Food preservation is a must in every household. Start learning how to extend the shelf life of your foods TODAY! An easy way to lengthen the life of the food in your fridge, freezer, and pantry is to use a vacuum sealer.
What vacuum sealer does Costco have?
I recently purchased this vacuum sealer from Costco on sale: FoodSaver VS3000. I purchased it on sale about a year ago and I have not looked back or dealt with many issues. I also purchased extra storage bags to have on hand. I think it is always a beneficial idea to have extra of what you use—you never know what you will need and it saves you money and trips to the store.
What is vacuum sealing?
The process of vacuum sealing involves a machine that pulls all of the air out of a bag or jar. The three main killers of food storage are moisture, light, and air (oxygen.) By using a vacuum sealer, you are eliminating one of those components and this allows your food to last longer and saves your food from freezer burn!
This blog is my personal review of the FoodSaver VS3000 and the FoodSaver VS3150 (same machine.) I assume that the VS3000 is the Costco version, but it is the same as the VS3150 found on Amazon. My obsession for preserving food has increased because of how easy vacuum sealing makes the process.
The pros of the Costco vacuum sealer:
1) Countertop storage
It is compact and doesn’t take up an excessive amount of space on the counter. I don’t have to put it away after every use because it is impeding my work areas. The construction is sleek, so I don’t mind leaving it out. It has a storage switch on the side of the machine that I leave in place when it is on the counter, there are no other funky quirks that need to be done making it an easy storage item.
2) Handheld mode + accessory port
You are able to seal mason jars with this vacuum sealer! How do you seal mason jars with a vacuum sealer? Easy! You connect the jar vacuum seal top accessory to the handheld accessory port and you click the button to vacuum—it is that simple. I’ve seen some reviews of people thinking you can’t use this model for vacuum sealing jars, but you can! And I do it all the time to keep produce fresher longer.
3) Easy to use
I didn’t have to read a long, confusing manual to get this vacuum sealer up and running. It was simple and intuitive—just how I like my machinery! It was essentially ready to go after I took it out of the box.
The cons of the Costco FoodSaver:
1) Positioning the bag correctly to seal
Sometimes, it can be a struggle to position the open ends of the bag just right inside of the machine to get it to vacuum seal. I sometimes have to play around with it to get it to finally seal. This has been a common complaint of this model, but it isn’t anything that has completely hindered my use of it.
2) Seal warped
The seal around the top of the machine when you open it has warped after a year, and I now have to lightly press down on it to get a good vacuum seal. This just happened after my recent freezer cleanout, so I didn’t get to show it in the video. I’m a little bummed, but it is still usable.
3) Handheld bags
I have noticed that the handheld accessory bags don’t hold as good of a seal as the normal plastic roll does. I have found maybe 2/3 bags sealed with the handheld accessory have failed. Because of this, I wouldn’t recommend sealing a ton of your food only using the handheld accessory. The handheld accessory is great for sealing jars, though.
Overall, I would suggest the vacuum sealer from Costco if your store carries it. I have noticed that it goes on sale often, so you can get it for a good deal. It works for the jobs I need and it hasn’t completely fallen apart after a year of good use.
Purchasing a vacuum sealer is a great investment into your food storage and kitchen. You can extend the life of your food going into the fridge by vacuum sealing it into jars (same with pantry foods like flour!) I loved cleaning out my freezer recently and sealing everything into FoodSaver vacuum bags. It cleared up A LOT of space inside my freezer and it will help prevent freezer burn.
Cheers to food preservation methods!
