I feel your pain! I bought 2 so I would have a backup but gave my backup to a CF friend. This was before I knew they stopped making them. I use it daily and don't know what I will do when it bites the dust. Actually I would have to use the full size FS with the hose attachment but this is so much easier and convenient.

Good luck with your search.

Check this out:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/FreshSaver-VacLoc-Sealer-Plus-New-/281027841744?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0amp;hash=item416e908ed0

dcarch

I was just going to suggest ebay, you can pretty much find anything there.

When I looked on eBay there weren't any. Go for it Rita, even though it's pricy-mine were $19 each at Bass Pro Shop.

Rita, this may be your lucky day. I just went into the basement and found one, brand new and still in the box. I don't know if it's exactly like yours, but it looks similar.

I bought three of them on sale, less than $5 each. I never could get the one I tried to work and I can't get my counter top Food Saver to work worth a darned either. I've never successfully sealed a jar with either of them. I gave one of the three to Amanda, she couldn't get hers to work either. The third one was for Elery, he doesn't even want to open the box, he watched me get frustrated with mine, LOL.

So, you want it, it's yours. Free, just so I can get it out of my basement and never have to touch that instrument of torture again!

Annie

Raising hand!!!!!!!!!!! If you have and extra I'll take on off your hands too so Elery isn't tortured by it.

Cathy, if Rita doesn't want it, it's yours, with my best regards. She gets the first chance, though, since she asked. I have grown to absolutely HATE the darned things, both tabletop and portable. If they do seal anything up, it comes unsealed within a couple of weeks and I might as well not have messed with it in the first place. Ugh.

I've had both now and both were complete pieces of crap.

Annie

Annie, absolutely Rita gets first dibs. I just thought I read that you had an extra extra.

I've had mine for 4 or 5 years and as I said, I use it daily to seal canning jars and FS canisters.

I have a FS canister that Elery bought but I haven't had the nerve to even TRY to use it yet, it sits in the box next to the Foodsaver, mocking me. (sigh) I've never gotten the thing to seal a canning jar, ever.

I have the hose thing that's supposed to work with my countertop model, but neither one of them have sealed anything with any degree of success yet. Of course, if I sealed something up and then unsealed it in the next day or two, it might stay sealed that long, but it sure doesn't stay sealed in the freezer. On the counter it's usually lost seal by the next day, I THOUGHT it would be good for chips and crackers when it gets so humid here that they go stale in an hour or two. Yeah, well, I was wrong again, LOL.

I threw mine away, Amanda gave hers to Goodwill. That leaves Elery's, which is still in the box, never opened.

Annie

dcarch, thank you, so very much, for finding one for me... When I tried, before, nothing came up... Since I don't have an e-bay account or Pay Pal I've e-mailed my computer guru to see if he's willing to get it for me.

Annie, thank you for your generous offer... Could you please hold on to it for a few days until I hear from my computer guru?

If he comes through for me I hope you'll send it to Mustangs.

Hugs,
Rita

Rita,

Is that a cordless rechargeable unit or a plug in unit? Don't throw it away. Keep it for replacement parts for your replacement unit. You may even try to repair it.

I always suggest people to get an Ohm/volt meter. Very inexpensive from Radio Shack or on eBay. Less than $10.00. Every time your battery operated devices run low on battery, don't throw all four out. meassure the batteries with the meter and you will see that only one will need to be replaced. You save a lot of money and the environment.

1. If you have a meter, test the power adapter (the small squarish thing that plugs in the outlet), a lot of times that get burned out. If you don't get any reading with the meter, than you are lucky, just replace the adapter with another one. They are very cheap. Read what's on the adapter, and get one with the same specifications. Keep the old plug to the vaccum unit and splice the plug with the new adapter, if the new adapter's plug is not the same size.

2. if you get a reading from the adapter, then your unit's motor is burned, if when you plug in the unit and there is no noise. You can try this also:

3. Bang the unit as hard as you can without breaking the case. The motor which drives the vacuum pump is mostlikely a low voltage DC PM motor which has two carbon brushes. When one the brushes is not makingh a good contact, the motor will not run.

4. If the unit makes noise but no vaccum, then the plastic gears are stripped and cannot be repaired.

Good luck.

dcarch

Thanks DCarch. I hope one of these tips works for Rita. I copied and pasted your tips to my house diary for future reference.

I inventoried items I have FSed in Mason jars. Numerous and varied--from 1/2 gal fresh Brussel sprouts to potato chips to 1/2 pint fresh garlic. All require my pop it tool to get the lid off.

Rita, I'll wait to hear from you. If you get one, I'll send it on to Cathy. Maybe she can get the @##$% thing to work.....

Cathy, I've also FSed in Mason jars. Crackers, chips, garlic. Every one has been unsealed by the next day with no help at all from me. The FS people are pretty much useless, they did tell me to try using two lids and see if it helped. It didn't. After a couple of phone calls they told me they didn't know what was wrong, good luck, sorry you're having problems. they tell me there is really no need to call back since they can't help me.

It was the same thing with the other FoodSaver. They had me seal a spoon. Sure enough, it didn't work. Take it back and get it replaced, so I did. At least the new one seals about 25% of the time instead of never.

Peppi says I got a lemon and I need a new one but I'm afraid to spend that much money and get yet another useless piece of junk. I wouldn't do it now anyway, in this house I have no place to put anything else since I'm gradually getting all of Elery's stuff here...

Annie

Annie, buy one at Costco or Sam's. If you hate it, take it back and get the money returned to you.

Peppi, I checked at Sam's a couple of months ago, they don't have any, just the bags, which come in a package of various sizes, most of which won't fit my little FoodSaver, which will ONLY take the 8 inch bags. I've never been in a Costco, the closest one is way on the south side of Grand Rapids, I might check it out someday but Sam's is about 30 miles closer...

My nephew would like to have my little one to seal venison, so if I ever decide to try another one, I'll give mine to Philip in exchange for venison and get a different one. I did get an advertisement in the mail from FoodSaver, they're offering some sales and one has a lifetime warranty, so maybe. Eventually. After I get over the trauma of taking my handheld Fresh Saver and throwing it out the door in the general direction of the trash can. I missed and it hit the concrete. I left all the pieces there and just walked away. Later, as I was picking up the pieces for disposal, (don't you hate it when you have a tantrum and then have to clean up your own mess?) I told Elery that his was still in the basement. At that point he just shook his head and said he didn't need it, thanks. (grin)

If I do get another one it'll have to take the bigger bags, I have 50 chickens in the freezer in gallon ziplocks because nothing really fits in those little 8 inch bags anyway and a whole 5 pound roasting chicken sure doesn't. I also would like to get one that doesn't require me to put the bag in the sealing portion, then push down on each side of the device, thus using both hands to just make it operate and leaving no hands to hold the bag where it belongs. I understand there are models that don't require three hands or two people...

Annie

I guess there's no need to panic, I found all kinds of handheld units on Amazon for less than $20, and in different colors to boot!

Mine is like this one, I think and I noticed that 12 other people gave it one star, a couple gave it two stars and most of the poor reviews said that the bags would not hold a seal at least half the time. In all fairness, I did note that a lot of people loved them too, and it ended up getting 4 stars as an average, mine just didn't happen to be one of the 80% that worked, I guess....

Annie

Here is a link that might be useful: Fresh Saver Plus

Annie, I also have the one you provided a link to; it doesn't work like the discontinued unit that Rita and I have. I got frustrated with it because neither bags nor FS canisters stay sealed and it's challenging to seal jars unless you use the hole and tape method.

Well, that just figures. There had to be a reason why they were on sale.....

I looked again and that is exactly what I have. I'm glad to know, though, that it didn't work well for you either, nothing stayed sealed. It did contain ONE two quart bag with the unit but I couldn't get it to work with the bag or with the FoodSaver containers.

Annie

I got the one off e-bay ( the link dcarch posted, thank you! )... Paid more than I expected, it wasn't new and the light doesn't work but at least I'll be able to seal my jars for another year or so...

It came with the manual, a bag sealer thingy and it's power supply, a wide mouth jar sealer ( the one with the release button ), one universal lid ( the larger one ) and a couple of bottle stoppers... Need any of that stuff Mustangs???

Annie, I've had three different bag sealers and none of them worked for me either, I've had the same results as you... For me it may have been the bags, I don't think the sides of the rolls were properly sealed but it was four different rolls (lol)... As for the canning jar lids, it helps to soak the lids in hot water first...

dcarch, on my old unit it was number 4....

Hugs,
Rita

Yea! I'm glad the you got your FS sealer. Thanks for the offer, I'm good on the accessories.

One has to ask...why would they discontinue the unit that worked and replace it with one that doesn't??

Cathy, they do that on purpose, I swear. If it works for years, you won't buy another one to replace it!

Annie

I have half the set from qvc still unused. My son in law threw the other half away because he didn't know what it was or thought it was junk. Now I can't buy parts. I don't know what to do with this now! It came in two boxes. I will never understand that.