vacuum sealing fish

[lazyrider]

im looking for opinions on vacuum sealers. im considering buying a vacuum sealer from cabelas. im looking at the cabelas brand sealer. what im interested in is if anybody has any experience with the cabelas unit in comparison to the foodsaver brand of vacuum sealers. are they any better? or just higher in price? up front i cant justify the expense of a commercial unit. thanks in advance for any advise anybody can give me on this subject.

[tcman]

If you're in Alaska/Kenai Peninsula I would highly recommend buying a Foodsaver vac sealer from Trustworthy Hardware in Soldotna. Better prices than Cabelas especially on the bags.
I can't say I've compared other units to the Foodsaver but I've been using mine for years and it hasn't let me down yet.

[fishin_ak]

I've never compared the two either but I've sealed a lot of fish (3 years of dipnetting, halibut trips), packages of moose meat (about 4 animals worth) and whatever else we've used it for and not had the slightest problem with my Foodsaver. We have the professional model but I'm pretty sure it's still less expensive than the Cabela's models. Just my 2 cents.

[kingfisherktn]

You might try a search on the forum, there has been a lot of discussion on this subject.

[Homertime]

Alaska Butcher Supply in Mountain View (if you're in ANC) has everything you need. I bought a Mini-Pack model there a few years ago. I use it for everything. (fish, meat, costco stuff, etc.) A really great investment that gets used in my house more than you can imagine.

[kingfisherktn]

Alaska Butcher Supply in Mountain View (if you're in ANC) has everything you need. I bought a Mini-Pack model there a few years ago. I use it for everything. (fish, meat, costco stuff, etc.) A really great investment that gets used in my house more than you can imagine.

I did the same thing and love that machine.

[Vince]

im looking for opinions on vacuum sealers. im considering buying a vacuum sealer from cabelas. im looking at the cabelas brand sealer. what im interested in is if anybody has any experience with the cabelas unit in comparison to the foodsaver brand of vacuum sealers. are they any better? or just higher in price? up front i cant justify the expense of a commercial unit. thanks in advance for any advise anybody can give me on this subject.

LOVE my cabelas one... burned up every food saver i have bought... you wont go wrong spendng the extra money.... unless you do like i did and buy 4 of the others first..

[colorado jet boater]

cabelas vacuum sealer

I have two of the cg-15 cabelas vacuum sealers. One we leave at klutina salmon charters and the other I have at home in Colorado. Both are 3-4 years old and have done a great job. It is important to let the machine rest 20 seconds between sealing cycles.

[akfishnut]

Magic Vac Maxima

These unit are far and away the best unit there are for the money. These have a high vacuum rate(24"HG), repair parts if needed (I never have) and last forever. They are available on E-Bay and the website listed below.
The foodsaver bags work just fine if you do not want to buy there bags.

http://kodiakhealth.com/catalog/default.php/cPath/50_71

[AKFishOn]

After 5 food savers I bought the Cabelas CG-15 model (http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...cat570002&rid=), after more than 1200 bags it runs like the day I pulled it out of the box. I consider the bags to be a good bargain, I get the pre made 8x12s for fish http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...002&hasJS=true and they have larger bags for more money if you want to seal some good sized pieces of fish/game. Food savers stink, I purchased models from $49.99 to $279.99 and all of them either stopped working alltogether or would not seal, would not suck and usually at times when I had 100 bags of fish to do. I do not have experience with the Magic Vac one mentioned.

[lazyrider]

thanks guys i wasnt aware of some of the brands you brought up. now i have to check them out and make my decision. i want to be ready for salmon and halibut and hopefully a cow elk this fall.

[smokumreds]

Take it to a pro.

I found that by the time you pay for the bags its allmost as cheap to take your fish to a profesional to have it vacked. You need to have it fileted, cut and trimed to size before you deliver it. Also if you freeze it at home you save on the freezing cost. It will also give you more free time to sit arround the camp fire and kick back.

[JOAT]

Foodsaver

Never had problems with Foodsaver here either. My parents have been using the same basic Foodsaver model for over a decade. No problems. I have the Turbo II model, which has the 2 vac pumps to make it much faster. No problems, ever. Those who "burn them up" are running them too fast. You must wait a bit (30-60 seconds) between every time you run the bag sealer. Not allowing it to cool off could burn out the heating element. Just follow the directions and Foodsaver works great.

[smpow]

use 2 at once

I use 2 foodsavers at once. The small one with the 8" width has someone making bags from rolls on it, and the larger one has someone actually sealing the bags after they are loaded. It goes pretty quick, and gives time to cool them and custom cut bag sizes for each chunk of meat.

good luck.

[Jmurman]

I have a Cabelas, I'm sorry as I don't know the model right off the top of my head. If I recall I paid about 150 for it maybe 5-6 years ago.

This unit does a great job. I use it for all meats and for storing rice in family pack servings. My meats will keep for well over a year in the freezer with no freezer burn.

I consider this to be a very very good investment.