Harvest Right Freeze Dryer Reviews

I have been using my Harvest Right Freeze dryer for almost a year now and I love it! I find it very easy to freeze dry foods and rehydrating them is simple and taste very good. I have freeze dried everything from eggs to soups to stews and candies. I also love the fact that freeze dried food can last 25 years or more depending upon the food. Even if you are not a "prepper", freeze dried food comes in handy for many things like hikes and camping and so forth and storage is great because it's smaller it takes up less space. I have let family and friends taste some of the rehydrated foods that I freeze dried and they liked it so much they are getting freeze dryers as well!

The Harvest Right Freeze Dryer is definitely the best investment I have ever made and I'm glad that I did.

At the start I was really wondering why I spent that much cash on a machine that didn’t work.

Harvest Right support very patiently worked with me and help 100% to get my machine working again.

Yes I will highly recommend Harvest Right to everyone.

I really needed to step up my food storage in more ways and Harvest Right allowed me to do just that.

Thank you Harvest Right for all that you have done.

sincerely

Anthony Migliori

I've been a proud owner of two Harvest Right machines for my small business for the past three years, and I couldn't be happier with my experience. The products they offer are top-notch, delivering exceptional freeze-dried goods that have been a hit with my customers.

What sets Harvest Right apart is their exceptional support. Despite being based in New Zealand, I've always received prompt and reliable assistance whenever I've encountered any issues or needed help with the service. The team's knowledge and responsiveness have been outstanding, ensuring minimal downtime for my business.

I highly recommend Harvest Right for their great products and amazing support. They have been a trusted partner, and I will continue to purchase from them without hesitation. Thank you, Harvest Right, for your outstanding products and excellent service!

Got a Large machine and it was DOA. The company wants their customers to work on the machine instead of a service to replace or repair them . Finally after they sent a new module and it still didn’t start up I got a return package. Company needs to be up front on service policy of the equipment.

I received my FD in August 2022. After 3 weeks, the pump stopped working. I called Harvest Right and they immediately appointed a technician to help me do a bunch of testing. Once it was determined that the pump was faulty, they asked me to send the pump back and I was provided with a shipping label and anything necessary to make the process easy. I was leaving the country for 5 months, so they offered to hold the replacement pump until we got back. I called them last week, they quickly checked the notes and shipped the new pump. I am in Canada, and it only took 3 days to arrive. I was very very pleased with their customer service and fast delivery. My new oil free pump is a real delight.

I've had my Harvest Right Freeze Dryer for 3 years. With that being said, there are learning curves and 'malfunctions' that have been handled successfully. As with any new machine, hobby or new skill like gardening or canning you don't know everything or have all the tools instantly. I couldn't just ask my mom to help me or for her recipe. We're the pioneers in the home freeze drying innovation. The techs are very helpful and will find answers to your questions. Keep experimenting and have fun creating.

The freeze dryer is effective, but I had a lot of trouble with it. I had to go through extensive customer support to fix a leak in the first few months after receiving it. I also had to replace the screen and circuit board and update the software because of glitching.

The best investment into my family's future. My Harvest Right was a gift from my husband. I use it non-stop. I love it. I have freeze dried candy, fruits, vegies, eggs, leftovers and everything in between. This is the best way to prepare for emergencies and I find that I am saving money by purchasing food when it is on sale and then freeze drying it for a later date.

I'm happy I own this appliance to preserve all kinds of food. At first, I needed help, and the tech support staff was great at listening to me, and help me set up my appliance just right. Since then, I've freeze-dried raw eggs, foods ready to eat and fruits/vegetables. With the quality of the food I chose to preserve, this appliance pays for itself quickly.

I recently purchased a brand new medium sized freeze dryer directly from Harvest Right. The product arrived very well packaged and you can tell they take great care in that process. I ran my test batch on a loaf of bread (sprayed with vinegar) and it went through the first batch with one issue arising due to an error code related to the temperature of the heating pads under the trays. This only happened once during the batch and then went away so I thought it wouldn't be an issue. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. My 2nd batch was throwing 2 trouble codes; 1 for tray heat and the 2nd for overall temperature of the machine which states "Danger" and to "power down".

This is where the process with Harvest Right became very unusual (in my experience). I scheduled a call with a technician and their first process is to have the customer try and do the troubleshooting and repairs. They had me take some things apart and test a relay with a paper clip which by the way, if not done correctly poses an electrocution risk! What?!

Because I felt mildly comfortable with my skill set not to die while troubleshooting the issue, I decided to go along with it. The alternative didn't seem good. It was "we can try and get a technician but this is really the best option". By the way, I did ask them to send me a new machine because I felt like their company asking the customer to work on a brand new machine seemed a bit ridiculous. They declined stating, "this really is the best option".

Again, I went along with it. Ultimately, after several days and multiple attempts at troubleshooting (over the phone with the tech) they came to the conclusion it was a bad relay and the entire computer needed to be switched out (by me!).

I again stated this seemed ridiculous to ask me to do as a customer but they said, "this really is the best option" so in an attempt to have a very expensive paper weight lying around, I did it.

They sent me the new computer and a video showing how to replace it (which was really poorly made as even the people I the video seemed confused). Thankfully, I was able to swap out the computer without too much trouble (took about 30 min) but I couldn't help but wonder; how in the world could they ask someone who isn't comfortable or skilled in this area to work on these machines??!!

Imagine buying a new washing machine and a part inside the machine is bad right out of the gate and the company asks you to troubleshoot and replace it?! Doesn't make sense and is NOT a great strategy to build customer confidence.

I will say, the tech that helped me was very responsive, kind, empathetic and sincerely wanted to help me. He was more relieved than I was when it ran 2 batches successfully after I replaced the computer.

After all that, I'm still glad I have one but buyer beware; if it arrives and doesn't work properly, more than likely you're on the hook to troubleshoot it and repair it (with parts they send you).

Heard they were the best, and am not disappointed, bought an XL and this thing is a beast. Very heavy but tons more storage than any of the others from what I gather. Only complaint I think I have is it seems the put the trays closer together than on other models so you would have to be more careful about stuff that puffs up bigger. But the amount you can do is incredible. I had a software bug right out of the box, opened a ticket and was resolved the same day, they found the issue and had a patch available and I was in business. Customer Support is top notch. Shout out to Caleb in support for excellent support. Would highly recommend Harvest Right to anyone looking to get into Freeze Drying.

I purchased a medium HR freeze dryer a couple months back and been very happy so far. For me the medium was the perfect size. Its small enough for my son and I to muscle it downstairs and place it on the table but still large enough to cook and process large batches of food. I have processed 10 batches so far and have been using 7mil mylar bags and mason jars. The sample kit that HR includes is solid. Good thick bags, sealer, and O2 absorbers. The machine doesn't make as much noise as I thought and can't hear it run from the basement. Really enjoying freeze drying so far and the machine has been great.

I have had my Harvest Right medium freeze dryer for about 10 months now. The first six months I was using it 5-6 days a week. Now that I have freeze dried everything that I could find, I have backed off a bit. It was easy to set up and use from the start. I have the Premier oil pump. It is recommended to change the oil every 20 batches. That is simple. Drain, filter, refill the pump. I pre-freeze the food i plan to freeze dry and so there is minimal clean up. I am amazed at how the taste of food is intensified when the water is removed, such as fruit and herbs. I have stored my food in vacuum sealed glass jars. I like the look and don’t plan on storing for an extended length of time. I enjoy the ability to stock up and not waste food during sales or garden harvests. It’s really great to make a recipe and always have, for example, chopped onion available without having to consider my inventory. The negatives of having a freeze dryer is the length of time a cycle takes, 12-18 hours on average. It does use electricity. I’m not sure of how much extra I paid with the freeze dryer since I started using it about the time I needed to use air conditioning and my local utility company increased our rates at that same time. In general, it is a great piece of equipment to have if you like food security.

I purchased my medium size Harvest Right in November 2022. The machine malfunctioned and despite the excellent advice from customer service and new pump I received I couldn’t get it to work. I was asked to return the freeze dryer to Harvest Right for repairs. They provided me with all the packing materials required, sent a video on how to safely package it, then arranged for it to be picked up at my home. My customer service rep Itzia Flores was wonderful. She kept me updated on the progress with the repairs and informed me when the freeze dryer was being returned. My machine is now completely functioning and I am looking forward to many years of use.

Michal Ryan here

just wanted to give Thanks to all at Harvest Right

for handling the issue we had with freezer. Also to Karysn Chambers, not sure what you are paying him,but is not enough.To took the bull by the horn in worhed great with me and my family. I could tell he was really concerned about our freezer not working did his best to help with the problem. After all the fixes we tried he got us a anther freezer as soon a possible. It is working great. I have been in sales most of my life. This was handled like a professional. Please give him a pat on his back. Thanks Karsyn. Michal Ryan

We purchased our Harvest Right Medium Sized Freeze Dryer order 12/07/2021.

We received the unit in January 2022.

A couple of months ago we experienced a mid-batch heater failure.

I called Harvest Right and opened a ticket. There was a fee because the unit was out of warranty, but that is ok.

I worked with Bobbie Lewis at tech support to trouble shoot the issue.

I sent the tray unit in to be repaired. When I received it back, I still had an issue with the heater.

I reached back out to Bobbie and again she helped me send the shelf unit in for repair. She did a great job of keeping me up to date. I just received the shelf unit back and was able to do a successful freeze dryer run. Bobbie has outstanding customer service and made what could have been a very stressful situation easier to bear.

I bought the Freeze Dryer from Harvest Right this year and I love it. I did had one small issue and it got fixed really fast by the Tech department. I sure I can't use her name on here but she was amazing. We communicated via email and she called me when I asked. Honestly, I recommend this company and product the Large Freeze Dryer. I bought the Large freeze Dryer. Just like with every company there are bad customer service agents but the agents here in the US are amazing. The machine works greats and I really like to freeze dry using this machine. it's worth every penny I paid. I had a lot of questions and they were understanding and patient with me.

We purchased our medium freeze dryer from Harvest Right in 2022 and was very excited. After doing a few batches we started having and issue with our freeze dryer not going below 500. We called customer support and worked with Mori Manabat and Kati Mori who were unsuccess in resolving the issue, but Mori then referred us to Chri Bowman Tech Support who is very knowledgeable, and excellence in what he does. Chris is easy to talk with and was able to walk us through steps that he needed us to do so he could help us resolve our issue. We ended up working with Chris to upgrade our freeze dryer version from 16 to 24. After the version upgrade Chris had us to run a test batch of bread or apples. Our test batch with the apples were very successful. Chris stated we are good to start using our freeze dryer and we could reach out to him if we had any other questions. Thanks to your Customer Support team and Chris Bowman Tech Support who was very successful in helping us fix out freeze dryer. We are very excited that we are able to use our freeze dryer again. We have now been successful in doing a batch of carrots.

Thank you, Chris Bowman, for your help and we appreciate your dedication.

I've worked with Harvest Right for a year now. Our company has multiple Harvest Right freeze dryers and understanding issues with them has been hit or miss. Most of the tech's I've dealt with up until now have been fairly cryptic and resolving issues has taken weeks or months in some cases.

This was not the case with our latest dryer, which had mysteriously locked itself into "heat" mode and managed to melt 5 trays of starburst (not an easy feat!). I placed a ticket into the harvest Right support System expecting it to take several days to hear back from them, as was true in the past. However, within a couple of hours, I was scheduled for a phone call with Jacqueline for the next day.

Rather than collecting logs and taking days to get back to me, Jacqueline had me troubleshooting immediately! She had me locate and reset the thermal overload switch and asked me to see if the tray warmers still warmed up. She asked me to keep an eye on it over the next hour, and in fact she sent a new relay board, just in case that was the issue, covering all of her bases.

I really appreciated the renewed effort by harvest right to get us up and running again! I certainly hope that this is the service department of the future for Harvest Right. If so, they will have earned back my trust in the product.

Recently had a vacuum leak issue on my 5 yr. old machine. I hesitated to call tech support because of the $45. fee. I set up an appointment and ordered parts in which the tech fee was deducted from. I followed the instructions on the videos they sent and my machine is up and running. Tech support was very helpful and even checked back with me by phone to make sure problem was resolved. I recommend this product.