fishbelly, mine was 11 yrs old and on monday it fell off the shelf and shattered,,,,, it still worked as good as a foodsaver could and i used the crap out of it.......my wife thinks it was a staged event becouse ive been looking at chamber sealers for serious sealing,,,, id say you got a bum one,,,,, take it apart and look and see if your suck tubes have been worn threw by the pump, this happened to mine... good luck