Take a Pass on the Foodsaver FM 2900 Starter Kit at Costco (Cheaper Elsewhere)

Costco is selling the Foodsaver FM2900 vacuum sealing system and it is an interesting product.

If you are thinking about buying the Foodsaver then my quick review is, “The Foodsaver 2900 is a fine product but you can save yourself some money buying a knock-off from the big online realtor.”

Why Buying a Foodsaver is a Good Idea

I have an older model Foodsaver and really enjoy the product.  The three main things I use my Foodsaver for are:

1. Buying meat in bulk and freezing meal sized portion.
2. Preparing steaks for Sous Vide cooking.
3. Protecting important documents.

I believe that sous vide is one of the best ways to cook steaks and you are going to need a vacuum sealer of some kind to make this happen.

As far as documents go, this is the easiest way to protect birth certificates, passports, car titles, etc. from water damage.  Sealing the documents keeps them clean and protects them from the damage that comes from bumping around in a drawer or file cabinet.

A Foodsaver is also handy to break down bulk dry good purchases into manageable sizes.

Key Features

The Foodsaver 2900 at Costco is a starter kit that comes with the following items:

• Foodsaver Vacuum Sealer
• 1o foot roll of 11 inch bags
• Pre-cut quart and gallon bags
• Quart and gallon zipper bags
• Hand held sealer for the Zipper bags

The Foodsaver 2900 has four vacuum modes that include:

• Sous Vide
• Dry 
• Pulse
• Moist

I really can’t imagine the difference between “Dry Mode” and “Sous Vide Mode” as they should produce the same tight seals.

Pulse Mode would be appropriate for sealing up bakery goods such as Costco’s croissants and muffins where you do not want the product to get crushed by the vacuum.

The Foodsaver has a built-in bag cutter and a drip tray to catch any liquids that seep through.

Customer Reviews

I pulled up the customer reviews for this product from the Costco website to see what other people thought of this appliance.

The Foodsaver has over 400 customer reviews with 85% of them being either 5 or 4 Stars.  About 10% of the reviews were 1 and 2 Stars and I dug into what people didn’t like about the unit.

The biggest complaint about the Foodsaver is that it works great until it doesn’t.  Apparently the unit has a tendency to stop pulling a vacuum strong enough to get the air out of the bag.  Some representative negative reviews are given below:

• The suction is minimal. Everything remains soft and there is considerable air in the bag.
• The food saver didn’t vacuum. I was on the phone with a food saver representative for 1 hr trying to resolve the problem.
• Seals but does NOT suction at all! Just makes loud noise.

Keep in mind that most people do not have any problems at all with their units and love the purchase.

Price

My local Costco warehouse has the Foodsaver FM2900 starter set on sale for $99.  You can buy a similarly sized Foodsaver from other online realtors for about the same price but it will not come with the handheld sealer for zipper bags.

If you go to that big online store that starts with an “A” then you can also find cheap knock-offs of the Foodsaver that cost about 40% less and get great reviews.

I love my Foodsaver but there is nothing magical about the technology.  It pulls a vacuum and uses a heat strip to seal a plastic bag.  This is the type of appliance that is easily to replicate and get the same performance without paying the premium for a Name Brand.

If you buy the Foodsaver from Costco then you should end up with a fine product.  If you are being budget minded then you might want to check out some alternatives.