Harvest Right Freeze Dryer

[CS1983]

Comparison of standard vs premier (not the oil free).

[tactical_2012]

I have heard their customer service isn't that great. Looked them up on BBB and there are several complaints

[CS1983]

I have heard their customer service isn't that great. Looked them up on BBB and there are several complaints

I suppose it would depend. On the facebook groups people seem pretty pleased, and indicate good CS when they have issues. They've exploded as a company though. Bound to be some people who aren't happy (whether rightly or wrongly). I honestly cannot say what the BBB ratings would indicate. 7 out of 19 were negative. Some seemed like they didn't understand what they were getting into. It's not for everyone though. It's an emerging technology to be able to do this stuff at home and as far as I know, they are the only company tapping the home freeze drying market.

[CS1983]

Got the HR Medium. The premier pump is on back order so they sent a complimentary standard pump I get to keep once the premier is in.

Finally got it unboxed, set up per the manual (seriously, guys, read the manual), and checked over.

Did the function test and it works fine. I was surprised how quickly it got to operational vacuum pressure.

Will do the bread test tomorrow (spray some bread with vinegar and run a cycle; ensures a full cycle and helps absorb any residual smells). After that I’ll try out strawberries or making astronaut ice cream. From there, sky is the limit.

[TheGrey]

I look forward to hearing about your results. I've always been curious about this!

[crays]

Indeed

Sent from somewhere

[ChadAmberg]

Very cool, lots of good things you can try!

[CS1983]

Bread run complete with no issues:




I sprayed each slice with a generous amount of apple cider vinegar and water mix and placed 3 to a tray. Bread used was Nature's Own, which has a more golden appearance before FD'ing and kept that color in areas where no mixture was applied.

No smell was noticed upon cycle completion and machine opening. All pieces were thoroughly dried.

Oil still looks good. The new standard pumps can go about 4-5 cycles before oil change is needed. One can filter and reuse oil. Premier pumps are about 20-30 cycles before filtering is needed. Oil-less pumps obviously don't have that, but they do need maintenance by HR after a particular period of use.

[CS1983]

First real load in: 4lbs of pre-sliced/frozen strawberries and 4 apples sliced.

We'll see how this goes.

[CS1983]

First batch complete: 4 pounds (pre-freeze dry) pre-frozen/sliced strawberries and 4 apples sliced.

Total time: 24 hours and 59 minutes

I probably would have let this go a little longer and extended the final dry since strawberries can be deceptive (the seeds can retain moisture which gets released), but the kids are going to plow through this in no time.

Below you will see the final screen, end product (after some was eaten), and the natural ice build up which you can defrost either naturally (leave the door open and let it melt and go into the drain at the back) or let the machine defrost itself. Given how cold my garage is I opted for machine defrost.

Oil is still good to go it seems in the standard pump. Baby is due any day now, so I'm going to hold off another batch until he comes so I don't have a case of bad timing.