Harvest Right Freeze Dryer Reviews

I purchased a medium size Harvestright Freeze Dryer in February of 2021. Since that time I have used my freeze drying in excess of 200 times. I have freeze died, milk, hamburger, ham, eggs, peas, corn, beans, squash, apples, strawberries, cherries, peaches, pears, bananas, black berries, tomatoes, onions, grapes and mashed potatoes. And have packaged them in Mylar bags and glass canning jars. All process a little differently, but the dried products reconstitute easily and taste just like it was just purchased fresh from the store or hot off the stove.

The Harvestright support team has been available any time I needed help and have supplied me two free software updates and a simple solution to my "midbatch" heater failure problem. I have been very pleased with this product.

I highly recommend this product.

We purchased our machine in 2016, a medium one.

We use it maybe 2-3 months out of the year. We had to return it to be repaired for vacuum issues in the machine not the pump after 4 years. We also had to buy a new pump only 3 years after the inital purchase, and went from the oil pump to an oil less pump. Most years we have vacuum problems, and have to go through the issues with poor tech support and it takes a month or longer (longer this year) to get the problems resolved.

We updated to the newer version, which seemed to help with the moisture left in the final product, but now we may have to replace our pump again after spending $1495 just 4 years ago, for a pump that only has to work 2-3 months a year! It's ridiculous! Our mechanic friend is amazed, as he works with these pumps a lot and they usually do very well long term. We've replaced the hose before as well.

The product in the first few years did not keep crisp in the mylar bags, so we bought a different sealer than the one they send with the machine. After the last upgrade, the fruit seems to be holding up better. I like the fruit and vegetable done in the unit so we persevere through the issues. I would like to get through the harvest season to try doing different foods and meats, but we have only been able to get through plum and pear season before it starts having issues.

We keep the machine in an attached garage where it should work year round, but as soon as colder weather sets in we have to move it indoors or stop using it. Since it is so loud, we opt to stop using it in the fall and winter. We are in the Pacific Northwest.

At such a high cost for the machine and a pump, we keep working on it. At some point in time I hope to be able to use it longer each year. I'm wondering if we just received a lemon machine. We ask for trade ins or discounts but the company has refused. Their solution to pump issues thus far has been to buy a new one. I have to say, this company really needs some competition!

So far I have enjoyed the machine and found it pretty easy to use once I read the directions CAREFULLY! I am a Systems Engineer, but I would still suggest closely reading the directions for proper operation. I actually read it a few times and caught something I missed the first time.

The trays are nice and sturdy and super easy to clean. I would still suggest you invest in the silicone mats for your trays as some items like bananas are sticky and they are a great reusable option for easy food removal. Also, there is a Freeze Dryer book that Harvest Right offers outside of the smaller starter book that comes with the unit. I really think it's worth purchasing that book.

My one main gripe is that the removable tray holder has a horrible chemical smell that took me several runs of bread through it to lessen. I also kept the door of it open for a week on a 65-70 degree day to help it off-gas. I can still smell it during the defrost cycle. I do hope they'll figure out how to not use chemicals that smell that awful to manufacture the future machines.

Overall I have been happy to find things on sale and be able to store them away before they go back and to free up some freezer space.

I decided to purchase a Harvest Right back in January 2023. I placed my order in late February directly from Harvest Right. I received it very quickly and very well packed.

I have been very pleased with my decision. I’m still learning how to do different product. But there is a lot of support on social media and from Harvest Right. Everything I’ve freeze dried has came out great. My four legged boys love all the treats I make for them. They come running when they hear me release the pressure on the machine. They know they will get to taste test everything.

Since I’ve had my Harvest Right I’ve needed to contact customer support twice. Both time they were helpful and walked me through everything. The first time there was a power outage in my area for several hours. When power was restored my machine had returned to a different screen for set up. Customer support helped me set all my settings correctly. The second time was just a software update. Again customer support was very helpful and walked me through the process.

Love my Harvest Right freeze drier. It has been running almost non-stop since I got it. I’m excited for the quality, customer service has been great, and to have a stash of food available for camping, nights I don’t feel

Like cooking or if SHTF, Something Hits the Fan! I have FD strawberries, corn, raspberries, chicken breasts, candies.

The only trouble I have had is the gasket sealing to the door so be sure to pull the gasket forward before starting the process.

Great company and excellent support

I have had the Harvest-Right Freeze dryer for about 4 years when they were just a fledgling company. I love the support to download the latest software version for NO COST!

When I call customer support they are extremely helpful and give prompt service. (I had a vacuum problem).

I highly recommend Harvest-Right

The Harvest Right freeze dryer has been a phenomenal asset and is easy to use. It has clearly been well thought out and researched to make for practical and stress free application.

During shipping there was a small issue with a wire coming lose while it was in transit which rendered the machine inoperable but Harvest Right customer service was rapidly there to help and probably some of the easiest people to work with that I have ever encountered. The fix was simple and I was able to get it up and running in less than 10 minutes on the phone with a Technician.

I was gifted a five-tray model and use it primarily for prepping long term food storage. I also use it preserve food that would otherwise spoil (i.e., powdering milk that would otherwise spoil. I recommend using the rubber liners for the trays, makes product removal much easier. Things to consider when locating the freeze dryer are the weight (you need strong sturdy surface, if not permanently located on a countertop, most utility carts can't handle it. Freezer itself is relatively quiet but the vacuum pump runs at about 60 db.

In general it works well and meets my needs.

This is our second experience with tech. support. We would rate today's experience as 5 stars. As for our first experience, we would give a score of 3. The final rating would be 4.

 We run our medium size, 4 tray freeze dryer at a rate of about 2-3 loads per week. We love the final product the unit produces, from a wide range of foods including fruit, meats, stews, breads, deserts, etc. Recently the relay board failed and displayed a message “Mid-batch Heater Failure”. This prevented any further processing until fixed. Customer service was able to walk us very clearly through a temporary fix until a new board could be sent. They even provided a way for us to get a credit to pay for the board since it was beyond the one-year warranty period. We’re very impressed with their ability to remotely service the machines. 

Our first experience with tech support was not as smooth. We had our machine for about 10 months, and we had a vacuum error. The technician from customer service insisted that our unit was out of warranty. We took a picture of our sales slip and shipping label and they were convinced of their error of the purchase date. Since they seemed so positive that our machine was not 10 months old, we looked at the files we were asked to send to them and many of the files were dated 10 years earlier. We wondered if we had been sold a refurbished machine. I asked for the reason for the discrepancy of dates but received no answer. After many calls to tech support and about 4 weeks of following the protocol of advice, they finally said our pump had failed and they could send an oil pump since they didn't have oil-free pumps in stock. As you know the cost difference between an oil-free pump and an oil pump is significant. They replaced our pump, but the fairness in price was certainly not fair. At times, we felt they were not listening to us, or they were convinced we were not following their directions. We felt that four weeks was too long to repair our machine. The reason for the month-long repair was the wait between the scheduled 15-minute time slots for a phone visit. Instead of the company following up to check the success of protocol steps, we had to initiate a return message of "our machine is still not working" on three different occasions. This was exactly a year ago and we feared we would have to toggle for another month of phone calls to repair our machine again. That didn't happen, thank God.

Really want to love it.

We ordered our pharmaceutical harvest right freeze dryer a year ago. Shipping took about a month or so, not ideal, but there was not rush.

Receiving it, we have used it probably a handful of times during the year (3-4 times total).

We have experienced leakage, and the monitor went out and is black - we couldn’t even retrieve the data from it on a flash drive. Mind you, we have only used the pharmaceutical grade freeze dryer 3-4 times and the screens given out. We tried to do some trouble shooting ourselves and ended up on a forum page with other users experiencing similar.

For an expensive and supposedly high grade piece of equipment, I was not impressed with the failures.

Customer support has been helpful and hopefully, wish the diagnostics were video so we can actually get guidance and help - it’s been a long journey to get this product up and running again. Will keep this updated and share photos and videos on the process.

We have loved our Harvest Right freeze dryer. We have had it for almost three years and it runs non stop except for July and August. We love to freeze dry full meals, ingredients and many things from our garden. We have always bottled food from our garden but one thing I love about freeze drying is that we do not have to use an approved USDA recipe for our tomato products. We love the pasta sauce and pico de gallo we make and freeze dry. We use the pasta sauce on spaghetti, other pasta dishes as well as pizza.

We have had only had a few things we have had to fix on our HarvestRight. We have had good customer service and received the parts quickly.

We recommend the HarvestRight freeze dryer to everyone!