Harvest Right Freeze Dryer Reviews

We have had our 5 tray machine 3 years now. As long as you're doing a batch you might as well do a large batch. the trays hold more. We upgraded from a 4 tray and like it much better- even for a family of just 2.

The software upgrades went well until their latest 5.0 version. The software is SO much more sensitive to any little thing out of balance and throws an error message and stops working.

We bought an oil FREE pump investing $1400 in what we THOUGHT was an expensive and long lasting product that would take NO maintenance. The pump had problems from the get go and just needed a rebuild 3 years later (Of course out of 6 month warranty) --which cost another $375. All the pump usually needs is an extra run of 15 mins after each batch you do so it gets the water out of it. I personally think it is NOT worth the price and the oil pump is a much better deal even if you have to deal with the filtering of the oil after every 2-3 batches.

We bought the heavy duty cart to put it on and it is so easy to move! I can move the cart outside the house in the summer to keep the house cooler.

The company is good about fixing any problem- even over the phone instead of it being a 1 hour drive to get there for trouble shooting. The unit is sound. :) The oil free pump --they haven't got a good model yet- so don't invest. We feel we have funded there R&D department on pumps. :(

Bought a medium unit back in May. Had multiple problems, which the Technicians attempted to help me correct. I have some problems that it took so long to identify that there was a problem. Usually because there was a time delays between the steps to attempt to mediate the supposed problem.

I would submit a ticket. They would send me information on how to fix a problem; then I would review and attempt to do as the corrective action advised or await the parts to fix the problem (this may take a week or so). I would then speak to the technician or await for the technician to get back to me and try something new. The technicians were always polite and very helpful. It was decided that the unit I had needed to be replaced (along with the vacuum pump. The new unit arrived in November and the old unit returned. I am still awaiting the pump as it had to be back ordered.

This new unit has functioned without any problems after 3 weeks of almost constant use. If this was the unit I had originally received this review would be a 5 Star and not a 3 star.

So excited to have this Freeze Dryer!!

I love my Harvest Right Freeze Dryer,

I bought the medium one. It has 4 trays.

I definitely could have bought the large.

But product description is true to word

Very impressed so far.

I was so happy to see Harvest Right offers an interest free payment option. We were able to make a down payment the make payments as we were able until paid off and we could pick it up(since we are local, otherwise they'd have shipped it to us). It made it possible to get a freeze dryer.

While we did have a small repair needed to get up and running, HR customer service was easy to get ahold of, the tech was really nice, knowledgeable and good to work with. They got our unit fixed up quick and checked on us a week later to be sure everything was good to go. And even though small, they sent us some free Mylar bags and OAs as a way of acknowledging and apologize for the inconvenience.

I’m really happy with our purchase. So excited to make our own food storage and preserve our harvests!

After reading reviews and evaluating our needs, and talking with a friend who owns one, we made the decision to purchase a HR Medium size Home Freeze Dryer. The delivery went as scheduled (we ordered directly rather than a retail outlet). It was easy to unpack and assemble the system. We followed the supplied directions and ran the setup test.

The required vacuum could not be achieved. I began the process of working with the very polite customer service and technical support departments. It turned out to be a leaky connector on the vacuum hose. A new one was sent and we were able to pass the setup test and proceed to run our first batches which went flawlessly. It did take many hours to run various tests and supply data logs from the removable SD card to the technician to proceed to the next step.

One of the steps was to run the unit in heating mode for 24 hours to burn in the glued heating pads to address outgassing issues that affect the pressure reading. Improved manufacturing process is needed to avoid that step for the consumer. I believe the vacuum hose is not tested with the FD unit, but should be (the factory run-in data indicated the FD unit met pressure - likely on a test rig that does not include the provided hose).

I am happy that I was cheerfully compensated somewhat for the energy costs and my time in supplies for use with the unit. An improved site support model is needed for sure. I was told by the service tech that HR is working to establish a mobile service team, which I hope is true and successful.

The machine works great once you work out the bugs. When we first got our machine, there was a very strong smell, and we were not able to reach the proper mTorr for the machine to finish the cycle. The customer service rep walked us through many various tests to diagnose the problem. It took us the better part of a month, but we finally were able to use our machine, and now it works great.

There seems to be some issue with the manufacturing process on the newer machines from ~October 2022. The main issues with ours were 1) the strong odor coming from the tray compartment which required several rounds of off-gassing to remove, and 2) the epoxy inside the top of the machine required re-sealing to fix. Customer Service was excellent in helping us resolve those issues, though it took a month to finally figure it out. However, the rep was prompt and helpful and provided as much information as she was able.

What I didn't like however, was having to be essentially a field technician for the company. I do understand that with a machine like this which can take hours and hours to determine whether there is a malfunction, would limit the ability to simply send out a technician, however, there should be a better method to diagnosing and fixing issues without so much hassle.

I think also think they need to address issues with their manufacturing process that is resulting in the issues some machines are having.

Overall, once the machine was fixed, it has worked fantastic. The food is coming out perfectly freeze-dried and the quality is excellent.

I would still recommend these for anyone in the market for a home freeze dryer, but make sure you do your homework on them first as they are a big investment and they can have some mechanical issues that you will have to try to solve with their help.