Side by Side Comparison of: Nesco vs Nutri-Lock

This is my first food vacuum and after reading so many reviews on different products, I settled on the Nesco VS-02. Cooking for one or two people isn't easy and finding single portioned items is near impossible. Bought this to portion my food as it's usually just me I'm preparing meals for and tired of not having single serve portions. I've used it 3 days in a row sealing 2-3 bags at a time then allowing to cool before I seal any thing else. The machine has sealed every time and I'm so very pleased with it. Simple to use.A lot of the meat I pre cook into the dish I want. If the item has sauce or a gravy, I put it in single portion size containers, freeze, then vacuum once it's frozen solid. This works great and no worry about liquids being sucked up into the machine. Now, trying to figure what I want to take to work for lunch is a simple process of grabbing my veggies and meat out of the freezer and going. I even found a recipe for freezer friendly mashed potatoes! Large bags of items like fries, ravioli, veggies can be dumped in a sealing bag, sealed and then resealed as you remove your amount for cooking. These frozen items would usually ruin on me before I got around to using the whole bag, so this little machine will also help save money.I can't comment on longevitys I've just purchased, but right out of the box it's doing what it's intended to do..

I bought this here on Amazon. I paid about $70. I bought it for myself for Christmas and it is my new favorite toy! I vacuum seal everything now!I use it to reseal bags of chips. Also, on all types of food.Another thing I have used it for is vacuum sealing important documents - passports, birth certificates, wedding certificates, etc......just put it all in a bag and vacuum it. I'm certain it will make them last much longer.It has an area in the back where you can put a roll of vacuum bags. The item seems very well built. I look forward to using it.I bought it over the Food Saver brand because I felt like after reading the reviews and researching that it was more heavy-duty. So far I agree. Very nice quality.

I have only used it a few times on some pork loin and some chili. Follow the instructions! If you try to seal a bag with liquid in it the machine will suck it up and you will not get a seal. Also, the area of the bag to be sealed must be clean and dry. I set the bags of chili upright in a rack and placed them in the freezer until the liquid froze. Wiped the area inside the bag with a paper towel and then placed it in the machine. No problems!

I have been researching different vacuum sealers for awhile. Originally I was looking at foodsaver but when the price on this unit dropped to 44 dollars I figured I had nothing to lose by giving this a shot. After using it multiple times I must say I love this thing. It doesn't take up much counter space and its extremely easy to use. It sits at an angle, and with the vacuum chamber's suction protruding up, liquid is less likely to get sucked into the pump. So easy to clean and maintain. Sealing strip sits outside vacuum chamber and seals very well even though seal width is quite thin. Solidly built and I like that the cord can be wrapped underneath unit when not in use. It also comes with some nesco brand bags but I prefer lemontreefoods bags. This version doesn't have a roll holder or cutter but I don't use rolls so that wasn't a deal breaker for me. This unit is basic but that doesn't make it any less efficient. Watch for price drops on this fantastic little machine. Money well spent!

I've never owned a Food Vacuum sealer system before, so I did a bit of research before purchasing the Nesco. I also tried out the FoodSaver V2244.Comparing the two was pretty simple.Cost:The Nesco sells for about 15% less than the Foodsaver.Quality:The Foodsaver felt cheaply made. It was light, small, and didn't have one of the features I really liked about the Nesco, an extended sealing setting.The Nesco feels solid, as if you could use it continuously as a hobbyist whereas the Foodsaver felt like it was best for grocery day only, and for a small day at that.Weight:No comparison, the Nesco weighs considerably more and feels more solid.Accessories:The Foodsaver wins here. It comes with different size bags, a vacuum attachment for bottles, canisters, quick marinator, (all of which must be purchased separately) and other Foodsaver after market items.The Nesco comes with a few different bags.Size:The Foodsaver takes up a lot less space, so keeping it on the counter is less of a problem. As is finding space in a cupboard.The Nesco, due to its more solid build and higher quality, does take up a lot of counter space, but that's a trade off I'm willing to make, as I can box it up, and put it out in the garage on top of our freezer.I did have a few questions to ask and Nesco's customer service was very responsive. I've heard that Foodsaver is not very customer friendly and a question I asked them in early December still hasn't been responded to as of the date of this review, late January.For quality, expected life expectancy, and service, I've rated the Nesco two stars higher over the Foodsaver.I was so impressed with the Nesco, I purchased one of their Food Dehydrators as well. I've been using that a lot, making homemade jerky for my dogs, then vacuum sealing them with the VS-02. All in all, I'm pleased with Nesco.

I love this vacuum sealer. The cutter for the bags is wonderful. You just place the roll in the sealer and slide the cutter and have no problem getting a straight cut. I had ordered another one before and didn't like it as I had a hard time cutting bags straight across. The Nesco has a number of setting and works well. I would definitly give it a 5.

I've been a faithful FoodSaver owner in the past but they have become too costly. Quality good but too costly. This unit is more price wise and has similar features I was looking for.. storage of rolls, cutter on unit and ease of use. Locking down lid was problem at first but DO READ DIRECTIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE FIRST USE.

I have no experience with other vacuum food saver devices. This unit seems to do the job well when it can properly suck down the bag; the problem is that it seems to be rather finicky about getting a good vacuum seal. I often have had to re-arrange the bag after the unit has failed to pull a proper vacuum. To its' credit, it does recognize that it didn;t get a good seal, and it does NOT seal the bag then when the cycle is finished. So, it seems "smart" about it. And, as I said, I have no experience with others, so perhaps this is somewhat normal.The roll storage/cutting feature is sort of dumb. It doesn't help you create a bag, it just cuts it. I should have opted for a smaller unit and a pair of scissors...it would have been quicker!Lastly, as others have noted, it does have slopes that make it tough to put something on top of it; I have opted to keep it in the box.

We bought this machine because we've started preparing all of our lunches and dinners on Sunday afternoon. The first week we had so much food in the fridge it was crazy. We ate through all of this, but when we got to say 5 we started getting kind of leery about eating the older pieces of chicken.Week two we prepared just like before, but froze some of the meals. This worked, but it made for slightly freezer burnt meals. They still tasted OK, but we wanted something just a bit better.I've always wanted a food vacuum / sealer because I like buying in bulk and freezing what I can. Cheese is a huge thing that is usually frozen in our house. This said, these items would often be freezer burned. We'd still use it, but it'd be awe fully dried out and sometimes have the flavor of the other things in the freezer.This was our first week using the vacuum and it was kind of an awesome process! We vacuumed half of the weeks meals and are taking them out one to two days at a time. This is a much better system and now we know we're getting fresh food instead of something questionable in terms of spoiling.I took one star off because while this machine performed adequately, we still had some freezer burn on a few items, even though we used the maximum vacuum setting. Also - this machine is HUGE. It's very deeps and ~18" wide, so it definitely isn't going to be sitting on most ppls counters.Finally something that I didn't really thing about until I used it on food that was semi-liquidy is that this machine (and I'm sure all vacuum sealers do the same thing) pulls liquid into the part that pulls the air out. There were a few dishes that we had to soak juice up with a paper towel because it got kind of messy.

Works great. Only Basic instructions provided but easy to figure out. Pretty Loud during vacuuming but works great. Also works well with "Food Vac Bags" brand bags.

This is my first vacuum sealer, so I can't really compare it to any others from a usability perspective, but overall I'm very happy with this sealer. I have found that it does a good job pulling air of the bags, seals well, and is easy to operate. I've done long jobs where I had to seal many bags in succession and it did a good job, even with wet materials. I've not used it with the canister attachment yet, but look forward to it and am glad that it has that feature -- at which time I'll probably start using it much more frequently with canisters.Pros:Seal-only button allows you to seal pre-cut bags, or double seal bags.Extended seal setting gives more confidence in the sealWorks with all bags I've tried (though some bags are better than others)Canister only button to quickly select between bags/canistersBag roll holder (though a little small) is convenient, especially with the built-in cutter.Cons:The only drawback I've noticed, causing me to give it 4 stars instead of 5, is that the sealing bar is outside of the vacuum chamber, meaning that you have to leave a rather long piece of bag material free. I've noticed that some of the FoodSaver models put the heated sealing bar inside of the vacuum chamber, so there'd be less wasted bag material. It's also a little larger than some other models, but not so much that I'd consider it a drawback.EDIT: I recently bought the FoodSaver accessory hose and jar sealing attachment and the work perfectly with this machine making it all the more useful -- I only regret that I didn't buy those earlier!

Nice food saver. Only drawback is it has to take breaks after every third or fourth seal. It needs time to heat up again to vacuum seal the bag.

1. I bought the white one because it was cheaper without realizing it is a different model than the black one, doesn't have the cutter or storage compartment.2. Definitely need patience to use this for several items since you should wait 2 minutes between items. If you don't wait, you will have the problems I did, maybe, where one time sealing doesn't always seal completely. I was having problems with bags not vacuuming. I thought my equipment broke already, but turned out that it can't vacuum if the first seal doesn't seal the entire side. So I had to double seal all sides to make sure my product was safe.Luckily for me I will not use this too often since I live alone.

As a bag sealer this unit is great for the price!You can preemptively press the "Seal Only" button to cut short the crushing vacuum cycle to preserve delicate items, but it takes some fineness and practice.The bags must be perfectly lined up at the lip of the sealer or there will be tiny holes in the seam, my prior vac sealers seemed to deal with this much better but this unit is not able to press a crease if one exists. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a hose accessory anywhere in the world for this unit and I really wanted to use the function to seal mason jars! I've ordered a FoodSaver wide-mouth jar attachment and found that did not include a hose attachment either! So now I am buying the FoodSaver brand hose attachment and hoping it fits and works with this Nesco unit. If not, I am out ~$20. Wish me luck! I'll update when I know.

I Gave 3 stars b/c 1st of all I got a defective item. The product seals the bag but does not vacuum out air. If this actually worked it would be a great item. It has a space to hold a roll & cut off even bags. They sent 2 rolls and some pre cut bags. I opted to make my own size bag, which worked fine. The sealer worked fine as well. It just would not vacuum out air. Thanks to Amazon return policy I don't ever worry about buying items b/c if something like this happens I can return it. Although I am sad I was VERY excited to get my new food vacuum & it was defective, but had it worked it would be a great product!!!! Since I read a lot of the reviews this doesn't seem to be an issue, I just have some bad luck but yes I would recommend this product.

Had to wait a short bit to get an Amazon warehouse deal that was suppose to be in stock but apparently wasn't. Once the item came back into stock shipping was fast. The product was accurately described and depicted.Product received was defect free. The amazon warehouse deal was very good and I was happy with the product I got as well as the price. I was eager to use it and used within the first few days of receiving it. Two rolls and a some pre-sized bags were provided.Impression from my first use was very good and I probably did close to 10 packages of portioned raw products like fish and chicken and stuck them in the freezer. Everything went very well and I was extremely happy and the items sealed and frozen came out good and was able to easily thaw in the same bag I sealed it in.My second use wasn't as good, the lower foam that seals the too and bottom to allow a vacuum sealed to occur stuck to the upper foam when I pulled it down and opened it up. I thought the lower foam went right back into its channel properly and had a few issues getting a seal to happen. At this point I was pretty disappointed. It looks like the foam seal smashed a little in one spots and because it is slightly compressed in one spot it allows air in/out and a vacuum sealed doesn't happen well. Luckily I found I can apply some pressure on the top near where the lower foam defect spot is and it'll seal right up without issue.I'm sure the lower foam is available somewhere and I know it can be replaced easily. I just wouldn't have expected it to stick, I cleaned the machine and seal after use and I guess since I latched the top to the bottom for storage allowed the upper and lower foam stick to eachother slightlyou.Now I store the machine with the top not latched and have not had an issue with the upper and lower foam sticking to cause product/usability issue.All in all, I am happy with the machine and it's performance prior to the foam seal issue. Luckily it is still usable with some assisted pressure, but I am not happy I have to do that on such a new of a machine. The only option I had for a complaint was to send it back for a credit. If I had the option to swap it out I would've exercised that option.

I felt misled seeing two color options for the same listing--white or black/silver. Maybe it was naive of me, but I assumed the reviews would pertain to both colors.I looked at a number of reviews before buying. The reviews convinced me to get a Nesco over a Foodsaver. The small print at the top of each review I read specified "Color: Black/Silver." This makes it sound like color is the only difference. These reviews also mentioned features like a cutter, a bag storage area, and a port to attach a hose for vacuum sealing universal jars.Since both color options were offered under the same listing of Nesco Food Vacuum Sealer, it didn't cross my mind that the white one might have fewer features. I just thought it was cheaper because white isn't trendy like black and silver. The Nesco got so many 5-star reviews! I'd bet that if the white and black/silver were listed separately on Amazon, the white would in no way get same the high ratings of the black/silver; it's not the same unit at all.It also never occurred to me that clicking "white" would yield a different product description (I learned that after the fact). In my opinion, these should be listed as two completely different products on Amazon, much as a different model of camera or food processor or other appliance would have its own listing. Bottom line: I need to be more vigilant before buying products that offer different options!My experience using the white sealer: I discovered that the white unit does indeed lack many of the features of the black/silver unit. To operate, it requires a good deal of pressure to snap each corner shut before sealing. The first time I tried it, I was afraid I'd break it by pressing down that hard, but it seemed to accept the pressure just fine. I was pleased with the integrity of the heat-sealed bags, but in general, the unit just seemed a little awkward to use.I ended up returning the white one and ordering the black/silver one instead. The jury is still out, as the new one hasn't arrived yet.UPDATE: I love the black and silver one. I use it all the time and have not had any problems. Have owned it more than a year. I love that frozen foods last well beyond normal expiration, thanks to total lack of air in the bags.

The heating element was so hot that it melted through the bags, and the bags I use are thicker than what came with the machine (didn't try with the nesco bags.) It also needs too much headspace on bags compared to other vacuum sealers I've used.

I started to give it a 3 but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I get so irritated with this machine. It works sometimes and then it doesn't work sometimes. When using just the "Seal Only" button it is very hit and miss. Sometimes it comes on and sometimes it doesn't. Most of the time I have to hit the button 4 or 5 times to get it to activate. It might be that it has a heat lockout mechanism but it shouldn't be engaging after only 1 or 2 seals. If it overheats at that rate, the design is bad.And when vacuum sealing something it is very hit and miss. I can do, say, 4 different packages of ground beef... it will do the first 3 fine and then the 4th one, it won't vacuum the air out. I have to cut off part of the bags top (about an inch) and then retry it. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I know this is an inexpensive machine but either stop selling it or make it better and charge a little more for it. I owned a FoodSaver before and will definitely be going back to them once this one is finished.

I hate writing less than stellar reviews. This is my second food vacuum, and it is temperamental. The vacuum causes the juice from ANY food to leak on machine. The seal is minimal and doesn't last.

I purchased my unit a little over a year ago and it has stopped working reliably. This is disappointing as i dont use the unit that often. Before the unit broke I was happy with it as it worked very well. Unfortunately the warranty is only a year so I will now have to buy another unit. The primary issue I am having is the vacuum no longer works well.

When this machine works properly, it is wonderful. Unfortunately, it only works properly maybe 50% of the time. The machine vacuums just fine, but if there is even a lick of moisture it will not seal properly. I've had times that I've had to cut and re-seal 4-5 times before the seal takes, and I've found 2 packages in my freezer that I thought were sealed, that aren't anymore. I've seen posts that suggest freezing the food first and then sealing, but, that doesn't really work for things like lettuce. I've probably used more bag material cutting and resealing than I have preserving food.

I have had this item for 6 weeks and it was working just fine until today. It will seal and it will vacuum, but it will not vacuum seal. It cannot be returned and I am sending it back to Nesco for repair or replacement. I will update this review when it comes back.

It doesn't vacuum the air out as well as I would have expected. My packages still had some air in it when it stopped suctioning I didn't think the vacuum stayed on long enough before it sealed. Just not real pleased with it. Didn't make it a year wouldn't recommend it.

After the first unit failed to deliver vacuum, I thought that I'd try it again - maybe I received a bad one, but no, 2 failures in a row. After just 1 or 2 uses sealing and vacuuming bags, the vacuum gave out. I even gave it an extra few minutes for cool down. The instructions say wait 2 minutes before sealing the next bag - ummm, yea, that's a mighty fine vacuum sealer. My last vacuum sealer was a cheap $30 unit that lasted years. You could just vac and seal like a maniac - no 2 minute cool-downs.

This thing is JUNK. When I first used it, it was not sealing as expected. Then I realized it was cockpit error on my part. Once I determined the proper placement of the bag to be sealed it worked well. For a while that is. Then it began only vacuuming and sealing after several attempts each time I used it. Now it wont vacuum at all, but it does seal the bag most of the time. Of course without pulling the air from the bag it's pretty much useless. Might as well use a ziplock baggie and save the money. No I would not recommend this to a friend.

Talk about anticlimactic! This product did absolutely nothing. I've tried several times with different foods and the results are the same every time: Nothing. All it does is make a bunch of noise and light up. At first, I thought maybe it was operator error so I went back and actually read the instructions. There was no operator error ... it simply doesn't work. I'm assuming mine is simply a faulty unit because I can't imagine these people still being in business and there product doesn't work across the board. Maybe you'll have better luck but I'm returning my piece of crap and looking into other brands. Colossal waste of my time and money.

Do NOT buy this vacuum sealer... I just did and today went to try it, to seal hamburger meat... had gotten the two size bags... put them in the sealer and press the vacuum seal and all it does is make a loud noise... no seal at all.... Called the 800 number and the lady said it sounded as if something is not right.... so now I have to send this and the bags all back.... I am getting so tired of getting products that do not work and then have to send them back.... Pass on this and buy something else.... Does NOT work... does NOT seal....

Very disappointed with this product due to inability to handle even minimal moisture. The website says, "Features switch to extend sealing time for wet items," but the manual says, "wet bags may be difficult to seal tightly... freeze moist and juicy foods first before sealing bags. Leaks along the seam can be caused by...liquids."I tried vacuum sealing unblanched corn kernels on the extended cycle setting, but even the small amount of moisture sucked out in the vacuum phase prevented the unit from achieving a seal. I have vacuum sealed dozens of bags of corn kernels this way in the past with the FoodSaver V3240 Automatic Vacuum Sealing System with Starter Kit. Unfortunately, that unit stopped sealing altogether this year. Since that problem seemed to show up frequently in reviews (sealing issues after the first year or so of use), I was hesitant to buy another unit, and decided to try this Nesco product instead. It's going back for a refund.I sure wish some company could build a vac sealer that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, can handle some moisture and will hold up over time.

Simply doesn't work. Out of 10 times only once it did work. All other times it's making a lot of noise, but no air is being sucked out of the bag.