horseflesh

That assortment is awesome! They did not have that when I bought bags a couple of years ago... so I have, like, thousands of a size it turns out I don't use. The size I use most, by far, is the 6" x 10" pint bag... but if I could only have one size on hand it would be 8" x 12" quart bag. Sometimes, a pint just isn't big enough. The quart bag is big enough for almost anything, but it doesn't cost a lot more so I wouldn't feel too bad about not using the smallest practical size.

I have a Minipack with a Busch pump so I have some opinions. My Minipack has been running well. I can't compare it to a Vacmaster and so it is hard to say if the Busch pump was worth it... all I know is, it's been working well, and the pump can boil ice water. I honestly find the moisture stop feature to be pretty worthless. You need to go in to that mode specifically and I never take the time; I just hit Stop when I see the inside of the lid fog up, or when the boiling in the bag picks up. Since I often seal a variety of things in one session--for example, a few different kinds of leftovers--it takes more time to use the built in moisture stop feature than to just eyeball it. For a commercial workflow where you needed the machine to run unattended while you prep the next bag, it would probably make more sense. I seal a lot of things with liquids in the bag. Not needing to care about how much liquid there is or how often I do it is great. I think that choosing an oil pump over a dry pump is the most important thing if you are getting a chamber sealer. Getting the better type of oil pump is nice but as a home user with only about 700 cycles on the machine, I have a hard time proving that it was "worth" the expense.

I have had some failed seals but always with good explanation. If I seal something with sharp parts (bones, shrimp shells), I might get a pinhole leak. Now I know to double-bag these things, or pad the bones. Once in a while one of my big 12" bags will shift during pump-down and I will get a wrinkle under the sealer bar, but I can usually trim off the bad seal and try again. Not all wrinkles cause bad seals, but it does happen once in a while.

Same here. I went for a nice sealer so I could have maximum versatility. I seal liquids, even warm ones, all the time. All you need to do is watch the chamber and hit the stop button before it makes a mess. When sealing warm liquids there will be an instant where the chamber fogs up in a split second... that is when I hit stop. Any longer and you're headed for a mess. I run the Conditioning Program once in a while, and change the oil (so far) once a year. I did about 600 cycles in my first year, so that is probably an early oil change, but more frequent oil changes won't hurt anything.

Boy, do I know it... I was going to get a VP215C and then I talked myself into a Minipack. No regrets, however!

I went through a similar thought process... how high up the ladder do I go? I ended up choosing a model with an oil pump and I have been happy with that decision. I really like being able to work with wet and warm foods without worrying about how water vapor may damage the dry piston pump. Leaving the oil to sit for a while should not hurt the pump. The oil sits around in its bottle for who knows how long before you buy it anyway. It's synthetic and very stable. My sealer has a "conditioning program" that runs the pump for a couple of minutes, heating up the oil to drive off any accumulated water vapor. They suggest doing that once in a while, and after the sealer has sat unused for a weeks. That is the only thing the manual has to say on the topic so again, I think idle time isn't a big deal. I ended up using my sealer a lot more than I had expected, and I had pretty high expectations. I don't think yours will sit idle much either. As far as loudness, my sealer is about as loud as a blender, making it the loudest thing in the kitchen. As long as no one is watching TV at the same time, it isn't a big deal. And if they are... I just ask them to pause it for a minute. From your list, I would choose the 215. I almost got one myself but decided to get a Minipack.

I can vouch for nectarines injected with Frangelico. Pineapple is another good fruit to play with.

We just have different priorities... I am all about minimizing per-bag cost. I definitely see where you are coming from though. I too would like to buy smaller quantities. I bought one size I was unsure of... Have used it maybe 4 times. I have a lot of those darn bags still...

The cost of the bags seems to scale up in linear fashion with the amount of material used. If you buy only big bags, and end up cutting half of them up, you are actually wasting money. If it's more convenient, go for it... but I find that I really like having a few bag sizes on hand. I think I spent about 4 cents per pint bag (my most commonly used size) and 11 cents per gallon bag. If every pint bag cost me 11 cents I wouldn't use them with reckless abandon... but at 4 cents, I seal everything. I seal instead of using tupperware if it's going to be in storage more than a day. Also, I think you will be surprised how many bags you use. I will have put over 600 bags through my sealer by its first birthday. If a thousand bags is truly several lifetimes worth a chamber sealer probably isn't worth the cost. 3 mil bags have worked fine for me. I have had a few failures over the last year. Mostly that happens when I don't put the bag in the machine right, so there is a wrinkle in the sealer area. Sometimes the payload will shift during evacuation and move the bag around. I have also had sharp foods like shrimp shells puncture the bag. In those cases, I double-bag. I find that to be more cost-effective than also maintaining a supply of 4 mil bags.

Thanks, Ruben... And, you reviewed the 4080! Awesome.

Thank you for the feedback. This is still a tough decision! My thoughts so far-- The ICE-100 seems like the safe bet among the affordable compressor units. Based on scary reviews I'm dismissing the Lello 4070 and 4090 and apparent variants such as Whynter. I wish I could find a real showdown between the Breville and the ICE-100. If the Breville made product as well as the ICE-100 it might be worth $100 for the extra capacity and more useful keep-cold feature. I entertain a lot and I'd really like the ability to serve from the unit. The next step up seems to be the Lello 4080 Musso Lussino ($700, 1.5 qt) which is allegedly much different than the cheaper Lellos. However, again, there are no good reviews of the unit in comparison to the ICE-100 or Breville. (I did find a small blurb here, though.) I'm also apprehensive about reliability and repairs on the 4080. I suspect it will be easier to get a Cuisinart fixed than a Lello, and I do not have any confidence that the $700 4080 will be more reliable than any other non-commercial model.

I recently purchased this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002HEXSWE I am reasonably happy with it. It seems to miss the stone in about 1 in 20 cherries and as far as I can tell, that's an OK rating. If I am dehydrating the cherries, I don't even bother to check them after pitting because the pit is obvious and easy to fix in the final product. If I was making baked goods I'd have to check each cherry individually no matter what kind of pitter I used.

An oil pump pulls a stronger vacuum, and is tolerant of water vapor meaning you can work with liquids and hot foods. The oil pumps are also said to be more long-lived in general. I do not know how much water vapor is too much for a dry pump, if anyone else does I'd like to learn more.

I've used the conditioning program a few times but haven't noticed a visible difference in the oil. That may be meaningless, though. Do you have the manual soft air knob? Mine came with one and I have honestly never tried the programmable soft air, since the knob is so darn easy to use. Any other problems with your unit? Mine does have a quirk--the display may go blank, or just half blank, until you power-cycle it. This only seems to happen if I interact with the control panel, eg changing programs, and then only if I leave it alone for a while. If I just turn it on and operate it, I don't think it has ever blanked out. Makes me think it may be a software problem... Minipack suggested opening up the unit and re-seating the cables, which I have not yet tried.

I've been quite happy with my 35XP. I abuse it with hot foods and liquids all the time and the pump is still going strong. I just changed the oil though, at about 550 cycles, because it looked milky... I wish knew how often you really have to do that because at that rate it adds about two cents in costs to each cycle.

I haven't had that problem, though I have only used the conditioning cycle a few times. (How often are you SUPPOSED to do it, do you know?) I have had a different issue, though... Has your display ever gone completely blank, or half blank? Don't hesitate to call Minipack directly. There's a very helpful tech there named Jamal, who I've spoken with a couple of times.

Maybe yours is defective. Mine went on easily enough.

Well, I love my 35XP. The sealing mechanism is very reliable, the pump is very fast, and I really like being able to set what vacuum level I want instead of riding the "stop" button. I'm even planning on getting the nitrogen injection system later this year, so I can do "pillow packs" and seal soft items. I have only found one wart on it so far. Sometimes, the display will go blank, or half-blank, requiring a reboot. The machine still works but you will have a hard time changing any settings if the display freaks out. I've been in touch with tech support, and they have advised me to take the top off the machine and re-set the computer cables inside. I haven't done that yet because I am still looking for a pattern of misbehavior--I suspect this is a software bug and not a hardware problem. Anyway, even with that problem, I'd do it again. I am really glad I popped for the more capable machine and I do use a lot of the advanced settings.

MVS-35XP, 78 lbs according to a vendor web site. Dry pumps are definitely more convenient in some ways. You are supposed to drain the oil filled pumps before moving the machines.

My Minipack with an oil pump is definitely less than 100 lbs. I haven't changed the oil yet as I only have about 400 cycles, but from looking at the instructions it is a one-person job.

I have used a couple of different sealers and 7 seconds sounds like a really long time for the seal cycle.

What I'd like is a Teflon-coated RFID temperature reading pill that you can embed in the SV food. OK, you might not want to hack up a nice steak to push a little RFID pill in, but I can imagine a lot of cases where it would be useful. Such things do exist for industry and I have started looking to see if there is any such gear that might be affordable and sized right for the home cook. It's not inherently expensive equipment to manufacture, so perhaps it will come to be in time.

From what I have read, garlic may be contaminated with botulism. You don't want to give it a place to hang out without oxygen.

I was going to get the 215 before I talked myself into the MVS-35. I think the 215 looks like a great value.

I chose an oil pump because as long as I was spending a bundle, I didn't mind spending a little more to get maximum flexibility. Since the oil pump is tolerant of water vapor I don't have to worry too much about what I put in the chamber. Being able to seal warm, watery leftovers, or vacuum-dry foods before frying is pretty handy. I rarely need the higher vacuum level of the Busch pump but it's also nice to have.