Tim P.

Every time. I talked to Scott Neville at HR and he said it's just the nature of a vacuum pump. When my pump first turns on it sprays and small amount out the oil de-mister. I just keep a paper towel over the de-mister and it solves the spray problem.

Mr. Mike, Here's what I do when I hit the 36 hour mark. I shut the machine down and place the trays in the freezer. I defrost the unit using the defrost mode and a small space heater blowing inside the chamber. Usually defrosted in about 20 min. Turn the machine back on and let it cool down for 40 min to an hour. Place the trays back in and adjust the cooling time to about 4 hours. I then adjust the drying time to about 4 hours. I have noticed that after an hour or two under a vacuum the screen shows somewhere in the 200 mt. If I let it go it will eventually get down into the low 100 mt. I figured it's pretty dry then since the vacuum is so low while it's drying. That was my question in the previous post. When I see a very low mt. is it safe to assume that the food is dry and is just counting down the drying time that's set when the machine starts up? I have figured out that the FD is programmed to respond to various mTorr targets. I'm trying something different tonight. I have four trays of chili that I put in the trays last night and were in a freezer for 24 hours while the FD was in use. I'm going to set the cooling for 4 hours and when 20 hours is up I'm going to defrost and start the process again with 4 and 4. I know I'm pushing the machine with 4 trays of chili. A lot of water in the chili. I'll let you know how that works. I can't post again until the 3rd because of the restriction on a newbie but will let you know as soon as I can. You stated that after 36 hours you know the food is dry and that the perpetual cycle has begun. Do you stop at that point and store your food? I'm doing this for long term storage and want to make sure that all the food is dry so it will store long term safely. Believe it or not but I have read all the post on this topic.

I am new to the forum and have a few questions. I have a HarvestRight freeze dryer and have been using it for about 2 months. The first question is when the freeze dryer has completed its process the ice seems to really collect between the 12 and 3 o'clock position (when viewed from the door.). I rarely have had a cycle where the FD completes the cycle without me have to defrost and start over of which it then completes the cycle on its own. Because the ice seems to mostly collect at the 2 o'clock position it doesn't take long before the ice contacts the top of the rack which causes it to melt during the drying process and then the perpetual cycle begins. If they made the chamber somewhat larger I feel would have that problem as there would more room for the ice to build before contacting the rack. Does anyone have any ideas that my help distribute the ice around the chamber? The second question is at what Vacuum reading can I consider the process complete? Ie. when the drying cycle reaches 100 mTorr can I consider the process complete and shut the machine down and store my food instead of waiting for the time to count down? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.