My model is an old one, so I can't comment on the model you mention.
I buy the rolls and cut to fit.
I bought it with the idea of freezing whole meals ... but soon abandoned that. Trouble with a Capital T.
I watch for Angus Beef to go on sale and buy 20 or 30 pounds of boneless chuch roasts. I have the butcher grind it.
Then I form hamburgers in a cookine cutter... pop 'em in the freezer until they're semi frozen and vacuum seal individually. (You have to put them in the freezer before sealing or the juices will be sucked into the unit -- at least mine does).
I also pre-brown and package 1 lb portions of ground beef for my daughter. She uses them for tacos, buritos or adds to jarred spagetti sauce for quick week-night meals.
I think it is worth the cost for us.
Kay

Like everyone else has said - it depends on what you will use it for.

I feel that mine pays for itself by sealing venison. DH is an archery hunter and on the (rare,lol) occasions that he is successful, we have a fair amount of meat to freeze. I feel that it stay MUCH better when vacuum sealed.

I also find that with veggies the packages end up oddly shaped and hard to stack in the freezer. However, I feel that they do stay fresher.

I have both precut bags and rolls and use different ones for different items.

Ann

We use ours primarily for storing blanched tomatoes and sauces, grated zucchini, fruits and berries. They're also very handy for freezing helpings of stews and soups which we freeze initially into Ziplock cannisters, then remove and bag (also helps with regulating the shape and size). After reading the posts here, I think I'll go hunting for a cannister. Our preference is using rolls as they can be cut to fit, though I cut them smaller than I did initially as we don't reuse the bags more than twice. We installed roll storage and cutter on the kitchen wall but have the vacuum sealer tucked in the pantry since most sealing is done on a project basis and not a daily thing. It's been worth every penny to us. As for freezer size and space, our beef and pork are butchered and wrapped in some odd sizes as well, so it's just a matter of finding a spot that fits on the appropriate shelf.

Good luck with yours!

Sue

Not only do I use mine for freezing sausages and cured meats I make, but also for many other things like prepared egg mcmuffins, and even meat pies. Mine was bought at BJ's or Costco and has two vacuum settings, high and low. The bag material is quite thick, and thicker than any zipper bag you see at supermarkets including heavier freezer bags. I usually buy rolls of 6, 8, and 11 inch bag material and use an impulse sealer for the inital seal opposite the FS sealing. It helps to do it that way as its much faster and doesn't wear out the heater on the FS. The bags are not really cheap, and neither are the rolls, but once in a while I see sales on multiples and will buy them that way. I like to also use the jar sealer which works with standard canning jars and seals a lid onto the jar. I have even grated fresh parm and romano cheese and stored in a vacuum container, where it lasts a long time without drying out or getting moldy. I even have some nearly 2 year old dried dill weed in quart jars, that is still bright green and still has lots of flavor. I simply reseal the jar after I take what I need out of it. The unit I got also came with a dispenser that cuts rolls to any length you like. The only complaint I have is the sealing area is a distance away from the vacuum area, and is a waste of about an inch of bag naterial. You need to make sure the bags are long enough, after being packed, so that the open end will fit across the sealing area and into the rubber vacuum area. If you attempt to use regular zipper bags they can get too hot at the sealing and damage the non stick strip covering that area. Would have been nice for FS to come out with bags that have attached zippers. You fill from the opposite end and, when you want it opened, you just open the zipper. I don't usually reuse my bags.

Thanks for the information everyone. It sounds like money well spent, so I think I'm definitely going to pick one up this winter.

Thanks!
-Diggity

Did you know you can get a Reynolds Handi-Vac handheld model for about $10? (They have them at a lot of Wal-Marts and will also soon be offering them on TV.)

If you don't want to spend a bundle or if you have limited counter space, you might want to consider this option.

Here is a link that might be useful: Reynolds Handi-Vac

Don't waste your money on the REynolds sealer. It uses 6-8 AA batteries and after you seal about 4 bags you need to replace them. I think they're in cahoots with the battery manufacturers. It takes forever to seal a bag. I love my simple to use Rival Seal-a-meal. It was about $30 at Kmart last year.
Diane

I like my FS. I just bagged 25 pounds of home made Kelbasa for the freezer. I used the 11 inch wide rolls to make the bags the size I needed.

I use mine alot. I buy the rolls and various size bags and I manage to find a use for all of them. I really like to seal homemade beef jerky in them for mailing to family members. I prefer them for freezing a multitude of food items over the regular freezer bags and they take up less room in my freezers. Granted, the bags can be pricey but as mentioned, watch for sales and check into the online Food Saver site, as they will run specials. Many times I use them for my leftovers and if items are too gushy, then I freeze them in little containers first, then pop them out and seal them in the FS bags. It's a very handy device for small portions as well as large. I told my husband it's the best gift he has given me in 30 plus years! He actually thought I was joking.

Here is a site that sells compatible Food Saver rolls of 50 feet long 11 inches wide for $21. each. The rolls look almost exactly like the FS ones, even down to the 'quilted' texture. Foodsaver wants $10 for an 18 foot long roll. You do the math. When I bought 4 rolls of the generic ones recently, they were just $17 each for the 50 foot ones.

Here is a link that might be useful: Food saver bags, sealers, and generic bags

Im on board witht he food saver brand. I had my first one for about 8 years. And it got used alot. I butch my own deer, seal and freeze it. plus all the veggies in the garden.

I do agree with an earlier post about wasting bags space because of the large space between the sealing strip and the vacuum port. Seem sto waste alot of bag.

blanched green beans, hole sweet corn on the cob. Put in a pat of butter while you are sealing and then drop bag and all right into boiling water. No mess cooking. Make your bags a little larger then necessary. Drop them in the dishwasher and reuse.

Greatest invention EVER!!!!

Marinating in the canisters is great too. No more waiting over night. 15-20 minutes is all you need.

Im not sure what my new model is, but it has the bag storage/cutter built in, plus a selection of different sealing and vacuum options. Make sure you get one with a seal button for doing meats. Once it starts to pull the juices up hit the seal button and the suction stops and seals the bag. That way you dont end up with blood and juices in you vacuum port.

Luckily, the FS has a trough that catches most liquids before they get pulled nto the vacuum line. Thats one of the reasons to make a bag a litt longer, so the juices don't travel up very far ito the seal area. I also have an impluse sealer and seals in less than 2 seconds. After the bottoms of the bags (from rolls) are impulse sealed, I used the FS to do the main vacuum seal, the use teh impulse sealer again over teh top of the FS seal. The reason for all those seals, once in a whle a bag will leak and once its frozen you get all that ice forming insde. Never could find he leak, so I double seal them. It also reduces the wear on the FS sealer/heater. When I marinate, I use the biggest of the FS containers and pull a vacuum from a special higher powered vacuum pump (double diaphram). Its also equipt with a big 8 ounce moisture trap, in case it pulls in any liquids. Mine has a seperate roll cutter. I do my pastrami and Canadian bacon in these FS canisters too.

I agree with everyone else but I've got to add another use.... resealing bags. I keep mine on the counter. I use it occasionally for meat, etc. and in the summer for garden veggies but I use it all the time for chip, pretzel, frozen fruit, etc. bags. We don't eat all those things on a regular basis and I think I've paid for the machine by keeping them fresh and new when they sit in the cupboard for months. Any kind of thick plastic bag can be resealed. I cut the sealed part off and reseal it lower. Anyway, just an additional use and it doesn't require buying anything extra.

I'm not even sure which one I have (I'd have to get up to go look and I'm lazy!) but I love it! I use the rolls of bags and mostly use it for meats that I buy on sale in large quantities and then seal up in smaller portions for my husband and myself. My SIL works at a local poultry plant and gets great deals on chicken and I have a freezerful of some yummy chicken sealed up in small quantities. I do know that my vacuum sealer came from Wal-Mart and was about $75. To me it was well worth the money.

Nana

I buy bonelss skinless chicekn breasts on sale, pound them out between plastic wrap and spread some dijon mustard on each, add a slice of swiss cheese and smoked ham, fold it over and coat the outside with bread crumbs. Each is first wrapped in plastic wrap, as its easier to handle them when putting in FS bags. Sometimes I will add some herbed butter, or broccoli. In any event, each gets bagged, and is a prfect portion for a decent meal. As of today, I plan to make some of these, simply called Chicken Cordon Blu...

For bag sealing, I use an inexpensive impluse sealer and it takes the wear and tear off the FS heating strip, which is used only for the final vacuum seal.

Yummm Ken! That sounds scrumptious! Gonna try that. I just got through with dinner...a chicken breast that had been marinated and cooked on top of the stove in a non=stick skillet. It was yummy! I have the marinated ones sealed up in the freezer and non-marinated boneless ones that would work well for your recipe! Sounds great! Thanks!

Nana

For the bread crumbs, I like to add a bit of seasonings too, like a little salt, onion powder, and any of your favorite herbs. I have some 'roasted chicken' seasoning, and its made with the above along with some paprika, garlic, ground celery seed, and a few other spices I can't identify yet. When baking, I make small pan from aluminium foil, and spread a bit or margerine on it before setting the stuffed breast on it. The herbed butter I made last summer is also great in these. It was made with fresh rosemary, thyme, and garlic chopped very fine, with butter added, and a little olive oil. Did it in a small food processor in small batches so it didn't get too soft. The butter was put into some small compartments, something like an ice cube tray lined with plastic wrap. I freeze them for a while until firm, then take them out and store in a zipper freezer bag until needed. When roasting a turkey or whole chicken, I slip a few of these under the skin of the breast.

Sorry for my ignorance, but what is an impulse sealer and where can I find one reasonably priced? I googled it, but all I'm coming up with must be commercial units, and they're pretty expensive. Thanks! :)

My heat impulse sealer seals a bag in 2 seconds or less, depending on the thickness. There is a control knob on them to adjust the sealing time span. I got mine off eBay and paid about $45 for it. Its a 12 inch long heating tape, and comes with a spare element and teflon strip. I use mine to also make small plastic bags out of the light weight plastic fabric they use to cover planting rows of veggies. The bags slide over fruits or even limbs to protect the fruits from insect damages. These units are quite heavy, and have a high current, low voltage transformer that heats the element in a split second. They are also used commercially. Because the one on the FS seems to take longer to make a seal, and will shut down if it is used too much (over heats), I prefer to use this unit to make the botttom seal on my FS bags from rolls. Also, just in case a final seal leaks, I make a second seal above the FS one.

Here is a link that might be useful: Heat Sealers on eBay

Thanks again, ksrogers. :) I've never even heard of impulse sealers, but I'm enjoying my vacuum sealer and would like to extend the heat sealer thingy. I'll check eBay for an affordable one.

Just got an email about the latest version of Food Saver. This one has features no other unit has. Automatic bag sensing, and even senser to detect the moisture in foods before sealing. Stronger and faster vacuum pump. A bit pricy, but looks like a winner.

Here is a link that might be useful: Food Saver

That looks like the Cadillac of all food savers.

I've tried two seal-a-meals and three FoodSavers an none of them worked anywhere as while as I thought they should. I will admit I've never tried any costing more than $160.00 but to tell you the truth I afraid too.

Help with more suggestions on vacuum sealers, PLEASE.

Jerry

What problems are you having? What difficulties to you see when using a machine? What are you wanting to seal and save? Where are the problems you see? What are you using them for?

Here is a link that might be useful: High ended butcher type sealers

Jerry,
Depends on how you are using it etc. During "off" harvest times, I use mine most often for stuffing the freezer with meat that's on sale. Sometimes I'll let it freeze a little first to firm up...but honestly I'm frequently lazy and will do it fresh. When I do it fresh (and really bloody), I'll stick just a tiny bit of paper towel towards the end of the package to catch excess blood...which is what they recommend.

I'll also use it to re-seal bags from the grocery store. Which is REALLY handy since I don't have to use those crazy bag clips anymore (that always got lost).

So let us know what type of problems you are having - though I havn't had near the experians Ksrogers has with mine :D

Laura

I know this is a little late in response (several years), but the machine you purchase really depends on the volume you want to package. I have never had good luck with the K-mart cheapy, but I don't need a hug chamber sealer. I have always had good luck with Minipack vacuum sealers.

http://www.officezone.com/vacuum_sealers.htm

Here is a link that might be useful: Vacuum Sealers

Food Saver brand is a bit cheaper and works well for my needs.

Yes, we love our Food Saver. Ken bought it to my attention and I can't thank him enough for that!!

Using the canisters we can keep lettuce fresh and crisp for more than 2 weeks, crackers last indefinitely, and fresh sliced mushrooms for 10-14 days without darkening or going soft. We got the jar sealer too.

Not to mention all the meats and veggies we vacuum seal. We just got it during the sale last Christmas and are really looking forward to using it during garden season.

Dave

Me too. At first, when I saw the cost, and bought the whole kit from BJ's, I was amazed at how well it keeps meats. I have sirloin tips I bagged and froze two years ag, and they are still bright red and look like they were packed yesterday. I cooked up some two year old fresh Kielbasa for Easter and it was great too. My sugar free angel food cake mix is in big 1.5 gallon canisters tight now. They are also under vacuum and I use a stronger pump for them. I expect it should last several years, as its a LOT of sugarless angle food cake mix! I find that if I use the FS syste on loose veggies like peas, corn, and string beans, they tend to all clump together even if they drained, dried and partially frozen before bagging. There, I use regular zipper freezer bags, as they seem to work well enough for a shorter term.

Hey, I have a Sinbo sealer that I just bought recently. I like it because you can use any type of bag you have at home, like regular plastic bags, mylar bags, Foodsver type bags, just about anything that heat seals. I have a Foodsaver also but the bags are kind of expensive and not always handy. The Sinbo Keep Fresh is a snorkel type sealer so it doesn't use special bags. I got it at drybagsteak.com for sealing drybags to make dry aged steaks at home, but now I can use it for other things at home. Turned out pretty handy.

As mentioned above, there are some good alternatives to the more expensive FS bag materials. I usually buy from meat curing/sausage making suppliers. The FS isn't just to bag stuff, as they do have that vac port that attaches to a jar adapter and you cna make use of Ball jars as vacuum seal jars by using the adapter and a standard Ball lid. Also, their large canisters are great for marinating meats.

Latest sale at FoodSaver for a Pro III model. If you don't get the sale price, you need to get on their email list.

Here is a link that might be useful: FS Pro III deluxe model

They make an attachment that allows you to vacuum a mason jar. regular mouth or wide mouth. you probably want both. The glass mason jars are easy to reuse. The bags are expensive.

As mentioned in may other FS posts here, the bag material is far cheaper if bought either on sale as rolls, or bought as the generic types from sausage making suppliers. The generic bag rolls are just as good and offer the same quilted embossing on one side, which assists the vacuum. I use the jar adapters here, specifically the regular mouth one, as well as the big canisters. The canisters hold things like grated cheese and sugar free angel food cake mix. The jar adaters I use with my more powerful vacuum piston pump now. I have 2 year old dill weed still quite fresh and strong tasting under vacuum. The piston pump can pull all the air out of a quart jar in about 2 minutes at 30 inches of mercury. The piston pump is so powerful (not the FS one), that it can actaully cause stress cracks on some of the canister designs like the smaler square one. For marinating and brine curing meats, the biggest 1.5 gallon canister can be used. I usually use the 1 gallon canister for my pastrami which sits in the seasoned brine about 3-4 days. A half of a whole boneless pork loin makes great Canadian bacon too. Both are discussed in many other meat curing posts. Even though the bags are a bit more $, they do work very well to prevent freezer burn. The thickness of the FS bag material is 3 mils, compared to store bought zipper bags which are, at best, 1.5 mils thick or less. Even for that, a heat seal will not leak or pop open like a zipper bag. I had bought two whole boneless turkey loafs and sliced them. Froze about 10 slices per bag. That was back in December and just now I am getting to use some for sandwiches. Still very moist and tasty.

I've actually found that I can seal a bag "in the middle" to make two pouches.. then I can freeze something like canadian bacon in two sections.. cut one open when I want to use it and then pop the other 1/2 back in the freezer.

i'm so glad i read this thread! i have a FS i use to freeze fish but i had no idea i could get an adapter for mason jars. Cool.

We have noticed that buying the rolls are cheaper at Walmart than getting them from the FS website even when they are on sale there for 30% off.

Ken - got a link for a source of the generic rolls?

Dave

Sure, here is a source for the bags only.
http://www.butcher-packer.com/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&zenid=feacda946f378706df52c82f68af3e43&keyword=foodsaver
And below for the rolls.

When I bag up my home made Candian bacon, I use the 6 inch wide bag rolls.

Here is a link that might be useful: Plastic rolls for sealers

Great! Thanks for the links.

Dave

I just found another way to use my Black and Decker vacuum sealer. I had already put some meat to be frozen in a regular ziplock freezer bag when I remembered I had the vacuum sealer. I first tried to suck most of the air out of the baggie since I had already gotten it "dirty", but I couldn't really pull the plastic tightly around the meat with the straw-in-the-seal method. So I put the quart sized baggie in a vacuum bag I made, with the ziplock open. When I pulled a vacuum on the vacuum bag it of course pulled a vacuum on the baggie inside, too, and before the sealing heater kicked in the vacuum on the inner baggie was closed by the press of the vacuum bag. I just released the sealer mechanism and had a vacuum sealed ziplock! I could have left it inside the vacuum bag and sealed that bag, too, but that seemed like overkill. It was actually a WalMart brand freezer bag, with double zip closure, and it sure seems to be holding the vacuum fine. I can reuse the outer vacuum bag as many times as I like, so long as I remember to stop the process before the heat sealer kicks in. Sure sucks better than I do!

Chuck

You can also reuse some Food Saver bags if they have not contained fats or wet foods. They have the embossed quilting inside which greatly helps to get the vacuum all around the contents. It sounds like a lot of extra work when you trying to do that with zipper bags. Also keep inn mind that regular zipper bags, even if they are the freezer type are still thinner plastic compared to a FS bag. In fact, I think even two zipper bag layers are still thinner than a FS bag. After many years of using my FS, its been very helpful in keeping things better in the freezer, no freezer burn, no drying out or dehydration of anything inside, even after more than a year. If the B&D offers an integrated sealing bar and vacuum area where the full width of the bag is placed, its well worth it to go that route with FS rolls. A bag sealed in a FS takes usually about 4-10 seconds from start to seal.

The FS material is indeed thicker than the normal freezer zip bags. For long term storage, I'm sure that makes a difference. However, we often buy a few weeks worth of meats in bulk, at Sams or on sale at various stores, and we've had decent results just using the freezer bags for such relatively short times. I bet sealing them this way, with very little air contacting the meat, will be enough better that the much less expensive baggies make sense for this use. I'll probably look into the on line sources for FS materials because I do want to store some of my produce and other items for extended periods. Anything I want to keep for more than a month will probably get the deluxe treatment. One thing I've thought about doing is sealing some things, like for instance jerky and my dried tomatoes, in baggies inside FS bags. That way, they'll be well protected during long storage, and will be in a resealable bag when I start using them. I put those things up in a few days to a weeks supply and it will be nice to have them in an easy open resealable bag. Actually, the jerky only lasts more than a day if my grandson isn't around.

Chuck

I didn't use mine like I should have until this year. We acquired my grandfather's upright freezer, lots of begging & pleading. I bought 1 9lb pork loin, and portioned it up. Bought 4 5lb beef tenderloins, and made steaks. Bought a 3 pack of pork ribs, halved & bagged. Bought chicken leg 1/4's and bagged in 2's.

I love it now. I just ordered the mason jar sealer.

My model is older, and I cannot turn off the vacuum & just seal something, and my bags do not store in the unit (both features I'd love now). But I'm not about to shell out money when mine still works (hmmm, how can I break this one so I can get a new one ???).

The bag material on my old one was in a seperate holder cutter. I also got a holder cutter that my machine sits on with the rolls behind it. Takes a lot of counter space however. When I put up meats and such I will freeze things for over a year. I have Canadian bacon I made 2 years ago, as well as some pork sausages and breakfast sausages about that age too. With regular freezer bags, even with all the air out, I still see ice crystals that will form inside the bags after a long while. Its a good indication that even though they could have been air tight, they sure aren't now. The formed ice crysals are the moisture of the food being drawn to the bags inner surface and it can actually leak out a little. Before the Food Savers I used heavy plastic coated freezer paper and then plastic bags, and that would hold up to only about a year of storage in the freezer. I still have rolls of the paper, but its not been used for several years now. My favorites are the air tight canisters. I keep grated cheese in a big one and it has not dried or gone moldy and has been stored in the fridge for over 6 months now. My nearly 3 year old dill weed is still very green and strong scented too, and thats stored in quart Ball jars and lids, using the FS adaptor. If you get the mason jar attachement, make sure you get both sizes as I find I use both, but the regular size adapter as the most used for my stuff.

I have had my foodsaver for some years--in fact, have 2 since I used one at our cottage when we had it.
In my experience, I have found the canisters often do not retain their vacuum seal, and not just when trying to seal powdered things like flour or granular things like sugar or coffee (which I never can get to seal even in a canning jar w/the attachment -- which I love & use for so many other things). I had a few canisters and thought they were fine so when sets of them went on sale at a really good price I bought several sets, but subsequently found that they are no good. I suppose I should have complained to FS (had ordered directly from the website) but did not and it's been too long (like several years!). I just put them away & forgot about them except for short-term storage, like for cereals that we use often.
But dusty, powdered, or fine-grained foods like those I mentioned above apparently get sucked into the rubber of the canisters, or of canning jar lids and therefore do not vacuum seal.
Am I doing something wrong?
The jar adapters are great. I have ones for both regular- and wide-mouth canning jars, although again, the first adapter I bought for regular jars did not seem to seal properly, and the next one is touchy. But the wide one always works OK for any dry foods that are not too fine, so is great for dried fruits/veggies, herbs, pastas, grains, etc., and I have shelves full of those items in my pantry. So now when I have a half bag of coffee, flour, etc., I leave the product in the bag and tuck that into a vac bag or a large canning jar before inserting the whole thing into the bag sealer. Works that way OK.

Oh--and I have the FS portable hand-held vacuum thingy that goes with the jar adapter & that plugs directly into a wall plug; that lives on my countertop as I use it many times a week. Easier than having the large unit sitting out & having to mess with the connector hose.

If the canisters worked, I'd wish for square ones as that shape takes up less space.

When I place my 25 pound bag of sugarless angelfood cake mix in FS containers, I used 2 gallon zipper bags to hold about 10 pounds in each canister, and I leave the bags partially open. I used the big 1.5 gallon huge size canisters. I do make sure that the rubber seals are very clean and have no bits of stuff or foreign materials in the seal areas. The domed canisters are easy to pull a decent vacuum on. I use a seperate vacuum pump however as it gives me a much stronger vacuum that can hold a cover on for many months. Thats how my cake mix is stored, and is still under vacuum, as is the grated cheese in the fridge. If there is even a single nick on the plastic edge where the seal is made to the rubber ring, it will usually leak. I have moistened the lip with a little water and placed the lid on and its pumped down quite well. Another way to get that seal to hold better is to use a very light coating of non stick spray, applied on a paper towel. Its applied VERY THIN and would be lighly applied to the plastic rim of the canister. This will help to ensure a good seal, but the best I get is when I use my external vacuum pump. For the big bucket shaped containers with flat and concave lids with the knob, I have has to fix a few small cracks that show up around the knob. I use crazy glue to pull the glue into the cracks under vacuum and its hardened off with an activator that turns it solid in one second. The cracks that form are because I use a very powerful vacuum pump. Right now, I have a batch of vinegar salt brine waiting for the next wave of pepperoncini peppers to get canned, and its under vacuum.

Basically, a stronger vacuum pump may be needed. It also may be that the pump you have inside the FS is either dirty or worn out so its not pulling a vacuum very well. The pumps in the FS are quite small, and most have a built in sensor that shuts them off once they reach a specific pressure which is obviously lower than 30 inches of mercury (read on a vacuum gauge).

The square or rectangular containers will crack down the sides every time. I went through 3 of them and found that even though they are thick plastic, its not designe dwell enough to hold a good vacuum. All my square ones cracked in the corners.

I'm also thinking about buying a vacuum sealer but I need one that seals jars as well and will hold up to regular use. (1-3 times a week) I want it for grains and powdered veggies. I may use it for the storage bags but mainly the jars. what do you think and how has your worked for you.
thanks.

To echo a lot of the comments I've seen...I LOVE MY FS!

My parents and my SO's parents both had one, so we purchased a little one at Kohls, FoodSaver Mini I think it was, worked great at our apartment and fit right into a draw (we had to use the narrower sized bags/rolls but that was OK)

We have since upgraded to a GameSaver, SO and I are both hunters so its great for preventing the venison from freezer burn, and we buy any of our grocery meats in large quantities when the sale prices are great.

A FS + a digital scale = PERFECTLY portioned 1 lb packages of ground beef waiting in your freezer to be added to recipes, no more trying to find the 'closest' pack to a pound at the grocery store YAY

Ok, I've read more than I ever thought I would about Foodsavers and I definitely want to try one out.
There's someone on Craigslist who is selling a V850 for $60 and it comes with a few canisters. If I go to check this thing out, what should I look for?
From what I've read, I might rather have the ball Jar attachment than the canisters but if the canisters have cracks are they visible?

I bought a Vac350 at a yard sale last week and the vacuum seems to work but it never shuts off and it never heats up. Well that was $2 wasted! :D

Not sure what features are essential either. I think I'd use it for everything: fish, shrimp, berries, garden harvest, bulk purchases....

Thanks,
John

Actually if you consider about the price, FoodSaver V2244 is the cheapest and quite ok. I'm a fan of FoodSaver brand and have 2 at home. One is V3240 and the other is V4880 (for my mother). Both of them are so good. I think the review here can help.