The 6 Very Best Food Vacuum Sealers

Type: External | Size: 5.8” x 7” x 4.3”

The Anova Pro was my first foray into vacuum sealing — and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to operate. You open it by clicking two buttons on the side and cut your desired bag size from the continuous roll with the built-in cutter. This leaves you with two open edges, so from there, you place one of them onto the outermost liner, close the machine, and create a closed bottom with the “seal” button. Now place your food inside the bag, insert the open side back into the chamber, close the vacuum sealer once again, and pick your next move: One button seals until it automatically senses all the air is gone, and another lets you pulse-seal, only pushing the air out as you press a button so you have a bit more control (helpful for when there’s liquids, like with a marinade). There’s also an option to double-seal for extra insurance; even when I shook a bag filled with tomato sauce, there was absolutely no leakage.

The fact that it’s easy to use isn’t only a plus for beginners like me. James Peisker, co-founder of Porter Road in Nashville uses it for food storage and sous viding and assures it gets the job done. “There aren’t a lot of buttons or bells and whistles,” he says. “It’s very straightforward — very user-friendly.” He says he appreciates the accessible price point, too, a sentiment shared by Dave Yasuda, director of marketing at Snake River Farms. Yasuda is responsible for generating a lot of the photography his company puts out — meaning he sous-vides a lot to ensure a consistent look of the plated pieces of pork and beef. In the office they have a big, expensive machine. “But I often have to take this show on the road,” he says. “I’ve tried a lot of different ones, and sometimes they can be wimpy. This has a lot of suction. It’s powerful.”

Still, it’s the smallest model on this list (with the exception of Zwilling’s handheld system that comes with accompanying containers), imperative for someone like me who lives in an apartment and doesn’t have that much storage to give up to nonessential appliances. I’ll also note that I think it looks sleek with its matte black exterior, and the parts truly feel well-made. The less expensive models below come highly recommended but don’t have quite the same full-package appeal.

Type: External | Size: 7.2” x 16.3” x 7.6”

FoodSaver is probably the most recognizable brand on this list to the average cook. It’s certainly the first, and really even only, vacuum-sealer brand I was aware of before delving into the topic. Still, I gave it this specific designation — that it’s best for canning — because, according to the experts I spoke with, it’s especially good for that function (and it’s also more expensive and bulkier than my best overall pick). For Kimberly Plafke, chef and general manager of Standing’s Butchery’s soon-to-come second location in Los Angeles, the FoodSaver’s canning attachment, which is nestled in a compartment at the top of the machine, has been helpful for making jam. It lets her seal the lid once she’s filled the jar and extend the life of the spread from just a couple of weeks to up to a few months. The machine is generally a solid and reliable one, too, even if you don’t plan on using the canning attachment. “I find it super helpful,” Plafke says. “It’s a space-saver because you’re taking all the air out. You can organize your fridge and freezer so much better. I’m a crazy coupon lady and if I see a good deal on something at the grocery store, I can divide and then vacuum-seal and save it for ages.”

Anthony Accardi, owner of Brooklyn’s Transmitter Brewing, uses his FoodSaver four to seven days a week — “probably as much as my stove,” he told me. “It has long legs outside of straightforward sous-vide use. I use it to make quick pickles, and for fermenting. It takes freezer burn out of the equation. You can marinate something for ten minutes instead of overnight and get the same amount of flavor. I cure pastrami, bacon, and ham in it.” As for the machine itself, Accardi calls it a “well-designed unit.” He particularly likes the view window which helps to manage feeding the bag and to see what’s going on inside. He’s owned his for several years with, as he noted, very frequent use. “I’m kind of surprised that it’s lasted so long for a home unit,” he says. “I don’t baby it.”

Type: External | Size: 15” x 12” x 6.3”

Aaron Foster, owner of Brooklyn’s Foster Sundry, has been using this VacPak at home for the past six years. For him, its primary benefit is how compact and organized it makes his freezer and pantry. In the former, he stores meat and sauces, which spread thin when you seal them and then become stackable. He also uses the vacuum sealer to extend a given season, he says, preserving pitted sour cherries and cooked-down sungold tomatoes to pull out in the winter. When it comes to dry storage, he tightly closes any unfinished packages of pasta, beans, and grains. “It’s much better than having a bunch of open clipped half bags in our cabinet,” he says. Foster also appreciates that the machine accommodates one continuous roll of plastic “so if you’re sealing a tiny bag of yeast versus something bigger for a sauce, you can get exactly what you need and cut it off to your specifications.”

Kate Kavanaugh, co-owner of Western Daughters Butcher Shoppe, and her husband — who not only own a butcher shop but are also avid homesteaders — also use this machine. (In fact, they have the 16-inch model to accommodate larger cuts of meat, but believe the 12-inch should be plenty big for most tasks.) “We use it pretty heavily,” Kavanaugh says. “We raise all of our own meat, as well as enough to cover a small share program, and have had this one for over two years. It’s never going to be as good as chamber machines, but I can’t imagine a regular consumer needing that. And it is more powerful than the FoodSaver. It has really decent suction power, and a decent seal bar.”