Vac Master Pro 350 Question?

[Papa Rick]

Getting ready to buy a food sealer product.  I have read the reviews of the Vac Master 350 and found it the cheapest at:  http://shop.vacuumsealersunlimited.com/VacMaster-Pro-350-876350.htm.  I am wanting to hear from others (Kari, Roger and Gregg) and anyone else who has bought and used one.

I have never bought one, and don't do a whole lot of smokin and wanted some advice if this was too much overkill for me or not?

Looking for advice from anyone on this subject please before I buy one.

 

[SconnieQ]

I would LOVE the 350. I considered it when I was shopping for one too. But I too thought it was overkill for me. And at the time, the price was not as low as what you have found. I ended up going with a VacMaster Pro 140. I think it was around $129 retail, but I got it for something like $79 when they were discontinuing the model. Don't know why they discontinued it. It's great. They never replaced it with something comparable. It is most similar to the VacMaster 110, except the 140 is a more beefed up version, with a stronger dual piston pump (110 is single piston), a wide double seal (110 has a single seal), and a pulse button. There really isn't a sealer currently on the market that is comparable in quality to the 140 in that price range.

The 110 might suffice for your needs. If you are looking in the hundred dollar range, you might also consider a Weston Harvest Guard. Don't know anyone that has one, but it is another one that I considered. That being said, you get SO much more with the 350 for the extra hundred bucks or so. It holds and stores rolls, has a cutter, is stainless steel as opposed to plastic. It will have the stronger dual piston pump, and a wider seal bar.

The 350 would probably still be overkill for me, but I might go for it given the current choices, and how happy I am with my 140. And now that I'm into sous vide, I use it even more than I thought I would. I would love a chamber vac so I could do wet things or liquids, but there is no way I could justify the price on that. I freeze a lot of soups, or liquidy things like tomatoes from the garden, etc. Currently I just freeze these things in freezer storage containers, which works just fine. I try to think...how much food would I have to waste, or how much money would I have to save, to recoup my investment in a chamber sealer. Probably never in my lifetime. I don't do enough of it. Still want one though.

 

[NDKoze]

I bought a 350 for my parents and it is a very nice high-quality unit. It is a bit bulky and not super easy to store. I recently purchased a VacMaster VP215 Chamber Sealing unit which I absolutely love, but if I were to buy another suction style machine, I would get a 350. Unlike many of the cheaper models out there, the 350 has a built-in fan that cools the unit and does not require cool down times.

I had a Food Saver model that I used for 10+ years and it was OK for general around the house sealing. But, if I ever had to do more than 5-6 seals in a row, I had to wait for several minutes in between bags to let the unit cool down. This was a real pain in the butt when trying to package our snack sticks.

The 350 allows you a lot more flexibility than the cheaper models too. With the 350, you get a marinate mode, you can choose the level of suction as well as the length of the seal time. For delicate items that you do not want to squish, you may want to reduce the suction level. And if you are sealing a bunch of bags in a row, sometimes the fan cannot keep the seal bar cool enough which causes the normal seal time to be too long and melt the seal too much. This is easily resolved by reducing the seal time.

If you just need the sealer to seal up a couple packs of leftovers or to separate and seal meat economy/multipacks etc, a 140 or similar style model is probably more than adequate. But, if you want more flexibility, want to package 6+ bags in a relatively short time, and don't mind the extra footprint that you get with the 350, you are going to want to look for something closer to the 350.

The nice thing about the VacMaster and the Westin too I think is that they have replacement parts available, whereas some sealers just need to be chucked if a part goes out.

Let us know if you have any other questions.

 

[Limey]

I think that Gregg nailed it. The 350 is a great unit and mine has proved very reliable. It does have a large footprint and is probably overkill if you just vac pack a couple of items a week or at one time. I have not run into the seal bar overheating issue which he mentions although I seldom seal more than ten or fifteen bags in a row.

 

[Papa Rick]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DI342B4/ref=pd_sbs_79_1?ie=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00DI342B4&pd_rd_r=NRKT1TTR27TYJCRYJK12&pd_rd_w=Wl25U&pd_rd_wg=TnXrn&psc=1&refRID=NRKT1TTR27TYJCRYJK12

Thinking about this one, as I do not do a ton of (Matter of fact have never used one before) sealing.  Mainly before what leftovers we hade took a straw and sucked the air out of the Ziploc bag and got good results on the meat.

Advice and suggestions greatly appreciated.

 

[DivotMaker]

My 10+ year old FoodSaver Professional III finally drew its last breath this weekend. Sad, sad day...

After reading the reviews, here and elsewhere, I pulled the trigger on the VacMaster Pro350.  I was leaning toward the 380 (that 16" sealing bar was very appealing), but, alas, it was out of stock at vacuumsealersunlimited.  Probably a good thing... I really couldn't justify the extra $80+ for size I really don't need.  I've always used 11" bags, and have never run into a situation where I thought I needed to go bigger.  Plus, the extra footprint is a lot.

I believe the 350 will last a good long time, and I'm looking forward to reviewing it!  I really wanted a chamber sealer, but 3x the cost just isn't in the budget right now.

Thanks, everyone, for your honest reviews!!

 

[SconnieQ]

My 10+ year old FoodSaver Professional III finally drew its last breath this weekend. Sad, sad day...

After reading the reviews, here and elsewhere, I pulled the trigger on the VacMaster Pro350.  I was leaning toward the 380 (that 16" sealing bar was very appealing), but, alas, it was out of stock at vacuumsealersunlimited.  Probably a good thing... I really couldn't justify the extra $80+ for size I really don't need.  I've always used 11" bags, and have never run into a situation where I thought I needed to go bigger.  Plus, the extra footprint is a lot.

I believe the 350 will last a good long time, and I'm looking forward to reviewing it!  I really wanted a chamber sealer, but 3x the cost just isn't in the budget right now.

Thanks, everyone, for your honest reviews!!

Foodsaver died so close to Christmas?

 

[DivotMaker]

Foodsaver died so close to Christmas?

I know!  She was a good, and faithful, servant for a long time!  Oh, the times we spent preserving everything from monumental date newspapers (old tradition of mine), to the finest Lazy Q, and more recently our love of SV!  I'll miss her, but she will not be forgotten! :'(  She was getting noisy and weak, in her old age, but she hung in there like a trooper!  She was fine, Saturday morning, for the sirloins we sealed for SV dinner, but she faltered on a bag of deer meat I was saving for jerky.  Then, it was over.  As sudden as she came into my life, she was gone.  I'll focus on the happy times!

 

[NDKoze]

I think you will really like the 350. I bought one for my parents last year and it is a high quality machine.

The other nice thing is that most of the parts that could eventually go bad are replaceable for a pretty reasonable price.

The one that that we found with our 350 was that after processing several bags in a row of snack sticks (maybe after 10-15 or so), we noticed that the seals were getting kind of milky colored and kind of distorting from sealing too long. This is an easy problem to solve though, because you can control how long the seal time lasts. If you ever run into this, all you have to do is reduce the seal time. Many people will never run into this problem, but it is nice to know that there is a very easy work around.

 

[dibiase]

I bought the 350 about 6 months ago and I love it.  Just vacuum packed up some smoked venison last night as a mater of fact.  It is a really nice solid unit.  It has multiple vacuum settings level settings as well as a pulse setting. It is a little large and heavy but it is built to last.  I used to use an older food saver that would over heat if I did a lot of packing at once.  With the cooling fan the vac master doesn't have that problem.  To bad I didn't see this earlier as Vacmaster had it for $199 on black Friday day with free shipping.

 

[DivotMaker]

I bought the 350 about 6 months ago and I love it.  Just vacuum packed up some smoked venison last night as a mater of fact.  It is a really nice solid unit.  It has multiple vacuum settings level settings as well as a pulse setting. It is a little large and heavy but it is built to last.  I used to use an older food saver that would over heat if I did a lot of packing at once.  With the cooling fan the vac master doesn't have that problem.  To bad I didn't see this earlier as Vacmaster had it for $199 on black Friday day with free shipping.

My luck, too, Chris!  Ol' faithful didn't pass away until Sunday, so I wasn't even looking!  Still, $232 at vacuumsealersunlimited.com was still the best price around, on Monday night.  Plus, lots of folks rave about their packing and customer service, so I'm happy with my decision.

 

[DivotMaker]

I think you will really like the 350. I bought one for my parents last year and it is a high quality machine.

The other nice thing is that most of the parts that could eventually go bad are replaceable for a pretty reasonable price.

The one that that we found with our 350 was that after processing several bags in a row of snack sticks (maybe after 10-15 or so), we noticed that the seals were getting kind of milky colored and kind of distorting from sealing too long. This is an easy problem to solve though, because you can control how long the seal time lasts. If you ever run into this, all you have to do is reduce the seal time. Many people will never run into this problem, but it is nice to know that there is a very easy work around.

Thanks, Gregg!  Curious (as it doesn't get here until Friday)...what's the optimal seal time setting?  And, if it does start to overheat, how much do you reduce it?

 

[NDKoze]

I can't remember the time, but I am thinking it is like 1.2 seconds (that is how long the default seal is on my VacMaster 215 Chamber Sealer) or something like that. Most people won't run into this unless they seal a large number of bags in rapid succession.

If I am right and it seals for 1.2 seconds, I think I would first try 1.0 seconds and adjust from there depending on the results.

 

[Gene]

I have a question on these sealers and now seems like a good time to ask it.  I've read on this forum how sealers are good for keeping leftovers and for keeping wood from drying out.  I would like to use a sealer we have (a present I got my wife) but she doesn't want me to because she read somewhere that the plastic will put something cancer causing into the food. 

I'm pretty sure the sealers are safe, but do any of you know somewhere that I can go on the internet to find proof.  With me having dodged one cancer bullet almost 20 years ago I appreciate her concern but I'm thinking that is a bit overcautious.

Thanks in advance for your help and for all the info I've gotten from this forum.

 

[dibiase]

This might help http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/microwaving-food-in-plastic-dangerous-or-not

Basically it seems that if you avoid BPH and stick with FDA approved bags you will be fine.  I know they vac master bags are BPH free and FDA approved for food.  It looks like there is a slight risk for certain plastics (not sure about these bags) to leak when heating food in them but I only use the bags to freeze not cook in them.

 

[Gene]

This might help http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/microwaving-food-in-plastic-dangerous-or-not

Basically it seems that if you avoid BPH and stick with FDA approved bags you will be fine.  I know they vac master bags are BPH free and FDA approved for food.  It looks like there is a slight risk for certain plastics (not sure about these bags) to leak when heating food in them but I only use the bags to freeze not cook in them.

Thanks Chris.  I gave it a read and agree with you.

 

[DivotMaker]

Got my Pro 350 today, and man, is this one serious unit!  Tried it out a bit, and am seriously impressed.  I'll post a more thorough review in coming days...  ;D

 

[NDKoze]

This might help http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/microwaving-food-in-plastic-dangerous-or-not

Basically it seems that if you avoid BPH and stick with FDA approved bags you will be fine.  I know they vac master bags are BPH free and FDA approved for food.  It looks like there is a slight risk for certain plastics (not sure about these bags) to leak when heating food in them but I only use the bags to freeze not cook in them.

Thanks Chris.  I gave it a read and agree with you.

I reheat food in my Food Saver brand vacuum sealed bags all the time by simmering (not boil) them in a large pot of water, and I have never had a problem with them leaking or breaking. You just need to make sure that you do not get the water too hot. I love this way of reheating especially pulled pork because it reheats the melted fat and does not introduce any water or other flavorings that could potentially water down the results.

 

[DivotMaker]

I'm really impressed with the bags that I got from VacuumSealersUnlimited!  Not only are they 50' rolls, they are heavier and cheaper than the FoodSaver bags I used to get! 

As long as you are getting reputable vac sealer bags, I really don't think you have to worry about food safety issues.  Just remember, they are not "boiling" bags!

 

[dibiase]

This might help http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/microwaving-food-in-plastic-dangerous-or-not

Basically it seems that if you avoid BPH and stick with FDA approved bags you will be fine.  I know they vac master bags are BPH free and FDA approved for food.  It looks like there is a slight risk for certain plastics (not sure about these bags) to leak when heating food in them but I only use the bags to freeze not cook in them.

Thanks Chris.  I gave it a read and agree with you.

I reheat food in my Food Saver brand vacuum sealed bags all the time by simmering (not boil) them in a large pot of water, and I have never had a problem with them leaking or breaking. You just need to make sure that you do not get the water too hot. I love this way of reheating especially pulled pork because it reheats the melted fat and does not introduce any water or other flavorings that could potentially water down the results.

I have done this as well and it works great.  By doing it in water the bag will never really get much over 200 degrees so I think it's perfectly safe.  If you popped a bag in the microwave it could get hot enough to be an issue.