Laura McDonough says: 2 years ago We bought one around the Y2K crises which never happened, ended up using it some, then selling it. I will not clutter up my place with useless crap of all kinds in the future, me and friends said (been there done that).

4. Vacuum Pump Issues: If your machine is not reaching optimal vacuum levels, check for leaks in seals or hoses that could hinder performance.

Looking at the picture you can see the water drops on the insulation and where the water had flowed down the back of the front panel.

That also goes for dense foods like mashed potatoes. Liquids or soft foods can be put in silicone molds and frozen. Then pop them out of the molds, put them on the freeze dry trays, and put them in the machine when it’s ready.

Unlike canning or dehydrating, freeze drying retains 97 percent of the food’s nutrients. Freeze dried food also tastes more like fresh food than canned or dehydrated foods.

I want my son to have great meals on Thanksgiving and Christmas, just as the rest of us do. And it’s not feasible for me to cook the entire meal for a huge crowd.

We also like to freeze dry gluten-free sweet breads and muffins. Slice bread or muffins and freeze dry it. Then to reconstitute, simply wrap it in a wet paper towel and leave it in the fridge overnight or put it in the microwave for up to 30 seconds.

Once we got into the groove of freeze-drying food, we have been extremely pleased with the purchase. But know this going in if you’re thinking this is an “easy button.” It’s not. In fact, in many ways it has changed our lifestyle. For example, we now often cook for a family of oito even though it’s just us and the two kids.

14 Posted December 16, 2015 (edited) On 7/31/2015 at 11:12 PM, TonyC said: Somehow this post got posted twice so I'll edit the second one with some more useful information. I remember reading somewhere in this thread where somebody was asking how long you run the freeze cycle with pre-frozen food. I have my chest freezer set to -12F, and I usually let the freeze dryer cool for an hour before I put the frozen food in. After I load the food in I wait another half hour to start the drying process. I've had a lot of cycles that the total time between pulling one batch out and starting the drying cycle on the next is around 2 hours. I'm running mine in a cold garage, so it cools down pretty quickly. If you have yours in a warm room it would probably take a little longer.

Reinstalled the vacuum hose and capped far end of hose to do a hose test. (same results as pump alone)

So, while it might be tempting to stuff just as much as you may onto a tray, an arranged tactic making use of these applications will produce the best freeze dried foods, batch immediately after batch.

Granted, most of that time is the freeze dryer doing all the work, but the process is not without effort. Once the food is ready it must be put into appropriate containers with oxygen absorbers and sealed properly so they can last.

Monitoring the FDer internal temps and once I see -40F I start the dry cycle, except for high sugar content food which I give an Em Buy Now excesso hour. I'm still experimenting with Ice cream and a few fruits to determine optimal freeze time to get the best results. The cooling cycle ends up much shorter.

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.