Wont lock and seal, how come

Bag will not seal • Check that there aren't any gaps, folds, wrinkles or holes in pre-sealed edges.
• Moisture of foods with high liquid content will prevent the bag from
sealing properly. Cut bag open and wipe top inside of bag and reseal.
• Make sure you've placed the bag in the proper place. When making a
bag from a roll, make sure end of cut piece is on Sealing Strip, NOT over
Lower Sealing Gasket or in Drip Tray.
• Make sure you give the appliance time to cool down. Wait at least 20
seconds between seals.

If all the above have been verified and the machine will still not pull a vacuum, you will need to replace the upper and lower gaskets.

It may be too late now that you've cut it, but put it in a paper bag with a ripe banana and seal the bag for a few days. Since it's open, you'll want to keep the bag in the fridge. The gasses from the banana may ripen the melon, depending on how unripe it is.

yes. seal them in a ziplock bag or container first

Could be the heating element (wire that gets hot enough to melt plastic) is going bad, how long have you been sealing bags with the unit? If you have used it for some time there is the possibility of build up plastic/residue on the the wire or the surface that actually comes in contact with the bag as I would suspect there is a coated surface the element heats up as opposed to the element / wire coming in contact with the plastic itself!

Make sure you put the bag in as it's designed to go in, I s**t you not I tried to use a wider foodsaver bag and cut it down but I inserted it the opposite way than it was intended to go in and it would NOT vacuum the air out. So I cut another bag to test if inserting it the correct way would matter....and it TOTALLY worked fine! Crazy how I couldn't get it to work the other way.

Place a folded paper towel at the top of the bag between the meat and where it will seal.
It will absorb the blood and allow the bag to seal

On most models of vacuum sealing systems, you cut off the roll the size of bag you need. Slip one open end of the bag just on top of the heating element over it about 1/8-1/4" and press down the lid to seal the bottom of the bag. Fill the bag and then place the open end far enough into the vacuum cavity over the heating element and close the lid and press down and hold until the cycle finishes. If you don't want a vacuum, just put enough bag material to cover the heating element but not into the vacuum cavity. Hope this helps

If you are trying to get to the motor and not the bag Sears repair people have a special tool to remove the rubber seal and if you try it your self you will end uo ruining it or stretching it and if it does go back together when your done it wont seal properly and therefore it wont have sufficient air flow.

• Assuming that the unit is plugged in and the plastic bag is in the proper position.........
• Press firmly and equally on both sides of the cover (where the three raised ridges are on each side). The 2 micro switches that start the vacuum motor are located there and require firm pressure to operate properly.

Take apart and see if wires are connected That is what was wrong w/ mine. Soldered wire now works fine.