Never that of that one Vin! I've used ziplocks with a bit of thinner or water for latex overnight, but that probably gives a really nice life span!
As to the bags, for the most part there are only two types of bags regardless of brand of machine or bag. Quality may vary slightly if you can find various brands of bags, and the optimal size available may vary, but else brand shouldn't be an issue [I think a patent infringement made several brands of "patterned" bags disappear several years ago].
On that note: pretty much everything at the bigboxstores will take a patterned (lines, swirls [I have some swirley ones, but haven't seen them in a while], whatever) bag so it has "channels" built into the bag for the air to escape (a flat bag in such a machine will seal itself off from the vacuum). It's been well over a year since we've bought any, but these were probably 5 times the price of flat bags [likely a combination of complexity, volume sold, and monopoly or royalties]. They can be reused, but I find it a pain to remember cutting a straight end, and moreso washing them.
We have a Vacmaster SVP-5 in this style; same pump as their smallest chamber Vac - great unit though it has all the positives [less space than a chamber and you can use bags cut from a roll and make them 10ft long if you like] and negatives of it's type [you can't do liquids or powders very well, expensive bags, etc.]. It will run circles around the BIL's box store one in both time & seal quality [I won't deny an occasional failure to though, but ussually a ripple in the bag or erractic rhythm and forgetting to adjust for it over/under melting the bag] as well as vacuum (I checked it's gage against a numbered one using the jar port and it actually was up around the 28"Hg); the timer is adjustable, but should really be "vacuum triggered" or better yet IMHO adjustable timer after an ajustable vacuum trigger - not an issue as long as running similar items and bags ect; same with the seal timer, does require backing off a bit after getting in a rythem. Probably will last us a lifetime (really sporatic use; i.e. a great meat sale a few times a year; deer season: total less than once a month, but ran pretty hard for short periods); however the BIL's hasn't died yet either - about the same use. I don't think Vacmaster even makes the SVP-5 anymore though, as it was sizeable enough fraction of chamber vac's price [good ebay deal refurbished made it attractive to us several years ago], the bags probably pay for the difference in the first year of hard use. They now have a "150", "130" or something like that; it looks like the box store ones, but I've no idea of it's quality.
Then there are the TV, ebay, and a few commercial, with a snorkel. I have a cheapo ebay [box even noted "as seen on TV"
] one, that I couldn't resist trying. The guts are cheap, cheap, cheap, but hasn't died yet; not great but enough vacuum, double seal works but again not a nice as the Vacmaster's single seal. However, it is an art to make it work right: getting an object in the right spot to keep the bag from collapsing into the snorkel etc. It is, however, small, and uses flat bags; it actually will reseal a bag of cereal, but the heat duration is really touchy there. I use it occasionally, but usually wish I'd dug up the other one.
Finally, are the chamber machines; I haven't used one since feeding a roomsized octopus looking thing at a meat packing plant, but spending Bob's money [over even my own again, if I didn't have the other ones, and I found a deal like I did when I bought the Vacmaster], that's the direction I'd go. Not exactly a space saving [table top here, not the octopus I noted], but with the price of the bags no longer worth considering [vs. having one that required patterned bags], you can use it entirely at your convienience, and no worries about getting liquids, etc back into the pump either (many of the other ones have a sponge under the bag opening or inline etc which will protect against a little blood leeching from meat, etc, but still not exactly a perfect solution).
