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Both of these machines are the same machine, with different names, and both have the same features.
Understanding the machine
This was one of the first of the "Hands Free" line of machines the idea here is to create a vacuum in a channel. A black gasket surrounds a channel and a chamber comes down on top of the gasket to seal around the channel. With the open bag in the channel the air is drawn out of the bag. Pressure is required on the lid until a vacuum is achieved. Once the bag has collapsed, and there is a positive vacuum in the bag and channel, the lid will stay down all by itself "hands free". On this model the pump will stay active until you push and hold the heat seal switch. The heat bar will seal the bag and turn off the machine. You control the amount of vacuum in the bag, by when you run the heat seal, a little or a lot it is up to you.
This machine gets the pressure necessary to create the heat seal from the vacuum in the channel.
This thing is not vacuuming the way it use to: This is sometimes caused by the "channel gasket" crushing down over the years. Try removing the gasket and soaking it in a silicone lubricant. The stuff you use on the dash board of your car, or the silicone that skin divers spray on the inside of their wet suites to keep them supple. DO NOT use the spray cans for metal parts they have stuff in them that is not kind to rubber gaskets. Keep the gasket out for a day or two to fluff it up then reinstall it. Or buy a new one from the on line catalog.
The Gage that tells me when it is ready to seal does not go to green: Here is a sticky situation. The gage is essentially a tube with a two color sliding plunger. The piece that slides gets a build up of the vapor that gets pulled through the machine and causes the slide not to slide. Short of taking the machine apart there is no way to fix this issue. So if you are brave you can take the bottom off and remove the gage clean it and a little vasoiline will make it slide again. If you are not so brave send the machine to us. Do not try to flush these machines! |
