The oil-filled pump is the difference between being able to seal anything you want, even if it is hot and steamy, and having to be careful and cool everything first. I absolutely love the freedom to never worry about anything.
> The other thing is I wonder if the issue could just be with the seal bar- can a defective seal bar cause the issues I’m experiencing?
In my unit and I think most others, the seal bar lifts under vacuum power. It does seem like your problem could be as simple as a sticky piston, broken bushing, or other mechanical issue. The machine surely has switches inside that tell it if the bar is up or down, hence your error code. It might be easy to fix, if you could get to the problem... but it also might require a specific Polyscience part that they won't sell you.
