Looking for a recommendation for a vacuum food sealer. There are too many manufactures and model -- Seal-a-Meal, Food Saver, VacMaster, Coso ...

I will be sealing up at most 4 bags at a time. I don't expect a home unit to the same duty cycle as a commercial unit. It will be used for storing dehydrated food.

I have a food saver that I got from Costco 5+ years ago. Granted it does not get a ton of use but it still works fine.

Food Saver from Costco as well. Best price around for the most part. Use their bags, they are the best home bags I have found.
http://www.foodsaver.com/

Thank you for the recommendations. I will be on the hunt, since I am no longer a Costco member. Gear for making food. It does not get any better...

Check on Amazon as well :) And this is the season for sales as well - Cabelas always seems to have them on sale in early fall.

Note, they sell the machine cheaply, and they ream you for the bags. For long time storage, yes vacuum packed bags work good. But for backpacking, the bags themselves are very heavy in comparison to even zip-locs. Now they might have made them much lighter than my old ones, but... I wouldn't bet any money on them.

PS. CUT BAGS LONG. That way you can keep reusing them. Every time you seal a bag it uses about 3/4 inch that you have to cut off and throw away when you open it up.

I've had very good luck with the Pump-N-Seal (http://www.pump-n-seal.com/). I wouldn't recommend it if you really need things in plastic bags, but if you can do with mason jars, empty jelly jars, etc., then this thing really works.

You punch a hole in the lid of the jar (using a push pin) then cover it with a little "band aid" thing that has a rubber pad in place of the gauze part. Put the pump over the band aid and pump till it's done. The little band aids can be reused many times. I wouldn't bother with the bowl-seal lids they sell--those are awkward to use and not worth it IMO. But for jars it's great.

I went with the FoodSaver model 2200. Works very well, so thank you all for the recommendation. The jerky looks like Hans Solo packed in carbonite.

Lol......love the mental image!

Btw, if you are ever sealing rice or pasta dishes I have found that a piece of new white paper towel put in the bag first, then the food will protect against any sharp edges poking into the bag. In camp you can use the paper towel for cleanup if needed :-)