The vacuum sealers I used to see on TV commercials growing promised a lot. Not only could you make the most of your warehouse store membership by stocking up on every kind of ingredient, you could even (less appealingly) throw leftovers in a plastic bag, freeze them, and boil them back into piping hot meals whenever you pleased. I’ve still yet to use my vacuum sealer to reheat a sack of spaghetti and meatballs, but I do regularly use it for meal prep and more affordably buying groceries in bulk.

Our top picks

• The best all-purpose vacuum sealer: Foodsaver Elite All-in-One Liquid+,
• The best vacuum sealer for sous vide cooking: Anova Precision Chamber Vacuum Sealer
• The best compact vacuum sealer: Anova Precision Slim and Compact Vacuum Sealer
• The best budget vacuum sealer: Nesco VS-12

But the uses for a vacuum sealer at home have continued expanding. In addition to helping seal and store food in the pantry or deep freezing, home cooks are finding vacuum sealers handy assistants for sous vide cooking, pickling, marinating, and more. Yes, vacuum sealers can do more than keep your leftover block of cheese from turning fuzzy. Read on for our reviews of the best vacuum sealers — from large chamber sealers to compact countertop sealers — with some tips to help you pick the right countertop appliance for your kitchen.

What are vacuum sealer machines used for in cooking?

Sous vide: If you own an immersion circulator, a vacuum sealer is nearly a necessity. While it’s possible to utilize zipper-top bags in water bath cooking, vacuum sealer bags offer an airtight, fully sealed sachet to toss into the pot or tub without a second thought.

Marination: While vacuum sealing meats in their marinades won’t necessarily marinate them any faster (due to the denser structure of these proteins versus, say, porous plants), chamber vacuum sealers, especially, allow for an even distribution of marinade and offer the ability to safely seal and store your proteins in their marinated state.

Food storage: When there’s a big sale on whole chickens or you just returned from the warehouse club stores with a big bag of chops, a vacuum sealer can help you break down and refreeze these bulk buys into manageable portions or reserve pieces you don’t otherwise need right now (hello, soups and stocks). Vacuum sealing canisters or placing portions of value-size pantry items into vacuum sealed bags can extend their shelf life as well.

Freezing and preservation: Vacuum-sealed foods will last longer in the fridge and freezer and won’t suffer freezer burn in the same way over long periods of time. The ability of some vacuum sealers to work with mason jars and canisters also means that things like sauces, jams, and dry goods can be locked away in airtight conditions too.

The best all-purpose external vacuum sealer: FoodSaver Elite All-in-One Liquid+

What we love:

There are lots of FoodSaver models to choose from, but if you simply must have as much tech thrown into your gadgets as possible, then you’ll love the Elite All-in-One Liquid+.

To start, this model can auto-sense when a bag is inserted and clamp down on it while you select which vacuum cycle to run. That makes it virtually hands-free after you insert the bag, though I found that actually inserting the bag correctly so that it registers (with wet or messy hands to boot) took some finesse. The plus of this sealer’s design is that its chamber is elevated up off of the counter, so you can easily use standing-style storage bags or suction moist foods in lengthier flat bags without worrying much about spillage. If the vacuum does cause spillover, the removable, dishwasher-safe drip tray has a sensor to alert you when it’s full. While it doesn’t beep or ding, the lid does pop up when the seal cycle has completed, so you do get some indication of when you can move on, a surprisingly rare feature among edge-style sealers.

In addition to Dry and Moist, it offers a Liquid setting for sauces and soups, which worked for marinating pork but left quite a bit of air in the bag (the instructions say not to use it on anything less viscous than chicken noodle soup). There is also a dedicated Sous Vide setting which, according to a FoodSaver representative, uses gentler suction (which could prevent smooshing of more delicate proteins) and also ensures a stronger seal to avoid accidental leaks for immersion cooking.

Lastly, this model includes a retractable onboard handheld sealer for compatible containers (a “marinating” storage container is included), washable vacuum-able zipper bags (also included), and even a bottle stopper (which is included). Pretty much the only thing not high-tech on this machine is the bag roll storage, which is just a cavity on the back of the unit with a hinged cover. You have to manually feed the bag material in toward the front to make an initial heat seal, but then you can continue to cut and seal bags one after the other.

What we’d leave:

When you’re done, you have to manually roll the end of the bags out of the way so as not to interfere with the vacuum sealing process. Considering this sealer does so many other things automatically, this stands out as the clunkiest part of the operation.

The best vacuum sealer for sous vide cooking: Anova Precision Chamber Vacuum Sealer

What we love:

When it comes to using a vacuum sealer for sous vide, a chamber sealer is by far the best machine for the job. And when it comes to dipping your toe into chamber sealing for the first time, Anova’s Precision Chamber Vacuum Sealer is here to show you the way. The “user friendliness” of this model can’t be overstated. Any function you need it to do has a labeled button or setting for doing it. There’s Normal and Strong vacuum modes for dry and moist foods, as well as specific modes for Infuse/Extract (say you want to make your own flavored oil or vanilla extract), Pickle/Compress (for getting brines and marinades into porous ingredients), and Dry/Cool (for cycling moisture and hot air away from foods quickly). Anova’s instructions and website both offer more info on how to utilize these handy features. In fact, I’m kind of surprised Anova didn’t pull a FoodSaver and include a Sous Vide mode. And while there are plenty of sous vide cooking applications that don’t require sauces and marinades, being able to vacuum seal and store your proteins or vegetables in a liquid and then just toss them into a water bath to cook is a huge plus.

What we’d leave:

Making your own bags is a bit of a pain. There is no “seal only” function so you have to run a short vacuum cycle each time. That may mean you’ll want to opt for premade vacuum sealer bags, although that means you won’t be able to customize the bag size. If the thought of all that wasted plastic bothers you (unfortunately, plastic bags are an essential part of all vacuum sealers), you can opt for compostable bags, although senior editor Noah Kaufman used them regularly for a year and found they didn’t hold up as well to longer sous vide cooks.

The best compact vacuum sealer: Anova Precision Vacuum Sealer

What we love:

There are a ton of compact vacuum sealers out there (which we’ll generally define as the models lacking onboard bag storage of any kind) and at various price points. While most of them perform just fine as storage sealers for dry goods, many lack gentle, “moist” modes, or otherwise delicate “pulse” functions that let you fine tune how much air you want to remove from a bag. Anova’s smallest countertop sealer does not, and that’s what put it over the top. Its controls are sensitive enough to let you seal anything to your heart’s delight, whether that’s super wet foods or dry pantry items. And the normal “Vac/Seal” mode sufficiently handled chicken, fish, crackers, and cookies just fine without keeping an eye on them.

What we’d leave:

Unlike many of the other sealer’s I liked, this Anova does not include an accessory port. Was that enough to knock it out of recommendation status? No. But the availability of an optional hose and accessory attachment is so common among similarly priced sealers, it seems like a relatively simple addition that would only increase this sealer’s versatility. If that’s a dealbreaker for you, consider the slightly larger Anova “Pro” or similarly priced Dash Superseal.

Looser items like beans and rice could have been a bit more compacted. That appears to be a power issue, probably due to this sealer’s size. The controls could also do with some additional presents like “moist” mode, which, again, is available on a few similar models and would make using this appliance more intuitive out of the box. That said, if you don’t plan to use vacuum compatible containers or reusable valve bags and your main goals are sealing and storing bags for freshness, freezing, and sous vide-ing, this one will do just fine while taking up very little space.

The best budget vacuum sealer: Nesco VS-12

What we love:

While not the most beautiful vacuum sealer on our list, the Nesco VS-12 is a compact powerhouse with multiple modes/pressure settings and a sensitive pulse function. It has a big handle that’s easy to lock into place (and unlock) and a countdown to let you know when the cycle has completed. Given that the clock starts at 9 and occasionally skips a number on the way down, it’s clear that this countdown is not in any measurable time unit. But the actual suction-to-seal time in Dry mode was 23 seconds, which is still pretty quick.

One simple, user-friendly feature that even my favorite FoodSaver lacked was a clear window to see how much was left on the bag roll stored inside. This machine also seals without running the vacuum, so making bags is easy. Another standout function is its ability to create a double seal—i.e., two parallel seals at the end of the bag, and a bit of added insurance for wet contents or items headed into a sous vide water bath. Yes, the FoodSaver Elite offers more bells and whistles and accessories, but for sheer ease of use and versatility at less than half the cost, this one felt more like the little workhorse I needed it to be.

What we’d leave:

I tried the wet ingredient test (marinated pork) by combining the moist and gentle settings, and still ended up with the liquid drawing up into the vacuum chamber. And while the drip tray is easy to clean, it isn’t removable. The wet test actually worked much better on Pulse mode (which requires you to seal manually once you have removed enough air to your liking), and the VS-12 offered the best mess-free results of any external sealer I tried.

Chamber sealers vs. external vacuum sealers: What’s the difference?

The main differences between the two kinds of vacuum sealers we tested are where you put the bag and how the air is removed before the bag is sealed.

External vacuum sealers, sometimes called suction edge vacuum sealers, are the kind you have probably seen for sale at your local big box store or online. They utilize either a roll of bags or precut bags specially designed to fit in their thin air channels. Most external sealers then require you to close a lid to create a seal while the vacuum pump sucks any air out of the bag before using a heat strip to seal it shut. Some models offer “wet” settings as well, which use less powerful suction to (hopefully) avoid drawing any liquid up into the vacuum channel. I say hopefully, because if liquid does get in the channel it can prevent the bag from sealing and just generally make a gunky mess. The external sealer may not remove all of their air in the bag, meaning some pockets or bubbles are still possible. However, for most home culinary uses, this isn’t too much of an issue. External vacuum sealers tend to be smaller and more easily storable, and some offer onboard bag roll storage and bag cutters for all-in-one simplicity. Another significant feature? They usually come with a much smaller price tag than chamber sealers.

Chamber sealers go about things a bit differently and offer some unique applications. But for simply sealing foods in plastic, the process goes like this: You place the entire pouch of food inside the machine before closing the lid. It then removes all of the air inside the chamber. This means the air pressure is lower than the pressure outside the machine. Then it heat seals the bag or pouch in this depressurized state. Once normal atmospheric pressure is returned to the chamber, the bag will contract in on itself creating an airtight seal around your food.

As chamber vac sealers don’t rely on suctioning air through channels in the bag to work, they are better at dealing with wet foods, like meats in marinades or fresh fish fillets. While the bags should be food- and heat-safe, they don’t need to be the channeled bags used by external vacuum sealer models. Some of the added benefits of a chamber sealer include sealing and storing food in a marinade (so it is ready to sous vide straight from the fridge or freezer), making infusions and extracts, compressing food, which lets you do very quick pickles, and cooling and drying out hot and moist foods by speeding up the evaporation of water.

But the downside of chamber sealers is they often have a much larger footprint, meaning you may not want one sitting on your countertop if you’re short on space. They also tend to be more expensive

Both types of vacuum sealers also offer the ability to seal other containers like mason jars or specially designed canisters. Sometimes that means using a hose attachment and an accessory port or, in the case of chamber sealers, can be done by placing a jar with a sealing lid inside the machine without any additional gadgets.

What we looked for in vacuum sealers

• I judged basic operations like opening and closing the machine, plus how quickly a bag could be inserted into the chamber (especially with wet or messy hands).
• I liked machines that offered bag storage onboard (less mess), but not all onboard bag storage is created equally. Some required manually cutting each bag and then going back to do a sealing session. Some sealers won’t seal unless you run a short vacuum operation first. Others make it easy to batch out bags by cutting and sealing at the same time.
• If a bag cutter was onboard, I scrutinized for how well it slid back and forth through the bag material.
• Did the machine beep or otherwise indicate clearly when a vacuum/sealing cycle is complete.
• Was the machine noisy? That’s especially important for brands that tout everyday storage and sealing as their intended uses.

• How quickly and effectively did the vacuum remove the air contents from a dry bag and how long did it take to seal.
• How secure were the seals?

• Could the vacuum remove all the air from a bag without totally crushing the contents inside.
• The availability of multiple settings for suction power was also considered. I liked machines with a sensitive “pulse” function that let me dial in exactly how much air I removed from bags containing delicate foods.

How we tested vacuum sealers

Each vacuum sealer was tested with bags containing dry, moist, and liquid ingredients. These included common proteins and pantry items, as well as fragile and soft ingredients.

For dry products, we used dry pinto beans and dry basmati rice and noted how much air or movement was left in the bag (i.e., they should feel rock-solid). For moist products, we used chicken thighs and salmon fillets and noted any air gaps left by the reduced suction power. For the wet test, we put a pork chop in ¼ cup of liquid marinade and noted whether we could perform a vacuum cycle without spillage into the drip tray. For the fragile items, we used the “pulse” mode (if available) to seal multigrain crackers and soft chocolate chip cookies. We also put these items through a regular dry seal to see how squished or damaged they became.

We also made batches of bags by hand from the roll (as opposed to using premade bags). Finally, we tested any accessories that came with the vacuum sealer when applicable, but did not let that impact the head-to-head testing.

Other vacuum sealers we liked

The box this vacuum sealer comes in says “Made for sous vide” right on the front, and we’d agree this is a great edge sealer for that job. The Moist mode removed air effectively without letting liquid leech too far toward the chamber. With the meat in a marinade, I tried it on Pulse and was similarly able to pull sufficient air out without spilling. It also puts a double heat seal on every bag, ensuring a strong seal for submerging in water. Oddly enough, I found the Dry function a little lacking on this unit, as my rice bag and beans bag were both able to flex and move around a little more than with other sealers. Another slight minus is that this machine doesn’t beep or do anything other than shut off the Seal light when it’s done. To be fair, the Nesco doesn’t beep either, but it does have a countdown to zero to remind you things are all done. On the plus side, making bags is just as easy as with the Nesco and by contrast, Anova’s is much more attractive in a glossy black finish that won’t stick out as much among your more modern appliances.

If sealing bags that stand up (or minimizing liquid leaching into the machine) is not a priority for you, then you could save some dollars by opting for this low-to-the-ground FoodSaver model instead of the FoodSaver Elite. One attribute of the Premier Multi-Use that I prefer to the Elite is that batching bags was easier. But this is a loud machine with relatively few presets (compared to the Elite). There is a fixed handheld attachment that sits on the top corner of the unit with the hose coiled up. It’s not as slick as the retractable hose on the Elite, but it does expand the possibilities.

Dash Superseal Vacuum Sealer

If you want something compact, this sealer definitely delivers. And as an everyday vacuum sealer for freezing and food storage, it functions just fine with a quiet, albeit slightly underpowered, motor. I wish the dry goods had been packed a little tighter, but on “moist” mode, it handled salmon and chicken well enough for the price point. Dash’s equipment is relatively basic, and that shows in its inability to pulse or let you effectively remove air from anything with too much liquid, like our marinated pork. It probably won’t be helping marinate much at all unless you opt to use the available accessory port with a compatible (but not included) hose and container like this mason jar system. However, if you generally season with dry spices, the (included) host and reusable zip-seal vacuum bags offer more storage flexibility and the parallel double seal lines on the heat-sealed bags were a nice bit of added security for immersion cooking. Lastly, unlike other compact models on this list, it does include a bag cutter that sticks magnetically to the back of the machine. But, frankly, it was too finicky to use (you have to set a loose roll of bags behind the unit and then drape the bag material properly to slice it). Scissors were, frankly, easier but even then I’d personally stick with pre-cut bags.

Weston Compact Vacuum Sealer

Like the Weston 2-in-1, this sealer is a solid middle-of-the-road option.It’s not quite as small as some other compact sealers tested, but still would fit in a drawer or slide into tight spaces in a cabinet, and it has a little nook to fully tuck away the power cord when not in use. It doesn’t have a “moist” mode, but the suction was gentle enough on “normal” to not immediately draw liquid up into the sealing strip area. It also has a “pulse” feature, which means you can dial in on how much vacuuming you want on certain fragile foods or liquid items, but you might have to practice. It’s a little louder than the Dash sealer, but it also pulls more air out of the bags, which makes a good sous vide gadget, if that’s what you’re looking for.

Interestingly, Avid Armor’s USV20 chamber sealer and Anova’s Precision chamber sealer are very similar. The size, capacity, bag clip, soft-close glass lid, and carrying handles were all identical.

The main difference is that the USV20 lacks most of the preset cycles of the Anova. On the negative side, this means you kind of have to figure out all of the tricks your chamber sealer can do—and which settings you need to use to do them—on your own. On the plus side, this means you can dial in precisely how long you want your suction and sealing cycles to run—15–60 seconds for vacuum, and 3–9 seconds for seals. The default (20 seconds/4 seconds) was more than sufficient for well-packed dry goods and nearly 15 seconds faster than Anova’s Normal mode. I found the Avid Armor also performed better than the Anova on moist/wet foods when I ran a longer cycle time as the manual suggests, simply because I could tell it to remove air for 60 seconds rather than the shorter Strong cycle on the Anova. While the Anova makes it easy to hit a button that says Infuse/Extract, the USV20’s Marinate button performs a similar function, running intermittent 60-second cycles without sealing. I also liked that the Avid Armor came with an accessory port to expand into jars and canisters and other vacuum-compatible accessories. Ultimately, I recommend the Anova because it is easier and more straightforward to use, but if you don’t mind tinkering, you’ll be happy with this sealer.

Vacuum sealers we don’t recommend

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