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15 Comments

1. I am wondering if you did indeed purchase the freeze dryer and if so, how is it running almost 3 years later. I’m thinking of purchasing one since it’s got a great discount right now.

   1. I did purchase it from Harvest Right. Then they came out with a new model. I purchased the new model about a year ago, sold my older model and have been exceedingly pleased. I’m about to release an updated review on it (I think in two weeks.) Short story – Worth every penny!!

      1. Having just purchased a freeze dryer I would be very interested in your updated review of the fd. I’ve done 1 batch of raspberries and they came out great. I got in a hurry and assisted the defrost with a hair dryer, used to high of a temp, and blew out the thermocouple in the shelf heat cable connector. So my 2nd and subsequent batches are waiting on the arrival of a new cable.

         1. Harvest Right: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly – Part 1, by HJL
            Harvest Right: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly – Part 2, by HJL

            As well, you may want to check every Friday as we have a new column called “Freeze Dried Friday“

            1. Thank you.

2. Outstanding review! That was fun to read. Thanks for the info… Thinking about getting one.

3. Wow- what a review. It was fun to read and very informative. Thanks for your time to educate those of us that are thinking about a freezer. I plan on making a copy for future use. Thanks.

4. I totally enjoyed all 3 parts of your review! Pondering getting a freeze drier, seems so practical yet so much fun. Maybe down the road, I’ll purchase one.

5. I wish something as comprehensive as this had been included when I purchased my model six weeks ago. I live in Ireland so had no-one I could simply phone to ask when I had a query.

   Great work!

6. Thanks for the in-depth and independent review. I’m on the verge of buying my 1st freeze dryer, the HarvestRight Home small or standard. My only remaining question is about the vacuum pump: is there any reason an oil-less vacuum pump with the same flow & pressure specs would not be better (aside from maybe price)? I spoke with a sales rep & was told the only reason they use the oiled pumps was to minimize cost, though I see comparable oil-less pumps for just a few hundred bucks. Thanks again!

   1. As far as I know, there is no reasonably priced oil-less vacuum pump that can do the job. Every oil-less pump that I looked at measured vacuum in inches of Mercury (with a standard value of 25.5 inHg being standard.) The reasonably priced vacuum pumps measure in mTorr. If you don’t get the vacuum down in the range of a few hundred mTorr, it will not operate.

7. This is very interesting. All about food storage and preserving interest me. I have much to learn about this.

   I suppose you can freeze dry the food and then store it in cans. I mean canning process with oxygen absorbers. Is this assumption correct?
   Will this be safe to eat and for how long?

   1. Yes, you can store the food that way. However, the canning process must be completed within minutes of removal of the food from the Freeze Dryer because the food is completely desicated and very hygroscopic. It will rapidly absorb water from the humidity of the room once exposed to air.

      The storage life is dependent upon the oil content of the food. Foods containing higher concentrations of oil/fat will have a shorter shelf life. Some foods can last as long as 30 years, some as few as 5 years. The longevity is also dependent upon storage temperature.

8. How do you do the defrost/restart. The only way I see out of the dry cycle is to cancel. Do I really want to cancel the dry cycle?

   I guess I don’t quite understand all of the possibilities with this machine yet.

   Thank you,

   1. Me too m, my partner accidentally canceled without the defrost cycle, now I have chucks of ice in the system let left to melt??

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