Vacuum Sealer Selection?

I am in the market for a new vacuum sealing unit. I'll use it to pack down emergency and first aid kit components. My wife may also use it for food storage and freezer wrapping. I'm thinking about the Foodsaver V2840 unit. I did find an '07 Blog entry by Doug strongly critical of Foodsaver. Doug, have you altered your view? Any other comments will be appreciated

Well, it's probably a bit beyond the price you were considering but within a week I plan to purchase a VacMaster VP215C chamber vacuum sealer! Presently I'm using a unit produced/branded for Sous Vide Supreme. It's okay but probably a bit overpriced.

My brother has a Rival vacuum sealer and it's not a bad basic unit. Wal-Mart sells them for $50 and occasionally Woot.com has them for $20. The issue with clamp type sealers is that they require special bags that are somewhat expensive. I buy these Weston bags from Amazon for about $.20-$.42 apiece, and that's about as good a deal as I've found. While a chamber sealer is much more expensive the bags are only a few pennies each.

At any rate, both the Rival and SVS machines have been used to good effect sealing bandages, fatwood, matches, tinder cubes etc as well as food items. I also do a lot of sous vide cooking in vacuum bags.

Probably not the solution you're looking for, but something I've tried with emergency food supplies, is using an oxygen absorber in a glass mason jar. The absorber seems to take enough out of the air in the jar, leaving basically a nitrogen atmosphere, that the lid of the mason jar is sealed shut, as in canning.

I'm curious if any members out there thing this is a reasonable solution? In doing this, am I missing something?

tim

My experience with FoodSaver has been fine. I have used it for food and gear for many years with no difficulty. I remember Doug's issues at the time, but I've been pleased with mine.

I've been looking for one myself. We had a foodsaver years ago and sold it. if you raise your own meat or hunt then the cost of the bags to seal it in exceeded the cost off the meat.