Weston Brands Vacuum Sealer Machine for Food Preservation & Sous Vide, Extra-Wide 5mm Bar for Sealing Bags up to 16" Wide, 935 Watts, Commercial Grade Pro 2300, Stainless Steel (65-0201)

I went though a lot of these vacuum sealers after my entry level machine broke. I forgot the name but you know the ones you can buy at any target, Walmart. The broken one was good and lasted but I wanted to upgrade to something more powerful. The problem I was having was the strongest motor vacuum sealers i tried were loud. This is a serious vacuum sealers and apart from a few slight things that I wish this had it was by far the best one I tried. The downside aspects for me first. The biggest thing is the way it is setup you can't seal without first running a short vacuum pressure when you want to seal a bag. You have to push vacuum and then seal. It makes sense because of the way its set up. When you press seal the chamber closes forcing a tight grip on the bag in order to seal it and the seals are strong because of this. This is not a big deal at all you get used to it in no time but it was something that i wasnt used to at first. No big deal. The second thing that I was used to was having a bag cutter on the machine. The machine doesnt hold a roll of bags. To me this was perfecrly fine and a waste of space. I buy those bags in a big container and rather them use the space for a roll holder use if for the motor and sealer. Again this was no big deal for me as far as not having a bag cutter I just pull out scissors from the draw and cut my bag. Something I wish it had was a dual seal. Instead of one seal two separate seals that make it extra srtong. Those are the only down side to this and other than that this thing is great, powerful and the seals are strong. It is fan cooled and quite. Much more powerful than my old machine with possibly even less noise. How well this is built and how strong the vacuum is far out weights the few things i would have wanted on it. After i got this sealer I stopped looking because it had the two biggest things for me to find. A powerful sealer that isnt loud. If they included these things into this machine it would be ideal. The construction, motor and how quite this machine is top notch and it took a bunch of time researching and ordering others to realize this was by far the best machine I was likely to get for home use. ( the brown box to the right of the sealer is bags I bought from Amazon. Also a good buy. It has a cutter on it and makes it easy to get the right bag lendth)

We're looking at bulk Milk (Land-O-Lakes, Dry Whole Milk, makes 47 gallons), and lots of Rice, in 4 varieties, all which we buy in BULK. Breaking these down to 3-4 serving sizes, add the oxygen absorber & desiccant packet, and they get stored in clear storage buckets in the basement. We've had this thing a number of years - it easily beats everything else in speed, making a good seal, this unit is FAST, like you'd expect from a production unit! This unit is a time saver, a huge time saver, delivering a high quality evacuation & seal 99% of the time. Pros: Speed of vacuum is outstanding. Nice WIDE seal you can visually inspect for quality, wider than the actual bags we use. The bags from Weston are first quality, with a checked patter on one side, the air gets sucked out of the bags *fast*. Easy to clean & robust! Not the flimsy kind of thing. The thick, clear, hinged cover - wonderful to finally SEE if you're messing things up. We have done HUNDREDS of bags in 4 sizes, with far fewer "failures" than our "seal-a-meal" units... This is a high quality unit, we haven't had to replace a single part (we do clean it well, before & after use), I suspect, given the quality of Weston - this is the last vacuum sealer unit we'll ever buy. Lastly, it is QUIET compared to the seal-a-meal units. It is worth the higher price, with food prices soaring, we look for deals, and repackage in 3-4 serving sizes. After 3 years of sitting in the freezer - meats have ZERO evidence of Freezer burn - still tastes as good as the day we vacuum packed it... something I cannot say for the cheaper units. The cover, IMO, makes the difference in sealing, stiff & heavy duty, gives you a solid, even seal. Cons: Yeah, it's big & bulky, heavy - not the kind of unit you'll keep on your counter. I wish we could use it more often, but pulling it out of the box, setting it up (clearing counter space... plugging it in... OK, we're getting OLD and a bit lazy, not as strong). One thing about the weight ... where you put it on the counter or table, it's not gonna STAY, which is actually a PLUS, it's not gonna need suction cups to stay put, so the rubber feet & weight keep it from sliding around as you open and close and seal. I wish it had a little "ramp" for the front, sloping or level would work, because we like to get the seal as close to the food as possible, and cut off the excess bag, a sloping ramp would be ideal. Tips: USE A LITTLE PRESSURE - rest your hand on the handle!!! We vacuum pack "meals" which saves us LOTS of time cooking - "heat and serve" works for us! We use Weston 1qt. 1/2gal & 1gal., size bags. The 1/2 gallon size get the most use for SOUPS ... yes, like Chili, Baked Potato Soup, Broccoli & Cheese, lots of liquid type soups. The secret is a little downward pressure, with your left hand on the black handle, WATCH the bag evacuate, hit the seal button with your right hand, as soon as you see the liquid coming towards the edge of the unit (all the air looks like it's gone). It's gonna happen FAST, so be ready. What works GREAT for soups, is to create a 3/4-1" thick bag of soup, which thaws quickly when run under hot water, and maximizes storage in your freezer (freeze the bags FLAT). For the best packaging, to get it nice and FLAT, we put a couple of books under the front of the unit, so the bag is Level to the cover, then we just slide a hand over the bag to "pre-squeeze" some of the air out. The bag lies flat, and we hit the switch. First time trying to do a bag of soup - I hit the seal button, when I saw it sucking Chili into the unit (Aieeeee! It's making a mess!), and much to our surprise, it still worked perfectly! The cleanup was quick (damp rag), and back in business. We routinely buy in BULK, even with most of the 8 kids moved out, we continue to look for bulk deals, and repackage for 3-4 serving use (3 of us, occasionally a guest). We have used this for Powders, Solids & Liquids successfully. Occasionally, we get a bag that leaks. For things that do not need refrigeration, Rice, Noodles, we 'give it a day' to see if they leaked (sharp, pointed foods puncture bags). Buy Bags, you're not saving anything buying rolls. We wound up with at least half a dozen rolls... you know the routine, cut the size you want, seal one end, to make it a 'bag', and feel good about yourself, because you think you saved $.02 making your own custom size bags - too much work! Wife & I like to "get the job done" and get back to the farm work. On our farm, we've been putting food by, over 18 years, both wifey and I grew up with parents who canned - that is *work* and *dedication* to spend a whole weekend in front of 2 big canners, steaming away. We also dry foods, with 2 dehydrators - and then vacuum pack. The amount of TIME we've saved with this Weston Pro-2300 probably amounts of WEEKS of canning, by comparison. ---- (original review) We've been vacuum sealing meats and vegetables for decades with a Seal-o-meal unit. It was OK, other than we'd have to seal at least 2x to get a leak proof seal, sometimes we didn't realize the seal was no good until it had been in the freezer awhile. Pretty much hit and miss. Recently we bought a Weston meat grinder, with an awesome sausage stuffing spiral - makes GREAT hot dogs, sausages, everything! Decided to replace the old Seal-oops-meal with this Weston Pro-2300. I got what we wanted, it's currently being used for packaging pulled and chopped pork, here's what the kids say. a. It is FAST. 10-15 seconds from hitting the start button, it's completely DONE. b. The WIDE seal has been flawless. One time sealing, and it's DONE. The sealing strip on the bag is almost 1/4" wide.... that ain't gonna leak! c. Stainless Steel looks good, like a professional appliance, it's easy to keep clean. d. Quiet, yes, it doesn't sound like it's struggling to pull a vacuum, we're talking a fast, quiet vacuum pump - it took a little practice, after squeezing and massaging bags to get as much air out as possible (seal-o-meal), this thing quickly and quietly pulls it out, sometimes in less than 5 seconds. e. The clear TOP to the vacuum chamber is a really nice PLUS. It's very thick, and being clear you can see if liquids are being sucked into this overflow tray. It's also nice to see "how much bag" is actually inserted into the unit. f. Heavy duty and rubber feet that stays PUT as you fumble around with bags. The seal-o-meal would slip and slide all over the place, while we were trying to get the darn edge of the bag inserted and the cover down. g. here's a Pro and Con... It'll do a big, wide bag like nothing else. It'll take up counter space - yep, we're using it 2x a week for the pork processing, veggies... we still can't find a good place to store it, it's both good & bad, heavy duty, commercial unit, and big. If you're considering this unit, or another brand - consider that clear top, fast vacuum pump & wide seal on the bags. This isn't a kitchen appliance "toy". Would I buy it again? Well... my daughter is getting married (finally), gonna buy a house and put in a garden. We struggled with the seal-o-meal for 3 decades, and it was over $285, probably 10x that in rolls of bags. What a waste. One of these, with the smallest and medium size bags will be less expensive. Oh, get the pre-made bags, in bulk, you won't regret it - it'll do the roll bags too, just more work and costs more.

Well, the search is finally over! The Holy Grail Award goes to the Weston 2300! I've been through a total of 3 Food Sealers over the years, all supposedly higher end to boot. All 3 very frustrating. I've spent more time adjusting the bag over and over and not always getting a good seal and having to start all over again and again. Also, fighting to keep my thoughts suppressed, all the while, my store bought frozen food unthawed. I've included a picture of a previouly poorly sealed bag of chicken breasts by my last sealer, now freezer burned only after 13 days. So unacceptable! I then had to gently rinse them off to avoid splashing bacteria all over the place. The next picture I've included shows a beautifully Weston resealed bag of the same chicken. I'm sure if you're reading this, you've been there and unfortunately, may still be there. Well, now, IMHO, there's a way out. It's gonna cost a little $$ upfront, but once you start using this outrageous machine, you'll realize, you just got an excellent deal. Right out of the very well packaged box and excellent 2 day Prime shipping, all you need to do is, first, please read the well written instructions. It'll only take a couple of minutes and you'll be an expert. Once plugged in, a few seconds later, you're ready to start sealing. (See my attached video). I sealed several bags of frozen rolls, one right after the other in record time, especially compared to the junk I was previously cursed with. After pushing the Start button, several seconds later (the vacuum time will obviously depend on the bag size) the air is gone and 2-3 seconds sealing time, the lid then exhausts a slight burst of air and the lid gently lifts off the perfectly sealed 5mm wide seal. By the time it took to throw more frozen roll dough in a bag, it was ready to go, over and over. After those were done, I needed to seal a few hamburger buns hoping not to turn them into bread pancakes, I followed their instructions and they were flawless. What once was a painful and many times an unrewarding task just to freeze some food for later, has now completely changed to a pleasant, rewarding one. Looks like I'll be stuffing my freezers to the hilt from now on. I was a little apprehensive at first because of the price and so many previous empty promises of a quality product, I was hoping not to get an expensive piece of crap, but, as I mentioned, this a solid 5 Star product for a very reasonable price, excellent construction, appearance (stainless steel) and workhorse quality. My highest recommendations for this outrageous machine.

If you plan to use this for commercial use you will want to look at another product for food safety purposes. While the unit does a great job of vacuuming and sealing, it is not possible to clean the unit if fluid fills the vacuum chamber and gets into the vacuum hole. This leads to food making it into the vacuum chamber and unsanitary. We use vac sealers to package a lot of seafood and it's just going to be moist regardless of what we do. If this unit had a removable tray in the vacuum chamber that would be great. Unfortunately it does not, so I returned this item and will continue looking for a product that I feel is safe for use with packaging food for public consumption, especially wet / moist foods.

After killing my last FoodSaver (my fault, not the FoodSaver's), I elected to buy this model. Why? I had a FoodSaver Pro, and like every other FoodSaver, the rubber gaskets get 'hinky', and there has been no easy way to replace them. My gaskets were 'hinky' before I killed it with too juicy of contents that got sucked into the entire thing. I knew better. The unit died an ignominious death at my hadn. But I have not seen another FoodSaver that looked as solid as my last (despite hinky seal gaskets). As I had recently purchased a Weston #22 grinder (it is a workhorse!), and I was very happy with that quality, I elected to get this brand as my vacuum replacement. I snagged a warehouse deal (on Amazon) on this model due to outer box issues. The product was perfect. Here is my assessment: ~ Solid quality ~ Large footprint (I have plenty of space) ~ Quiet ~ replacement heat strip with unit ~ gaskets can be replaced ~ See-through top is easy to lift, sits up solidly, and it is easy to see through. VERY STRONG points over other units and FAR better than my last unit. ~Better sweet spot on the chamber because the chamber is wider. (PLUS YOU CAN SEE THROUGH THE LID). (Yes, this is a very positive feature!) ~ Wide, solid seal. Now to address a few negatives I have seen and offer some tips: ~ no built in bag roll. This is convenient, to be sure! BUT, my cutter had failed after some time. And, my generic bags were folded not on a roll, so that did not do me any good. ~ Tip: An Olfa rolling cutter and a straight edge on a cutting board make quick work of bag making. OR, you can use a letter opener where the razor is nested on the inside. Simply fold the bag over and run the letter opener along the crease. OR you can cut a jagged edge with scissors AND IT WON'T MATTER. Why? Because you can EASILY see through the top--taking all the guesswork about where the edge is. You can see it. ~ Cannot use FoodSaver bags....I purchased the mesh bags from VacMaster (which are great) because I was afraid my generic bags that I used with my FoodSaver would not work given the comments here. My generic bags (which have a mesh chamber in the middle and are smooth on either side of that and smooth on the opposite side) worked perfectly. Further, I had a FoodSaver brand bag and I tested it. It worked perfectly. I'm unclear where the problem lies but I did not experience it with any of my bags. ~ have no empirical evidence on bag failure, but I will update my review. The seal was wide and true, so any bag failure is going to be with the bag and not the unit. I have no negatives that I've experienced--but I will update my review.

I purchased this as a replacement for a FoodSaver that continuously overheated after sealing four or five bags. That FoodSaver was the a replacement (under warranty) for another one with the same problem. I don't use the vacuum sealer often but when I do it is usually for quite a bit of product. The last time was a rib eye that I bought whole, trimmed, and cut into steaks. I had about 25 steaks and the FoodSaver overheated after sealing two or three pieces. Each time it did I had to wait 10-15 minutes minimum for it to operate again for another three or four pieces. I was left worrying about my prime grade beef out of the refrigerator/freezer while I waited for the unit to reset. With that last exasperating experience I started looking for a better replacement and came across the Weston. The only thing holding me back was the hefty price. I returned the FoodSaver to Costco and this time asked for my money back (good old Costco returned the cash no questions asked). I took that money and put it toward the Weston making the cash bite less painful. When I got the Weston the first thing I noticed was its weight. Much heavier than the FoodSaver and obviously built more solidly. It can also accommodate much wider bags. I caught a special on shelled walnuts and bought about 12 lbs. (we do a lot of baking). It was a good test run for the new sealer. It's performance? Flawless! It vacuums the bags quickly, seals the edge and then the sealer releases automatically. To save money on bag material I tried shortening the reccommended length and I found that if I support the bag while it vacuums and seals I don't need to leave as much excess in the sealer. It may not seem like a lot but saving a bit per bag adds up in the end. You can also save material by sealing the bottom of the bag very close to the edge, something you cannot do with the FoodSaver unit. The quality of the vacuum is better with the Weston as it vacuumed the walnut packages into hard little bricks and much tighter than the FoodSaver vacuum. A lot of the comments seem to be from people that got tired of the FoodSaver glitches. I don't think these two are even in the same league! If you just seal a bag or two occasionally the FoodSaver should do fine but if you seal a lot of bags then the Weston is well worth the price in saved time and aggravation. Please note: I would have rated this higher but the price IS daunting so I held back but the unit works great!

Having experience with the much lower cost consumer products, I had no idea what a real vacuum pump could do. All I can say is wow. As soon as I unboxed the unit and took the protective tape of the ss finish (don't take the sealing strips off even though they look like they should be removed as packaging) I plugged it in, grabbed an old roll of 11 in wide and made a seal. It wasn't a roll sold or made by Weston - that's arriving later today - but it sealed perfectly. Then I decided to run a quick test of the unit by sealing some popcorn kernels. Man, oh man, that vacuum pulled the plastic so tight so quickly around those kernels I was impressed. The seal was quite fast too. The main reason I bought this unit is the duty cycle expectation being a commercial unit. also, I believe I can by replacement parts should anything need updating. Also, The overall speed is terrific. Waiting 20 sec between sealing is no big deal and is quite fast compared to other units out there. Short of a chamber this is about as good as it gets. The pluses are: Obvious heavy duty feel and commercial quality Serious Vacuum! Commercial Duty Cycle Rapid and efficient suction Rapid 1/4 seal with 20 sec wait between seals Super simple operation Looks good Downside: It's not $59.00 ;) It has no nipple or port for hose attachment No drip tray to catch liquid seepage If you are serious about vacuum sealing, you just need to save your pennies and buy yourself one. Don't be fooled by the two year warranty vs the cheapo units and their 5 yr warranty. This is a commercial duty unit. Some deli's use these things a hundred times per day, every day. Unless you do something really dumb, this thing is going to serve you a very long time.

Finally, I found a vacuum sealer that works! My third Food Saver was dying a slow, painful death,so I was in search of something that would work and last. We shop once a month and buy in bulk to save money. It was a major chore trying to get the meat put up - having to double seal every bag on both ends to keep them from opening, having to do two to three bags and then wait 10 - 20 minutes between sealings (got worse the more bags were sealed). Depending on the amount of meat we bought, it would take days to get done. Not any more! This Weston has power, but doesn't over-vacuum. It adjusts to the item you are sealing. It totally crushed an energy drink can I used to test the vacuum power, but unlike the Food Saver, it doesn't squeeze the juices out of the meat making the food dry when you cook it. The Weston has fans to cool the vacuum motor - so no more having to take long breaks to let it cool down. It has an extremely wide seal - no more double sealing the bags. And since it doesn't squeeze the juices out - I can make my bags about 2 inches shorter without having the juices try to flow up into the seal or worse, into the machine. The bags for this machine are much more economical than the Food Saver brand bags, and much stronger. I haven't had a bone cut through one yet. I read reviews on this machine where people complained about the foam vacuum chamber seal crushing and having to be replaced. The instructions state to press down "lightly" on the handle until the seal catches - I just lay one finger on it and it works perfectly. Evidently some people don't know what lightly means. Even if it does wear out eventually - at least it can be replaced instead of having to replace the whole machine. Overall, I am very happy with it. Hopefully it will stand the test of time.

Works very well, system is very well made. I just wish that the suction would be stronger! But I'm used to professional vaccum machines that's probably why... Very nice little countertop machine, very happy about my purchase.

Works a treat

Ya de uso industrial y practico, no desechable ideal para comerciantes.

muy practico

Excellent machine