Foodsaver Smartseal V3485 Brushed Stainless Steel and Black

It's so smart, I started talking to it. (smile)
This is absolutely a marvelous product. I already have a foodsaver that I liked what it could do, but it was so ackward to use. It laid flat on the table and as I positioned the bag, I had to try to keep the bag steady with my left hand, while, with my right hand, pulled down the locking handle on the right side of the machine to hold the bag in place to seal. Then, I always found myself leaning slighty over the machine trying to see the control lights so I would know what settings I needed to turn to: dry/moist,etc. But now, I have the best. This machine stands upright, all controls are in plain sight, it holds it's own bags, has it's own cutter for sizing new bags and one to cut them open. My first use was with a already made bag. (I reuse my bags by washing them with hot soapy water, and drying them. (I have plenty of new bags and rolls too.) You have to make sure you use them a little larger than you need to keep using them again.)After I filled the bag with food and gently guided...

Couldn't Live Without It
I had a much older model FoodSaver for many years, and finally wore the poor thing out. So I decided to purchased the brushed stainless steel model V3485 as this one had a hose port just like my old one did, so I already had the canning jar accessories for both regular jars, and also wide-mouth jars. As my previous model was the kind you manually closed onto the bag, it took me a few tries to master how to feed the bag into the V3485's slot (it wasn't hard at all, merely different from my old model). Already being familiar with having to freeze moist foods (ham, hash browns, etc.), and also soft foods (birthday cake with decorated frosting, etc.), prior to vacuum sealing them, there was no "transition period" between my old model and this new one (other than getting used to feeding the bag into the new model's slot). I don't buy pre-made bags, preferring to buy them by the roll so that I can make them any length that I want to, and have had no problems re-using the bags I've made...

Not as good as expected
This was a replacement for an old foodsaver V1060 that was used for several years and would no longer vacuum. Unfortunately parts were obsolete. After reading mixed reviews, I bought this model and although I liked the upright design, that was about all that I liked. Making the bags was somewhat awkward but far easier than trying to get the vac to work. I repeatedly had to insert, retract and wiggle the bag for the machine to sense a bag had been inserted. When it worked, it was great but not worth the time and effort it took to try to get it to work. When making bags and sealing them, there was a lot more waste than with the older model. I thought maybe I had a lemon and might exchange it for another but I opted not to and will try different model.

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