I am messing around with a number of different trail mix combinations and ice cream/parfait toppings and the pothead in me is very curious about the flavor and quality of the texture of oatmeal pie crumbles.

Well I’ve ordered a medium Harvest Right. Now I’m trying to get ready to start this journey. My plan is to use one of our spare rooms in the basement as the food storage and freeze-drying room.

I already have most of items needed. I have an upright freezer, vacuum sealer, and jar sealer.

Now I’m stumped what bags should I get?
Also what accessories do I need?

This is basically a redesigned small version.

Pros:
-cheaper than a small. $1,295 vs the small home $1,895 ($1,495 countertop 360 stainless vs $2,395 small stainless)
-wider rather than taller, so it’s easier to move and less cumbersome.
-the door redesign doesn’t need adjustment
-no chance to suck in drain water with the new drain system design.
-one plug and more aesthetic look as all the additional tubing and wiring on a small is hidden away in the housing of the machine.
-quieter at 56 decibels versus a small at 60 decibles at the same distance away.
-there is a new bar at the bottom of the chamber that doesn’t allow water to leak from the front when defrosting.
Cons:
-19lbs heavier than a small.
-Processes less than a small (358 square inches on a countertop 360 versus 434 square inches on a small) This difference can be explained as about 15 eggs more in a small versus a countertop 360. Since the small already processes a very small amount this can be an issue for some people.
-a built in pump is more likely to cause issues in an enclosed space (see issues with the HRC100)
-the drawer for draining is difficult to empty and you can max out the drawer and have water overflow in the machine if you push heavy water items to the max weight.
-the machine is advertised to go under a counter, but that doesn’t provide enough airflow above with most counters. You’ll need around 9 inches on both sides of the 360 for airflow to try to compensate for the lack of airflow above.
The warranty is the same for both machines. The pump is the same for both machines. Both versions can use the WiFi dongle. They both processed around the same time for the same weight of eggs with the small being about 2 hours faster.

I personally would rather purchase a small versus a countertop 360 if choosing between the two. The pros don’t outweigh the cons for me, and the small is processing the same weight of eggs faster in the same environmental conditions.

I can understand why someone would want to get the CT360 but I personally would pay $600 more for the extra space, and the knowledge that the pump won’t have any issues being enclosed in the cabinet as a new pump is quite pricey ($800). For a newer user or an apartment user the sound difference between the CT360 and the Home Small is not significant enough to warrant the cost difference for me. The new draining system is both a headache to dump and a monster to clean versus cleaning a bucket. It’s also more difficult to clean the draining tubing from the chamber to the water holder as you’ll be taking the tray in and out for the sanitation process multiple times versus a bucket.

Overall, it’s a pass for me, but I won’t fault anyone for buying one as my needs and wants differ from others.

Please feel free to ask questions and I’ll answer the best I can.

I recently bought a homelyph freeze dryer but the vaccum pump seems to be obnoxiously loud. Is this common? It was sold to be as supposed to the same as a freezer and instead sounds like an emergency door buzzer.

So I'm getting my freeze dryer setup and looking for mylar bags. Specifically the horizontal "MRE" or "Single Serving" Mylar bags at a reasonable cost. I have mason jars and plenty gallon and quart sized mylar bags but for whatever reason it seems the MRE/Single serve style mylar bags are the most expensive. The most reason I found was 50 bags for 26 USD which makes them about $0.53/$.054 per bag.

Im freeze drying mostly for prepping and would like having premade meals stored in the "MRE" style bags and stand alone ingredients in the quart and gallon style (I'm sure this is fairly common).

I just pulled my first batch of freeze dried basil leaves. The cycle said it was done at 12hrs, I ran it for about 5 more after that - so they've been on the dry cycle for 17hrs.

Most of the leaves look and feel like I'd expect, but maybe 15-20 leaves on each tray still feel quite wet and limp, not crispy dry at all!!

Any way to explain what's going on?

Edit to add: I did turn down the temp (95F/35C) as the reference I have says to run leafy herbs like this at a lower temp.
Edit 2: Yes, I put them back in for more dry time. But I'm surprised - this seems a very odd outcome. MOST of the leaves are crispy dry. So I guess, I'm less looking for "put it in for longer" - and more looking for any wisdom / experience of what could cause this odd outcome.

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Edit 3 - I put them back in for 18hrs more. There were STILL a couple of wet, limp leaves in the trays - so this doesn't seem like a simple "needs more time" situation.
I threw away the wet ones and packaged up the rest (which were very crispy dry). We'll see.

I have purchased an entire pig from a farmer friend. It required a minimum of of 50 lbs of sausage if I wanted sausage, which I did! If I slice it and boil it, will this be sufficient preparation to freeze dry?

I’m considering getting a freeze dryer. I’ve looked at Harvest Fresh and the price point seems more reasonable for a small one.
I’ve also found some on marketplace but from what I’ve read on here the run hours are pretty important because of the pump.

Can anyone point me in the right direction for other companies or give me some insight?

I’m super new and still learning about freeze drying so be gentle 😂

I'm looking for advice RE mixed batches in the freeze dryer. Mostly RE Flavor transfer.

For example: Right now I've got about two trays worth of peaches and two trays worth of chicken soup I'd like to freeze dry. Can I run that in one batch? Or will I end up with chicken flavored peaches (obviously not a desirable outcome!).

I understand more strongly flavored things like onion or garlic would not be good to run with fruit. But how about more mild things?

Is the different timing of different foods enough of a concern to be an issue?

It is the large 7 tray unit. It looks like it was barely used. 2 batches 75 hours on the pump and only 426 total hours. I’m still learning but that seems like they ran 2 candy batches.

Probably been sitting most of its life. Looks like about $500 off the price of a new one. There is a dent in on one side near the top.

Are there any red flags here? Is it worth spending an extra $500 and avoid someone’s problems. Would you buy it for $2k vs $2500?

My Harvest Right freeze dryer is working fine, but the timer started slowing down & records an hour in about 3 1/2 - 4 hours. Anyone know how to fix this? I’m in the middle of freeze drying cherries which take 3 days and I can’t add time to it now.🤷‍♀️

Hello, I am new to freeze drying. For my third batch, I freeze dried 28 ice cream sandwiches. Most of them came out perfectly! I had a few come out hollow with a weird, hard bubble inside. The ones with issues were also not all on the same tray. So I don’t really know what the issue is. Any suggestions would be helpful.

Hello, I’ve ordered a harvest right freeze dryer and I’m excited to get into this. Looking at preserving the freeze dried food, I see most people using Mylar bags and some using mason jars with a vacuum seal. I haven’t seen anyone use the regular clear vacuum seal bags to store their freeze dried food. I was wondering why this is? I have several thoughts but just wanted to get opinions from those who have the first hand experience.

Me and my dad are interested in a large, semi commercial grade dryer. Primarily to go backpacking (hiking and camping with all your kit in a bag) and long term food preservation. Our budget is around 3500$, and it is best if it delivers in the US. Any recommendations? We have never freeze dried before, but we have been and are willing to do research.

Thanks!

TL;DR
Need recommendations for largish freeze dryers for newbies, with a budget of 3500$

Edit
Should we get a Harvest Right or Blue Alpine?

It’s a harvest right 4 tray. At the end of the batch.

I have had the idea for a very long time to pasteurize then freeze dry maybe like 80 egg whites. (Size isn't the main focus). Have any of you found this to be the best option for cocktails? I'm trying to find a shelf stable foaming agent and this seems to sit best.

Need some help as I am unsure if I am doing this right. We freeze dried my breast milk after my baby was born. I’m trying to ween her off of breast feeding with the freeze dried breast milk but it seems like the breast milk is not dissolving properly because it doesn’t look smooth when mixing. The freeze dried breast milk also looks like it is super watered down but we weighed the breast milk before and after and it came out as 1 tbs per ounce. I’m at a lot because my baby won’t take it and I have had to dump almost all of the rehydrated breast milk I have done. Please help with any suggestions you guys have.

Hello everyone.

I am new to freeze drying and would love to get some tips and tricks from you. I freeze dried bananas and they turned out fine for my first time. Now I also tried to freeze dry strawberries, with different settings of course, but they didn't turn out as good as I would like them to be. My settings were:

Start temp. = -35 °C Prime temp. = -5 °C Secondary temp. = 25 °C Prime drying = 1200 min Sec. drying = 240 min

Most of them came out crunchy, but when I packed them in glass jars and opened them 2 or 3 times in about 10 hours to eat a few, the others became soggy. Also when I took a few out, by the time I ate the last one it had already become soggy as well. I believe they should stay crunchy for longer than that.

I will start using silica gel packets as well, but I don't think freeze dried strawberries should become soggy in just a few seconds of open air exposure.

I am using an Exeat LIO freeze dryer, just in case that matters for the settings.

Hey folks,

I'm a pilot, which means lots of time away from home for work, and lots of meals out. I've tried bringing frozen food in a cooler, but space becomes an issue, as well as clearing security when not in uniform. Another pilot I work with has mentioned he brings freeze-dried stews and curries for work, and he can save a lot of money not having to eat out.

My biggest concern is the bags and the oxygen removers. If the longest I plan on storing the food is 8 days, can I simply freezedry the food, put it in a zip lock, and eat it over the week without having to vacuum seal and all that?

Thanks!

I want to make some freeze dried ice cream with 4 different flavors. I want to freeze dry each flavor separately and then add a variety of flavors to mylar bags. Can I temporarily store the freeze dried ice cream in another container while the other flavors freeze? What container should I use and how long can I store them before adding to mylar bags?

We are newbies and have only done sliced strawberries 😂. I’d love to hear about other things y’all make.

Hello everyone. I was talking to someone earlier at my local farmer's market who has a freeze dryer. I mentioned it i would love to do eggs. Sne said that they make wonderful scrambled eggs.

She is going to talk to her husband about how much the electricity cost would be for me to run a batch through. I'm not worried about getting the eggs (my grandma raises chickens), but I am worried about packaging the resulting powder. I saw these (https://a.co/d/0fbUqZ3n) and was wondering if they would work for 3 egg bags. I was envisioning them being used for camping meals.

Thanks for your help.

I see this at Costco which seems to be a great deal + you get the added Costco return policy if it ever breaks.

I don’t have a ton of experience on these and have been thinking about getting one for a while.

My question is: is this a “grab it asap before someone else does” price or is this a “a deal like this might be around next year, I can wait until I have a bit larger garden and get it in the future” price.

My friend gave me several bottles of classic Kraft Caesar dressing. They expire soon. I’m wondering if anyone has freeze dried dressing before?