We purchased a medium Harvest Right freeze dryer with the upgrade to an oil-free pump in early 2022. Ours is now an outdated model with only 4 trays.
Freeze drying and storing food in an airtight container with an oxygen absorber will preserve it up to 25 years.
And then there’s the noise. The freeze dryer is not exactly whisper-quiet so having it running in your kitchen would be very disruptive.
For those on a budget, the premier oil pump’s upfront cost seems much more reasonable. It’s a significant saving, one that could go towards purchasing more food for preservation and storage equipment such as Mylar bags.
The weight of the freeze dryer – If you have ever lifted a microwave oven you know they are heavier than they look. The same is true for the freeze dryer, except they are much bigger than a microwave.
We’re always looking for new and better equipment, so if you have a freeze dryer that you swear by let us know in the comments. We review most of our roundups annually, so we can always try to coordinate testing one before the next roundup and see if it makes the cut and beats out our top picks.
As you can see, the capacity more or less doubles with each model but the cost does not. The larger models use more energy to process the larger batches of food as well, Buy online so don’t neglect energy costs when you compare these as that impacts efficiency as we discussed earlier.
For those of us wanting to process large harvests quickly, this extended cycle time can be a bottleneck.
It sits just shy of 31 inches tall, is just over 20 inches wide and nearly 24 inches deep. So it’s not exactly a countertop unit. Still, if you have a large kitchen or utility room where you can set it up, you will be glad you have it.
Hi, I’m Sean and I’ve been reviewing freeze dryers for several years now. As a manufacturing engineer and as an emergency manager, I have the background to approach the comparison, review, and testing of freeze dryers from a uniquely broad perspective.
Cost analysis is a much more crucial consideration when you are looking at larger machines. Processing a mix of emergency food twice per week on your own Home Pro XLarge model should see an investment payback of just 11 weeks, according to our freeze dryer calculator.
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It makes for a great side hustle, plus you can always enjoy the candy yourself. You can experiment with different types of candy, but some of the best candy to freeze dry include: