Gear Heads | Which Vacuum Sealers Seal the Deal?

is it done i'm gonna be done in our lifetime [Applause] have you ever frozen ground meat or berries inside a zipper lock bag and returned a week later to find it covered in ice crystals we have vacuum sealers can prevent that disappointment these machines remove air from inside storage bags before sealing them tightly protecting the food inside so it stays fresh longer we tested seven countertop vacuum sealers and rated them on performance ease of use and handling here are the highlights [Music] so we did a little experiment just to show why you want to buy one of these things we froze a bunch of chicken legs and steaks in regular zipper lock bags and then we have our testing bags here from the vacuum sealers look at the difference super tightly sealed this is loose there's snow in there ice crystals form they puncture the cells of the meat when you thaw it out you get moisture loss that's what freezer burn is all about you know these are good freezer bags but they don't really don't compare in the way they keep the food to a good vacuum sealer all right so we've got our food in the bag here open up the vacuum sealer this is a heat sealing bar right here and this is the vacuum chamber this one seals the latch some of them you have to press on they do it all different ways now just press a button that is so cool bada-boom nice and sealed did a really nice job because all of the air is sucked out yeah it's right up against the chicken and sealed tightly together whoa okay beautifully sealed [Music] this part never gets old there you go wow nice job all of the vacuum sealers lived up to their names effectively pulling out air sealing their bags and keeping food fresh for months so we had to start digging deeper to weed out some winners and losers let's go on to our next round ease of use the nesco deluxe vacuum sealer gonna make a little bag out of here this is so cool they're stored right in here so easy i love this bar that just clicks in i also really love this little progress number here it said 54321 machine that tells you where it's at in the process i love that so we have the gourmet some fairly simple controls there's a gentle mode in normal mode we're gonna try sealing some strawberries so this one you press down on both sides wow okay tell us when it's done there you go no it wasn't done i do have to say i like the progress report because i thought because the vacuum stopped that it was done so we have the vac master pro 350. i'm going to say this is kind of a complicated control panel inches of mercury which is like how much vacuum suction how much power it has i don't really know that the average person needs to know that so vac pro great performance a little over complicated the control panel is a lot to deal with yeah this is the nutri chef all the controls are on this side it's changing every time i touch it ah okay now let's try sealing it all right maybe not and now it's turned off the buttons it's not easy to use it looks simple but it's not surprisingly the most expensive models did not come out on top in this round some models in an effort to offer more options became so complicated they were actually harder to use so let's move on to our final round handling all right so in the handling round we looked at the physicality of these we looked at their weight their size what sort of work they required from us to get a nice seal lisa will you go get the westin for me sure thing oh my goodness okay this is a beast it is really heavy thanks for making me do that oh my gosh i'm going to turn on the power and it sounds like a jet all right so let's seal up some coffee sometimes you know people very persnickety about their coffee [Music] and there's your portion of coffee running a brick yeah this thing is big you'd have to like create a vacuum sealing station in your kitchen you know with this thing and everything you need which yeah you have the room for that more power to you but i can barely fit a toaster oven yes okay so the westin great performance a little clunky i'm afraid i'm gonna break this thing i know it doesn't super tedious and not a one-person job but honestly for something this big and fancy the fact that i have to press down and hold i don't know why i resent that it's like the bridge too far all right so we have the nesco here we're gonna seal up some coffee boom hands off love that you don't have to hold it down it gives an audible little click and a tactile click like i can tell like i know that's closed i feel good about it i feel good now i can go do something else if i wanted to i could just sit here and watch that satisfying air fall yep some of these machines particularly the more expensive ones were clunkier than others we preferred machines that were lightweight easy to move and store and had secure lids that easily locked into place like we said before all of these performed well so it was really the most user-friendly model that took home the top prize lisa the nesco deluxe vacuum sealer was our overall favorite it had a super intuitive control panel and its handling was top notch for our winner and all of the other vacuum sealers we tested check out the links below post your equipment questions in the comments below and don't forget to hit that subscribe button

Channel: America's Test Kitchen

Views: 362,877

Keywords: vacuum sealers, best vacuum sealer, kitchen equipment, equipment review, kitchen equipment review, best vacuum sealers, vacuum sealer, cooking equipment, food prep, americas test kitchen, america's test kitchen

Id: 1d-0BFRUoko

Length: 5min 49sec (349 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 25 2019