Vacuum sealer confusion

[Emerald]

on sealing liquids.. you have to do it the correct way.. As in I buy the square and rectangle glad containers and freeze my liquids in them and then pop them out and vac pac. I like the square and rectangle ones cuz they stack pretty nicely in the freezer. I did try putting the sauce/soups/liquids in the bags and then pack them open end up in boxes and freeze then pull the vacuum and seal but they didn't fit well in the freezer. but that way works too.
if people are having seal failure it is almost(see the word almost) always operator error. I was having a problem with bad seals on a few certain things like broccoli and cauliflower-I would blanch and then vacpack and sure enuf liquid in the area where the seal was causing one tiny area that leaked air due to a small water droplet. I found that 1. buying a salad spinner and after removing blanched item from ice bath you spin the carp out of it.(I actually do it with all of my blanched veggies now). and 2. freezing on cookie sheets lined with wax paper till hard then portioning and vacpacking cut that out 100%. Something about the little heads of cauliflower and broccoli really hold that water in there hidden!
I've also frozen chicken wings/legs for a few hours before vac packing them. if you are getting fat on the area that is for sealing it will sometimes not make a perfect seal-I've also gotten around that by taking a cheap gallon zip bag and cut the bottom out.. put in the bag you made with the roll of plastic and put in the chicken or meat or fatty item when full to where you want it-pull out the bottomless zip baggy and you have clean plastic roll for the seal like having a cheap tunnel/funnel for the meat..
that way there is no excess moisture sucking up the bag and into the line of the melt/seal and no fat causing seal failure..
I've also on expensive stuff put in a double seal.. it only takes a few seconds or so and then you have double safety.
But I've played with mine for a long time on what works best for me.. my home grown stuff is too expensive and yummy to lose to freezer burn. and all that expensive meat doesn't get icky either. YMMV

 

[Boogity]

Because of the way the Food Saver works, you basically can only seal solids. For liquids (such as soup in retort pouches) you need a chamber vacuum sealer. But now you're talking about quite a bit of money.

Like Emerald says, just freeze your liquid stuff in proportional size zip-lock or glad bowls (WallyWorld now has their own brand that are a little cheaper) and when frozen pop the now-hard liquid out and put it into the vac-seal bags. Works good for us. I would like to try the vac-seal bags that can be used in the microwave oven to cook or heat the food but they are sooooo expensive and I worry about cooking in plastic.

 

[Emerald]

I missed the question on which kind I have.. it is a V2480. Not sure if they still make that one. it is kinda old.. I've put it thru it's paces too. I have to say that it does take a bit longer now to seal things as after about 5 to 6 seals in a row I have to let it cool down. but it still works. At least it has a safety feature that won't let it seal till it cools so I know I'm not running it into the ground.
I'm still thinking about buying the regular mason jar lid sealer tho.
I also have a few of the canisters that came with mine and they are okay. I tend to only use them to marinate things.
I saw a trick on tv about watermelon and it really works. put chunks of watermelon(sometimes you get one that is not sweet and once picked it never ripens more so this helps) then add a bit of 100% juice any flavor(we like grape) and pull a vacuum.. then release the watermelon cubes then suck that grape juice right in. The guy on tv was using a soy sauce to make "fake sushi" chunks for salad but it is more fun to use juice. you get watermelon chunks that taste all grapey!