Every part is replaceable on the vacmaster.

I've probably processed 12-15k lbs of meat with my VP215.  I have two now just to make it quicker when I'm doing ground.  Bought a small wheeled cart and keep unit and bags on it.  Its heavy, its industrial, and it works every time.  I've replaced the sealer bar on one unit now.  I change the oil every July.

[Jason]

My wife and I bought a freeze dryer a few months back and have also been looking at the Vevor DZ-260c vacuum chamber sealer to go with it. I have found it cheapest on the Vevor website if you create an account.

[cjc23]

Thanks for all of the advice everyone. From what it sounds like everyone is happy with the purchases they've made and haven't had an issues. Right now I'm leaning towards the LEM, positive reviews here, my experiences with LEM equipment, and the fact Costco has it for a reasonable price.

https://www.costco.com/maxvac-pro-chamber-vacuum-sealer.product.4000276563.html

I would say that that would be a great option for you based off of what you are saying. I have the bigger LEM max vac pro chamber sealer and love it. It get's used maybe once a week for odds and ends stuff and then it gets put through its paces when we come back from the coast with a load of clams and salmon. It is a PITA to move around as it weighs 90lbs. I didn't realize that they had come out with a new one that you had posted above here and it looks pretty awesome. I like the fact that it can work as an external vac sealer for those bigger items that don't fit in the chamber every once in awhile!!! and that is only weighs just over 20 lbs.

I will say one thing that surprised me at first was the "smoke" that started coming out of it when I used it. After looking into it it was just oil vapor so just something to keep in mind to not freak out when it starts smoking 

[GWP]

I use high vac pumps fairly often, as well as the vac sealer, and the oil will froth and produce oil vapor at the vent in all of them. Worse if they are over filled with oil even a little bit or have the wrong oil in them.

Another thing on bags is if you have any ‘pokey’ items the thinner bags will easily get tiny holes and loose their vacuum. We had that with dog food and started saving used bags to double up them up without vacuuming the inner bag up.
Don’t fold over the inner bag if you ever do that though! The air needs to escape!

[Buzz2401]

Another vote for the Vevor. I've had mine a year now and it's been great. Lots of fish, shrimp and elk have gone through it so far. For under $400 pretty hard to beat

[luvmystang67]

I've never heard of anyone having any problems with any of their chamber sealers.  Even though I have a VP215 and its one of the OG sealers in this market, looking at it you can tell its a made-in-China product.  I highly doubt it is any different internals than Vevor or any of the others.  They probably all come from the same factory.

I paid like $600 for my VP215 back in the day.  This was probably 2015 time frame if I had to guess.  I'm on my 2nd or 3rd 1000 bag pack and have changed the oil maybe 2-3x.  I've put probably 5 elk through it, countless deer, fish, etc.  Works 100% of the time.  You don't need a wildly large chamber do do most things, but you're not going to do an entire salmon fillet. Most everything I cut up into 1-2lb meal-sized things.

I currently run 9"x12" 3 mil bags, and I think they're kind of my optimal size and thickness.  I've had bigger and smaller ones, and this is my real sweet spot.

Given that you can buy 2 Vevors for 1 VP215... I'd certainly go that route now days.  Vevor wasn't available when I first bought.  You're going to love it.  My favorite is to put bread or a bagel in there and show people.  Or put water in a bag and watch it boil.  Or put a marshmallow in and watch it expand.  You're really creating outer space in your kitchen.  Its fun to demonstrate to kids or friends a little bit of science (water boils at room temperature at very low pressure, which is why it takes longer to cook food at altitude).

[GWP]

Funny! I bought adjustable micro vacuum switches for laminating wood and fiberglass using free 12 volt Harbor Freight battery operated compressors for myself and a few guys where I worked.
Took them apart and glued a tube over the intake. Attached a gauge to check and they would pull 28 inches. Oil less to boot! We had great fun vacuuming/crushing empty cans and other items the day I brought them in. They are nice as they are portable and you can just leave them as they will cycle and maintain vacuum. Plus, they do not take up much room.

On the Vac sealers, we used to cut the bigger bags down and reseal one open end to make smaller bags by manually stopping it at about 7 seconds. I did not like to put the extra wear on the machine so we have stopped doing that.
I hesitate to buy smaller bags because we have soooo many of the bigger ones.
Life is hard!
 

[EnglishSetter]

Wore out (the pump and seal) a Vacmaster (an oil less low profile one they made).   No longer supported.

A year ago updated with JVR 100.  Also low profile.  Oiled unit.  Much quieter. Stronger vacuum. Multiple memory.   I really like it. Designed to self-service should it ever become necessary (aside from occasional oil changes).

Also on an Amazon bamboo cart. Stores my bags and accessories.