Removing water quickly is very important because the longer a harvested plant or compound retains water, the higher the chance it has of spoiling, losing nutrition, and losing potency.
Places like Craigslist are great for buying more or less anything, but there are more specialized online stores for used electronics, such as EquipNet.com; you can also find used freeze dryers on eBay and Amazon.
I do the same with mango, using freeze dried mango that is imported from Germany. Whole freeze dried strawberries enrobed in white chocolate are amazing, like strawberry malted milk balls with that great crunch in the middle.
Drying things out played a roll as well as the added insulation. We had 3.5 weeks of constant rain here in central NC with humidity over 95% and temps near 95F in the beginning and tapering down to 80F by the end of the rain. The condensation on the front panel around the seal had water running down the front of the Freeze Dryer constantly during the entire cycle, not just the freeze cycle. I initially went into the FDer to simply stop the humdity from reaching the outer chamber shell and freezing.
I would prefer those fittings to have internal O rings and knurled thread on ports (similar to R134a vacuum gauge sets) that do not require high torque compression fittings. Finger tight and you are good to go. You spot a leak, change the Este ring and you're back in business.
Shortly after getting the freeze dryer, Lance's wife began shipping over boxes of dehydrated food. We get the food, rehydrate it, and make some incredible meals. My favorite was the pizza Lance would whip up!
That means that if you find harvest right scientific freeze dryer any authorized online retailer that has a lower price than us, just let us know and we'll match their price!
I did have a vacuum hose fitting leak at the FDer port once. I had similar symptoms to yours. I found that the hose would slightly rotate even when the fitting was snug.
14 Posted December 16, 2015 (edited) On 7/31/2015 at 11:12 PM, TonyC said: Somehow this post got posted twice so I'll edit the second one with some more useful information. I remember reading somewhere in this thread where somebody was asking how long you run the freeze cycle with pre-frozen food. I have my chest freezer set to -12F, and I usually let the freeze dryer cool for an hour before I put the frozen food in. After I load the food in I wait another half hour to start the drying process. I've had a lot of cycles that the Completa time between pulling one batch out and starting the drying cycle on the next is around 2 hours. I'm running mine in a cold garage, so it cools down pretty quickly. If you have yours in a warm room it would probably take a little longer.
Most other methods for extracting water also destroy enzymes and terpenes due to heat being used in the extraction process. Because freeze drying does not use heat during operation, the enzymes and terpenes in freeze dried products are not destroyed.
After buying our freeze dryer I was naturally curious as to how it "knew" when something was done, since batch times varied so much depending on what was being processed. Watching the cycle times didn't seem to tell me anything at first -- especially without a thermometer to tell me what was happening inside -- until I finally caught on that applying heat to the frozen food affected the vacuum, which provided the measure of how dry the food had become.
Dehydrators take the water off the surface first, then water eqilibrates with the surface, more water is drawn off the surface. You are left with a shrunken item, with some residual water. Makes gorgeous leather.
In that case, think about buying online – it’s easier than buying in person. If you insist on buying in person, get all the information about the warranty before paying for anything.
Forgive me for the extremely long post but I thought other southerners may also face this problem and could use this information.