I don't have an evac but when cryovacing wet food  get a piece of  paper towel and fold it up to the same width of the bag to absorb the moisture. This works for me. 

my sunbeam very rarely does what yours does. it seals pretty good, nearly every time. only issue with mine is that the heat sealer doesn't take long to over heat. you then have to wait for it to cool down for a minute or 2, before going again.

maybe you could just double seal it, ie: just press the seal button again after its done its first seal.

 Had it forever, misbehaves occasionally, but always seals. I think the Sunbeam manual suggests drying food in the manner described above before vaccing and sealing, but I've never bothered. 

Just don't let anyone seal a heap of squid tubes then just chuck it aside--the pong from the trough in the sealing compartment was something else, two days later,,,

I've got a Sunbeam too and I know what you're talking about if i've got a lot of liquid in whatever i'm sealing

As Eziliving said, a strip of papertowel the width of the bag between the food and where you're sealing will catch the liquid before it gets to the sealing strip and stops this problem

 For at least 2 or 3 years and never had that issue. Send Dave a pm I'm sure he'll sort it out for you. 

 Yeah my evapack machine does the same thing, bit of a pain in the ass, i only.heard good reports about them thats why i bought one, if i knew they were like this i would have bought a commercial one

If any FW Member is stuck for vacuum sealing fillets, etc, please contact me as I would be happy to help out.  Located in Wangara.

We have this machine, and it doesn't suffer from overheating or is impacted by moisture in the product.  The vacuum extraction process is different one than the "home" machines.

 I have both an Evapack and a Sunbeam. They both work on the exact same principles, the difference being the Evapack is a better build, has variable sealing times to suit various bag thickness, and a 30cm seal width to accomadate commonly available non sunbeam bag sizes.

As others have mentioned. Pat the meat/fish dry, wipe the seal area, or use a wad of paper towel as a dam. Any moisture or contamination across the seal area will lessen you chance of a good seal.

As for marinated meats. I place it in a "tupperware" container, freeze it, then pop out the frozen block of Meat/Marinade and vacuum pack it.

Have a go at putting fillets/whatever in a folded over freezer bag then vac packing. Reduces liquids tracking through the vac bags. 

 I see you are in Waikiki, let me know when you are up in Perth next and we can organise to test your machine. The machine should be sealing your products as described. There should be no need to pat fillets and bags down of excess water/fluids. The machines are designed to not seal at all if too much water is detected. This may then result in you having to get some paper towel out but certainly not on normal sealing.

In regards to your marinated products, try handing the bag under the level of the machine. This is easily done on the end of the bench and will require a second hand. This will allow gravity to take place. There is a normal expectation to see fluids sucked up due to the power of the machine. The other option is to seal without engaging the suction. Place the end of the bag infront of the black foam line instead of in the middle of the drip tray. This is how we seal bags that are cut from a roll. The general go with the bags is to try to use bags of good quality that are made from at least five layers. Most suppliers will have a rating on the bags in terms of thickness/layers. Research over 7 years has shown that the thicker bags work far better on the machines than the thinner ones. The suck and seal time sounds to be normal and it seems as though you are doing everything correctly.

Failing all of that, PM me your number for a chat or feel free to contact me on 0403978583 to get it sorted.

Regards

Dave

 Thanks everyone for the replies/ sugestions... I will give the paper towel a go... freezing the meat /fish first isn't always practical ie filleting up on a trip away or when you just need to get everything washed down and put away at the end of the day because the kids need fed etc but I will give it a try for pre packing meals etc thats a good idea....

Dave- I can't recall the brand of bags I commonly use but they seem thick and I have had simmilar results from all brands. I bought a lot of bags from Blue Water that were 'the best' apparently and same care has to be taken... I have started packing bait into less wastefull sized amounts and packing whiting for bait and thats a struggle as there is always a lot of moisture. I try to double seal them but on the second seal you can see the moisture travel towards the machine so the 1st seal must not have worked... I will persevere and try the paper towl trick and see how that helps if not I will message you if I feel it's more than the bags... I appriciate you reply mate cheers..

Winta....

 I seem to recall Sunbeam actually recommend chilling the product first before sealing--they don't give a reason, and i remember wondering " why would you bother"? This is probably the reason. Might give it a try, even though I have never had any issues, even if just to save cleanup afterwards.

 i always refrigerate my fillets for at least a couple of hours before vac sealing them it does seem to dry them off, I also take care when filleting so as not to have the need to wash the fillets, they only ever seem too wet to vac if they have been washed. 

the top 30 -50mm of the bag inside out. This will let you load it up without getting the bag wet and aid with sealing.