Harvest Right Freeze Dryer Reviews

This thing is a BEAST! It's very large and heavy, but does a great job. I use it a lot to preserve our berry harvests & other fruits- it does this job exceptionally. My family is in love with the strawberries, pineapple & peaches especially. Ice cream is a ton of fun to do, as is candy.

It's a bit loud- make sure it's not in a main part of your house. It does warm up a room, which isnt great in the heat of the summer. I have had my freeze dryer for 9 months now & have not had any issues

Love love love my Harvest Right…

Love love love my Harvest Right machine. We have had a few glitches along the way, but the customer service has been very friendly and helpful. We as a family have managed to put a LOT of food away for the future, had to convert the spare bedroom into a pantry. The machine is a work horse, we have it running most days. Even the dogs love it, they have learned that when we open the drain valve it means food will likely be falling on the floor as we pack it up, they also love all the dog treats we have made for them. I can’t wait to start freeze drying my spring and summer garden produce.

I’ve owned a HR freeze dryer for approximately 8 months now and I love it! There are definitely pros and cons with the machine(as with everything) that are important to keep in mind before you purchase one.

1) Not every food is good for freeze drying. I really enjoy using my freeze dryer for fruit, powdered items and ready-made meals but food that is super high in fat or sugar are not appropriate to freeze dry.

2) This is a large and expensive machine and they will have issues from time to time. Harvest Right does not have the capacity to send technicians out to you. You are more than welcome to call in and get the tech support but you will be expected to help diagnosis your machine/replace any malfunctioning parts. I’ve had two issues with my machine so far.

The first time, it was down for several weeks while I trouble shot with Harvest Right to fix the issue (there was a small vacuum leak that was fixed with the epoxy fix). The second time it was only down for a few days. The issue was user error that I was able to fix mostly on my own.

3) While using your machine, make sure that you understand how it works. If there’s an issue and you already know the solution or how to trouble shoot for it. It will be a lot less frustrating and your machine will last a lot longer if you take proper care of it.

4) Most of all, enjoy your machine! You now have the opportunity to save the garden harvest, buy in bulk and make some really cool food that you won’t be find anywhere! If you do find it, it would be prohibitively expensive.

Experiment! I already dehydrate and can a lot during the summer time so buying a freeze dryer was the next step for me in my family’s food prep journey. We also eat a plant-based diet (no animal products) and HR allows me to make a lot of vegan products that aren’t available anywhere!

Learn about your freeze dryer so you can use it wisely and maintain it and enjoy yourself while you’re at it!

I have had two harvest right freeze dryers for about 5 years. We use them almost daily freeze drying fruit and berries for our business. We started with the original oil pumps on both units and upgraded to the oil free eagle pumps once they were available. The main freeze dryer units have performed very well with only one minor issue in over 5 years.

The older (not premier) oil pumps required regular maintenance and oil changes every cycle. The oil free pumps are generally maintenance free until they have had to be rebuilt with new seals after about 1.5 years of frequent use. Customer service has been responsive when we have had issues with the pumps.

I have had my freeze dryer for a few weeks now and had a few issues while getting it ready.

I wish they had a video for you to watch to help you set up. Instead they have an "ok" manual you have to read. You must read it front to back.

After reading the manual, you still have a trial and error you go through.

Get on some videos from Google and you will find a plethora of do's and don'ts.

Had some vacuum issues on my 1st run, contacted their support and they helped alleviate that issue.

We purchased the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer last month and after 2 weeks we loved it so much we purchased a 2nd one! The instructions are super easy to follow and the machines are very easy to use. We have loved experimenting with all the different foods and candy!

We had some questions and called customer service, they were very knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful. I would recommend this freeze dryer to anyone looking to preserve food or just looking to have some fun making all kinds of candy! Happy freeze drying!

We purchased a medium black freeze dryer in December 2022. After a couple batches I realized that I am going to prefer freeze drying our food over canning (salsa may be my only exception).

Freeze drying retains nutritional value better than other drying methods / canning. I recommend you purchase an extra set of trays so you always have a batch in the freezer ready to dry.

Also, purchase a scale so you can weigh your food, that helps you determine when your food is completely dry. If you enjoy canning or any type of food preservation I highly recommend you invest in a freeze dryer.

We received the unit in January of 2023.

Up until we received our medium Harvest Right freeze dryer, we were looking into food that was already freeze dried which is extremely expensive. This purchase will pay for itself!

The freeze dryer itself works great and is super easy to operate. Just turn the freeze dryer on, turn the pump on, and start. Let it pre-freeze for 15 minutes, load your food, close the drain valve, and hit start. Set it and forget it!

To date, we have completed shredded cheese, chicken, soup, and eggs. Everything rehydrates perfectly and tastes great.

We had a few issues getting up and running and the Harvest Right Technical support team was phenomenal. The support team worked with us including many follow-ups (Both phone and email) to ensure any issues were mitigated.

The freeze dryer came with a lot of extras. We received 50 mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, a premier vacuum pump, vacuum pump oil, a set of 4 stainless steel trays, freeze drying guide, and an impulse sealer. The impulse sealer works fantastically; takes less than 10 seconds to seal a mylar bag. Much better than the curling iron we were using prior on our mylar bags!

Additionally, Harvest Right has a lot of accessories to help make freeze-drying easier like silicone tray mats, silicone food molds, tray lids (Great for liquids), and of course extra oil and mylar bags with oxygen absorbers.

Can’t wait for our first camping trip of the year, freeze-dried food is easy packing and all you need is water to rehydrate. More fun less cooking!

This machine exceeds our expectations and I highly recommend it!

If you are reading this, you are probably trying to decide whether or not a Harvest Right Freeze dryer is right for you. The answer to that depends on what kind of person you are.

When your dishwasher breaks, do you pull out your tools and google the problem in an attempt to fix it yourself, or do you immediately call a repairman? You will likely run into one problem or another with your freeze dryer and good luck finding a local freeze dryer repairman. Customer support is pretty good and will talk you through troubleshooting, but you will have to actually do it yourself. Look up the “Felix fix” and watch the video. If you can’t take the screws out of the back of the machine without reminding yourself “righty-tighty, lefty-loosy” then maybe a home freeze dryer isn’t right for you. If you would be comfortable doing all the steps in the video, you might do well with a Harvest Right freeze dryer. If the video looks kinda fun, then you absolutely should get a freeze dryer.

When cooking, do you experiment and like to try new things, or do you follow recipes exactly? There aren’t a lot of good cookbooks on how to freeze dry. You will mostly get general guidance and then you have to experiment. There are a lot of great YouTube videos where users show what worked for them, but if you want an all in one reference guide with detailed instructions it just doesn’t exist. There will be trial and error.

Are you going to use it frequently long term, or just a few times a year to make some meals for your backpacking trips? Home freeze dryers aren’t cheap and so unless you use it a lot it just doesn’t make financial sense. You can buy a lot of mountain house meals for the price of a freeze dryer.

All in all I love my Harvest Right freeze dryer. If you read everything I wrote and still want one you will probably love yours too.

I purchased this freeze dryer in October. I got it to work a couple of times but continued to have inadequate vacuum errors. The techs were telling me I was overloading the trays, when clearly, I was not.

I have friends that fill theirs with Lasagna, gumbo, soup etc. and theirs works great. They finally agreed to send me a pre-paid shipping label to send it back. When it came back, FedEX had dropped it hard enough to break the pallet (not HR fault), so I declined the delivery and sent it back.

I have run two batches so far and it has worked perfectly. I am 4 months behind on my food prep, but it works. I am a believer. I love the product and every company has put out lemons. It happens. But, when it happens, HR needs to step up and take care of the customer first!

Harvest Right: 1) You need better customer service, 2) You need to allow any dealer to return the machine for you so that a 70+ year old is not wrestling with the pallet and trying to tighten the straps. 3) You need to put dense foam blocking between the top of the machine and the cardboard box so that in transit, the lower box does not crush thereby loosening the strapping 4) You need to make it easier for people who want to become certified to fix these machines in remote areas to become trained and certified. (my electrician buddy has been getting the run around from y'all).

Again, I love the concept and the technology, just take care of your customers.