[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] My overall impressions of this vacuum food sealer system are very positive. It was easy to use from the beginning. Instructions are clear and easy to follow. I have sealed ground beef, coffee beans, and bread. As I have not yet used these, I don't know how these items will be preserved but I can't see a reason that they wouldn't last as per the claims of the Foodsaver. I also sealed a fresh, cut avocado over a week ago and it's still bright green with absolutely no brown at all! Impressive! It's well-constructed and seems to be a high quality appliance. The handheld vacuum sealer is handy and is probably the feature I would use most often. The one problem I have is the size. I don't really have room on my counters because of other appliances so I have to bring it out when I want to use it. In general the accessories included are a great selection of items I can purchase in the future and I am sure the benefits of preserving food will increase as I find more uses. I believe the money I will save on vegetables and items I can buy in bulk will be a great benefit of this system. I would recommend this Foodsaver to anyone interested in saving money and reducing waste. I was given this Foodsaver to use and review. I'm excited to have it because I have been interested in buying something like this.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] It was hard to use. There were too many instructions to remember. If the meet was marinated use this. If the meat is just seasoned use this. I would love for there to be one bag for all applications. The machine is also a little hard to use. It's clunky. I was given this to test.

I have seen so many negative reviews: "It won't seal" or "I have to lift the bag" or "it's too hard to understand". Let me set the record strait. This machine has a learning curve, along with its many features. But once past that, it will do everything you want it to do, faithfully. I have hamburger in the freezer that I sealed two months ago, and it looks just like the day it went in. Thawed it, used it in a chili recipe, and it was just as if I had bought a fresh package at the store. To make a bag: First, position the roll properly in the back, and line it with the indicator. If there is a problem understanding this, then read the instructions. Plug the machine in, and lock it. Pull what ever you need out. Lock it. The next bag will seal automatically. Now cut it, and you have a bag ready with no waste. To seal something: Load your bag. Stick the open end under the smoky plastic, and look through that to see that you have the end fully in there so it can engage. Press your KNUCKLES on the BAR, on BOTH sides at once. It will GRAB the bag and start sucking the air out. NOW you can message the bag to get any air out of the pockets. When the smoky lifts, you're done. Now move on to the next one. To seal something WET: Load your bag. Press PULSE. Position the open end under the smoky plastic, make sure you can see the end of your bag when you look through the plastic. Press the bar with both KNUCKLES. It will suck just enough air in to lock the bag. Now press PULSE, just enough to where ANY liquid won't make it to the clear plastic. Press SEAL, and you're done. This unit complements my chamber sealer perfectly, as I can make bags with it and then vacuum seal items like soups, or anything else with a high liquid content. OR, I can just use my 5460 to seal up items that I've used a small amount of, yet want to keep fresh. Now I don't have to worry about bacon going bad in a few hours, because I can re-seal it with no fuss. My apologies if some of you were offended by reading this. But I see no problem with this design at all. NONE. It just plain works, is extremely light and compact, and is highly efficient with rolls and bags. So much more than my vacuum machine, which requires a couple inches over the seal strip, while my 5460 only needs a half inch, or less.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] We received this FoodSaver as a replacement for our old one. Our old one had a broken part and they asked us to send it in and they sent us this as a replacement. All the functions are easier to use with this - model number FM5460.

Have had food saver products for years and usually upgrade with the new models every few years. The last model was my favorite, it actually broke and was discontinued so we had to upgrade. This one works so horribly and is very inconvenient that we bought a commercial unit to replace it. Biggest complaint: no one button seal function. You have to awkwardly hold the bag with two hands aligning it “perfectly” then using those same hands, simotaniously the left and right sides of the machine to start the process.

I bought this to replace our 10+ year-old FoodSaver, which stopped providing an adequate vacuum. I like the fact that the hose for bags & containers is attached and readily-available. I quickly found that it's pretty much impossible to keep portioned items such as patties separated when using this model, because the vacuum/seal section is too high off of the counter. Everything slides to the bottom of the bag, which causes everything to clump up when frozen. I tried putting the bag on another container to bring it level, but the bag kept slipping out. In the future, I'll pass on any of the models with a floating vacuum/seal section.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I received the Foodsaver 5460as a sample. I absolutely love this item. I like to buy meat in bulk and cook what I need and freeze the rest for later recipes. Sometimes the meat is in the freezer for weeks or months. In order to keep it fresh and not get freezer burn you have to store it good. I was using a handheld machine and vacuum bags. It was getting the job done, but was very cumbersome. With this machine I can get the job done in a fraction of the time and it seals very well. I would highly recommend this machine to anyone considering buying it. Definitely give it 5 stars.

The base having the rolls of plastic, an idea NOT WELL THOUGHT OUT. You make you bag (seal one end of the tube very expensive proprietary "bags") Better make it TWICE to THREE times the length you need because unless you have 4 hands, this particular model DOES NOT WORK. You have to LIFT UP the bag, Insert the open end. Hold on to it. Finesses to pressing or depressing the bars just the right way, too much, too little, too uneven -- it's not going to work, Now HOLD, and I mean HOLD that pulse vacuum button until you actually have a vacuum and hope it will seal before you drop the bag that is full of stuff not vacuumed (the vacuum failed) and not sealed. Friends of ours had an older model that sat flat on the counter. they would insert the open end of the bag, and without holding, pressing the dang thing sealed. They could be doing something else, it worked without "hands-on" and it would also reseal other bags, like bags of chips, or noodles.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] The instructions were easy to follow. It was very easy to set up. It took me a couple tries to vacuum/seal my first pound of hamburger. Once I got the hang of it, I was able to breeze through the rest of the items I sealed. It is a quality product. Seems very durable and well made. The one negative comment would be that I felt like some of the bags did not get enough air out. Some were better than others. May just take some more practice using the Food Saver. Disclaimer: I received this product as a sample to review.

Have use FoodSaver for years and was always well satisfied but Model FM5480 is very badly designed. Needing 2 hands is puzzling as is the fact that you have to hold the sealing item up off the counter. Everything bunches at bottom and makes bag lopsided and wrinkled. You recommendation of pre freezing items is poor, at best a waste of time. Vacuum hose does not work very well either.