I don't make anywhere near a ton of jerky. Although at one time , I used to make about 30 pounds at a time.
I bought a sort of mid level , semi-commercial slicer a couple years ago, I bought it mainly for slicing bacon. I don't use it very often, it so big, it can't be easily moved ( I think it weighs like 70 pounds , and it's very awkward to carry regardless of how much it actually weighs). Mine is relegated to my basement, because I don't have room for it on my main floor. It takes about 20 minutes or more to clean thoroughly, maybe 30 minutes really since I don't have running water easily available in my basement either. ( I really need to rectify that )... Only time I use it, is if I have at least 30 minutes worth of slicing to do. So, while I don't really regret buying it, it's not exactly a highly used item, maybe 4 or 5 times a year or so.
I have a VacMaster VP215 that's in similar situation... only it's even bigger and weighs slightly more. Now, this one I really don't regret buying, but it too get used less then a dozen times each year, but... well I do really like it and is GREAT for sealing up most anything that's not more then 12" long. It requires very little cleaning, so... that's not a issue.
Meanwhile... jerky. I personally don't know that I'd slice much raw meat on my slicer. Stuff just doesn't slide through it very easily when it's wet and soft like raw meat is. I suppose you could partially freeze it before slicing... but anyway, generally speaking, I can cut meat up with a knife pretty quickly. I basically never cut any thinner than 3/8" for jerky. Recently , I've been using flank steak for jerky, and that would be virtually impossible to slice on a slicer... So for me, I personally don't really see the slicer as a big time saver for my jerky needs.
But more then anything, I caution you , that big meat slicers aren't necessarily very convenient, unless maybe you really are doing very large quantities of stuff that slices well on them.
