Why I was so mad at myself for buying the Harvest Right XL freeze dryer ... and how that changed
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- Опубликовано: 19 фев 2024
- Have you been thinking of buying a freeze dryer? Or do you already have one, but you're considering an upgrade to the extra large? With all kinds of excitement and determination, and absolutely no experience, I bought the Harvest Right XL freeze dryer and immediately regretted it. But after learning a few things and putting a few systems in place, I grew to love the XL! Here are a few things NOT to do and a few helpful tips that will take some of the stress out of your freeze-drying experience.
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I set my default extra dry to 24 hours that way I don't have to worry about it. You can still check it at anytime. Never it Defrost until you know that the whole load is dry. Great video!!!!
Thank you for the encouragement! 😊
Thanks for such a lovely informative starter video. My first FD was a medium in 2017. I soon realized I needed more but instead of getting a large I bought a second medium. Why? I wasn't able to prep more than 10 #s of food in a timely manner! Now I can prep a single load of 4 trays almost every day... I LOVE MY FREEZE DRYERS! The best purchase I've ever made... 84 years young last week.
There you go! You knew just what you needed and you made it work. I love your story! Thank you so much for taking the time to comment :) What is your favorite thing you've freeze-dried to date?
my brilliant spouse got us a rolling tool chest, the big one that is made to have a large tool box on top of it. It also had a fold out table on one side that makes a perfect place to package food. The drawers are handy for storing bags and tools.
Hurray for brilliant spouses! :) That sounds like such a space-efficient setup!
I got the medium a few years back. It stays in my daughter's garage since my little OLD house is only wired for 15amps. We've done so much since then. Lately, I've been eating meals from 3 yrs ago and was glad to know that they were still good. Getting anything bigger would've been too much for me. But glad that all is well for you.
It's so nice to hear that! I can't wait till I'm able to pull out some 3-year old food and give it a try. :) Thanks for the good report! (Love your name, Ann-with-a-plan :)
The number one responsible of the owner of a FD is to make sure food is fully dry. Need to use a proven method to determine food is fully dry. I use the weight method. Never start defrosting until food is packaged. Always pull food warm and package warm.
You’re right about that. I think I’ll start using my husband’s moisture meter until I figure out a fix for my digital scale. One is in the works! :)
I never start defrost until I’ve gone through each tray and I’m positive everything is dry. That way it is easy to add more dry time
Great comment, Gloria. Thank you!
Good practice, Gloria :) I've been caught a few times with crushed tomatoes and applesauce where everything seemed dry when I checked, but then as I was bagging it up, some pieces felt sticky. I was already defrosting both times. I think I'll just refrain from hitting defrost until I'm finished bagging it up from now on.
I was VERY happy that I own a tractor with pallet forks and a set of lifting straps when my XL arrived. I couldn't imagine trying to get the XL in place without a tractor at my disposal.
I used to think that my Large FD was a big unit. Now, it really seems puny.
Take care and God Bless.
I'll bet that was SO helpful! Yes, it was quite the adventure :)
I've wondered how much larger the XL is compared to the L. Good to hear your thoughts. I have a friend to freeze dries all the time and I asked her her thoughts on this before I bought mine. She told me she runs her large 24 hours a day practically, and would do so with the XL if she had it. That convinced me to get the larger one. I am so glad I did!
God bless you too! Thanks for taking the time to comment. :)
Hi Shannon, I've got a HR few years now , a couple things i learned is when the process is finished release pressure and take your tray's out and feel the bottom of pans and top of food for cold spots and sometimes you have to break food up a bit to determine if it's done or not, if it's not put it back in close drain and add more time, but don't press defrost till your sure because then you'll have to start the process over from beginning again. You have a great looking setup there 😊
Thanks for the great tip, Scott! I will definitely start doing that. :) A lot of this is starting to feel automated, so the more "best practices" I can start incorporating and getting used to, the better. :-) I appreciate your input!
I got some funny looks the other day when I bought a pallet of Skittles
Lol! :)
I am hoping to be able to afford one at some point. I'm grateful for your comments because it helps me keep focused towards that goal and believe it isn't beyond my ability to use. I so much prefer freeze-drying to dehydrated or canned foods in most cases. Maybe someday....Blessings!
Christie! It is absolutely not beyond your abilities! It looks daunting at first, but then this point comes where you understand the machine and the process and you start to trust it. That's when it becomes a joy. I'll pray that at some point you can get one! I really appreciate you taking the time to comment. Thank you! :-) Blessings to you too!
Great!
Considerations: it might not to go back and reread the owners manual. Lots of good stuff there. Second, I never defrost with the cycle. I manually do it and let it air dry a bit. Thirds, you can never over dry FD food.., but you can under dry. If you are not warm or have any doubt, add more dry time. I run the extra time at my convenance. I don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night or have a meeting I need to disturb.
Good luck!
I love my machine, I haven’t figured out where to run it with our new house.., but out of all the preservation methods, this is my favorite.
It was such a relief when I figured that out. It meant I could go to bed at a decent hour! :)
I agree with you--this is my favorite preservation too. I bought my first dehydrator when I was 19 and learned to can when I was just a little older than that, and I've kept my canners and dehydrators very busy between then and now. But freeze-drying takes it to a whole other level.
Have fun with yours once it claims a spot! :)
I have an automatic 24 hours of extra dry time always. Mostly so I don’t miss the end. Peace of mind. I check anytime during that extra dry time.
Good idea, Sharon :)
11 hours ago
Harvest right warning! I am sad to have to make this post but I want to balance the information about the harvest right freeze dryer. I bought one because all the video reviews I watched said how great they are and the company is amazing. I bet if I had a RUclips channel the issues would be fixed fast! I am currently dealing with an issue with my freezer dryer and the company is really not standing behind what they sell. The unit is still under warranty but they are saying the “board” they want to replace is not. Like how is that not part of the unit. My 1st issue is to even talk to someone about what is going on they make you pay a diagnostic fee. This all happens over email and phone and if my husband was not a very computer savvy guy I have no clue how this would works. Just know if the junk breaks on this 3k plus unit they will be no help and you are on your own
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First video I’ve seen where Apothecary was used! 🤔
Thank You for the link to the table! You’re the FIRST person to actually talk about the table and where to get it!
HarvestRight sent me a link to ULINE -after* the Freeze Dryer was already on the way! I wanted this information Before buying it, After is a little late.
I had indeed thought about it for over a year before actually buying it.
I bought a Small. Thankfully it was After the Pro was available, though I noticed what HarvestRight did: they made the clearance between tray shelves tighter. Stacking as high as videos from more than a year ago was no longer possible. That’s ok. It’s just me, I wouldn’t be drying a lot of food.
The weight of the machine was one factor. I’m disabled, and can’t lift it at all. Thankfully I found a couple guys who carried it inside for me. Though they might have squawked had I gotten a Medium or Large, and XL? No Way!
The dedicated 20amp outlet was another concern. My house is old enough that I might only have a 100amp circuit. I don’t know if my system could handle any more appliances (2 refrigerators, washer, dryer, dishwasher, stove, whatever else). A 110w outlet was all I could know for sure might work.
I had s nightstand that I climbed up on (I’m over 400 lbs) that didn’t collapse under my weight, so I knew it could handle that and a flat storage box would work for drainage (does everyone only think of buckets?).
You’re not correct about drying time though. Because I’m drying less food, the Small doesn’t take as long as an XL. It probably only comes down to a few hours, but there is a difference.
Once you hit “defrost” there’s no way to go back. This is why personally I check all my trays before hitting “defrost” because until you press that button you can always close the drain valve and add more drying time!
Harvest Right has really made the process as simple as pressing a button. Though it’s through videos like yours that I find out what other buttons do.
Did you know you csn press “system name” and a keyboard shows up where you can give it a name? I didn’t until LiveLifeSimple covered it in a video of his just recently…
Wow! So much good information! Thank you :)
So the Apothecary ... yes, that was the only available option, but it worked out because a) I'm in there all the time anyway, b) we don't have a garage, and c) the heat from the freeze-dryer means I don't have to turn on my propane fire place out there for a good 20 hours. Win all the way around :)
I stressed about the cart too. I knew the XL was 265 (shipping weight with everything is about 380) so I read everything very carefully. I found a Uline type cart on Amazon that said it would hold 500 pounds and the dimensions were correct, but when it came, it had a lip that cut into those inches, so I had to send it back. I have been trying to save some money, but I finally bit the bullet and just got the card. I knew would work. I'm so glad I got a stainless steel one. Gives me plenty of work area in front and I can store all my extra trays (which it turns out I haven't needed because I can't fit them in the freezer anyway) on the second shelf.
I just uploaded another video where I showed us cleaning the freeze dryer after a batch of cheese and just a little bit of pepperoni and salami. It left a greasy mess in the freeze dryer so we had to clean it out. In there I posted a comment from a reader who had said that if you shut off the defrost and act like you're starting a new batch, you can then skip the freezing, and it will let you add time. I haven't had an opportunity to try that out yet, but if it works for me, I will come back and let you know.
Good point about the smaller taking a little less time. I'm sure you're right about that. With the small, do you find that you are freeze drying loads pretty much back to back? I still think it would be nice to have a smaller one for when I want to freeze dry herbs in the summer. I may find that I can fill seven trays, but I'm absolutely certain I could do loads all week long of small trays.
I'm curious about your flat storage box that you use for drainage. Is that awkward to have to dump? I think that's where the bucket idea comes in. Sounds like you have thought of some creative ways to make everything work for you! :-)
I really appreciate you taking the time to comment! Thank you! :-)
@TwigandFeather
The box could be a little tough to empty, but I do it after every couple of loads. I don’t wait for it to fill up. I had to use it instead of a bucket because of how low the freeze-dryer sits on the nightstand and there’s not much room underneath it. It’s sitting in a spare bedroom across the hall from mine. I have to leave the door open or it gets too warm in there, which come summer may prove to be a problem. However, the room is on the East side of the house so the sun isn’t shining on that side when the day will be its warmest.
I literally Laughed Out Loud when you wrote about not having to heat up the apothecary for 20 hours!
I did spend the first couple of weeks in non-stop freeze-drying mode as I dried bananas, pears, apples, pizza, and ice cream sandwiches, to name a few things, but I haven’t used it in 3 days now. I need to clean it as the raspberries and blackberries made a mess that I need to pull out the shelving unit and clean. They did dry just fine, but a couple fell off the tray and are stuck waaaay back in there.
I began using parchment paper after the bread run because I could sense future messes.. well that got old fast (first day or two) and I ordered the silicone mats. They work great especially when the grapes and blueberries left sticky messes.
I got the freeze-dryer mostly because I like black Plums, but they go bad and I didn’t want to make smoothies with frozen plums or eat mushy ones after defrosting them. I want to enjoy their flavor year-around. So in May I’ll buy them all from the grocery store and freeze dry em.
By the way, don’t feel that you need to explain yourself to the cashiers or whomever when you buy large quantities of product, tell them to mind their own business.. in a nice, not snide, way. “I’m sorry, I thought you were in the business of trying to sell as much as possible for big profits! I didn’t realize you needed to know why people buy things!”🤣🤣🤣
Lol! YOU made me laugh out loud! You're right. They don't need to be questioning me. But I've had some interesting conversations with Costco cashiers when I told them I was freeze-drying all that food. One told me that her best friend also freeze dries and she is considering it herself, and another had never heard of it, but wanted the low-down. So maybe we can convert the world one cashier at a time. :-)
I haven't done ice cream sandwiches yet, but I intend to try. The only other freeze drying video I have done to date is milk duds and those were at first super frustrating and then very fun. I just finished a load of lemon slices and will upload that video soon. I've also been doing a lot of chickpeas that I pulverized into powder for hummus-at-the-ready. I also have video clips from at least a dozen other loads, but need to organize those so I can upload them. I find myself wishing that all I had to do day in and day out was to freeze dry. :-)
@TwigandFeather
I did buy quarts of ice cream, cut them right out of their cartons and with gloves on, began slicing thin slices of ice cream (accidentally sliced some too thick, they didn’t dry and were chewy in the middle), neopolitan was the best. Chocolate/Vanilla/Strawberry in one slice… a child’s dream. I fed them to relatives, but I did try them, highly recommend it!
Great information!!
Thank you! :)
Thanks!!
You bet! :)
You can cancel the defrost and add more dry time. Just stop the defrost cycle and hit start like you’re starting a new batch. You’ll have to wait the usual 15 minutes before loading the trays. Once you load the trays and start and it shows freezing, you will hit end. It will then give you the option to add more dry time. It took me a little while and some trial and error to figure that out 😊 I couldn’t find anything in the book or online showing how to do it.
Thank you! I so appreciate you taking the time to share that, Elaine. Glad you figured that out :)
I have the Med 5 tray and love it BUT I wish I could have afforded the XL (maybe someday) I was going to try ETSY for my freeze-dried Candy and Fruits but ETSY is just overkilled with people, so I now do small shows in Markets and just take orders......Someday I would love to have a commercial kitchen so I could do ice cream and sell it, darn Michigan laws lol but I make it for us!
I just found out from another commenter that Harvest Right has a layaway plan. Who knew?! Maybe that will be an option for you. Sounds like they’ll lock in the price, which is a big help!
Harvest Right has the absolute best layaway program going!
Wait for a sale, lock in your price, pay whenever, however much you can for no matter how long.
What a great program! I didn't know that, @Blugill--thanks for letting us know. I'll mention that in the next video! (With credit to you :) )
@@TwigandFeather I should have my XL by MidJune. I’m going to stock up for my family, extended family, and letting all of my neighbors and friends know they can use it free of charge so they can get stocked up too. Times are coming we will need more friends around us, let’s help them too.
I believe there's no "pay whatever"...there's minimal amount that HAS to be paid every month, or it gets anulled.
@@kuroimushi9421 might want to call and talk to them about it.
I have.
@@TwigandFeather that's the info I've red somewhere regarding the lay off system at harvest right, I don't remember if it was in their rules or not...but everyone are multiplaying the version "pay whatever and whenever", that might be true if there're people that used it that way and there wasn't negative outcome...but as always TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE in my opinion 😉
Cool info! Great stuff. I am super interested in getting a freeze dryer.
BTW, Did it come with the water moisture meter as part of the package?
Thank you, Marc! My husband is a home inspector, so the moisture meter came as part of THAT package. :) His was about $600, but he says he’s seen them on Offer Up occasionally. You might want to keep an eye out there or on Facebook Marketplace. FYI, on my video I uploaded after this one (about cleaning the FD), I shared what another viewer told me about Harvest Right’s layaway plan. You can lock in a price, put some money down on it, and just pay as you like for as long as you like. Pretty great, huh”
@@TwigandFeatherThank you. That is pretty cool that you can lock in a price!
I put my load in in the morning. That way it is done 24 hours later "in the morning" and don't have to stay up til midnight packaging it up.
You're right! That's the very best schedule, Kathleen. I try to get it in earlier when I can, but I'm a Realtor and it seems my mornings always get taken up with one meeting or another. So here I am, time after time, loading up my trays in the evening. One day! :)
Could you use this to dry flowers? That would be awesome too!
Hi Barbara! I haven't tried them yet myself, so I googled and found directions on a florist's website called "The Delicate Daisy" and I am totally confused. She says you have to dry the flowers over the course of 10 days, starting the temperature at -5° and increasing 5° until you get up to 20°F. That's way more confusing than anything I have freeze dried to date. Not sure why they require such a long freeze-drying time, but it does sound like it's possible.
I would love to see freeze dried coffee.👍
John, I'll look into it!
All instant coffee is freeze dried.
So the machine magically jumped on top of the table?
I actually had no plans at the time to post about the delivery of the freeze dryer. I was just recording for us to have a memory of it. But also, I was needed to help slide it from the tailgate onto the table. We had a piece of cardboard under it. So I had no thoughts of recording at that moment. :-)
Why not use fresh produce? I am looking forward to own one. 😊
Hi Priscilla! I'm looking forward to freeze-drying fresh produce from my garden this summer, for sure. We didn't get ours till September last year, so it was too late for any home-grown produce. But I had a bunch of frozen peas and corn taking up space in the freezer, so that went into the freeze dryer first :)
Couldn't you go into the test settings and turn on the vacuum heaters and the freeze mode manually from there, of course you have to wait for the 5 minute freeze pressure before the compressor kicks on.
You may be right, Jeremy-I just haven’t been that adventurous. :) It took me forever to feel comfortable adding extra drying time. I’ll take every bit of advice/wisdom you want to share!
@@TwigandFeather if I had any on the freeze dryer I would definitely share it. New myself as in less than a month on a standard, medium 5 tray with the so called premium pump. It's had it's issues and at moment in testing settings, vac only or vac with heat on it can't seem to pull a vac under 10000 mtorr. As soon as I turn freeze on, in a min or less vac drops fast. It gets to 130 mtorr in about 10 minutes or less.
I use vacuum bags, food saver for most what I've done so far. Stuff that doesn't compress at least. No need of oxygen packs if there's no oxygen. Looking into getting the mason jar vac attachment as well.banna and strawberry vac nice. Watermelon is a jar or oxygen pack seal. Done a couple of tv dinner. Used the plastic container and vac seal it in the food saver bag. Keep it in a box n basement. Cats keeping the mice away, but now wife is feeding the neighborhood cats as well. No mice here at least. Only good thing of them.
I don't know about mixing. different things, like right now is mix chocolate candy bars. Bite sized and milk duds. Those are doing fine. But not sure how they would with like Skittles. Wife was trying to get me to do Skittles on a couple trays and fruit on the rest just to have a full load. Ehh nah I'll pass on the chance of messing that up. Jolly ranchers uiihhhhgggggg. Got huge, stuck to the heating elements. I got a large bottle brush for carboy wine making supplies. Easy to clean the heating elements with that. Fairly soft and stiff. Right mix. Stiff enough to do a good scrub but not scratch
I haven’t tried Jolly Ranchers, but thanks for the heads up. Milk Duds made a horrible mess the first two times I tried them. I did a video on the third attempt and they came out great, but that probably would have been the end of my candy making if they hadn’t worked that time. I’m using a bottle brush too for cleaning. Works great! :)
@@TwigandFeather if I can cut the jolly ranchers down then they should be fine, looks kinda like the milk duds . Reasons chocolate gets big. 3 musk bearly XP and, twice expand but the cookie part didn't. Snickers great, milk dud chocolate and Snickers chocolate was fine, the others instantly started to bubble n melt as cycle started, chocolate melt to tray some, came off on fingers sticking to everything it touches.
So I'm guessing it's the fat and wax content in chocolate. Less wax more fat it gets messy. Assuming chocolate malt balls would do bout nothing, Skittles will get big if in to long. Some kind of Valentine's hard candy looking stuff grew in size some. Gummy nerds ehh. I just not big on candy myself. Rather do really food along with canning for stock up, like duums day peppers lol. But more like family always canned n garden most there own. Thinking I'll try some fresh fish next time I catch some and deer season if I get to tag one. Deer should do great, very lean, and freezer space is always limited
Your description of what you bought and loaded doesn't sound like your using the 40 to 50lbs capacity per batch. I know sometimes it's just because it has to physically fit. Like, I can't get more than 6lbs of shredded cheese in my 4 tray medium even though it handles 10 to 15lbs per batch.
You’re right- I usually load what will physically fit. The only time I worried I might be close to the limit was when I did pumpkin purée on half the trays and applesauce on the others. THOSE were heavy. I wasn’t quite at the weight limit, but it was close.
@@TwigandFeatherhow did applesauce turn out??
@lh3130 Well ... it took a little over 36 hours and at that point the thickest part snapped in half, so I started bagging it up. I just don't like the feel of it. It's not that it feels tacky, it just feels odd. Like cotton candy that you've compressed, if that makes sense. I have used some that I'm keeping in a jar and it works great. I weigh every bag right after I seal it twice with the impulse sealer, and then I check a month or two later to see if it still weighs the same. My big worry is always whether or not the seal will hold. So far so good. But I think I'll stick to apple slices after this. That was a lot of drying time for me to be feeling so meh about it.
@TwigandFeather after you dry applesauce, toss it into a blender and powderize it. When reconstituted, it will be back to the same applesauce. You will know if it's not fully dried when you blend it.
Thank you, Kenneth!