Harvest Right Freeze Dryer - The Best Way to Preserve Food - Food Dehydrator, Small Size, Aqua Color

This machine is quite loud. The vacuum pump runs the entire time it is drying and it is very loud. It’s hot outside so we set it up in the living room because the manual said it’s best not to operate in temperatures above 75F. Not a great idea because it is blasting us with unpleasant noise for many hours on end.

This freeze drier is hands down best investment I've made. Very simple to set up and get started. Love the simplicity! Only thing I'd change is the oil vacuum pump , too loud.

After a 2 month wait I finally got my new large size freeze dry, opened the box and followed the instruction and plugged it in only to find nothing happened, it has no power so I checked the socket and it had power but the machine won't power on. I call harvest right only to find out that I am the technician and they send you a video on how to open your machine up start switching around wires and diagnose if it is the switch, no not the switch now I am waiting for the next video to diagnose the display board. I am very uncomfortable taking apart this machine as they have instructed me to do, but they do not have service techs, but what really bothered me is they must also not have a quality control department, after being built wouldn't you think that they might plug it in and make sure it goes on? no they slap it together box it up and leave it to you to work the bugs out. This machine is about to be sent back for a refund.

We have had various issues come up with our freeze dryer. When you have them, you usually are in need of help and answers right away, as you are ready to start or are in process of freeze drying when those questions come up. Who you gonna call? Well, Harvest Right, of course. They will send you to their "technical" number which will ring and ring until you get a recording asking you to start a ticket and they will get back with you within 24 hours. That is just great and completely unhelpful. Of course, the sales line will answer immediately if you call them. Recently I called the sales number with a question about the quality of food I had dried, which seemed to be perfectly dried when I packaged it, but was now soft and pliable. I wondered if it was safe. I was ready to do a new large batch that day. I was told to talk to the technical people. I was hoping this salesperson would have some knowledge to share, but he said, "What do you want from ME? Do you want me to look at your food and see if something is growing on it?" It came across as snarky and sarcastic. Sorry to have bothered you, Harvest Right.

I agree with the 5 star reviews. A freeze dryer is useful to have. However, you need to understand that a freeze dryer isn't a turnkey device. You have to maintain the vacuum pump (which means filtering the oil after every batch and then benching the vacuum pump, disassemble and clean it after 20 batches). That's not hard, but it's not turnkey either.Also, it generates a lot of heat, even the small freeze dryer. I have a standard 2 car garage and it keeps it toasty in the winter. Dealing with the vacuum pump is messy. You probably don't want to do that over carpet. A freeze dryer is loud. I understand that some folks keep theirs in their house, I just can't imagine that working out well. Ours is in the garage. In the summer, I have a fan that runs continually to keep the garage cool. In the winter, I enjoy the toasty garage when working on projects.I have two freeze dryers. A small I bought new in August and an older unit I bought on Craigslist. Between the two, I end up calling Harvest Right tech support at least once a month. My new freeze dryer had the vacuum pump bind up. I was able to bench it and fix it, but the vacuum pump is the Achilles heel of the HR freeze dryer. They tend to fail.The bottom line is there is a learning curve. You need to join a facebook HR group to get past the first several loads. This is because the videos don't really go through the step-by-step of using a freeze dryer and you will assume that it works differently than it actually does. This results in probably a month or so of learning about how to prep food for the freeze dryer and how to setup of the freeze dryer for different types of food. It turns out high sugar fruits (like pineapple or apples) are the hardest to get right. Which was also the first thing we tried and were understandably disappointed with the results because of our ignorance about using the appliance.Having said all of that, we really like our freeze dryers. I've lost 20+ lbs because of snacking on freeze dried fruit rather than chips or other high calorie snacks. My wife who has several food allergies has been using it to make travel food so she can eat something when traveling. That has eased her travel anxiety because of food issues. The bottom line is know what you are getting into before you buy one. Start by following a Facebook group to get an idea of what you are in for.

We used this expensive 3k dollars machine that took like 2 months to get about 5 times. Now the vacuum pressure doesn't work if we have food inside. Customer service took 2 weeks now and not helpful. Waste of money. We bought it from harvest right, not Amazon. Don't buy it

Bought new in December 2021. Used it for 10 days before it quit working. I've had numerous calls with customer service and tried all their fixes but nothing has worked. They don't do exchanges and you have to pay shipping if you want them to fix it and won't give you a time line of when you can expect it back and was told there might be a cost to fix it. Keep in mind this is a brand new freeze dryer that is supposed to have a warranty. I have never been more disappointed in anything I've ever bought, especially for the amount of money I paid. I don't want my money back just a freeze dryer thay works. I asked if I could take it back to the place I bought it and get a new one but they said that wasn't their policy. BUYER BEWARE.UPDATE. Since this review Harvet Right reached out to me again and resolved all our issues and sent me a new unit that is working great.