Welp, I figured I would post an update to the original post of my experience to the foodsaver machine since it was of interest to myself and others.
See post here: Link
A couple months ago wrote about this as I thought that it had good potential for bulk cooking and food storage and decided to borrow one for a couple months and try it without spending a bunch on it.
Sorry to say I am not really that impressed with it. I tried several different apps, dry foods, beef jerky, strawberries, hamburger patties, steaks, chops and others. For the first week or so all looked good and everything was great. About 3 weeks later I noticed that the beef jerky in the fridge had lost its vacuum and was all freezer burnt. Sucky. Several weeks later I found the strawberries and other things that did the same. I don’t know if it does not get a good enough seal on the bag when it melts it shut or what.
The real kicker was I tried several times to use it for marinading meat batches, which worked decently, but the vacuum pulls some of the marinade out and makes a mess, then the bag leaked over a couple days and oozed sticky marinade in the fridge. Icky.
Overall not impressed, I have had better luck with freezer zip locks and a straw.
Stfr says
America’s Test Kitchen said it had to do with the thickness of the plastic. Ice crystals that eventually form are sharp and make tiny holes in the plastic, resulting in loss of vacuum. Even more expensive models did it (with thicker plastic), just later. They recommended you buy a more expensive one and not count on more than 6-12 months protection from it. I’ve had luck with tupperware type containers, although it does take up more space.