Every once in a while FS has email sales. Get on their email list. Last year, a $200 model was being sold for half price. a great bargain to say the least. I think that the moderators here took off my last thread for great FS deals, as I have not seen it when I did a search. Admittedly, I really amd not very happy with this forum searches, but if you keep it simple with a few words, it should give quite a lot of info.. Rolls are cheaper than bags, and there are a few alternate sources for them. Keep in mind the plastic bag material should have the embossed quilted surface on one side, so the vacuum can pass through and properly empty the bags before they get the final seal. I think Ruthie had got a bag material that lacked the quilting so they didn't get fully collapsed as they should. I don't reuse the bags, but if it were for dry things, they may be fine to reuse. I also bought an impulse heat sealer (from eBay) to make the bags from rolls. It reduces the wear on the heater strip on the FS machine. My favorite is the ability to pull a vacuum on Ball canning jars. The lids go between the jar and the vacuum hose with attached adapter, and once air is let back in, the blast will push the lid hard against the canning jar making quite a vacuum tight seal. I even use the adapter with a higher capacity vacuum pump to make some pickled peppers that simply will not survive any heat processing of any kind. Avoid using the FS with any liquids that might get accidentially pulled into the vacuum pump. My higher powered piston type vacuum pump has big moisture trap that can collect up to a quart of liquid should it ever see any while pumping.

There are two sizes of the FS canning jar attachments. One is meant for regular mouth canning jars, and the other is for the larger mouth canning jars. Yes, they use the exact same lids used in home canning. The lids are placed on top of the jar, and the attachment is pushed down over it to make a seal between a rubber ring and the glass bead just below the threads of the jars. Once air is pulled out, and you pull off the vacuum hose from the attachment, a tiny 'slug' of air, blasts into the small vacuum hole and the lid is forced down onto the jar and seals it. You remove the attachement then and rinse off the jar if its wet. The seal is very strong and is usually far better than a regular canning process would do. As mentoned, The FS vacuum pump is NOT powerful enough to be safely used as an alternative to regular canning processing. Besides that, if the very small vacuum pump inside the FS gets any trace of moisture in it, it can cause damage to the FS machine. I use a much higher powered piston type vacuum pump and also have a water/moisture trap on the vacuum line. The pump I have quickly goes down to 30 inches, which is sufficient for a decent vacuum. I also vacuum seal dried herbs like dill weed. It remains very fragrent and bright green color, even after 2 years of storage.

Linda, a foodsaver is one appliance I would not be without. I can buy tenderloins, shrimp, ground meats, etc, all on the "cheap" and not worry about freezer burn or icky flavors six months later. I have dinners ready after long days at work or when I am too tired to cook. My home grown produce is packed and ready to go. A double batch of something is no longer a leftover a month or two later. A freind has a baby or is ill and I can send dinner over in minutes. Why are some of you using paper towels for moist items? Freeze them first! Annie, return yours to Kohls, and grab one at Costco/Sams or at the FS site. I have known several people that bought the Kohls ones and they never worked. No clue why though. Make sure it has both the dry and moist setting for sealing. Moist does not squish the items as much. And our dinner tonight? A brochole that Annie made at my house at the end of February last year. I froze it first, vac'd it, defrosted it this morning, warmed it up and we had dinner with great memories attached. Thanks my friend.

LOL! Guess I don't do enough freezing to consider one, and two out of three kiddies are out of the house. But thanks anyway, honeyb2!