Weston Pro 2300 Commercial Grade Vacuum Sealer Machine - 16" Extra-Wide Sealing Bar, 935W Powerful Food Saver for Sous Vide, Meal Prep & Long-Term Food Storage | Stainless Steel Design | Ideal for Home Kitchens, Restaurants & Food Preservation

We're looking at bulk Milk (Land-O-Lakes, Dry Whole Milk, makes 47 gallons), and lots of Rice, in 4 varieties, all which we buy in BULK. Breaking these down to 3-4 serving sizes, add the oxygen absorber & desiccant packet, and they get stored in clear storage buckets in the basement. We've had this thing a number of years - it easily beats everything else in speed, making a good seal, this unit is FAST, like you'd expect from a production unit!This unit is a time saver, a huge time saver, delivering a high quality evacuation & seal 99% of the time.Pros: Speed of vacuum is outstanding. Nice WIDE seal you can visually inspect for quality, wider than the actual bags we use. The bags from Weston are first quality, with a checked patter on one side, the air gets sucked out of the bags *fast*. Easy to clean & robust! Not the flimsy kind of thing. The thick, clear, hinged cover - wonderful to finally SEE if you're messing things up. We have done HUNDREDS of bags in 4 sizes, with far fewer "failures" than our "seal-a-meal" units... This is a high quality unit, we haven't had to replace a single part (we do clean it well, before & after use), I suspect, given the quality of Weston - this is the last vacuum sealer unit we'll ever buy.Lastly, it is QUIET compared to the seal-a-meal units. It is worth the higher price, with food prices soaring, we look for deals, and repackage in 3-4 serving sizes.After 3 years of sitting in the freezer - meats have ZERO evidence of Freezer burn - still tastes as good as the day we vacuum packed it... something I cannot say for the cheaper units. The cover, IMO, makes the difference in sealing, stiff & heavy duty, gives you a solid, even seal.Cons: Yeah, it's big & bulky, heavy - not the kind of unit you'll keep on your counter. I wish we could use it more often, but pulling it out of the box, setting it up (clearing counter space... plugging it in... OK, we're getting OLD and a bit lazy, not as strong). One thing about the weight ... where you put it on the counter or table, it's not gonna STAY, which is actually a PLUS, it's not gonna need suction cups to stay put, so the rubber feet & weight keep it from sliding around as you open and close and seal. I wish it had a little "ramp" for the front, sloping or level would work, because we like to get the seal as close to the food as possible, and cut off the excess bag, a sloping ramp would be ideal.Tips: USE A LITTLE PRESSURE - rest your hand on the handle!!! We vacuum pack "meals" which saves us LOTS of time cooking - "heat and serve" works for us! We use Weston 1qt. 1/2gal & 1gal., size bags. The 1/2 gallon size get the most use for SOUPS ... yes, like Chili, Baked Potato Soup, Broccoli & Cheese, lots of liquid type soups. The secret is a little downward pressure, with your left hand on the black handle, WATCH the bag evacuate, hit the seal button with your right hand, as soon as you see the liquid coming towards the edge of the unit (all the air looks like it's gone). It's gonna happen FAST, so be ready.What works GREAT for soups, is to create a 3/4-1" thick bag of soup, which thaws quickly when run under hot water, and maximizes storage in your freezer (freeze the bags FLAT). For the best packaging, to get it nice and FLAT, we put a couple of books under the front of the unit, so the bag is Level to the cover, then we just slide a hand over the bag to "pre-squeeze" some of the air out. The bag lies flat, and we hit the switch. First time trying to do a bag of soup - I hit the seal button, when I saw it sucking Chili into the unit (Aieeeee! It's making a mess!), and much to our surprise, it still worked perfectly! The cleanup was quick (damp rag), and back in business.We routinely buy in BULK, even with most of the 8 kids moved out, we continue to look for bulk deals, and repackage for 3-4 serving use (3 of us, occasionally a guest). We have used this for Powders, Solids & Liquids successfully. Occasionally, we get a bag that leaks. For things that do not need refrigeration, Rice, Noodles, we 'give it a day' to see if they leaked (sharp, pointed foods puncture bags).Buy Bags, you're not saving anything buying rolls. We wound up with at least half a dozen rolls... you know the routine, cut the size you want, seal one end, to make it a 'bag', and feel good about yourself, because you think you saved $.02 making your own custom size bags - too much work! Wife & I like to "get the job done" and get back to the farm work.On our farm, we've been putting food by, over 18 years, both wifey and I grew up with parents who canned - that is *work* and *dedication* to spend a whole weekend in front of 2 big canners, steaming away. We also dry foods, with 2 dehydrators - and then vacuum pack. The amount of TIME we've saved with this Weston Pro-2300 probably amounts of WEEKS of canning, by comparison.----(original review)We've been vacuum sealing meats and vegetables for decades with a Seal-o-meal unit. It was OK, other than we'd have to seal at least 2x to get a leak proof seal, sometimes we didn't realize the seal was no good until it had been in the freezer awhile. Pretty much hit and miss.Recently we bought a Weston meat grinder, with an awesome sausage stuffing spiral - makes GREAT hot dogs, sausages, everything!Decided to replace the old Seal-oops-meal with this Weston Pro-2300. I got what we wanted, it's currently being used for packaging pulled and chopped pork, here's what the kids say.a. It is FAST. 10-15 seconds from hitting the start button, it's completely DONE.b. The WIDE seal has been flawless. One time sealing, and it's DONE. The sealing strip on the bag is almost 1/4" wide.... that ain't gonna leak!c. Stainless Steel looks good, like a professional appliance, it's easy to keep clean.d. Quiet, yes, it doesn't sound like it's struggling to pull a vacuum, we're talking a fast, quiet vacuum pump - it took a little practice, after squeezing and massaging bags to get as much air out as possible (seal-o-meal), this thing quickly and quietly pulls it out, sometimes in less than 5 seconds.e. The clear TOP to the vacuum chamber is a really nice PLUS. It's very thick, and being clear you can see if liquids are being sucked into this overflow tray. It's also nice to see "how much bag" is actually inserted into the unit.f. Heavy duty and rubber feet that stays PUT as you fumble around with bags. The seal-o-meal would slip and slide all over the place, while we were trying to get the darn edge of the bag inserted and the cover down.g. here's a Pro and Con... It'll do a big, wide bag like nothing else. It'll take up counter space - yep, we're using it 2x a week for the pork processing, veggies... we still can't find a good place to store it, it's both good & bad, heavy duty, commercial unit, and big.If you're considering this unit, or another brand - consider that clear top, fast vacuum pump & wide seal on the bags. This isn't a kitchen appliance "toy". Would I buy it again? Well... my daughter is getting married (finally), gonna buy a house and put in a garden. We struggled with the seal-o-meal for 3 decades, and it was over $285, probably 10x that in rolls of bags. What a waste. One of these, with the smallest and medium size bags will be less expensive. Oh, get the pre-made bags, in bulk, you won't regret it - it'll do the roll bags too, just more work and costs more.I don’t generally do reviews. But when I find a product as good as this, I thought I must. As I said it does one thing and it does it well; and that is no-frills vacuum sealing. After operating this for a while I found that I made one mistake. I was pressing down too hard on the vacuum lid when it started sealing. The lid is quite heavy and I found that it does a perfect seal if I do not even press on the lid. I would like to see a vacuum bag roll holder on the back and a cutting bar, but to make up for it I bought an inexpensive product (A-HEYIDA kitchen rolls cutting dispenser) that solved the problem. I was thinking of trading it for a different vacuum sealer with roll holder and cutting bar but I liked it so much that I decided to keep it and I am really glad I did. So if you want a no-frills powerful vacuum sealer that won’t let you down this is the one to buy. I went through three high-end foodsavers in less than a year and a half. They just don’t hold up. I don’t expect to ever replace this and if it fails it is easily fixable as it is made up of all bolted together parts and they are readily available. Mine even came with an extra set of oval vacuum chamber seals and heat tape. I was thinking of deducting one star for the lack of the roll holder and cutting bar but this just does the job so well plus it does not advertise that it comes with the one, that I decided not to. LEM makes a roll holder cutting bar assembly, but they are back ordered until September. I might give that a try when it becomes available. I think it could be easily integrated into this unit. So bottom line with your eyes open about what this will provide and what it does not, I would highly recommend purchasing it.I had so much fun with the vacuum sealer. I was sealing up everything. Only issues I had were with the bags from the same brand. I had chicken wings and a few chicken breast’s with bones, a few lobster tails, and since all of those items had some rough/poky edges, they kept popping the bags. Also, I realized the sealing element only heats up to a certain temp, it wasn’t hot enough to reseal chip bags (lays, Doritos, etc). I tried pushing down and it still didn’t seal. Once you read the manual and get the hang of the process, it’s super easy and user friendly!I bought this machine in 2014 and since then have used it to vacuum seal several thousand pounds of fish, shrimp, beef, chicken, etc. I use it for food storage, and the meats that I seal with it easily last for 2+ years in the deep freeze. I also use it for sealing foods to cook in the sous vide. I make my own sausage and bacon and seal and freeze them. I buy meats in bulk quantities and seal them in smaller serving sizes. I seal and freeze my bbq ribs and pulled pork. Wet items like stews, soups, boiled peanuts, broths, etc I will freeze before sealing in plastic containers, then remove from the containers and vacuum seal. About 2 years ago I replaced the heating element and have twice replaced the teflon strip....both very simple operations. I've not had a single problem with this machine. I have owned two cheaper machines in the past and that's exactly what they are...cheaper, both in price and quality. I have found the Avid Armor vacuum bags to work very well.I ordered this cause my old foods saver crapped out.runcome meat thru this and it keeps going without missing a beat.will add a long term review later.if you look at the pic with the bag.the weston will seal a thicker seal then the foodsaverLove this! !t vacs great, wide seals great and you can adjust it to a variety of bag thicknesses. You can adjust to manual for fragile foods. GREAT!Needed a heavy duty food vacuum sealer as my FoodSaver one would overheat with extended use. This does not overheat. It has built in fan. Can seal two bags at once. Can use FoodSaver bags with it.I read some of the reviews before buying and was a little worried but after using it, it’s great for what we are doing with it. We are packaging cannabis with it and works like a charm. 5 plus stars not sure why there are negative reviews to be honestJust be sure it is a bit heavy. It does fit under my sink cupboard easily though. I knew this when I bought it. You get what you pay for. First couple uses convinced me. Simple, straight forward. Perfect seals every time. Had a bit of trouble getting suitable bags, they seemed back ordered on Amazon, but other than that this machine is a Ferrari. But at half the price as the chamber models. Look at the option of getting the Weston bags on a roll, there is an approach to seal the front, load, then seal the back.We were lucky to get one of the last white, powder-coated models of the Weston Vacuum Sealers – cheaper, and easier to keep finger prints off than the much more expensive stainless steel models.The Weston sealer worked far better than the two Food Saver vacuum sealers we had previously. A real workhorse, the vacuum pump motors, with cooling fan, did not overheat, sucking and sealing without needing a long cooling off period between bags.We tried the sealer with both Weston bags and bags from our old Food Saver. Weston vacuum sealer was able to handle both kinds of bags without missing a beat. From other reviews stating the Food Saver bags didn't seal well, we just did a second, manual seal at each end…and that should solve the problem.We also bought a spare foam sealing gasket kit. One of our Food Savers, a very top-end model, would still be usable if the company hadn't discontinued making their gasket kits for it. We're not taking any chances with our Weston.In conclusion, our Weston vacuum sealer is definitely worth the higher price. It's built like a tank (and weighs almost as much), and should provide us with at least a decade of reliable service.Only had it for a week now but this is the vacuum sealer I went with after about a weeks worth of research. So far I love it, and it is exactly what I expected. I bought a roll of bags and enjoy that I can custom size the bag. It is also a lot cheaper this way. It is an extremely simple unit that works fast and effective. Add in the cool down cycle and you're looking at under 10 seconds for every vaccum and seal on average. A little bit of liquid hasn't hurt the seal so far. I marinated some meat in a bag and sealed it no problem. (Just be careful to keep liquid out of the vaccum port. Though I was surprised how little liquid got sucked past the seal) Had a couple small wrinkles in the bags that it also sealed through. So far, haven't had a single error with the unit. I love it.I purchased this machine after my FoodSaver died and am very pleased with its performance. It seals well, seems intuitive in its use, and looks to be durable for the long-term.