Foodsaver Gamesaver Deluxe vs. Cabela's Preservac Premium Food Vacuum Sealer Review

Cabela's Preservac Premium and Foodsaver Gamesaver food vacuum sealers compared — *Cabela’s Preservac Premium and Foodsaver Gamesaver food vacuum sealers compared*

A food vacuum sealer is essential for long term sous vide cooking. After owning a Foodsaver for over 12 years, it was time to replace it. After testing two popular food vacuum sealers thoroughly, the best vacuum sealer choice become clear. Let’s look at each one in some detail.

Cabela’s Preservac Premium Food Vacuum Sealer (about $189 retail)

My original Foodsaver had moderate use with few problems. I replaced the upper and lower sealing gaskets (both identical) twice, that’s about it. The bag cutter no longer worked, and the vacuum seemed less powerful than when it was newer. After reading some reviews that the newer Foodsavers weren’t up to the quality of the older ones, I started shopping other brands. I looked at both the Weston and Cabela’s lines. Although Cooks Illustrated recommended the Weston unit, negative reviews on the bag sealing, the lack of a built-in bag cutter, the lack of compatibility with my large stock of Foodsaver accessories, and an internal vacuum port that could easily suck up liquids made that a non-starter for me.

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Being a fan of Cabela’s in general, and seeing the representation that the Cabela’s vacuum sealer was compatible with Foodsaver accessories, I waited for a sale and purchased the Cabela’s for $120. To get a port for the accessory hose, the Premium Preservac model is required. Both the comparable Foodsavers and the Cabela’s have similiar features, however the Cabela’s Preservac adds a marinating feature which pulses vacuum pressure to a Foodsaver marinating dish to penetrate the meat, then allows the marinade to release, and repeats the sequence until the unit finishes the cycles. Handy, but I rarely marinade, I brine instead, so it wasn’t a deal point for me. It also comes with a 12V CLA adapter for using the sealer in the field, a dandy nylon carrying case with some useful pockets, and a small roll of sealing bag material.

Blue Sky Innovation Group makes the Cabela’s Preservac units. That’s not a household name, but Cabela’s is, so I wasn’t worried…until later. Read on.

The Cabela’s Premium Preservac looked to be slightly higher quality than my old Foodsaver. It has some metal on it; Foodsaver is all plastic. The first test was the “soda can test”–a simple, non-scientific but representative comparison of how each unit will crush a soda pop can in a standard Foodsaver bag.

Cabela's CRUSHES the Old Foodsaver — *Cabela’s CRUSHES the Old Foodsaver*

Clearly, the new Cabela’s unit, with a rated vacuum air removal of just 12 liters per minute (20+ is usually better), had much better suction than the old Foodsaver. I was happy.

The latching mechanisms are much different. The Foodsavers have a simple lever on the right side that is pushed down to lock the sealer into a state where the vacuum will operate. The Preservac requires a hearty push on either side of the sealing lid, until a click is heard on each side. It’s a little cumbersome, and sometimes took two or three tries. The release is activated by two buttons on each side of the unit; several times I had to struggle with getting those to activate and release the lid after vacuuming.

One feature of the Cabela’s I preferred over the Foodsaver is the position of the internal vacuum port, which is a vertical tube in the bottom sealing chamber. This gets the port away from the liquid, which we don’t want to get into the piston pimp. The Foodsaver has no tube, but simply uses a hole in the upper sealing chamber to allow the suction to enter the chamber.

Cabela's Vacuum Stack — The Cabela’s vertical vacuum port is a good feature

Although I was liking the Cabela’s Preservac after a week or so of testing, I found myself in virtual prayer that everything would work together. Would the cover lock and release properly? Would I get a good bag seal? I did find that the sealing was a little sporadic; maybe that was operator error, but upon request Cabela’s sent me new gaskets as the bottom gasket was coming loose after only two days use.

Cabela’s Accessory Port

I use vacuum sealers to preserve refrigerated food and certain spices and sweeteners in Mason jars and Foodsaver containers and cannisters, as well as for sous vide cooking, and the accessory port and the hose are integral to me in using the vacuum sealers. I hadn’t tested that yet, but what could go wrong? Plenty.

Using the old Foodsaver hose (Cabela’s did not supply me with a hose for the Preservac), I could not get, or feel any vacuum from the port. I promptly called Cabela’s, collectively with the product specialist we determined the unit to be defective, and I returned it immediately and asked for an exchange for a new one.

The new unit arrived promptly, and worked just like the previous unit, including absolutely no vacuum pressure from the accessory port. I was pissed, to be blunt. Then, I spotted a small package with a very different looking hose, one that was not included in my previous unit, but as Cabela’s was clear about working with Foodsaver accessories, I didn’t pay much attention to it until I decided to see if for some odd reason this hose was required. Once attached, the port worked fine and I was able to seal my cannisters easily. What gives?

This—–>

Foodsaver accessory port hose is NOT compatible with the Cabela's Preservac — Foodsaver accessory port hose is NOT compatible with the Cabela’s Preservac

Using my digital calipers, I determined that the Foodsaver plug was .15mm thicker, and 6mm shorter than the Cabela’s fitting, rendering the Foodsaver hose incompatible with this machine. I could not believe this error on the Cabela’s description, and promptly called Blue Sky Innovations Group, the Cabela’s manufacturer. They were most pleasant, and apparently did not know of the incompatibility either! Being a smaller company, I did not want to depend on them for parts. The part was not available at Cabela’s, and I arranged to return the unit to Cabela’s for a refund, and ordered the Foodsaver Gamesaver from Amazon for a little less money.

Foodsaver Gamesaver Vacuum Food Sealer

Although bundles with accessories are available from Amazon, I didn’t need more of those, so I just ordered the FoodSaver GameSaver Deluxe Vacuum Sealing Kit which comes with some sealer plastic rolls.

Upon opening the box, I felt like I was using my old Foodsaver. It was nearly identical in size and in features, however contrary to some of the reviews, I actually found the quality to be a little beefier than my old one.

Of course, I had to do another soda can crush test.

The Foodsaver Gamesaver has MUCH more vacuum power than the Cabela's Preservac — The Foodsaver Gamesaver has MUCH more vacuum power than the Cabela’s Preservac

Although Foodsaver does not rate its air removal capacity, clearly it’s a lot closer to the desired 20 liters per minute than the Cabela’s Preservac. It even sounds stronger.

Testing the accessory port with both my old salvaged Foodsaver hose and the new (identical) included hose, the Foodsaver Gamesaver made fast work of vacuuming out air in large Mason jars, my variety of Foodsaver containers, and the in my opinion indispensable marinating dish that I use weekly for brining small quantities of meat and fish.

The Foodsaver is simple, virtually unchanged over time, with $5 replaceable gaskets.

It should be obvious by now that the Foodsaver Gamesaver won this shootout easily, mainly due to the fact that it WORKS, and works well, has proven longevit and reliability in my hands, and accessories and parts are readily available on Amazon on Foodsaver’s own site.

Cabela’s Preservac Premium Food Vacuum Sealer

PROS

Has a well place vacuum port to virtually eliminate liquid intrusion into the pump
Comes with a nice carrying case with room for a few accessories
Capable of 12V operation
Looks good on your counter

CONS

Proprietary parts with limited availability, can be expensive
Not fully compatible with Foodsaver
Funky vacuum lid locking and release system
Low vacuum air removal
Price even on sale is higher than a comparable Foodsaver

Foodsaver Gamesaver Food Vacuum Sealer