We went through this a couple of years ago; our second FoodSaver brand sealer in as many years gave up the ghost. We decided that spending money on yet a third consumer-grade non-repairable sealer was probably not a wise thing to do.

Instead, we bought a commercial-duty MiniPack "Best-Vac" sealer. It can actually be repaired, the company we bought it from stocks all the parts, and the thing works like a champ! It was a bit more expensive, but I think it was worth it.

BTW, embossed vacuum pack bags aren't "proprietary". You can buy the generic equivalents from Costco and Wal-Mart, amongst other places. They work perfectly well; in fact, the Wal-Mart brand seem to be a little tougher than the "name" brand bags.

-=[ Grant ]=-