Stay Fresh Freeze Dryer (First Batch & Impressions)! 

@@bloodlove93 hm, that would definitely be quicker than weighing each item, but how does that work. If the food is a certain temperature, is the assumption that all water has evaporated since it was under a vacuum?

@@cameronmorton-chapa5682 unfortunately I do not, we picked this up at a local thrift store for dirt cheap. Had it sitting in our barn (waiting to have it renovated into a bar / entertainment area), but when we decided to get the freeze dryer and realize we had no where to put it we repurposed it and put it in our kitchen. Haha Did you try to look for any markings or details on the inside of drawers that may note the manufacturer or anything? I’ll try to look inside my drawers and let you know if I find anything. Can also try google’s new AI google lens, where you take a picture of it and “google” the image where it will show similar items.

This size freeze dryer uses a standard 120v outlet. They do recommend a dedicated outlet though. With that said, we don’t have a dedicated outlet, it’s currently located off our kitchen in our dining area. The outlet we are using are shared on a circuit with 4 overhead LED can lights, and a few outlets (has a wifi mesh router, security system Homebase and a robot vacuum) and never had a problem. In fact, we actually found out a few outlets in our basement crawl space are also tapped into that same circuit, as when I was using a shop vac down there when the freeze dryer was on, the circuit tripped. Though I was doing it for almost 20-30 mins before it tripped and it only happened when something got caught in the shop vac vacuum and likely caused a lot of resistance for the vacuum. Shop vacs use a lot of power, so I’m sure if you have it on a circuit without a lot of large electric usage it should be fine. With that said, even for the larger freeze dryers that require a different outlet, it’s still not a 240V dryer type outlet, it’s just a 20 amp rated 120V outlet with a different plug style )basically the standard plug size but one of the prongs is turned sideways so that it only fits in a 20 amp rated circuit. Thankfully when I flipped the power back on the cycle just immediately resumed where it left off, and I keep usage light on that circuit while the freeze dryer is running.

@@GuyOnRU-vid thank you.

@@ronsellew5696 yes, support is a huge factor when buying something as expensive and complex as a freeze dryer. I’ve heard the same stories for harvest right, which is another reason (aside from build quality) that made me go with the stay fresh over the harvest right. It’s inevitable that over the course of usage and ownership you will need support at some point (hopefully less so with the stay fresh vs harvest right). I’ve reached out to stay fresh support on a few miscellaneous questions already and have always received very quick and detailed responses from Tim (which if I’m not mistaken, is the owner of the company)! Questions were mainly just around the vacuum pump, such as if it was normal for vacuum to come back up to the ~500 mTorr range during the freeze drying cycle after initially pulling a much lower vacuum that I mentioned in the video (it is). As well as the vacuum oil level on the initial few cycles dropping faster than expected and if there could have been an issue or excessive evaporation due to leaving the gas ballast knob open (also normal as the filter media absorbs and becomes saturated with oil during my the first few runs) which also explains why nothing came out the filter housing after the first 2 runs. Just had to top up a little bit of oil to remain above the minimum on the 3rd run and the oil level has stabilized since then and now drains residual oil from the filter housing after each run (which I check for moisture and then add back to the main reservoir). Overall, very happy with the unit so far, we’ve largely completed our emergency prep supply, and are starting to have fun with it now (exploring new freeze dried foods or candies, etc). I’ll likely be making an update video in a few weeks!

@@GuyOnRU-vid Thanks I will looking forward to your next video! Thinking hard about getting rid of thr HR and getting one. I just had to buy another vacuum pump for mine!

@@missyunderwood9700 I have not, but there is a pretty in depth resource on this I found here: www.theoriginalresinator.com/blog/what-is-freeze-dried-cannabis/ Happy freeze drying!

@@averteddisasterbarely2339 the stayfresh freeze dryer is currently on sale starting at $3,000 for the 4 tray version with standard vacuum pump, or $3,700 with the industrial pump. You can also buy it with the 7 tray insert for $3,400 (with standard vacuum pump) or $4,000 (with industrial pump). They also have upgrade options on whichever offering to get a second set of trays, upgrade vacuum pump lines to stainless steel tubing with K25 fittings, or purchase both 4 and 7 tray inserts (which is what I did). Here is an affiliate link if you would like to check out their products and support the channel! stayfreshfreezedry.com?sca_ref=7049409.Vx3zZathzF

it's more expensive that an HR, this is like a $4100 unit. It's built like a $4000 unit though. Harvestright is a $3500 unit built like a $1000 unit.