Andrew James 5 in 1 Professional Electric Vacuum Sealer Machine with Cutter & Extended Vacuum, Includes 3 Vacuum Canisters, Ideal for Sous Vide, 110W, Semi-Automatic, Plastic

As a widower living alone, it is difficult and expensive to buy only small amounts of food. This machine has enabled me to take advantage of bulk buys by allowing me to pack items separately for storage or freezing. This can make considerable savings and, as special offers of the '3 for 2' kind can save a lot of money, the machine ends up paying for itself. Meat and poultry cuts are packaged conveniently and vacuum packing considerably increases their freezer storage life. The instruction book seems to have been translated by a non-english speaker but it is easy to work out how to use the machine and the procedure is very simple. It is a quick process to make a bag from the supplied rolls, put the item in, freeze first if required, and then vacuum pack. Cook a chicken, cut it in half with poultry shears, and vacuum pack half for refrigerator storage. Brilliant machine - I wish I had invested in one years ago!

Very easy to use and it did what it said on the box. Even if you can wash the used packaging and reuse I think you must be very careful of cross contamination.The but, is, I think the packaging is a little expensive. Haven't found a use for the containers yet.

This is really easy to use and the bag holder on the machine means it is always ready to use, no looking for bags after getting machine out. Used a roll from old machine and it worked fine. Would forget the canisters with this item as I spent ages trying to get them to vacuum but with no luck, hence three stars but overall a good purchase.

Having researched these products thoroughly I mistakenly purchased this item incorrectly opted for a wider diameter sealer. I neglected to reconfirm the features of this product. Being referred to as the pro version is a bit of a misnomer as it not only takes a significantly amount of more space for the function being able to store plastic rolls but its features of four list any other products.I am unwrapped the item and tested it to see if it would seal and vacuum seal as I had read that some of the James products had vacuum sealing issues. The item worked and even though being slightly disappointed by the comparatively enormous size of it argued that having containers balance which could be used and reused balanced this out.It was only a week later when it came to vacuum sealing an item with a bit of liquid, not much - a thick stew, that I realised this sealer to be wholly inappropriate and nothing like that others described by the same brand name or comparable brands.Any remote amount of liquid drawn up into the sealing area, or prevent package from vacuum sealing. you can only vacuum seal dried items. No matter what type of manipulations I tried as suggested in reviews and YouTube write ups I checked, any amount of liquid will prevent the vacuum seal from happening. Of course you will be able to seal your item. In other words Ziploc bag for work just as well.Also, subsequently I have discovered that soft items such as berry fruit or parboil potatoes become completely crushed in the vacuum seal process as there is no differential modes on vacuum sealing as with other product brands.I would strongly recommend that you opt for a more expensive item that will allow you to vacuum seal soft items and to certain extent liquids. Also, I highly recommend not to purchase any item with the storage facility for the plastic rolls. They have no added value and take up a huge amount of space.Seriously disappointed wishing I had purchased more expensive item worn out Turner to brand that wasn't on the Prime list.

ONE STAR FOR POSTING ITAlthough my opinion of Andrew James products was good, now it is I will not touch them again. This product was supposed to be made for Professionals (Pro Quality) and that was what I was (now retired). I have used this item only 3 times After the first attempt I found that the equipment was not sealing properly. The seals were unsealing, leaving me, expensive bags useless, food wasted as I could not be sure if it was edible. This was within the first few weeks. Of course I contacted A.J. and t explained the problem and they sent me another seal. I di not use it for a while as I was ill but when I managed to get some meat at a good price I engaged a friend (chef) to cut the meat and seal it. This was done last Aug -Dec. A month ago A piece was taken out of the freezer and left overnight to defrost in the bag in my refrigerator. I went to get it out and found the bag sitting in a pool of blood. My consensus of this is that the bag did not stay sealed. Before this I had been cutting open the bag on the few things I had used before defrosting so was not aware that the machine had not sealed properly or not. I have rung customer services and all I got verbally is that it's out of warranty. I have written and explained that UK law does not accept that as an answer...Goods should be fit for the purpose and should last. Mine still is as brand new, hardly used and the jars are still in the box.... No Answer from Andrew James???

Hi i bought this product after reading reviews. Im delighted with product. I had new potatoes i had boiled far to many so instead of throwing out i put butter over them when hot when cooled i vacum packed. After about 5 plus more days in fridge i boiled them in bag and they were just as i had made them from fresh.as also did this with spagetti and meatballs.same method.i would normally have threw out or given away.but that was a dinner without effort and potatoes to have with another dinner.havent used containers yet.bags and rolls are good u can also seal frozen food in their own bags. Great for sandwhiches that would normally go soggy like egg mayo tuna mayo. I did this going on holiday for airport. Fab item. U can also fill with water and freeze and use ad ice pavk. No regrets id buy it again if i needed it x

Very good product but can be tricky to us.It can take a while to get the hang of it.