Harvest Right Freeze Dryer Reviews

I've had my Harvest Right medium size freeze dryer for ten months now. It utilizes a regular 110 15 amp outlet, unlike the large or bigger which will need a specialized plug and 20 amp service to run. You can process 8-10 pounds of food per batch. Processing times will depend on air circulation around the food, water content and density of the food. Quick items to freeze dry are shredded cheese, and rice dishes which run around 18 hours a batch. Longer processing times for things like lasagna and cream soup dishes. The machine pretty much does it all for you. From initial cool down, through freezing, vacuum freezing and drying, the only thing you need to do is check on the food when the machine says it's done, and possibly add extra drying time, especially for dense items. My only issue was the drain valve, which is not sturdy and led to a vacuum fail issue after a few months. I replaced it with a brass ball valve. (I'm not a professional plumber and it took me about ten minutes to do) Once your food is heat sealed in mylar bags with an oxygen absorber, it now has a 20-25 year shelf life. Just add appropriate hot water to reconstitute the food. If you have a pantry full of expiring cans, you can freeze dry the contents and extend the life of that food as well. From cooked meats to full meals, vegetables to fruit, even cream cheese, there's not much the Harvest Right can't do. (High oil concentrations like peanut butter and some really fatty meats don't freeze dry) Yes, it costs a bit, but if you've been buying #10 cans of freeze dried food you'll recoup your money in a few short months. Plus you will KNOW how YOUR food will taste later!

Great company to do business with! I did my research before investing in a freeze dryer and could find only positive comments about Harvest Right. Have to say, I’m a fan now as well. Excellent customer service, extremely well made product. You won’t be disappointed.

I have owned a Medium Pro Harvest Right Freeze Dryer since August 23. My machine has run perfectly until we recently had a very bad blizzard with high winds. The electricity went off and on and off and on numerous times before it finally went off for several hours. I had candy running in the machine at the time. When I went out to check on the candy (it was still perfect), the machine would not come up. I called HarvestRight and Lizbeth asked me different questions and then sent me the codes to install and it immediately fixed my machine good as new. HarvestRight has exceptional tech service as well as rapid shipping of products I have ordered. I could not ask for a better company or polite staff.

This freeze dryer is giving us food security.

We get quality food like eggs, avocadoes, apples, corn, and a variety of fruits, vegetables and meats.

Then freeze dry them and seal them up for future emergencies.

They are delicious and provide peace of mind.

Thank you Harvest Right!

Love Our HarvestRight Freeze Dryer.

We have wanted a freeze dryer for years and finally got our HarvestRight freeze dryer the end of November. We had a lot of questions about the purchase and Quentin and Dave were very patient and took the time to answer all our questions. We immediately began freeze drying various foods. We had lots of questions during the setup, as well as what and how to freeze dry some foods and HarvestRight tech support was great. A few times we were nervous about whether we were doing it right, but were always able to get right through to tech support, which was awesome! We are having lots of fun learning how to freeze dry foods we like that will maintain their nutritional value for up to 25 years. We especially like that we will have some of our favorite meals prepared and all we need to do in an emergency is to reconstitute and heat. We love our freeze dryer and are looking forward to doing a lot more freeze drying now that the holidays are over. Thank you HarvestRight.

John & Irene

I had a malfunction on my 2022 medium Harvest Right freeze dryer. When I called for service I was directed to go to their website and submit a ticket. I was a bit skeptical about getting service in a timely fashion that way however someone texted me within 15 minutes of my email to schedule a phone appt. that day. I was pleasantly surprised to not only speak with someone that same day but also get my issue resolved by a simple download to my machine. I would say they definitely have great customer service!

After much research, I finally purchased my medium-size Harvest Right freeze dryer in Dec 2023. More than anything else, I've been very impressed with the people at HR. They took many phone calls from me before ordering, answering all kinds of questions. I'm talking like probably 8 calls. Then after my first few batches, I had more questions, and their tech team took those 6 calls and were super kind and helpful. In this day and age, great customer service is everything to me. You can reach their folks easily and quickly, and they're all very knowledgeable and kind.

The freeze dryer itself is very well-made, easy to use, and pretty intuitive. I love the white color. I'm running my next batch as we speak! It's important to do a little research and reading so you know how the freeze-drying process works - and this is included in their documentation. They also have lots of YouTube help videos if you like that better than reading.

in December and didn’t expect to receive it before the New Year. it arrived 2 days after Christmas. It was well packed however the oil filter pitcher was cracked. The box was undamaged. We took pictures and called HarvestRight right away. Customer service was awesome to deal with. We did Skittles and Jolly Ranchers worked great. Strawberries and pickles for our next 2 batches. There are a lot of videos on it and they helped us with everything…from delivery inspection, setup, bread run, and what to expect on future freeze drying ventures. The pro pump is quite. The control panel is very intuitive but there are some things that you might have to look up. Putting it into candy mode is easy. Having been on the fence about a freeze dryer for many years I have to say that I am very happy with our HarvestRight purchase

I have been so excited for nearly three years, about my favorite kitchen/hobby. I can’t even begin to describe how EXCITED I was when the first Harvest Right sales rep. That I spoke to told me that they have a layaway program. I knew it would take me a while to pay it off. But never did I think it would have taken me this long between Covid and my husband getting laid off. I would literally think about how many things could be different for her house and other homes full of people we care about.

Since having my HARVEST RIGHT FREEZE DRIER medium, my first task with a coworker was to come up with a really neat Christmas gift for our entire family. Now I am currently working on a bunch of meals that I can send with my husband as he works out of state most of the year! He has loved having home-cooked meals! Because of his busy work schedule 18 hours a day six days a week, it doesn’t leave much time for grocery shopping and cooking for himself. Thanks to HARVEST RIGHT freeze dryer, I can make sure that my husband has healthy meals while he’s away.

I have to say my freezer has never been so full. My shelves are currently getting emptier and emptier as I keep finding different things to freeze dry. I’m having a blast and at this point have probably prepped enough items to go into my fridge dryer to keep that sucker running for the next month or more. Some could cause my new addiction. lol!!!! AND LOVING IT!!

Thank you, HARVEST RIGHT for making it possible for people like me who need a little extra time, to achieve such a HUGE GOAL and bring home such a great product and what I believe will be their next favorite appliance.

DMMoffett

Because of the limit of max. 500 character, I cannot write a proper review - but here we go.

Neutral: 9 months old, xl 6 tray FD

Problems:

-Screws, inside and outside, not snug, loose to point you can unscrew with bare hands

- Heating pads not heating consistently, top 2 shelves burned food, rest shelves fine, equal amount food on each shelf

-premiere pump, rusty gunk oozing out, pressure not good, cleaned, still problem, nothing solved, trying to get help for almost a week

Pluses:

-Customer service good unless get Lizbeth, she’ll cancel you ticket without reaching out to you.

Was very hesitant about this purchase due to the initial upfront cost, but after researching decided to take the jump! This is a great product that works amazing. Was able to take advantage of the holiday sale and purchase the medium size one.

Everything is great construction and very solid. Actually went and picked it up from FedEx because they were saying another week for delivery. Packaging was secure and product was undamaged.

Ran the test run as instructed and a few other batches after that. The machine worked great! There was an issue with the impulse sealer, but a phone call and a few pictures emailed and a new one was on the way! Great company and a solid product!

We purchased a Harvest Right Freeze Dryer to diversify our curriculum about food production and food preservation. Students have been able to gain knowledge and experience in Preservation, Sanitation, Maintenance and Food Production. Students have worked in their Agricultural Education classes to grow produce and then worked with Family and Consumer Science Classes to prepare these products for drying and then developing recipes to utilize different freeze dried components. This has been a great addition to both departments curricular offerings.

As a new freeze dryer user, I had a question regarding when a batch is complete, as I thought I had done something incorrectly or missed a step. I called Harvest Right support and only had to wait a few minutes before speaking to a support person. She listened to what my question was, asked me a couple questions and then assured me that I had done exactly what I was supposed. She bolstered my confidence and told me to call whenever I had a question. Having my Harvest Right freeze dryer gives me the assurance and comfort that I will be able to provide healthy meals and to have long term food storage for my family.

I purchased a Medium size Pro home model with the oil free pump. It has been running almost non-stop since setting it up. On batch 14 now. I’ve dried fresh elk, bison, and cow stew meat, steaks burger and tested some after the freeze drying. I was like is was fresh cut. What surprised me was how quickly it dehydrated and how much water it took.

We’ve also done apples, rhubarb, carrots, left over turkey, ham, and mashed potatoes with gravy. All of it was just like sitting at the Thanksgiving or Christmas table. AMAZING! We’ve rendered ground elk, freeze dried it and mixed with rendered elk lard to make pemmican bars. Now that is a wonderful roast dinner in your pocket!

Christmas eve, we were a big hit with the grand kids as I freeze dried 5 trays of skittles, and gummy worms and bears. I was most amazed with the Skittles, a big hit for adults too.

About the company and the unit. It arrived very well packed and quite easy to set up and get started. A set of extra trays a big plus to have the next batch loaded on trays and frozen. I did have one issue with blowing a fuse to the vacuum pump but tech support is great and very responsive. Fact is, the fuse is in-line in the harness on the inside of the machine. I would recommend they move that to a more operator serviceable location but was not difficult to access as is. We had a real cold snap and our furnace went out then in the space where the Freeze Dryer is located. I had a cold room warning which I ignored instead of stopping and moving things back to the freezer. It was 47 or 48 in the room which I attribute to causing more of a startup surge on the pump. In short, you can always move your batch back to the freezer and start over. If the room is too cold, stop and don’t run, not racket science.

Overall, great unit and great support. I am very glad to have selected this unit for purchase.

I have both the xl and the medium machines. The xl IMHO is much better built as it has given us no issues. The medium machine has had some issues with the pump as well as the fact the door seal has to be pulled out every batch or it will not attain vacuum. Customer service, however, has been absolutely amazing!! I am not sure why people are complaining about it honestly. They have been prompt, courteous, and eager to help. What more can you ask for? Two thumbs up for Harvest Right support. The medium machine e is far better at candies and other items that expand. The xl is better for large batch prepared foods as it doesn't have as much space between the shelves.

Cool process. Great taste in the fruits and vegetables we have done. Simple to run and I think the equipment is top quality. Just learning the ins and outs at this point but and running it every chance I get. Using up many of the things I once had in the deep freeze so as to not rely on frozen foods and deep freezes. Great taste in the eggs we dried. just like fresh. have run 45 times and its amazing what the food is like for taste. Kids love the pineapple and pars and strawberries etc. Not so much candy being eaten for treats.

I received my new Medium Pro Model Harvest Right freeze dryer last week and I am very pleased with it. I really like the 5 tray capacity and premier pump included with this newest model. I've run two batches so far with great success. The machine and vacuum pump are surprisingly very quiet. Everything has a nice build quality. The operation of the machine is straight forward and pretty much automatic. Also I am very pleased with the assistance I have received from the company. Everyone has been very helpful, courteous, and informative. Just a great company to deal with.

I wanted to get one of these for many years. I was very hesitant because of the cost. In the end, I decided to justify it because I got a raise at work and I’m on a low FODMAP diet. This allows me to travel with food that I can actually eat. I had a little hiccup with the customer service which made me wonder if customer service was talking to the technology people but in the end I got the latest software update and it’s working great. I’ve got a lot of peace of mind knowing I can control my food when I travel and accumulate food storage.

Great food preservation appliance and worth every penny spent on it. I purchased it after doing a lot of research on food preservation and found that retaining 97+% of nutritional value far outweighed the cost as compared to canning and dehydrating.

Great for camping and hiking because 50-95% of the weight of food is water.

The long term benefits beat inflation and are great for prepping.

For the most part, the customer service and cost of accessories is really good. I was a little disappointed that the newer freeze dryer added an extra tray but the cost to upgrade the rack to a 5 tray is a little spendy. I have two units so it will be a while before I can upgrade both of them.

Overall great appliance at the cost compared to buying FD food at retail. Cost recovery is about 6-8 months depending on usage.

We bough our Large Freeze dryer in 2020 and have been using it just about everything except for herbs. As far as ease of use is quite easy to use. I would recommend either to get a second set of trays and/or tray covers from harvest right. The reason for the cover are three reasons: one they can be used as trays themselves, cover your food while you pre-freeze, and it makes it that much easier to stack while either freezing or preparing each tray. Speaking of tray stackers “meh” I made my own out of wire and bought a set but ever since we got the covers we no longer use them, not to mention they’re easily lost. We done: beets, bananas, apples, strawberries, blueberries, yogurt, cream cheese bits, carrots, onions, garlic, ginger, zucchini, cooked chicken, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, potatoes mashed and shredded, corn, and more.

FYI on the sizes Small, Medium, Large, and X-Large.

Both small and medium can run off a regular plug 15 amp, while the large and extra large require a dedicated 20 amp plug.

Other things to take into account is you will want to have a room or area for it to run in. This room also needs to be cooled in summer months because it creates a lot of heat in the freezing process. If you can’t cool it then have/make it vent-able area and use fans to push the heat away from it. Join a FB group and ask questions or look up the topics they’re covered.

We have had several problems one time we had to ship it back to HR to get it checked out. I very DIY kind a guy and they provide good how to check this or that and while under warranty they have you covered. After they start charging for help but that’s to be expected.

HR has just upgraded their use units too! They now do more and have better parts. Also made it easier to work on. They have removable panels to get to different parts. They also have higher quality parts. I want to say they have been listening to and watching their customers base. I’m still waiting for a Bluetooth or WiFi enabled units to come out but they’re more then likely working on it.

Overall I would recommend it to anyone that has the money and desire to get one.