There are more than 10 brands of vacuum sealers in the market with different features making it confusing for consumers to select the right one. In this article, we will share with you how to choose a suitable vacuum sealer for home use or small business. 

There are several questions you need to answer: 

1. How often do you need to use a vacuum sealer? or how many packs do you need to pack daily? 

The answers will help to determine if you need a high-capacity machine or a small, portable machine. If you pack once or twice a week, however, you need to pre-pack food for the whole week and pack up to 50-100 bags every time, a small, portable machine might not last long. The portable machine usually has smaller motor power and a thin sealing line (below 3mm), making it hot faster. You need to take a regular break for the sealing line to cool down or it might melt the bag as your packing quantity increase. Many customers get a portable machine for cost savings but end up getting it replaced in just a few months

2. Do you want to pack only dry foods (nuts/rice), dry/moist food (washed fruits/meat), or wet/dry food (seafood/marinated meat/sauces)? 

One of the most common problems is getting the wrong function vacuum sealer. Not every vacuum sealer can work with wet foods like marinated meat, fresh seafood, or sauce. The reason is this food contains water, the vacuum pump will suck in water. If your machine doesn’t have a canister or tube to store excess water, it will spill over the sealing part and it’s unable to seal until it dries again. If the water tube is inside the vacuum chamber, you need to make sure it’s big enough to store excess water. 

3. Do you want to use specialized bags like embossed bags or do you want to use any type of bags?  

Getting the right vacuum bags for your machine is the next question. 95% of vacuum machine in the market need to use embossed vacuum bags which has 1 side smooth and 1 side rough texture. This machine can’t vacuum when you use a normal plastic bag. A70 is an example. You need to choose a pre-cut vacuum bag like BS2 or a roll type like BS2-R. The cost of embossed bags is usually 30-45% higher than the cost of smooth vacuum bags. 

Whereas, Revacu vacuum sealer R range (R290, R280, R270) does not require an embossed plastic bag. For non-food items, you can use an aluminum bag, PE bags, etc. For food-safe items, you can use smooth vacuum bags (BS1), which is usually used in commercial food packing due to their lower price compared to embossed bag. BS1 could save your packaging cost by up to 45% in long term.