Unfortunately, freeze-dried food can often be very expensive. We’ve seen this first hand as the only company that sells both frozen beef boxes to store in the freezer for up to a year as well as freeze-dried beef cubes to store in the closet for over a decade.
Have you ever tossed out spoiled produce or leftovers? How about those cans of food that are nearing their expiration date sitting on the shelf at the back of your food storage?
After the 3rd cycle I had hit my 20 cycle oil limit so it was time to change the oil. This time I took the time to add a flush port to my pump. When I replaced the plumbing with larger diameter brass and a cutoff valve I did not think to add the oil flush out port.
Commercial freeze dryers are much easier to find than industrial or laboratory freeze dryers as they’re made for the service industry and some manufacturing sectors.
The one "gotcha" I encountered in making this is that a typical car oil filter attaches with a 3/4x16tpi threaded pipe. I could find pelo such pipe anywhere. My solution was to use instead a 3/4x16tpi bolt, and then drill a hole through it.
Question for you: I'm impressed by the shortening of cycle times. Obviously some of that is from the improvement in insulation on the lines, etc., but I'm wondering how much of it might be from "drying out" of the insulation and outer walls of the freeze drying chamber.
I removed the side covers and found the water dripping from the chamber insulation. I called up HarvestRight to ask for ideas on how to avoid this in the future.
I cut up a thin flexible cutting board to make the shields and secured them with clear high grade packing tape. The cutting board is stiff but it will fold and hold a 90 degree crease. The shields are not going anywhere, but are easy to remove if necessary.
The two sub-processes, freezing and vacuum drying are done correctly: The freezing process must be quick and the vacuum process should leave only residual moisture.
Most other methods for extracting water also destroy enzymes and terpenes due to heat being used in the extraction process. Because freeze drying does not use heat during operation, the enzymes and terpenes in freeze dried products are not destroyed.
This is why so many people are buying their own freeze dryers to use at home. The market is essentially cornered by Harvest Shop Now Right, which isn’t a bad thing since their quality and customer service are both superb.
But Electrolux provides a so-so status for customer service. Electrolux aid is basically alright. If you live beyond An important metropolitan space, finding someone who can restore your device may be harder.
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!
Not all of us are technical experts (the 'not' category includes me) but I hope someone who can help you will come along soon.