Buying food in bulk is a great way to save money on groceries. Problem is, food eventually goes bad when exposed for certain durations, which means your vegetables, fruits, and meats will end up being inedible if you hold off consuming them long enough. Of course, freezing and refrigerating can help, but there’s an added way to extend your bulk food’s shelf life even further and that’s by vacuum sealing them.
Using vacuum sealers to wrap your food items can help keep them fresh for up to five times longer than standard storage, whether it be plastic containers, zip-top bags, or various types of wrapping materials. Five times is a heck of a big number, especially considering how long a regular zip-top bag can help food stay in good condition.
What exactly do vacuum sealers do? Simply put, they suck air out of a bag before sealing it, creating a hermetically-sealed closure that’s impenetrable by air and moisture. This is what allows it to maintain a food item’s freshness, making it possible to buy groceries in bulk without having a good chunk of them go bad at some point. However, that’s not all they can do. Vacuum-sealing can also be employed as a way to marinate meats and pickle vegetables at a much faster pace, as well as seal food to make them viable for sous-vide cooking.
Suffice to say, the best vacuum sealers can prove to be an extremely valuable tool in the kitchen and these are some of the best options if you want to bring its unique function to your home.
Foodsaver Cordless FS2160
Pros
- Very compact handheld size
- Easy to use
Cons
- Requires vacuum zip-top bags to work
- Seal isn’t as rock hard as regular vacuum sealers
Don’t have room on the countertop for a vacuum sealer? Well, if you have some extra space in the drawer, maybe you can go for this handheld vacuum sealer, which works with the outfit’s own vacuum zip-top bags (as well as some other brands) to let you hermetically seal foods. It works like a regular Ziploc, so you simply put your food items in the bag and seal the zippered opening. After that, though, you place the sealer on the bag’s valve at the upper corner, then use it to suction any trapped air inside. This is probably the most compact handheld sealer we’ve seen and it works really well. Of course, it suffers from the same issues as similar products, specifically the fact that you can’t customize the size of your bags, since you’re using zip-top bags. Is it as tight a seal as those using full-size machines? Not really, but it is tight enough that it makes for a really good food storage solution.
Anova Precision Vacuum Sealer
Pros
- Vacuums and seals automatically with one push
- Offers a pulse mode for delicate food items
- Works consistently and reliably
Cons
- No accessory functions
- No moist settings
We all know Anova for their sous vide immersion circulators, so it’s no surprise they also make some of the best vacuum sealers around. Their small countertop model is easily one of our favorites for its affordability, compact size, and reliable function. It has three buttons: vacuum and seal, pulse, and seal. Vacuum and seal is the main one you’ll be using, as it siphons out all the air and seals it automatically afterwards, with no need to press any other button. Pulse is a more controlled vacuum function, which they recommend you use for more delicate food items (e.g. ripe berries), while Seal simply seals the bag after you pulse (or if you want to seal a bag without taking the air out). All the functions worked pretty straightforward, while the machine itself made very little noise. Sadly, that’s all it does, with no accessory functions, so you’ll need their more expensive sealers for more advanced capabilties.
Nutrichef Automatic Vacuum Air Sealing System
Pros
- Lightweight and compact
- Gentle mode makes sealing sensitive food easy
- Intuitive controls
Cons
- Hard to close without touching the controls
- Need extra pressure to lock down the lid
We love the straightforward controls on this vacuum sealer, which make it really simple and easy to use. It’s pretty compact, too, measuring just 14.2 x 6 inches (width x depth), so it should easily find room in any counter. You can choose from two types of sealing strength, normal and gentle, as well as two food types, dry and moist, with the device ably providing the necessary function, regardless of which options you choose. Granted, some really soft food items may get slightly crushed even in the gentle mode, but it worked well enough for the most part. There’s also a “Stop” button that lets you interrupt the sealing process any time you want.
Additional features include a built-in cutter to let you quickly cut the sealed section to your desired length and an air suction hose that you can use to draw air out of a bottle of wine.
Nesco Deluxe Food VS-12
Pros
- Complete settings for sealing different types of food
- Double heat seal option
- Built-in bag storage and cutter
- Accessory hose lets you seal canisters
Cons
- Louder than others
- Confusing at first with the amount of options
This is the first vacuum sealer in our list to go over the $100 mark and it brings a lot of features for that extra hike in price. For instance, there different seal settings for both dry and moist food items, as well as normal and gentle settings, so you can safely bag soft and brittle food items. They even offer single or double heat seal, with the outfit recommending the latter for moist- and liquid-based foods, which makes a lot of sense. Plus, they let you do vacuum and seal on a single action, as well as separate steps, so you can vacuum seal your stuff exactly the way you like. We love that there’s integrated bag storage under the lid with a built-in cutter, so your bags can just sit there until they’re needed, with no need to rummage inside the drawers to find your stash. They even put a handle on the lid to make it easy to open and close, sparing you from having to push down on the lid itself as you do with many other devices in the category.
FoodSaver 4800 Series Vacuum Sealer
Pros
- Automatic bag detection commences vacuum sealing
- Very convenient to use
- Built-in bag storage and cutter
- Integrated handheld vacuum sealer docked on the left side
Cons
- Larger than usual
- Very expensive
We’ll be honest, this vacuum sealer is a little too big, we thought it was some kind of printer. Turns out, the top of the device has an integrated storage area for your bag rolls, which, we guess, explains the size a little bit. To use, simply grab a bag and put your food items inside, then turn the device on and press the Seal button. From there, you simply place the bag’s opening inside the vacuum channel and the machine will automatically detect it, commencing the vacuum sealing process all on its own. There are indicator LEDs for the operation’s progress, so you know exactly what’s going on, with the lights instantly turning off as soon as the bag’s ready to remove. It’s very convenient. They also include a button for choosing between dry and moist food, as well as a handheld sealer docked on the left side of the top, giving you a quick way to vacuum seal zip-top bags, canisters, and more.
Anova Precision Chamber Vacuum Sealer
Pros
- Effectively vacuum seals anything
- Works amazingly for sealing liquids and the most delicate food items
- Makes pickles, flavored oils, infused alcohol, and more
Cons
- You can only seal what you can fit inside the chamber
- Loud and slow compared to standard devices
- Bulky size takes up too much kitchen space
Easily the biggest vacuum sealer in the list, this one comes in at a massive 13.6 x 11.2 x 8.9 inches (width x depth x height). Seriously, the darn thing looks like a countertop oven. Instead of simply sucking air out of a bag, the device creates a depressurized compartment that’s fully devoid of air, which effectively vacuum seals anything you put inside, regardless of whether you put in hard foods, soft foods, dry foods, or liquids. It also makes it possible to vacuum seal multiple bags at a time. Aside from vacuum-sealing bags, it also has an extract/infuse settings that lets you make flavored oil, infused alcohol, and make all sorts of infused stuff at a more rapid pace than usual, as well as a dry/cool setting that makes it possible to safely vacuum seal super delicate items like baked goods while preserving every single part of it.
