Freeze Dryers

[TexPrep]

Does anyone here use one?
The Wife and I are looking for a freeze dryer.
The Harvest Right seems to be popular choice but we're looking for info from actual users.

 

[Danil54grl]

I have the small Harvest Right. Only 3 trays, but I do love it! If you are seriously looking for one I would recommend getting a bigger model. I got mine secondhand from a person I totally trusted at a very good discount.

 

[TexPrep]

I have the small Harvest Right. Only 3 trays, but I do love it! If you are seriously looking for one I would recommend getting a bigger model. I got mine secondhand from a person I totally trusted at a very good discount.

We're looking at the mid size freeze dryer.
If you go any higher you need more power than a normal 120 outlet.
The Wife and i have been researching them on YouTube and freeze dried food gets really high marks compared to the standard dehydrator.
It's said freeze dried food keeps 90% of nutrients and flavor compared to 50% with a plain old dehydrator.
I was shocked to see that the freeze dried eggs look exactly like fresh eggs when they were rehydrated.

 

[Amish Heart]

I got the medium one last April. Worked fine till October. Then malfunctioned. Just this week I enlisted husband's help, and I just put in a test run tonight. The tech support has been good. I hope I get it working right. The errors I made in the beginning were not getting things dry enough, thinking they were, and then having them mold a few weeks out. Because of that, I have keep the food in gallon ziplocks for a month so I can check it before mylar. Hamburger patties come out really cool. So did cooked beet sliced and cottage cheese. Those rehydrate perfectly.

 

[TexPrep]

I got the medium one last April. Worked fine till October. Then malfunctioned. Just this week I enlisted husband's help, and I just put in a test run tonight. The tech support has been good. I hope I get it working right. The errors I made in the beginning were not getting things dry enough, thinking they were, and then having them mold a few weeks out. Because of that, I have keep the food in gallon ziplocks for a month so I can check it before mylar. Hamburger patties come out really cool. So did cooked beet sliced and cottage cheese. Those rehydrate perfectly.

Wait....did it malfunction or did you use it wrong?
If it was a malfunction what was the issue?

 

[the dangler]

I have a medium and use it quite often . We like what it produces . As said above , there is a bit of a learning curve to make sure your items are completely dry . We always pull out the middle tray and check before emptying the machine completely , then if it needs more time we just seal the machine back up and dial in the amount of extra time we want . it will pay for itself in time , just depends on how much you use it . It does allow you to take advantage of bumper crops and store sales. I would buy it again .

 

[EastenerWesterner]

We just got a medium size. I am really looking forward to it. The rehydration part without directions kind of makes me nervous. Saw a video of seafood being rehydrated. Excited about that because new place is 2 miles from the docks.
Seeing that you really got to sanitze well after raw meat and less after cooked, I was wondering if anyone tried smoked beef? It’s a easy for me to smoke 10lbs as it is to to do 2 lbs. Opinions?

 

[Amish Heart]

I haven't tried smoked beef in ours, but I don't see why not.