I need input (& I value everyone's opinion on this site)
I have a Food Saver VAC550 that is 26 years old. I've come close to throwing it away on 2 or 3 occasions over the past 5 years, but now I'm really close... Here's what's going on... I found an awesome deal a few weeks ago on some 80/20 1/3lb ground chuck patties (my go to burger). There was 4 to pack and they were on super sale for $2.00/pkg due to close 'expiration' date (about 5 days). So I bought 25 of the packages (that's 100 patties, I know some of us don't like math so I did it).
Let me back up a moment. Prior to discovering the Weston bags I had a hard time getting bags to seal, and then 2 months later I would find the seal had let loose. I discovered a lot of freezer burned food that had been in the freezer for 4-6 months (well within the time zone), and upon closer evaluation discovered the seal had let loose. The Weston bags solved that problem as they seal nicely. OK, back to the story...
Bad Episode #1; The first 15 packages went OK. I knew enough to let the Vac Sealer cool down between bags (about 5 to 10 minutes). BUT, lots of problems with the last 10 packages. The Vac Sealer really sucked. I mean really. There was so much red (we'll call it juice) in the freezer bag that it didn't want to seal. After repeating the process a few times for each of those troublesome batches I got em sealed and through them in the freezer. I realize, in hind site (my best focal point) , that I should have froze the patties for 3 or 4 hours and then Vac sealed them to avoid the moisture problem, but it had gotten to be 2:00 in the morning and the body said bedtime, so I just muddled through it.
Well, we tried some of those burgers last night. I had put an 'x' on the troublesome packages. The burgers were very dry and tough. I've used this brand of burgers many times over the past 12 months, and it's not the burgers, as we had opened up a different pack the week before with no problem. So I'm convinced the Vac sealer sucked so much moisture out of the burgers that it made them dry and tough.
Bad Episode #2 I love rhubarb and have been wanting to freeze a bunch to have in the winter. Yes, I know I'm about 6 weeks late on that, but I didn't feel up to chopping it all by hand. Saturday afternoon. I used my new Cuisinart to lightly but QUICKLY slice it up (worked
great). So I grabbed a stack of Weston bags, two different sizes...some for pies, smaller ones for sauce, etc. As soon as I went to Seal the first bag I knew I was in trouble. The bag filled up with rhubarb juice and even after standing the bag upright at a lower level than the vac sealer, I still had rhubarb juice all over the counter and kitchen floor, it sucked it right out of the fruit and right out of the bag. (yes, the wife got a FREE scrub job of the kitchen floor, so she was happy.) I had all of this rhubarb and had to deal with it, so I found some Zip lock bags and filled em up and through em in the freezer.
Here's how it acts; When the air in the bag has been removed the Vac Sealer is supposed to turn off the Vacuum pump and turn on the heat for the sealer. The Vacuum pump keeps running, even when the heat sealer finally turns on.
Your Suggestions and Recommendations, 
. The wife already suggested that i just freeze everything for a bit and then Vac Seal it later. Yeah right, like my disability is wanting me to spend MORE time on each project, NOT.
Also, I need to mention that I was apparently having trouble with this sealer last fall (and was to dumb to know it) as we had purchased some fruit and I wanted to freeze it, which I did, but the Vac Sealer sucked so hard that it crushed everything and turned it all into mush, even those nice big peaches, OUCH.
What's a good brand? What's the best model for the price? Can A person Vac Seal delicate stuff like fruit without crushing it? Thanks in advance for any input here. Confused in Iowa,
Again Still, Don
