Best price on Harvest Right freeze dryer

[bpurtz]

How have you guys liked your freeze driers? Do you feel like within the next 2-4 years, you’ll use it enough to justify the up front cost?

I use my freeze drier (aka FreezeRay) a lot - we've got several apple & pear trees, raspberry, and blueberry plants so all of those have very low cost to justify the investment. However, making entrees likely still requires buying food - maybe your venison is free, but the rest of the stew probably requires buying ingredients. Plus if you factor in your time for preparing and then packaging the finished meals, you're going to need to make a lot of meals to justify a $4000-$5000 investment.

With that said, what kind of value do you put on quality and flavor? The meals I now have in camp are so much better than anything I ever bought off the shelf. It's been totally worth the investment for me.

 

[Sam Colt]

And my digestive tract thanks me!

 

[NRA4LIFE]

I saw one of their medium (I believe) models locally for $2300 I think. About the same as you can get them online.

 

[dirtshooter]

Up here in Alberta we bought one a month ago. Had to finish basement renos first before we can set it up but we bought the HR medium. Really looking forward to using it.

 

[Sam Colt]

I saw one of their medium (I believe) models locally for $2300 I think. About the same as you can get them online.

Figure another $2-300 to make it work. Look for “Felix fix” on the U-tube.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Figure another $2-300 to make it work. Look for “Felix fix” on the U-tube.

Can you explain?

 

[Sam Colt]

Can you explain?

They (HR) cut corners. Felix explains. At a minimum you’ll likely need a new vacuum hose.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Well that would suck (pardon the pun).

 

[Sam Colt]

Vacuum fix:

Overview:

 

[bpurtz]

I've probably ran 50+ batches through FreezeRay without any problems...

 

[Buglebrush]

Have had zero problems with my HR. No Felix fix either. Have put a lot of batches thru it. I think the issues were with the older models. The new Premium pump that comes with the HR is awesome!

 

[Sam Colt]

Have had zero problems with my HR. No Felix fix either. Have put a lot of batches thru it. I think the issues were with the older models. The new Premium pump that comes with the HR is awesome!

I have a premium pump with a large unit. Once I replaced the clear hose with the right one ($200) my dry times dropped by almost half. Also replaced the cheap ball valve on the drain once it corroded. Also did the fix to stop the pump from fogging up the room. That was friggin' annoying.

Still have an undercharged freezer. Only get 3-3 1/2 rings of ice, so it collects the moisture pretty inefficiently, but I've run a few hundred loads successfully. 30 hours for low-moisture stuff, and 48 hours for things like fruit and stews.