Customer Reviews

FoodSaver V3440 Vacuum-Sealing System with SmartSeal Technology, White

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(26)

 

 

I was so excited when I got this item. I got it to replace my older one, that worked well, but gave me trouble if I didn't cut the bags straight. This one had a cutter built in, relieving me of hassles....or so I thought!

Don't be fooled by it's fancy looks, this thing is terrible.
It's supposed to automatically turn on when you put the end of the bag in the slot, but it doesn't. It sits and sits, and then maybe will finally turn on. When it does vacuum and seal, it doesn't do as good a job as my old one.

What a headache, waiting and waiting, not sure if it's going to start.

Save your money, buy a simpler version.

I also was excited to replace my old one with this one. The bag sensor is rediculous. You waste ALOT of bags. It will only seal a inch and a half from edge unlike my old one where you could seal right up top the edge. The sensor went out in 2 weeks. When the sensor did work it took forever. Sometimes it would vacuum and other times it would leave air in the bag and sealed it up. Unless you left 3 or 4 inches on the end of your bag it was impossible to reseal the bag as it was too short. Very disappointed. Don't waste your money.

I own a food saver at home, and the venue I work at purchased this particular model for our kitchen. I'm really not sure what the folks at food saver were thinking, and how this product made it past their testing and focus groups. I don't know, maybe they didn't do a product test or focus group with this model- thats the only explanation I can come up with.

In their effort to make the machine more automatic, and theoretically easier, they much it much more of a hassle to use. The slot loading design with the bag sensor and whatnot, for one thing, require you to use much more of the roll/bag than you would need to with the traditional manual models. Also, its much slower. You have to insert the bag, wait for the sensor to trip, the thing has to clamp down onto the bag, it has to vacuum and seal it, and then it has to unclamp. Major pain to deal with. With the other models, you just open it up, place the bag, close it, press the button and thats it. The slot loading just doesn't work for a lot of reasons- the slot isn't wide enough, and the slightest crinkle in the bag and you won't be able to get it in. Plus, if you've got a lot of things to cryovac, the clamp(I guess thats what you'd call it), get hot and the bag will get hung up on it when you're trying to put a new one in. Then, you'll have issues where, for whatever reason, the machine just won't get any vacuum on a particular bag. It'll do the one before and the one right after just fine, but it won't work on that particular one. Makes no sense. Also, the machine has a sensor for the drip tray. This mechanism is very faulty. I can't tell you how many times I've been in the situation where the machine would not let me vacuum seal a bag because the tray was supposedly full, but in all actuality it was not. Another minor gripe, but the power cord is not nearly long enough.

This whole machine is just a complete disaster on part of this company. Unfortunately, I use the machine at work A LOT, for a variety of things- marinades, cures, storage, and sous vide cooking. If R&D would have actually done some testing and focus groups, they would have found they would be much better off patenting the idea, and selling it to somebody else. This product is terrible. Just stick with the more manual models. Amazon requires that you give 1 star in a review, otherwise I would have given 0.

This was our first ever purchase of a vacuum sealer and we were sorely disappointed. I wish that I'd have read the reviews here first. As other reviewers have stated, sometimes it will turn on and sometimes it just sits there leaving you wondering. Also it will not remove all of the air from the bag. It left us wondering then what's the point? We can do that with a Ziploc bag.

We returned this item to the store faster than you can blink.

I thought that this Foodsaver was a great idea, until I bought it. What a pice of crap. You have to use 20% more of the bags just for the auto-sealer to engage, and those bags are not cheap. The after bagging only 20 items, the thing just stop working. So don't waste your time or your money on this piece of garbage.

Please! if you a foodie and seal food with a FoodSaver..DONT EXPECT ANYTHING GOOD FROM THIS MODEL.

I read all the reviews and thought...NO, all these OTHER people are wrong. They dont know what they are doing...

IF I ONLY LISTENED....LISTEN TO ME! dont do it...it looks cool, it works like a one armed paper hanger.

The Sunbeam Distribution Center sent out a Model v3440 as a warranty replacement for my Model v2420. When informed as to which model was being sent I immediately went to Amazon to check out prices and reviews. Was quite surprised by the poor rating given this item by the other reviewers, so looked forward to receiving my new FoodSaver with a bit of apprehension. However after receiving the unit (2 days after shipping confirmation) I put the unit through it's paces. All functions seemed to work quite well and experienced no problems as stated in prior reviews - the bag sensor worked well, the unit sealed as designed and the canister feature vacuumed as expected.

I did notice that the front edge of the bottom foam gasket needed to be re-seated a couple times to allow for bag clearance to the sensor, but I consider that a minor inconvenience.

Overall, I like it!!

After reading the critiques written so far, I have only one thing to add about this disaster since every weakness I found has already been mentioned numerous times. The power cord is too short. I know this is pretty minor, but when you're trying to find an out-of-the way spot for this, cord length is important. Now to repeat the important weaknesses:

- 20% waste with EVERY bag, EVERY time
- Vacuum slot too thin, hard to put the bag inside
- WEAK and UNDEPENDABLE vacuum
- Poor heat sealing, seldom works with wet or moist contents
- Upright design makes it hard to store and it's clumsy, bulky

And for a balanced view, here are the good points:

- FoodSaver obviously knows it sucks because they provide the consumer with conpensatory bags

That's it.

Take my word and the word of everyone else on this site: DO NOT PURCHASE THIS UNIT. Let me reiterate that: DO NOT PURCHASE THIS PRODUCT. You deserve what you get. My suggestion is to get any other FoodSaver product that does not use the upright design with automatic features. It's a vacuum sealer, not a car. Get the basic machine, you'll be much more satisfied.

Basically, the FOODSAVER system is sound and well designed EXCEPT for the canisters which often crack. Many of us have urged Tilia to upgrade the plastic canisters, and so far they have refused. I do not put the canisters in the dishwasher, or even use harsh chemicals. One canister cracked, pressurized, on the shelf after a few weeks without being moved. When you call Tilia they will let you know that there is NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND on their canisters, which tells volumes about how they view their own product.

Tilia blames their customers for the cracks. I am honestly sorry I did not heed the warnings I read by Amazon consumers before I purchased. I usually depend on Amazon customer recommendations for all my purchases. I have spent much money on Tilia accessories, and am now considering looking for another brand. Hope this helps, Ron

"DO NOT BUY THIS UNIT"
It did work OK when it it worked. I spent more time getting it to start,with it's automatic sensing feature, than I did using it. I felt bad returning a working unit to the store, but I want a unit that works ALL the time. I replaced it with a FoodSaver V2440 model. 10 Times better. Forget the Bells and Whistles and just Get one that locks down and you start it. I'm not looking back.