horseflesh

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.

The 300 looks like a good contender at that price point.

Congratulations! You're going to love it. I hope you also saved a bundle by deleting the printer.

By far, I use pint (6"x10") bags the most. Quart sized are next, I use them about half as often. I also have gallon sized bags but I might use 20 pint bags for every gallon bag. So far I haven't sealed anything too huge, but I do use the gallon bags when I want to reseal a bag over and over. For example if I have a giant Costco block of cheddar, I cut the bag open and reseal it after each use. This adds about eleven cents to the cost of the cheese, but also keeps it really fresh. The cheapest place I have found, when you include shipping, is VacuumSealersUnlimited.com. I looked at a dozen or more shops, pretty much every place I could find that sold chamber sealer bags. Another user upthread was really irritated that they delayed processing his order for a couple of days... that happened to me as well, so if you are in a hurry, I guess go somewhere else. But if you want decent bags at the best price, I could not find anyplace cheaper--and I looked hard. (If anyone does find a better deal, or a good price on small quantities, please post!) I'm using the 3 mil bags and have only very rarely wished I had anything thicker. When I have had a problem with puncturing the bag--and that only happened once, with biscotti--I was able to get around it by slowing the repressurization time on my machine. http://shop.vacuumsealersunlimited.com/3-MIL-Chamber-Bags_c67.htm Note that they do sell boilable bags as well. I decided to get my quart bags as boilable, which adds a cent or two per bag. However, if you are doing SV, all the bags are fine for lower temperatures. I wish I could buy some of the bags in smaller quantities. The neat gold-backed bags, for example... I'd like 100 of those, I just don't need 1000.

Chris & Poet, if you have any links to "vroom" techniques you enjoy, please post. I've yet to try pickles, and while I marinade I wonder if my procedure is the best.

Competition will surely help, but Paul is right--they can only get down to a certain price point while retaining features. If you want a Busch pump, that's just going to cost you more... though as far as I can tell, there is a heck of a nice margin built into the price of a chamber sealer.

Well, I'm not happy with the delay, but I am going to stick it out. I like the design of the Sansaire better than the Anova... I don't care for the touch screen, plus the Sansaire guy is a friend of a friend. Fortunately I didn't promise anyone SV for Thanksgiving!

The 10% off code won't work on chamber bags. I asked them about it, it's by design... Claimed they didn't have margin to spare, which could be true since that are already the cheapest bags I could find. Even if they always shipped a week late, I'd order again without hesitation. I probably saved $75 over making the same big order elsewhere.