Harvest Right Freeze Dryer

[TheGrey]

I'm seeing these in a lot more places than previous.

Did you notice a huge jump in your electric bill when using this?

[CS1983]

I'm seeing these in a lot more places than previous.

Did you notice a huge jump in your electric bill when using this?

I haven't paid attention or noticed any insane jumps in costs for electricity. I suppose I *should* get a watt meter to plug in and keep track of it.

ETA: Most things seem to run about 24 hours w/ the Premium pump. The standard pump wasn't as efficient and ran longer. I often will extend time such as if a session runs long and I need to get to work or we are going somewhere.

I personally like to pre-freeze everything I put in, regardless of if it's a liquid. I find I get better results when I do that. So if you only have 1 set of trays (most people ask HR for an extra set) you are looking at the following turnaround:

1 day in freezer
1 day FD
6 hours defrost (I just let it defrost naturally rather than letting the machine do it).

That about what.... 10-14 runs a month on a pretty consistent schedule? Some people do more runs. The pre-freezing of food in a regular freezer and the defrost take time. But the actual engagement with the thing is... minimal. The post-FD placing in bags is what takes longest and that's maybe 10 min per load all in.

[TheGrey]

Thank you! That's far less than I expected.

I think this is something that needs to move up a bit on my list to purchase next year.

[CS1983]

Thank you! That's far less than I expected.

I think this is something that needs to move up a bit on my list to purchase next year.

Keep in mind that the cost, while initially high, actually isn't bad when you compare current cost for Mountain House and other similar brands. And YOU are controlling what goes into the food.

It doesn't have to be a special event, either. You could simply plan out meals for a week and make extra food per meal, and freeze dry every couple of days as a way to start out. Any leftovers get FD. etc.

We have found that things like soups are really easy to reconstitute and heat up for a quick, but still home made, meal.

One can use it with a variety of approaches. Some are hardcore preppers that run the thing as much as possible, look for sales on things, and do batches of that food almost exclusively; they see the most value and recouping of cost. Others are more in the middle. Others, like myself, go in spurts. Sometimes I might not touch it for a few weeks. Other times I am checking defrost status so I can push the next load.

The key in my opinion is simply looking at if it's worth it for you.

Brian (RetiredAt40 channel) does a good breakdown here:

[CS1983]

Here's a cross section of some of the things I've done more recently.


Curry chicken and rice
Smoked chicken and rice
Ice cream


Sweet potato soup
Bush's baked beans (removed fatty bacon pieces since pure fat doesn't FD well)
Strawberries and bananas

Under ideal storage conditions, all these should last at least 20 years if not longer. Mountain House claims 30 years on theirs.

The ingredients were fresh, no preservatives, flavor profiles to our liking, and aside from the fruit and ice cream, are unavailable in commercial brands. The quantities are as much or more than commercial for a fraction of the cost.

[Wulf202]

Thank You for the update.

TheGrey, the people who make videos on youtube use their wattmeter to check electricity usage. It looks like they are using $1.50 to $2.00 for most runs of about 36-48 hours, in the medium machine. $3 a run for the really long runs in a large machine. they are basing that on .10 a kwh. So, if you actually ran it all month long, maybe $30 increase based on the $2. per load.

I would like to know if CS1983 found the same.

Verified from a friend who has one. $19 increase for 8 loads medium

[TheGrey]

I'll check out the videos. I've been a canning fool as of late, but have seen how people are starting to can soup mixes made from freeze-dried stuff they've done themselves. I really don't have much on hand of freeze-dried foods, but I'm game to consider other options besides canning - especially since I am getting low on wide-mouth jar lids and haven't been lucky enough to locate any this year.

[longrange2]

Great thread, I am thinking about buying one of these. Do you tend to store everything in Mylar or do you put some things in jars or #10 cans? I think it would be good to add O2 absorbers to the packages of anything I wanted to keep longer term

[gta_spec]

Is anyone vacuuming their bags before sealing? Or something other than just dropping in an oxygen absorber?

I didn't like how the oxygen absorber has moisture. So I started purging the bags with argon before sealing.

The bags are slightly inflated and any residual atmosphere should float to the top of the bag.

[longrange2]

I’m wondering about taste and texture of items freeze dried at home. Just don’t want to spend $3k if we wouldn’t be happy with the results. With everything going on it would be nice to freeze dry meats and other food items in the event of disruptions to supply train, I.e. lack of fertilizer, rising fuel costs, etc.