My Food Saver Repair

  
Earlier this week we finally got to Sam's Club.  We have been paying the yearly fee for three years, but we never were able to make the trip.  Sam's Club is about 1 hour and 15 minutes away, but we hadn't had time to go there, shop and get back in the time because of responsibilities at home.  I would prefer to shop at Costco, but we don't have any store close enough to us.  While at Sam's we purchased a lot of everything because the quantities are always so large.  We also purchased a whole pork loin, a big slab of salmon, several pounds of chicken tenderloins, ground beef, a ten pound box of bacon and some luncheon meat.  Since there are only two people in our household now, we decided to package everything up in small quantities for the freezer.  My husband cut the pork loin into roasts and pork chops and divided everything else.  We put the meat into Food Saver bags, and I started to seal them.  It was then I discovered that the sealing part of the Food Saver was working but the vacuum part was not.  There was still air left in the freezer bag.  Being very unhappy with my malfunctioning Food Saver, I decided to take it apart.  What did I have to lose?  It didn't work anyway.  I have done this before with a vacuum cleaner and my Bunn coffee pot.  http://www.thecabincountess.com/2015/06/my-bunn-coffeemaker.html

I missed my calling.  I should have been a Maytag repair woman.  I love taking things apart to see how they work.  Sometimes I can't put them back together again, but sometimes I can repair whatever it is.  In this case it was my Food Saver Vacuum sealer.

I removed the seven screws that was holding the bottom plate on.

Inside I saw two clear plastic tubes.  I thought that was probably part of the vacuum mechanism.  Then I saw one of the tubes appeared to be clogged.

I took a knitting needle and removed the clog.  It looked like a small piece foam, but I ignored that fact.  Ignoring it ended up to be a bad idea.  It actually had a function which I discovered later.  I put everything back together.  I must say, it was easier to take it apart than it was putting it back together.  I struggled a bit and after I got the seven screws back in, it was ready to try.  I set it up and sealed the bag.  It semi-worked but something was wrong. It vacuumed the air partially but then stalled.  I tried again and the same thing happened.

Since I have a short attention span, I waited a few hours and started the process again.  I realized that the foam inside the tube probably had a function.  After thinking about it, I thought the foam's function was to restrict the air flow enough to keep the tube from collapsing.  The reason the old piece wasn't working was that it was old or clogged.  I put in a new piece and replaced the tube.  Then I put it back together for the second time and tried sealing another bag.  Walla!!!!!  We are back in business.  Not only did I save a bunch of money by buying in bulk, I saved $149 by not having to buy a new Food Saver.   At least for now.  After all, the Food Saver is more than 25 years old, and I suppose it won't last forever.