Innovations Vacuum Sealer product reviews

I've had a few vac-packers over the last few years, some have proved to be more effective than others, but none have proven themselves to be as powerful and functional as this little beauty.

Many years ago, I was told about using a vacuum-sealer to help marinade tough meats prior to slapping therm on the BBQ - pour some soy sauce, a bit of pureed kiwifruit or pineapple, a sppon or two of manuka honey, a generous pinch of salt and some minced garlic into a vac-nag, throw in the meat, give it a gentle massage to get the meat well covered in the garlic and salt, then vac-seal the bag to help force the liquids into the meat itself. Pop it in the fridge and leave it for at least 24 hours to age. Then throw them down of a steaming hot BBQ grill and cook it for a few minutes each side.

The biggest problem with that trick is that unless you have rattlesnake-fast reflexes, you end up getting at least some - if not almost all - of your tasty marinade sucked into the vacuum pump because of the lousy design of the unit. However, this device has two big advantages - the first is the "light" vacuum setting, that means it doesn't draw so hard, giving you extra time to hit the "seal" button before too much liquid gets removed... and the second is a taller suction post, meaning you would need to get a HECK of a lot of liquid in the unit before any of it would end up getting slurped into the pump itself - it all ends up in the catchment tray instead.

Because of that, for the first time in nearly 4 years, I was able to BBQ some steak using my most-favoured marinade recipe - which is usually too thin and liquid to be used in this method. Oh...My...God... what a difference it made! The meat was moist, flavoursome, and most importantly of all, tender.

This unit also has an inbuilt roll holder/dispenser/cutter which makes it so easy to make your bags on the go, and not have to spend half an hour rummaging around in the back of the cupboard looking for the roll then having to locate a pair of scissors, or risk dulling your kitchen knives by using them to cut the plastic. The other benefit is that it's so much easier to align and hold the roll end in place so that you can make your seal as close to the edge as possible without wasting half an inch of roll every time you seal it. That little extra roll adds up over time, trust me on this!

I could easily spend hours running through every feature and function of this unit, but to be honest it's all pretty obvious. What you can't find in the brochure is how easy it is to use, and that is EASY, really easy. It's capable of applying a fairly hard vacuum, so you can really minimise the amount of food wastage. No more half-bags of stale, limp chips... no more air packed into the picnic basket or road-munchies travel bag... no more oxidised guacamole... and no more bad freezer burn on your frozen meats!

Overall, this has every feature you could possibly want, and realistically you may never use some of them - such as the 'canister' setting - but whatever your needs, whatever the situation, this unit is likely to cover it. It's got a fair price-tag, and if you look around you may find it cheaper than the RRP. This unit is far superior to my previous unit, though because of the extra features this one took a little longer to master. Still, time very well spent! Highly recommend this to anyone looking for a quality vac-packer.