Posted: 8/22/2026 6:54:33 PM EDT
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My goal for this thread is all of us share and learn. There are others here with a machine I know I can learn from and others who want a machine and can learn from us! Don't be afraid to share what you're doing, how and why so we can all benefit from the knowledge. My wife and I have wanted a freeze dryer most of our lives. After a field trip to a museum and buying "Astronaut Ice Cream", we were hooked. Mine was from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in DC, I don't recall where she went but I'm sure it was in Florida. Anyway, many years later and we are finally here! We ordered a freeze dryer from Harvest Right directly because they had the best deal for us. Even with the military discount from Home Depot, direct from Harvest Right was our best path forward. In then end, it REALLY was because our first machine was a lemon. Our first machine came in July 16th. We were so excited to get it running that we cleared off a space on one of my workbenches and got everything ready. Nothing like having to wait for 24 hours for the machine to settle from shipping. The next day we loaded up the bread and kicked off the machine. Short version: Inadequate Vacuum. We called Harvest Right support and walked through some things with them on it. Turns out, they RMA'd the machine and sent us a new pump and machine. July 27th came and so did the replacement machine and pump. No power cord or main vacuum line, but we just reused them. I was slightly surprised those weren't included, especially since pulling the vacuum was the problem and the main flexible line could have been the problem. In the end, it didn't matter because 24 hours later we were freeze drying bread! After the bread, ice cream! Rather than reposting the ice cream stuff in this thread, you can read about it in the Homestead Hangout thread here. We learned a lot from that batch. One thing we really learned is that the ice cream you start with is really important for the replication of the Astronaut Ice Cream we had as children. Since I had to get a replacement machine anyway, I went ahead and ordered a basic workbench and supplies to set up a more permanent home in my basement for the machine next to my deep sink for wine making. I had a washer box installed on the wall that we never ended up using. So I had to learn a little bit of plumbing but managed to put a standpipe off the side of the drain line so the freeze drier could have its own dedicated drain. I also needed to run a 20A circuit to it since they recommend that for start up spikes. I tapped into another 20A circuit I had and mounted that outlet too.    The pump gets REALLY hot, so I put it on the lower shelf. I also did this so I have more room on the bench for my winemaking projects.  From there it has been pretty much just fruit. Some from our homestead, most organic from the store. I happen to love freeze dried bananas, so we did a full five tray batch of them! For our trays we always lay down parchment paper. It makes cleanup much easier than just putting things directly on the trays.    In right now: apples, bananas, peach applesauce (frozen on various molds), kiwi, and yogurt bites that I don't recall the flavor, key lime I think.   In the hangout thread someone asked about preserving the products from the machine. As of right now, most have gone into Tupperware or mason jars and are being consumed before they have a chance for real storage. Once we get to putting real meals in it, we will use the mylar bags more, O2 absorbers, and sealer to properly seal them. Most of the ice cream was sealed this way, though not all of it. I personally like the idea of mason jars for most of the quick snack items because I bought a can vacuum sealer that slips over the lid and does a great job vacuuming out the air from the jar. Drop an O2 absorber in there first, and you have years of shelf life. You just have to be sure not to break the glass. This is where for the longer term storage, use the mylar bags. For right now, we are just going to be buying from Harvest Right for those. They are known good. If you have another supplies that is solid and known good, please recommend them. I want to avoid even remotely questionable O2 absorbers since it is a bag of metal you're putting in with your food. |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
The applesauce bites were any amazing hit! Everyone loved them so much, I think they are all gone already. The key lime yogurt was enjoyed too, just not as much as the applesauce  We decided to be slightly adventurous on our last batch that finished last night. It was fruit like normal, but included in it was custom mixed yogurt drops from plain Greek Yogurt. Then my wife took some of the previously freeze dried melons and strawberries and mixed them in. Some Honey too.     Sadly, the strawberries weren't completely dry like the others. Either we didn't let them dry long enough (not likely) or we left them open to the air too long. No problem, they are freeze-drying again.    Either those with the mixed freeze dried fruit are in the freezer to prep going into the freeze dryer or they are already done and I missed a batch! I went to check it now and there are five full trays. Cheesecake bites, more applause, sliced apples, and more bananas. Maybe some other things I just can't see in the back. The door is forged up really bad because it is -9°F in the chamber and about 70% RH in my basement.
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Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
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I have a Harvest Right small. Freeze dried bananas are my favorite! Second best is freeze dried corn. I've also done peas, zucchini, and chicken. I plan to start doing meals like chicken Alfredo. Today I ordered a stainless steel table so I can reorganize my area. ETA I forgot I also made nerd gummies, skittles and Charleston Chews. Attached File Attached File Attached File I have a 3d printer and made tray stackers and a ring that goes behind the door seal to help alleviate vacuum issues. |
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
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Thank you for doing this thread! I haven't even read it yet but I'm so excited to learn from what you are doing! 
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Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By Global_Cooling:I have a Harvest Right small. Freeze dried bananas are my favorite! Second best is freeze dried corn. I've also done peas, zucchini, and chicken. I plan to start doing meals like chicken Alfredo. Today I ordered a stainless steel table so I can reorganize my area. ETA I forgot I also made nerd gummies, skittles and Charleston Chews. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/241636/1000017581_jpg-3816554.JPG https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/241636/1000017582_jpg-3816555.JPG https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/241636/1000017591_jpg-3816556.JPG I have a 3d printer and made tray stackers and a ring that goes behind the door seal to help alleviate vacuum issues. Candy is on our list to do because it is just fun! We haven't done any just yet, but we did make some cheesecake and it is AWESOME. I printed two different tray stackers too, but we don't end up using them much right now. Not that I feel like I wasted filament, just the way we have been running batches they aren't as helpful for us yet. Originally Posted By Kitties-with-Sigs:Thank you for doing this thread! I haven't even read it yet but I'm so excited to learn from what you are doing! Absolutely! I hope to learn from others as much as share the fun I'm having with this machine. OK, my wife is doing most of the work for it right now, but you get the idea. This is our batch that finished this afternoon. Cheesecake (two kinds), apple slices, applesauce in molds, yogurt drops too. We learned to go REALLY light on the honey, it goes a long way. Those images I put earlier a few post ago, WAY too much honey for the bites. They aren't "bad" or anything, but you really only taste the honey in those bites. The cheesecake is to die for.  Current batch, more bananas and pineapple. I can't wait to see how intense the pineapple is after this!  
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Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Born with a low tolerance for bullshit
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Originally Posted By turtle2472: For right now, we are just going to be buying from Harvest Right for those. They are known good. If you have another supplies that is solid and known good, please recommend them. I want to avoid even remotely questionable O2 absorbers since it is a bag of metal you're putting in with your food. I love jars for preserving. I'm learning the right combination of 02 absorbers vs silica with whatever vacuum method/container/product. It can be a little complicated. I love love LOVE my jar top vacuum! I've used that more than any of the other tools I've bought, all combined! |
Nobody ever wakes me at 2 in the morning telling me that my grass is out on the highway.~~Radiopat
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
Wine is sunlight held together by water~~Galileo Galilei
Well-behaved women rarely make history~~Marilyn Monroe
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Originally Posted By turtle2472: Candy is on our list to do because it is just fun! We haven't done any just yet, but we did make some cheesecake and it is AWESOME. I printed two different tray stackers too, but we don't end up using them much right now. Not that I feel like I wasted filament, just the way we have been running batches they aren't as helpful for us yet. Absolutely! I hope to learn from others as much as share the fun I'm having with this machine. OK, my wife is doing most of the work for it right now, but you get the idea. This is our batch that finished this afternoon. Cheesecake (two kinds), apple slices, applesauce in molds, yogurt drops too. We learned to go REALLY light on the honey, it goes a long way. Those images I put earlier a few post ago, WAY too much honey for the bites. They aren't "bad" or anything, but you really only taste the honey in those bites. The cheesecake is to die for. https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_3122_20260825.jpeg Current batch, more bananas and pineapple. I can't wait to see how intense the pineapple is after this! https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_3129_20260825.jpeg https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_3130_20260825.jpeg Just curious, are you hand cutting the bananas? They look really thick. How long is the cycle for them? I use this slicer and they come out about half as thick as yours.anf generally take 24 hrs.   Failed To Load Product Data |
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Originally Posted By Global_Cooling:Just curious, are you hand cutting the bananas? They look really thick. How long is the cycle for them? I use this slicer and they come out about half as thick as yours.anf generally take 24 hrs. www.amazon.com/dp/B08BCDD189 My wife has been cutting them by hand. Some are really thick, others are better. I added the tool to the cart on Amazon though. ;) Thanks for sharing it! ETA: I forgot to answer the question of how long the cycle was: less than 24 hours but more than 18 IIRC. We don't pay too much attention to those details most of the time. We check on it from time to time and see if it is done. Some times we try to take pictures. The run it is in now is most 26 hours right now, and still going! I'm sure that is the pineapple though, not the bananas. 
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Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
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Originally Posted By NAM:OST! Moved, and haven't had a chance to run the FD since setting it up. Need to give it a good cleaning, run a bread cycle, then figure out what I want to make to break it in at the new place. Yeah, I love my freeze dried snacks. We are planning to get into real meal preservation, especially with hurricane season on us. |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
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We did a mother batch of just bananas. I don't have pictures of the trays this time, but the slices were done manually again because we haven't bought the slicer yet. We have it on our "saved for later" but it never seems to make it into the cart to follow through on it. That said, we put them in pint Ball jars and vacuum sealed them with the battery powered one you put on top. It works so well!  Just under 25 hours of total run time. It might have been done before the "Extra Dying" time, but we didn't go to the basement to check on it until we were heading to bed.  ETA: I meant to add, the pineapples were not even close to done. Those are the kind of fruit that would take 48 hours to properly dry if I had to guess. They all came out with a more rubbery texture. They tasted great, just not actually dry at all. |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
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I just received this slicer, I'm going to start drying apples they are almost as good as bananas. It peels, cores and slices. Failed To Load Product Data |
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Originally Posted By Global_Cooling:I just received this slicer, I'm going to start drying apples they are almost as good as bananas. It peels, cores and slices. www.amazon.com/dp/B09BKSRQHY Nice! I just added it to my cart and will let my wife know about it. That looks pretty handy for doing batches of apples for sure! |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
| Does anyone here use the wifi dongle with their freeze dryer? I planned to get one, but it seems less relevant than I expected it would be. I mean, I can ignore the batch for days if I really wanted to. Sure the vacuum would be lost in the chamber by the time I got to it, and it would continue. to burn electricity keeping the chamber cold... but the food wouldn't get any moisture back because the moisture would all freeze to the chamber wall. There isn't exactly air flow in there. |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
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We got our Harvest Right almost 4 years ago. For us its long term food storage. Lots of milk, raw whipped eggs, cooked ground beef, chicken, and of course fruits and some veggies. And much more. We put these things in canning jars, too. Then use a jar sealer. At work now, but I’m subscribing to this thread! |
The Emperor is naked.
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Originally Posted By turtle2472: Does anyone here use the wifi dongle with their freeze dryer? I planned to get one, but it seems less relevant than I expected it would be. I mean, I can ignore the batch for days if I really wanted to. Sure the vacuum would be lost in the chamber by the time I got to it, and it would continue. to burn electricity keeping the chamber cold... but the food wouldn't get any moisture back because the moisture would all freeze to the chamber wall. There isn't exactly air flow in there. The dongle is well worth it. You can also pull up your batch history if you have questions about a past batch. I like to let the machine run about 20 hours of extra dry time and I can monitor the MT and decide when I want to pull the food out at my convenience(the dongle lets you add time). |
A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves!!!
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Originally Posted By DD1801:We got our Harvest Right almost 4 years ago. For us its long term food storage. Lots of milk, raw whipped eggs, cooked ground beef, chicken, and of course fruits and some veggies. And much more. We put these things in canning jars, too. Then use a jar sealer. At work now, but I’m subscribing to this thread! Mind going into a little more detail on your process for the milk and eggs? Those were on my list but not sure how best to do them. |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
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Originally Posted By Mike327:I read a review that the Harvest Rights require you to enter a code from registering your warranty, or something like that, to function. Is that accurate? I had the screen pop up for the code but didn't try to get around it. I don't know if I could have or not. Why wouldn't I want a warranty on it? |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
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Originally Posted By turtle2472: I had the screen pop up for the code but didn't try to get around it. I don't know if I could have or not. Why wouldn't I want a warranty on it? I guess that's my answer. And mandatory registration like that, especially without a warning ahead of time, is generally not done. I vaguely remember it not being legal either, but i'm not a lawyer. And that's just for the warranty side of things - this is not just a warranty registration, but actually an unlock code dependent upon you giving them your contact information. My own concern is that if it is set up to prevent usage without the activation, that it could forget it was activated and brick itself. There are reports of just that happening. I'll just buy from one of the other companies. Not worth the potential hassle. Thanks for confirming! |
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Originally Posted By Mike327:I guess that's my answer. And mandatory registration like that, especially without a warning ahead of time, is generally not done. I vaguely remember it not being legal either, but i'm not a lawyer. And that's just for the warranty side of things - this is not just a warranty registration, but actually an unlock code dependent upon you giving them your contact information. My own concern is that if it is set up to prevent usage without the activation, that it could forget it was activated and brick itself. There are reports of just that happening. I'll just buy from one of the other companies. Not worth the potential hassle. Thanks for confirming! Well, if you never get the dongle it won't ever connect to the internet to allow HR to control it or forget its warranty/registration. I mean, I guess I had to do that to register originally, but without the dongle it can't talk to anything and would just keep running. |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
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Attached File 2 trays of Fuji Apples and 2 trays of sliced pineapple just went in. I did 4 more trays of apples and put them in the deep freezer for the next load. Basically 1 apple per tray and one can sliced pineapple per tray. The fruit peeler device l linked earlier is amazing. It took about 5 sec to peel, core and slice an apple. A buddy of mine has one also and he did a ton of pears with his. |
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Originally Posted By turtle2472: Mind going into a little more detail on your process for the milk and eggs? Those were on my list but not sure how best to do them. There’s an awesome book by Carolyn Thomas, called Freeze Drying the Harvest. Has great instructions on not just how to freeze dry pretty much anything, but also specifically how to reconstitute what you froze. It is well worth it. Milk needs to be no fat or low fat; meats need to be very low fat (like ground beef, needs to be the leanest you can get). 
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The Emperor is naked.
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Originally Posted By Deuskid:This is a neat thread.... thanks for all the contributions. What jar vacuum[s] do you all use? The one I got isn’t available anymore. I suspect they are all about the same though. |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
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Originally Posted By Deuskid: This is a neat thread.... thanks for all the contributions. What jar vacuum[s] do you all use? I use this one Failed To Load Product Data |
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Originally Posted By Deuskid: This is a neat thread.... thanks for all the contributions. What jar vacuum[s] do you all use? We use the RoboSeal, got it from Walmart. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FH348FPC?tag=arfcom00-20 |
The Emperor is naked.
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Originally Posted By turtle2472: I have a book now! https://turtle2472.com/ar15/IMG_3204_20260915.jpeg That was fast! That family has a great youtube channel as well. |
The Emperor is naked.
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Originally Posted By DD1801:That was fast! That family has a great youtube channel as well. Thanks, I'll look up their channel. I wanted to have the resources that will give the steps needed as we get running with this thing beyond the initial ice cream and bananas. I want to have real stores held back, but over time. This means it will be easy to forget along the way since I don't do it every day. ETA: https://www.youtube.com/@HomesteadingFamily for anyone wondering. I've not watched it yet... just getting it bookmarked. |
Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”