FoodSaver 5860 Series Vacuum Sealer Machine

Perfect solution for lazy home cooks like myself or anyone who has to buy things in bulk or cook in bulk. I cook for myself, because women seem to run away from me. Maybe it's my face. Because I have to cook for myself and I do not like to cook on daily basis one meal at a time, I much prefer to buy items in family size pack and cook all at once and store the rest. This helps me not only seal and seperate some meats individually for later use or cook bulk and seal them so they keep better. It does what it's intended for in my home.I chose this super expensive top of the line item from Foodsaver even though I am not exactly rolling in stack of dollar bills to be able to make it rain, because I have seen other products that require you to hold the bag straight while pulling down the cover and pressing buttons. I wanted to make sure I could make the seal perfectly each time and have the angle right so being able to use my hands to keep the bag straight and letting the machine do rest of the work was important. It seals in my opinion no faster than any of their other models. It is just the full automatic process that is a huge plus.It also has attachment for zipper bags and marinating food containers (this item comes with 1 marinating square container). It's handy for somethings if you have items you have to be able to open often and reseal. This would not work for you if you need a portable sealer. By no means is the attachment portable.Maintenance: There's drip tray you can easily pull and pour over sink. Changing the bag rolls is very easy. Just lift the top cover. You can then very quickly and easily swap out the 2 different size bags, one for the other.Tip:- I prefer to keep the larger bag roll in the machine. I just put the small one in there when I want to make some bags. I just bulk make smaller size bags and then replace the larger roll.- If you are considering buying portable food saver to vacuum seal zipper lock or "ziplock" bags, there is a very cheap alternative that you can buy. This is sort of a life hack. I am a wine drinker so I have an item called "Vacu Vin" it is only $15 and it comes with hand pump and 2 wine stoppers. This works absolutely well for vacuum sealing those bags. I have tried and all you need is a flat surface just as you would with the foodsaver one.- If you buy bacon or some other meats that you would like to be able to freeze individually without any freezer burns, this is a very good product. One thing about freezing bacon is if you don't seperate the slices before hand, it's hard to pull apart later. By laying out each slice in the bag and vacuum sealing it's very easy not only to seperate later, but also to thaw. It only takes few seconds to thaw slice of bacon if you do it the way I do.

I bought this to use with my sous vide, and it does that beautifully. The learning curve is minimal. I dispense the length of bag that I’d like, hit the cut and seal button, and it pops out in a few seconds. Then you fill it, redistribute the contents to make it even, and pop the opened end into the slot on the front of the machine. You don’t even have to press anything. The sensor does its job and vacuums out the air and seals it automatically.The machine comes with a marinating Tupperware-type deal, an 8” roll for customized bags, an 11” roll for customized bags, some precut freezer bags, and some precut pantry bags. You pop open the top of the FoodSaver to insert the roll for the customized bags, and there are illustrations inside showing you how to insert the roll. Nice feature. I love it when the directions are right there, but not visible from the outside of the machine. I use the customized bags and marinating tub the most often. Refill rolls are available in bulk on Amazon.The marinating function is really cool. It’s a 10 minute speed marinating process. You pop in the protein and marinade into the tub, attach the marinating wand, and push the button. 10 minutes later it’s done and the flavor fully penetrates the meat like you’ve left it there all day. Nice. I want to try this with tofu. You can usually only get flavor on the surface of that. I wonder if the marinade will penetrate with this. I’ll update this after I experiment.This preserves food really well. We just spent a week hiking in one of the National parks. The Airbnb we rented didn’t have a kitchen at all, just a mini fridge. The town had one just one restaurant (terrific place, but…) and a convenience store, so I wanted to bring our own food. I made breakfast and dinner kits using the food saver, froze the meats, and popped it all into a cooler, and picked up an electric skillet. It worked beautifully. I was really surprised that the guacamole didn’t discolor, the pico de gallo only softened slightly, and the flavor I’d put in the burgers and chicken were really intensified. The restaurant would have been $120/day, so the FoodSaver and skillet paid for themselves in less than 2 days.I should have bought this a long time ago. I see that some people are having sealing issues after owning it for a while, so I’ll update this over time. So far, I’m really impressed.