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NutriChef Stainless Steel Vacuum Sealer For Food

NutriChef Stainless Steel Vacuum Sealer For Food

By NutriChef · Vacuum Sealers · Kitchen & Cooking · More from NutriChef

  • 110W motor
  • 14.1 x 6.0 x 3.0 in frame
  • Dry & moist sealing modes
  • LED touch controls
  • Includes vacuum bags, hose & wine stopper

Lowest price seen
$56.99
from $56.99 at NutriChef Kitchen · Checked Oct 22, 2026

New
Used, refurbished, open-box

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Problems, parts and running costs

Summary

A compact, corded vacuum sealer for portioning, freezing and reheating food, sold in silver as the NutriChef PKVS18SL. Two things to check before you buy: the housing is engineered ABS, not stainless steel, and the model-matched replacement gaskets have been hard to source.

Strengths

  • Small and light at about 2.93 lb, so it stores easily in a small kitchen.
  • Dry/Moist and Normal/Gentle modes give more control than a single automatic setting.
  • The starter kit adds five precut bags, a roll, a hose and a wine stopper.
  • A manufacturer storefront and a Walmart marketplace listing each showed $56.99 in October 2026.
  • Owners report it helps portion freezer food and saves freezer space.

Weaknesses

  • The lid catches are plastic, and one exact-model owner reported breaking them on three of four units.
  • Wet ground meat can fail to seal even on the Moist setting.
  • Replacement gaskets were listed at $35.99 but the part page now returns a 404.
  • The silver body is ABS plastic, not stainless steel as the name suggests.
  • Each cycle needs a 40-second to one-minute rest, so packing a large batch runs slowly.
  • Vacuum packing reduces freezer burn but does not make food shelf stable.

Verified specifications

ModelNutriChef PKVS18SL in silver; the black PKVS18BK is a color variant that shares the same manual and controls.
Typecorded external-suction bag sealer with a latching top cover and a heat-seal bar.
Controlsseparate VAC/SEAL, SEAL-only, STOP, FOOD (Dry/Moist) and MODE (Normal/Gentle) buttons.
Motor110 W at 120 V, with 12 L/min advertised airflow.
Dimensions14.1 × 6.0 × 3.0 in; 2.93 lb.
Bodyengineered ABS plastic, not a stainless-steel chassis.
Power cord3.3 ft (1 m).
In the boxfive precut 7.8 × 11.8 in bags, one 7.8 × 79 in roll, an accessory hose and a wine-stopper cork.
Bag materialembossed, channelled food-grade nylon-coated polyethylene; the roll is 6.58 linear feet before cuts.
Heat limitthe vendor states the bag material tolerates 212°F, but the machine is not a cooker.
Coolingthe older guide says 40 seconds between seals with the lid open; the newer guide says up to one minute.
Full research notes and sources

Which model this is

This page covers the NutriChef PKVS18SL in silver, a corded external-suction sealer with a latching top cover. The black PKVS18BK shares the same manual and controls, while the PKVS25BK.5, PKVS20STS and NCVS80BSS are different machines. It has no built-in cutter, removable drip tray or roll storage, so buy it for the footprint and the controls, not for those features.

Sealing wet food and leaking bags

Moist food is the weak spot. One verified Walmart buyer said ground beef still would not seal after leaving about seven extra inches of bag material and selecting Moist. Grease and juices crossing the seal area spoil the weld, so keep the bag mouth dry and flat, cool or pre-freeze wet food, and reseal. NutriChef’s troubleshooting guidance points to wrinkled seals, bag punctures, food residue and incomplete placement in the chamber, and warns against blaming the pump for every lost vacuum.

Lid latches and replacement parts

The catches are plastic, and that is the part owners report failing. One exact PKVS18SL owner, writing in October 2021, said he owned four units and the lid retention broke on three, each after roughly 6-9 months. That is one person’s run of bad luck, not a published failure rate. A broken catch stops the lid sealing the pump chamber even when the motor still runs, and no verified matching latch part number or repair price was found. The official gasket set PRTPKVS18G was listed at $35.99 for the PKVS18SL, PKVS18BK and PKVS20STS, but the page now returns a 404 and the archived Q&A gave no restocking date.

Bag film and running costs

Most of the spending is film, not electricity. The 110 W rating does not mean a constant draw, and no watt-hour-per-bag measurement was found. Pyle listed two 8-inch x 50-ft compatible rolls, 100 linear feet, at $25.99, and a mixed 8-inch and 11-inch x 50-ft set at $39.99; both were sold out. A hundred bags a year at one 12-inch cut each is about 100 linear feet of film, or roughly $26 at $0.26 per linear foot, and 200 bags would be nearer $52. Electricity is trivial: even 110 W for 30 seconds a bag across 100 bags works out to about 0.092 kWh a year. There is no subscription and no scheduled gasket replacement.

Is it worth it?

At $45 or below it is a strong buy if the unit is new and returns are easy. Between $46 and $65 it is reasonable for occasional household use, and that is where the observed prices sit. Above $70, the Anova Precision Vacuum Sealer was listed at $74 and the NESCO VS-101-S at $79.99, both with their own bag and accessory requirements. Around $100, the NESCO VS-09 was $99.99. None of them match the PKVS18SL’s wine-stopper kit, so pick on the features you need.

Sources

Manufacturer:

Manuals:

Independent reviews:

Stores:

Parts and consumables:

Alternatives:

Owner reports:

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