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[JoeGrilling]

This is an FYI for VacMaster unit owners.  I bought a VacMaster VP320 in December 2020 and we love it.  However, there is maintenance involved with these things.  We really started using it in January 2021.  I built a cart for it but needed to wait for my son and my daughter's boyfriend to be around to get it into the house.  Like Bentley said, they are heavy.

Memorial Day this year my unit stopped pulling a complete vacuum.  I changed the oil at the 25 hour point but did nothing with it since.  The manual says "Every 60 hours, 3 months or if oil becomes discolored".  I assumed since  a home owner uses it so infrequently, It could go for a year without an oil change.  It turns out this is not so.

The tech support folks at Ary are great.  They had me change the oil and then a second time.  It still didn't work.  Ary tech support had me cycle the unit 6-10 times and they use Sea Foam to vigorously clean the unit.  It started working while cycling my second oil change.  I did the Sea Foam run for 10 cycles and then a flush with the standard oil.  I then refilled with standard oil and life is good. 

The bottom line is these units need to have their oil changed every three months. 

[GREG-B]

Seafoam, cure all for most everything. 

[BigDave83]

Seafoam is awesome stuff. Love their Deep Creep penetrant.

I have a VP215, I bought 2014 maybe, I think I have changed oil in it one time. It is still clean looking. I did have an issue with the bolts on the ack not being tight and the oil leaking out when I first got it. Couldn't figure where the oil was coming from on the cart.
 I may have to change mine again.

What oil are you using just a regular vacuum pump oil?

I love the chamber machine would never go back to food savers, I bought one of the Pro380 I think it is, a suction machine for a great deal rarely use it but it is nice to have something that will do a 15" wide bag.

[JoeGrilling]

Seafoam is awesome stuff. Love their Deep Creep penetrant.

I have a VP215, I bought 2014 maybe, I think I have changed oil in it one time. It is still clean looking. I did have an issue with the bolts on the ack not being tight and the oil leaking out when I first got it. Couldn't figure where the oil was coming from on the cart.
 I may have to change mine again.

What oil are you using just a regular vacuum pump oil?

I love the chamber machine would never go back to food savers, I bought one of the Pro380 I think it is, a suction machine for a great deal rarely use it but it is nice to have something that will do a 15" wide bag.

If you Google VacMaster oil, the recommended oil is Lubriplate.  I bought a quart for getting my machine debugged and a gallon for later.

[hughver]

I have a VacMaster 350 that I bought several years ago, and it requires some periodic maintenance but is still going strong. I recently ordered the new Anova chamber vacuum sealer. I'll report back when I've had a chance to evaluate it.

[JoeGrilling]

My VP320 has only been in service for less than 18 months.  However, the oil was pretty dirty.  The first oil change was milky yellow with brown crud in it.  My second oil change was milky white.  I was told the milky color comes from moisture.

I think the oil change frequency is dependent of what your sealing.  Most of what we seal are cutup meat that has been already barbecued or homemade soup.  Compared to frozen fresh meat, the I think the cooked stuff is more likely to out gas crud.

[Bentley]

So the oil never come in contact with the food, even airborne? 

You are supposed to use bar chain oil in a chain saw. It goes for any where from $7-$11/gal.  For 9 years I have put used motor oil & used hydraulic oil in my Husqvarna's.  Have not missed a beat or ever been a wear issue.

My questions are, what type of oil do these units use?  How much does it cost?  And what would happen if you used vegetable oil, or hydraulic oil in theses devices?  Although a gallon of vegetable oil is probably more then $11 now that I think of it!

[JoeGrilling]

So the oil never come in contact with the food, even airborne? 

You are supposed to use bar chain oil in a chain saw. It goes for any where from $7-$11/gal.  For 9 years I have put used motor oil & used hydraulic oil in my Husqvarna's.  Have not missed a beat or ever been a wear issue.

My questions are, what type of oil do these units use?  How much does it cost?  And what would happen if you used vegetable oil, or hydraulic oil in theses devices?  Although a gallon of vegetable oil is probably more then $11 now that I think of it!

It's airborne contamination.  My wife puts a little juice in the bag when sealing leftovers like brisket.  It amazes people we over for BBQ that the liquid boils during the vacuum packing process.  We have to be careful with soups to avoid a mess in the chamber.  We typically put the unsealed soup bags in the refrigerator or the freezer for a few hours before sealing to keep boiling at a minimum.

These units use a special SAE10 hydraulic oil.  My guess is the stuff is nontoxic.  The recommended oil is not cheap.  It runs $50-65 a gallon.  The stated oil capacity on my pump is 1 cup or actually 200 ml = .85 cups to fill to the center line.  I can get 13 oil changes out of a gallon.  I tend not to substitute oil on expensive equipment though my chainsaws have used motor oil from time to time.