Customer Reviews

FoodSaver V3835 Vacuum Food Sealer with SmartSeal Technology, Silver/Black

5 star:		(55)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(50)

 

 

Some reviewers have complained that you have to fit bags into the slot and occasionally the sensor will not detect a bag is there. HOWEVER, according to the directions, you can't just stick the bag in. You put the left part of the bag into the right part of the slot and slide the bag over. When you do this, the bag goes in very effortlessly. I bought this at a warehouse store, so if anything ever does go wrong, they will refund my purchase. It is louder than the previous units, and I am concerned about the motor having to come down in order for the sealer to work. But the bags themselves do fit into the slots easily as long as you do it the right way. If you buy at a warehouse store, you shouldn't be worried about anything failing. They have the best satisfaction guarantee policy because of the yearly membership fees you pay.

Overall, this is an excellent unit for someone who loves to just stick a bag in and have the machine do the rest. The previous units are great too (I also have the 2440). Both create bag waste. The 2440 you have to put the bag into the vaccuum slot which creates a good inch or so of waste. In this model, maybe an inch, inch and a half is wasted at the most. It's barely anything, really....nothing anymore more so than the 2440. You're saving money not having to throw food away. Get bags on Amazon.com where their prices are usually very competitive. And try to reuse bags that haven't had fish or meat in them so you save on bags too and help decrease landfill waste at the same time too.

I've used a couple of generations of the Foodsaver and have found them easy to use, efficient and cost effective. We bought this one yesterday from a local retail store and it is going back today. It's a classic case of a company "improving" a product that worked perfectly well and really making a mess of the new design. I can't believe that anybody at the company actually used this thing and thought it was an improvement.

The biggest problem is the automatic bag sensor. The machine won't run (seal or vacuum) unless the automatic bag sensor tells the machine there is a bag in place. This "switch" is placed inside the machine, so to make your own bag, you have to push the bag in the seal slot about 1 1/2 inches. Of course this creates at least 1 inch of waste on each end of every bag. The other problem with this is that you have "push" a plastic bag into a narrow slot. Often the bag sensor does not pick up on the bag and you have to push and push to get the thing to turn on. Pushing a flexible bag is very frustrating and after about 1/2 hour of fighting with trying to get it to seal the first open end of the bag, I was ready to take an axe to the thing. It's just a very poor design.

The older style, clamshell design was much better. You opened the machine, positioned the bag end right where it needed to be, shut the machine and it kicked right on. It was easy and obvious and worked every time.

Skip this one, look for the simpler one (Food Saver V2840 for example), it's less expensive and works better.

I have been using a foodsaver product for many years. The oldest is a V2480 and the newest the V3840. I have read many reviews on the products and I agree with some and disagree with others. The new V3840 is a wonderful machine. From opening the box to trying it out was simple and straight forward. I did not experience any problems inserting the bag, cutting, opening or vacuuming food items. One of the largest complaints I heard was the fantastic amount of waste with the new SmartSeal Technology. Well I made two bags of equal length and sealed one on the V2480, which allows me latitude in where the seal for the bottom and the vacuuming seal goes. The bottom line is that the V3840 uses an extra inch of the bag in sealing. Now an 18ft.roll of 11" packaging, assuming a 10" bag avg., can make 21 bags in one roll.In using 10 rolls of 11" packaging, the total extra used by the V3840 in packaging is 210" or approximately one roll. I buy a 6 roll pkg from Sams Club for 39.00. Assuming $7.00 per roll, the V3840 costs about 3.3 cents extra per pkg. The convenience of the V3840 and vacuuming food stuffs purchased in quantity far outweighs the extra cost per package for me. Every person must make their own decision as to what is best for them. For me I take the V3840 over my V2480 any time.

First - a comment on some of the previous negative ratings as they ALMOST caused me to change my mind about buying this. I'm glad we ignored them and bought anyway. You have to remember, lots of people buy items and don't rate them at all, but love the item, I sometimes think people are more likely to rate when they have a problem, such as slow or no shipping or before they read the manual. Sometimes, people don't realize a product is defective or don't call the company if they have a problem (They will offer suggestions) Because of this, and other good ratings elseware, we bought this FoodSaver V3835 Vacuum Food Sealer with SmartSeal Technology. We have used it since it arrived and it now has a PERMANENT place on our counter. There have been some BIG advances in this model Foodsaver. First off, it looks classy and upscale. That has nothing to do with how it works, but it would be under the counter if it was clunky looking. It's heavier than older models and better made. It can be mounted on a wall I believe and there is a bag cutter easily accessible by opening the bottom part of the cover. This means you can make your own bags much easier and even store the roll inside still. There's a bag cutter for when it's time to cook and open the bag. The old tubing connection for cannisters and the instant marinade container is right inside and pulls out and retracts with ease! No fumbling through drawers looking for the old seperate one. Everything is RIGHT THERE. Now, as for waste - we don't see it. We sealed up 4th of July BBQ, sauces for the freezer, even a damaged jar of spoiled ham stock we bought and are mailing back to the company. We then tried non food items like parts for all those kits that you put together and then have leftover parts. Worked great - took all the air out and sealed each time perfectly. No waste and all the parts are now labled and in our storage area. We sealed up a lot of meat from the store (we buy in bulk and have a deep freeze)as well. Not one bag was sealed improperly (unlike the older models).

Not to appear non appreciative for those older models but we had a lot of problems and annoyances with them such as having to press the top down till the motor kicked in (Try doing that with a bag of sauce in one hand). We had NO problems with sauce with this model. There's even a gentle mode and wet mode so it doesn't pull the air out too fast and get sauce in the tray. Which keeps it cleaner longer! That tray never did get anything in it. I always had to clean that tray in the older models. It also has a fast marinade where it cycles through pulling out air and pumping in air (and marinade), and if you just want to marinade overnight you can just use your container (or bag for that matter) and seal normally. Then you take your bag with marinated meat right out to the grill! Please give this model a try, if it doesn't work for you, then 1st reread the manual and then call the company, they will walk you through things and give you tips for getting those bags in the insert area the 1st time. We had NO trouble with this because if the bag is curled we simply opened the unit and zipped off that spot- not much in the way of waste- no more than 1/8" and that was only one time. If the bag curves, put it in curve down. It's designed to go into the drip channel. The reason the slot is activated by the bag (and the on and off switch) is that kids may try to insert other things so it's sort of a safety device. Also, this model turns itself off after about 10 minutes of not being used. We can't say enough about this product. Give it a chance and return it if it doesn't work, it has a 1 yr guarantee. It's always possible to get something that's defective in stores and on line so if it doesn't work, return it - then write up a review on the one that works. Lets face it, it doubles most freezing times and no freezer burn and that alone is worth it. Try that with a Ziploc bag. We are thrilled with this product

We have used several of the FoodSaver products in the past, and this looked like a good idea. It's pretty, takes little counter space, easy to use ...

WRONG!! First, you MUST waste at least 3+ inches of bag space per use. It will not even start cycling until the bag is 1 1/2" past the sealing head (undoubtedly to make you buy more outrageously priced bag rolls). Unless you hold your mouth right, and the stars are properly aligned it may:

1) Try and fail to vacuum, but will try to seal anyway
2) Refuse to vacuum or seal (especially if you try to retract the back 1/8")
3) Do a partial vacuum and try to seal

When you seal the first end of the bag, if you retract the bag at all it the head will come down, then retract without sealing (you MUST waste the entire 1 1/2" of bag).

I finally gave up and started using my earlier version where you can SEE where the bag end must be to vacuum, and the sealing head is much closer to the vacuum end.

Again, this was a beautifully conceived and very poorly executed appliance.

Background you can skip:
First of all: I have used Foodsaver products for many years and always was a big fan of the top-loading models: never a problem in executing its basic function.

Along comes this great bargain to buy a V3840 in stainless steel. What a 'beaut' and I can leave it on my countertop because of its good looks and the frequency we use this (we have the vacuum jars and marinators etc).
Since I was so happy when I ordered this (had not received it at home just yet), I committed my old Foodsaver to a vacuumless friend.

Basic findings after a few weeks of use:
Using this new and improved model with the vacuum bags is an absolute nightmare !!! As others have stated: the slot that you need to push your bag into to trigger the vacuum pump is horrenbdous to use. It indeed requires an extra 1.5 inches of wasted 'bag' which racks up over time. Secondly, if you fill a bag a little full (e.g. meats) there is NO WAY you can get it to seal unless you shell out an EXTRA generous few inches of precious 'bag'. This is such an unbelievable designflaw that you wonder what they were thinking. A clear case of R&D losing touch with its customers.
What is good about it? I like the sealing hose that I can pull out to vacuum seal the tons of Canisters and marinators we have. I use it alot for that. For bagging I am going to get a cheap top-loader as this design flaw has really prevented me from using the item like I used to with my older model.

Conclusion:
Avoid the automated slot loader models like the V3840 and V3835, what the reviewers are unanimously agreeing on here is that the feeding slot will drive you insane and trigger great waste of precious bagging material which ain't cheap.

The vacuum valve for canister etc conveniently placed and works well and as expected.

The item looks great on the counter, in case you are really into stainless and the bag slot does work if you put effort in: so if you are not a frequent bagger then this gets points for aesthetics.

Finally, the blue led lights do make it look high tech.
Overall I removed 3 stars for making the vacuum sealing with bags so much harder than the old model. I added back one star for looks and build quality: Voodsaver last forever. Just make sure you buy the right one lest you be stuck with it for a long time. Or there is always Craigslist.

I got this unit at Costco, includes the marinate dish, 12 - quart size bags and a roll of bag material.

I've wanted a foodsaver for years but (1) didn't know a lot about them beyond the infomercials (2) didn't know anyone who had one (3) wasn't sure that it was a worthy investment. Things have changed! I've had a few people recommend them and it piqued my interest. We were at Costco and walked by and looked at the box and decided to get it on an inpulse (and it was[.]off). We also buy a lot in bulk and for 2 people, it's hard to go through EVERYTHING before it goes bad.

At first glance it doesn't look like anything spectacular. The box/packaging isn't all that appealing.
SETUP: The cardboard insert is VERY CONFUSING - it tells you to throw it out, but the picture on it makes you think you should throw out the plastic insert as well - I'm glad I didn't. That would have been BAD! STRONGLY recommend reading the instructions first so you know what buttons to push for what. I couldn't figure out why my bags weren't sealing, I had to push the Seal button twice so it would seal to make a bag instead of thinking it needs to vaccuum it out first. Figured that out when the machine spent 3 minutes whirring really loudly and my bag wasn't sealed.

Aesthetics. It stands upright so it takes up little to no space (NICE). We have ours on the counter and it's going to stay there. I like the chrome look, so far it's stayed clean. No fingerprints! It's also nice that it will hold a roll of bags on the inside. (I would recommend getting the bag holder accessory - [..] so you can store the quart size baggies). I would make your own quart size baggies vs. buying them, less expensive that way.

What I've used it for: At first I went a little seal happy and played with the machine. I got bulk size nuts and separated them into 4 packets. We sealed meats (we used to buy freezer ziplock bags but the meat always had freezer burn on them). I've resealed bags of chips (in their original packaging - it won't take the air out, but much easier than wrestling with the bag clips).

DOWNSIDE: You cannot vaccuum pack veggies unless you've blanched and froze them first! That seems like a pain because I like my veggies to be raw to cook. Also have to "pat down" the inside of the bag when sealing meats - the juices rise out of the bag which doesn't seal it properly (some of the juice got between the seal strip) and can damage the machine (figured that out from other users). Also if you're planning on freezing baby food, stock, anything wet, you have to first freeze it, then seal in their frozen state. Instructions recommended using ice cube trays.

Common Complaints: The slot where the bags go is thin and yes cumbersome for some bags but it's been great for me. I leave the item there to vacuum and I don't have to hold the product when the suction has started. it holds itself. It's true that you need to have about 2inches of bag in the slot before it will seal (if you don't, the machine will attempt to seal and it's just a waste of time). However it's not that big of "waste of money". I calculated that each inch of bag is only a few cents per inch.

Trying out: I just purchased a set of canisters (recommended for storing items that are crushable, veggies, moist and use often items). I went to Bed Bath & Beyond and got the set for[..] with 20% off coupon). Looking forward to trying them out. Also looking to purchase the 6qt canisters for storing dog food and rice.

This all seems like a "lot of work" but in the end it's worth it. I defrosted a steak that I "foodsavered" and it was tender, juicy and amazing! I never knew that freezer burn could destroy the meat like that. It's definitely changing my outlook on the value of this little machine.

I'm also excited to use this machine now when we travel and pack our wet items and seal it. We use space bags for our clothes to conserve space, but this will help prevent spillage of shampoo, lotions etc.

I almost didn't buy this product. Why? Because I read all the reviews written here @ Amazon.com. Am I glad I followed my instincts. This is a GREAT product. I didn't give 5-stars due to the very noisy vacuum motor and the vacuum hose, sort of.. (read below).

First of all: RTFM!!! If you don't read the manual, you have no right to complain. Granted it takes a bit of finesse to load the bag into the channel, but once you have it down, you got it! The vacuum process is smooth as silk. And the extra bag loss is not as bad as some would let you to believe. This is my 4th FoodSaver and the loss factor has gradually increased through the various iterations of the original line.

The hot wire that does the sealing is not as hot as it used to be. Taking a few seconds longer and therefore, does not leave the sealed edge wilting as it used to.

You will love the pull-out vacuum hose. Finally! After all the complaining about using the accessory hose all these years, they have done it right. The self-locking, retracting mechanism works perfectly. The one problem; the grip is made for aliens of unknown species. I suppose for the ladies out there, it won't present a problem. But if you have large hands (and I do), it's very difficult to grap that grip propely. It's nested too low to ground level and you cannot quite get a finger under it to grab it. But it does a grand job on all the the various canisters. It also works on the canning sealers & all other FoodSaver accessories. Just plug the hose in.

I tried the marinator. It works just fine. Sucks the air out-tick, tick, tick, lets air in, sucks it out, etc. For three cycles. Does a great job.

In closing, the stainless/black exterior happens to match my toaster and the toaster oven it sits next to.
The vacuum progess lights are cute if not very accurate. There are other features that I may or may not use. But that is not what I bought this for. It does what is does very well and I would recommend it without hesitation.

I purchased this product around Christmas time. It has taken some time to understand how the unit works. The instruction guide is not well written so it takes some trial and error to make it work. But once we figured out the correct way to use the product it works great. I seal all my meat now and have stopped using freezer bags. Some things to consider, you must keep the unit clean so the gasket stays in place. Also if you pick a bag that is too large for what is needed the seal is not as tight as it should be. All in all this is a nice unit that works well.

This is the fourth or fifth FoodSaver I've owned, and I'm stunned at how poorly this model is designed, and how hard it is to use to seal bags. After years of successfully delivering easy-to-use, functional products, who at this company designed this wretched POS, and who ever let it ship to customers?

All problems stem from the fact that, in order to seal a bag, you now need to slide the edge of the bag you want to seal into a very narrow opening deeply enough to push the tab back to allow it to sense that you've inserted the bag. This sucks for the following reasons:

1) When you want to create a new bag from a roll, you have to push the first end all the way to the back of the opening, resulting in more than an inch of wasted bag. On previous models, you could simply lay the end of the bag over the sealing element, with virtually no waste whatseover.

2) When resealing a previously used bag, the edge where you've cut the bag tends to curl. It can be astoundingly difficult to stretch the bag flat enough to make it into the narrow opening.

3) When resealing non-FoodSaver bags, e.g. partially used bags of frozen fruit, the bag often isn't stiff enough to push the lever to tell the stupid machine that there's a bag there, and please, oh please, won't you just turn on the blasted sealing element and seal the blessed bag, you stupid POS.

4) Assuming you've ever even once been able to successfully seal a bag, you may very well have sucked out a tiny bit of moisture, which will likely cause the rubber gasket to stick in such a way that you can't possibly get another bag in there without wiping down the gasket. So now you have to carefully pull the front of the machine open with even pressure on both sides, then pull the machine away from the wall, then press both buttons simultaneously to fold the top of the unit back to expose the gasket so you can clean the microscopic speck of goo. Then try again to maneuver the bag back into the (did I mention narrow) slot and hope that it makes it all the way back.

This model is somewhat better than previous models for canisters and canning jars. I like the new, retractable cord (it only takes a little jiggling to get it to retract fully). And I like the Canister button, which just vacuums without trying to seal. But that's pretty much all it's good for.

I've really loved my earlier FoodSaver models, but this model is only useful for canisters or batting practice. Avoid it.