Yours isn't. Mine was. Mine was the V-550.
Over time, I suspected that it was the heating strip to be the culprit, because the machine would vacuum. It just wasn't seeling propoerly - which was why the bags kept on losing their vacuum seal and all they ended up with was being full of air and the frozen food sliding around in the bag very freely.
I almos lost several bags of boneless pork chops because of this, and even after buying the Kenmore unit, I used those bags from the Food Saver unit with it. They STILL kept on friggen losing their vacuum seal.
Having had enough of this crap and being sick & tired of being sick & tired, I threw out all of those unused Food Saver bags, along with the ones that were used before, went back to Sears and got a big supply of Kenmore vacuum seal bags!
Now, that constant ongoing aggravating problem with keeping the bags vacuum-sealed has been eliminated once and for all!
Yes, Sears sells their unit under the Kenmore name. It's made by Tilia - the same co. that makes the Food Saver units. They also sell the Tilia machines as well.
~Corey123.