You’ll have to decide whether the pros outweigh the cons. For me personally, non-e of the cons outweighed the pros. The high price tag is an investment in my ability to preserve food for long periods of time for me and my family without relying on others. The noise doesn’t bother any of us and it’s like white noise.
Maintenance Simply filter and replace the oil every 20–25 cycles. (The oil can be filtered and reused one time.); this is a straightforward task that takes only a couple of minutes.
1. Inadequate Drying Time: If your food is not completely dry after a cycle, it may require additional time. Always check moisture levels before sealing.
With the combination of pharmaceutical and food products needing to be more shelf-stable than before, acquiring ideal freeze-drying machinery is crucial. Modern freeze driers have much more sophisticated control of temperature, pressure, and moisture which guarantees the quality of the product as well as meeting regulatory standards.
Nor is it affordable for all of our extended family to eat gluten-free for the holiday meals. This challenge has been easily remedied with my freeze dryer.
The unit can also connect to and communicate the freeze dryer cycle data to a nearby PC through an ethernet cable.
Trust the machine. It will let you know when it thinks the food is done. Once the cycle has finished, you can check the food to see if it is completely done. If so, you can remove it from the machine and package it. If the food isn’t done, you can add time.
The system records and maintains a log of the pressure and temperature during all parts of the freeze-dry cycle.
Tray lids– Though freeze drying is underway, you would possibly end up prepping for the next batch. Tray lids are vital in these conditions, preserving your prepped food from contaminants, odors, or unintended spills with your freezer.
A funny lesson I learned is that we no longer freeze-dry many fruits or vegetables. I know this goes against what most preppers say but I’ve come to a different conclusion. We did tons of fruits and vegetables at first but considering the time it takes we found that we are better served by spending that precious freeze drying usage on more expensive items like meats, eggs, and complete meals.
Posted January 21, 2016 (edited) On 12/1/2015 at 0:16 PM, Jenipher said: Tony, if you see this, I went ahead and purchased the catch can. Do you think it's okay to just purchase a reducer to go from the size of the exhaust to the size of the hose that came with the can? Hopefully I said that in a way that makes sense! As well, does it matter which port is used as "in" and which as "out"? Thanks so much, Jen Hi Jen, Sorry get more info to be gone so long. I did exactly as you proposed. I purchased a brass reducer and pushed the blue hose over it.
We can take these meals with us when we travel as well as when my son goes on Scout camp outs or activities with his friends. Buying a freeze dryer has made life a lot easier for our family.
The set up booklet was easy to follow and the initial bread run went smoothly. I do find the touch screen very sensitive and have made a couple taps in error. An error correct button might be helpful. Now the learning curve begins as the food is processed.
I started by removing the 3 grocery bags that were holding the 2 thick bags that had at one time held the berries. Struck by how much it looked like a placenta - bag and all!