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You don’t need to be told that food is the most important part of your day to day routine. It may feel like it’s that morning cup of coffee, or that run you have around the block, and yes, both of them are great.
It’s always going to be food, though. Whether it’s good food or great food, it’s the main thing that’s going to elevate your mood, motivate you for the day, and make it feel easier to tackle that big deadline at work.
So, you’ll know the feeling. The feeling when you’ve been waiting for that steak. You know the one, it’s been sitting at the back of the fridge to either avoid your housemates or your family. You got it for a reason and you’ve been looking forward to it to days.
It can only compare to heartbreak, then, when you reach over to the back of the fridge to finally enjoy it in all of its fresh, succulent glory. It has gone off.
You sink to your knees and scream to the heavens. If only you’d treated it with more care, kept it fresher. Maybe if you’d treated it better, it would still be with you.
There is a solution though, and a cheap and effective investment. Not just for your steak, but for your salmon, your vegetables, your dry foods, your moist foods.
Sometimes it’s impractical to get around to eating that thing that you’ve bought. You know you’re going to eat those strawberries, but they end up rotting away and feeling like a waste of money.
So, why not invest in a vacuum sealer? They keep food fresher and increase the shelf life of a variety of your favorite perishables.
You can get some of the best ones on the market for under $100 as well. This is clearly a steal because it’s an investment. All of those foods that you’ve started eating but ran out of time before they started to rot no longer become a black mark on your receipts.
We’ve assessed the top three vacuum sealers on the market today that are under $100.
The Top 3 Vacuum Sealers under $100
Simple, easy to use, sublime, and best of all: cheap! The Geryon vacuum sealer boasts an incredible amount of functionality and uses, even with its subtle and elegant design.
Geryon use specially designed bags in order to keep food fresher and tastier. The shelf life is not only increased, but it means that you can cook food in innovative new ways. If you love mussels, then you can boil them in the bag. You can also cook a lot of things sous vide! If you want to give your steak an edge, try this before lightly frying it to get a rarer texture.
The drawback of this is that you need to stock up on the bags, but these are cheap as well. You’re probably already buying Ziploc bags or clasped ones, so the method of this vacuum sealer is so quick and so easier that it’ll be simple to just swap to these bags and spend the same amount of time storing your food.
Not only this but if you also buy the cannister with it, you can store your fruit for work and vacuum seal it, keeping your fruit fresh and tasty for the midday stomach rumbles.
This vacuum is automatic, which streamlines the process incredibly. It means that you simply need to fill the bag with the food you wish to store, attach it to the vacuum sealer, and use the innovative hands-free method in order to seal your food successfully.
It’s durable, so any buttons won’t become a problem either, especially as most of it is hands-free.
One of the best things about this vacuum sealer, though, isn’t just that it keeps food fresh and tasting great, but it also goes a long way towards your meal preparations. So not only will your meals now be well packaged and stay fresher and tastier for longer, you’ll also be able to boast to your friends or your family about your new cooking methods.
They don’t need to know that this vacuum sealer is quick and easy to use, they just need to know how tasty the food they have before them is!
The suction is also something to look at here. Impressive and efficient, the strong suction of this machine will keep your food safe from freezer burns and from bacteria.
There are two models here that you can choose from. They are both under $100, but one is still a lot cheaper than the other. This is because one is mostly automatic, and one is fully automatic.
Which one you buy won’t affect the quality of what the machine does, however, it will just affect how much time you spend doing it and the functionality of the machine. So, if you’re in a hurry and live a fast-paced life and you simply don’t have time to spend extra minutes doing it yourself, then the fully automatic machine is probably the better option.
However, if you have time to spare more than you have money to spare, the partially manual one is probably the best option for you.
This is by no means saying that one machine does the job better. One machine does the job faster, yes, but the partially manual machine is still functional and very easy to use. It comes with a user manual and is still an automatic vacuum sealer, you’ll just be doing more of the process by yourself.
So, if ease of use is the only difference, let’s get into the bragging rights that both machines have.
Both are simplistically, yet functionally designed. The fully automatic one may look a little bit better or more futuristic, but the hands-on design of the other is still impressive, fairly small so it’ll fit into any of your compartments, and sleek.
Not only this but these sealers boast so much more than food related locks. Yes, you will have to start buying the relevant food storage bags. It can also help you cook in a sous vide style and impress all of your friends with how fresh and tasty the food you serve is.
But there’s more. You can use the hose attached to these vacuum sealers in order to create air tight seals for your clothes. Got a wedding or an interview coming up? Want to keep your suit tightly sealed and un-creased? Then you can simply use what you’ve also been using to keep your food fresh!
If you happen to be making some wine, as well, or if this vacuum sealer motivated you to, it’s possible to vacuum seal wine bottles to keep your wine fresh and uncorked.
There is a reason why this one has been saved until last. It has been hailed and worshipped by many.
In fact, all you need to do is take a glance and you’ll instantly fall in love with this vacuum sealer. It looks beautiful and will fit into any kitchen’s aesthetic, whether it’s wooden or chrome. You can buy it in black or silver to help it fit in even more if you want.
That’s without any of the specifications. Yes, it looks incredible, but how well does it work?
There’s a risk of saying too much about this vacuum sealer so it’s going to start simply. It works. It works well. It works efficiently. It’s under $100 so if you’re looking for one like this, it may be an easier option. The others are either cheaper or may fit into your kitchen a little more, however, and can tailor to your individual needs a little more if you’re looking specifically for clothes or for wine sealing.
This vacuum cleaner is lab tested and it’s lightweight. If you love fishing as a classic pastime, then this is certainly the one to go for. It’ll fit into your backpack snugly and alongside your rods and so you’ll be able to take it out. Then when you catch a prized fish or a nipper, this vacuum cleaner would be happy to seal it and keep it fresh on your journey back home.
Not only this but the bags are reusable. This means that you won’t have to be digging into your pockets every few weeks to get a few new ones. If you’ve sealed up your broccoli and have used it to make a tasty stew, then you can simply place in some carrots into the bag and seal them up for next time.
This makes it great for sealing leftovers because there’s much less of a risk of running out of bags. If you’ve prepared a meal that’s been sealed up and you don’t finish it, you can simply seal it back up into the bags that you’ve already used.
It’s fully automatic, too, meaning that it’s easy to just pick up and use and you won’t have to waste any time juggling with bags or with food.
Buyer’s Guide
The first thing to know is always going to be what your purpose is when it comes to vacuum sealers. This is what’s going to inform your decision the most. If you’re looking for something to seal food up and cook with, then the decision may be a bit more difficult. If you’re a budding or an expert chef and you want to try some new methods in the kitchen, then there’s a larger range of options on the market for that purpose.
If it’s only for sealing wine or clothing if you’re a wine connoisseur or a self-proclaimed tailor then the decision becomes more simple, as some vacuum sealers will be better at fitting this purpose than others.
Durability
All the vacuum sealers on this list come with a very good level of durability. However, hands free and fully automatic sealers will always be more durable. You’re working with food and if you’re trying to seal moist food then there’s a small possibility one of the buttons may become stuck.
But as vacuum cleaners are mostly light and usually well made with quality materials, this issue is mainly about whether or not the buttons are going to continue working. The trick here is to think again about what you’re using it for.
If you have a young child and are mostly feeding them wet foods that need sealing, it may be better to invest in a more durable model. This is true also as when you have young children things are more likely to get broken.
At the same time, however, if there is a history of things getting broken in your house, a less durable model may actually help as they’re cheaper and therefore easier to replace.
Aesthetic
This is related to purpose. It’s about thinking about your current conditions, why you want to buy a vacuum sealer, but most of all, how it’s going to fit in inside your kitchen.
If your kitchen’s aesthetic is farm or country, then you may not want something that looks like it’s from the space age and may even want to invest in a manual model, so that it’ll fit into your kitchen a lot more.
However, if your kitchen is futuristic then a darker, sleeker model might suit you more.
Functionality/ Speed
Again, this is about thinking about your current situation when you’re buying a vacuum sealer. If you’re buying one to keep food fresher than the bags you’re already using, but don’t mind spending roundabout the same amount of time, if not a little more, sealing food then a cheaper, manual model may suit you better.
However, if you’re getting a vacuum sealer to streamline the process and spend less time with food preparation, then a fully automatic model will probably suit you more.
Materials (Bags Included)
This is related to price and durability. If the materials of the vacuum sealer itself are solid, then it will be more durable and less likely to break if a disaster happens like if you drop it.
But thinking about the bags, you may want to save the money you’ve been spending on bags that don’t work as well. In this case it may be better to invest in a vacuum sealer that you can reuse bags with.
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