Canadian Bacon...Bear style

Looks awesome xray! Points!

No it's gone! Lol gotta make some more bear bacon! It's fantastic!

Xray have no idea how I missed the sliced shot,they have beautiful color Points

Richie

Man that looks great! I love CB. As for the vacuum sealer, I have a feeling yours has reached the end of it's life.

Vacuum sealers are NOTORIOUS for crapping out and not lasting.  Even when you think you are buying quality by going with a big brand name like FoodSaver you still will likely get disappointed.  

I did a little research and broke down and bought a Weston Pro 2100 and never looked back.  I got it on sale about 5 years ago for about $350 and yeah it hurt paying that much but man this thing sucks... in a good way :D

It works without issue and just keeps going and going and going.  Expensive yes, but when you process 5-7 animals a year yourself you do NOT want your vacuum sealer dying or simply failing after all that working put in to butcher wonderful and clean cuts of meat + sausage. 

The Weston Pro 2100 and 2300 are the same thing but one is stainless.  The 3000 seems to be the new model and I've never used it. 

I bought the 1100 for my Father this past Christmas and the machine works well vacuum sealing but a "feature" they added to help clamp down on the bag during vacuuming makes the usage a little annoying.  It's some sort of click and grab mechanism meant to keep the lid/handle pushed down as the machine vacuums.  You then push down on it and it unclicks/ungrabs to then open up.  It is annoying and doesn't always grab correctly.

In any case vacuum sealers seem to be a must "pay to play" kind of item and it costs you about $350+ to get a Weston sealer that will last unlike other sealers that may make it 1yr or 2 if lucky.

Hope this info helps :)

Not sure if this would help but I'll suggest it anyway.  Take the sealing gaskets out of the machine and inspect them closely.  Mine was doing the same thing with leaving behind a bit of air.  It turns out there was a small break in the bottom gasket. It wasn't visible when they were in the machine but it was definitely effecting the seal.  I bought a new set for about 6 or 7 bucks and it's been good as new.

Best of luck troubleshooting your sealer. I had the $174-$200 Food Saver and had the same thing you describe with losing seal quality. I went the whole route of buying and replacing gaskets, and strips, etc. and nothing worked to get it back to acceptable condition.

I really hope your situation is fixable but if not start saving up for a hardcore sealer :)

Xray said:

Well, I found out what's going on with the vacuum sealer.

It's not completing the seal. When I look very closely at the bags, there's a tiny portion in the right hand corner where the bag's seal isn't melted all the way through...almost as if the heating strip isn't getting hot enough.

The bag will seal properly at first but after a few hours air will seep back in.

Has anybody tried replacing the heating element? The strip is clean and the foam and rubber gaskets are in good shape.

Click to expand...

I'm sure someone here has.

You should post a "New Post" with a Subject something like "Replacing Element in Vac Sealer".

Somebody should come through for you. This place is Great !!

Bear