Am I doing something wrong?

[Southern Gardener]

I bought this Food Saver V3040, and had a bunch of okra I wanted to seal and freeze. I just took it out of the box tonight and tried to use it, but it doesn't work. I tired everything and it doesn't vacuum the bag. Is it defective or am I doing something wrong?

 

[dewdropsinwv]

Are you locking the sealer to the table or counter before using it??? On the right hand side there should be a lever to push down and lock it in place, if you don't lock it it wont work.

 

[Southern Gardener]

Yup, I did both. I even tried an empty bag and it still didn't work.

 

[journey11]

Take a look at the foam gasket and make sure that it is pressed evenly into its slot. Air can leak around that and prevent a vacuum. That happened to mine before, anyway.

 

[MontyJ]

Let's start from the beginning. Will it seal the end of a dry bag, like from a roll? When you try to vacuum a bag, does it sound like it's vacuuming, but doesn't draw out any air, or does it make no sound at all?

 

[Southern Gardener]

Let's start from the beginning. Will it seal the end of a dry bag, like from a roll? When you try to vacuum a bag, does it sound like it's vacuuming, but doesn't draw out any air, or does it make no sound at all?

It will seal a bag. When I vacuum it does make noise (louder than I thought it would) but it just doesn't pull out the air from the bag.

 

[Southern Gardener]

Take a look at the foam gasket and make sure that it is pressed evenly into its slot. Air can leak around that and prevent a vacuum. That happened to mine before, anyway.

I'll check that out journey.

 

[jomoncon]

Something simple - make sure the bag is in the vacuum area. With mine, it's about an inch or so in front of the sealing strip.

 

[MontyJ]

Journey and Jomoncon are on the right track. There is a drip "pail" inside the unit. Make sure the end of your bag is in that far. Also, if there is a lot of water or moisture in the bag, it won't seal.

 

[dewdropsinwv]

Journey and Jomoncon are on the right track. There is a drip "pail" inside the unit. Make sure the end of your bag is in that far. Also, if there is a lot of water or moisture in the bag, it won't seal.

the owners manual tells you to make sure there are no creases in the bags too.... also to seal moist food, freeze it for about an hour or so first then you should not have any problems.