Food Savers are fine for the usual household uses. However, they will not seal liquids or anything that contains too much liquid in it (warm meats, etc). For that you need a chamber vacuum. They are big and expensive. This is the only one that even comes close to a home price and size:

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/vacmaster-vp112-chamber-vacuum-sealer/120VMASVP112.html

My parents have had some type of vacuum sealers for years and years; they've tried several brands. I was thinking about getting one and asked my dad for advice - he said either Food Saver or Magic Vac are good sealers, but the ones made in Italy are better quality than the ones made in China. They currently have a Magic Vac made in Italy which is several years old and has worked fine - they mostly use it to seal smaller portions of meat for freezing.

I decided to just stick with ziplocs, because most of what I freeze is liquidy stuff like soup or stews and the home sealers don't work very well for that. For liquid stuff the commercial-type sealers are a better, but much more expensive, option.

If you're looking at vacuum sealers as an alternative to refrigerating/freezing perishable foods or canning, I don't think that's safe. They just extend storage time, but you still have to keep perishables cool or frozen. They are great for keeping dry goods from getting stale, or keeping frozen things from getting freezer burn though.

My mom has been using her food saver for years. I'll ask her if shes ever had problems but I know that nothing I've gotten from her has never been faulty. She uses it for every thing. Sometimes Ahe throws a bag around Jared things like frozen peaches so they don't get messy in the fridge ( she does frozen peaches without lids with just waxed paper and hot wax so sometimes the outsides get sticky so she'll throw a bag around it after the initial freeze