Canon4me

I have a question about draining oil from my pump........ That screw is very hard to get at unless you lift the pump up by the handle or have the pump sit way up off the surface of whatever you have it parked on. So...........what do you guys have your pump sitting on to el fate it high enough to get at the drain screw? And does it sit on that all the time and is there a danger of it vibrating off and the pump tipping over? Thanks! Pictures of the pump sitting on it are welcome also!

I am planning on freeze drying some home grown sliced beets tonight. Can you overlap "slightly" the produce in the trays in an attempt to get a little more in them? Also, do most of you use the automatic setting for the freezing and drying or do you manually set it for when it is convenient for you to deal with the product?

TonyC, my Gamesaver Foodsaver Deluxe came yesterday and I will try it this weekend. On an unrelated question, is it important that the cycle completes during a time when you can deal with food rather than have it complete, for instance, in the middle of the night and sit in the unit for a few hours until you wake up in the morning? I have no way of predicting when a cycle will complete due to the food type, how I have it arranged on the shelves, moisture content of the food, etc.

Kerry, just curious.....has HR given their endorsement or stamp of approval with the new pump you are using? I wonder why they didn't manufacture these with that pump to begin with?

The beans turned out great. My second batch was sliced beets out of our garden and that turned out great. I am really opening my eyes to the potential of this machine. I originally bought it for WSHTF scenario. With the idea of never needing to eat this stuff unless of a dire emergency, but I have since changed my mind to one of possibly rotating this food and eating it regularly or at least semi-occasionally. Since my wife and I eat pretty much organic, I will probably buy only organic if we are going to rotate through it. If I wasn't going to rotate it and use it just for SHTF, then I wouldn't be buying organic. Right now I run it strictly on default time. When I acquire more confidence I might alter the times, but that will take awhile. I'm still new with this machine and have to gain experience.Where do I buy parchment paper for this? Is it available sized for these trays? And lastly, is parchment paper the same thing as waxed paper and is that ok to use? Thanks much!

No, I do not own a foodsaver. Maybe there is something better out there. I really don't know.

Little unrelated....can anybody make a recommendation for a vacuum pump/food saver to suck out the air on mason canning jars for which I will store some of my freeze dried food?

44 minutes of drying time left in this cycle at 180-200 mT. 22 hours into this process thus far at 1830. Question: since my wife and I both work, is it ok to leave this going unattended? And when it finishes freeze drying, does it shut off by itself?

I just came in from working in the garden and it said it was heating and at about 500 mT. It just went to cooling and jumped up to 640mT. I noticed when it is cooling there is no time but there is when it is heating. You were correct, when I started it up last night and before I went to bed the pump was no running, only when I woke up this morning. With this forum software am I able to load up an audio file? If not, I could email you a short ten sec audio clip recorded with my iPhone. I may send that to Harvest Right tomorrow to confirm that the pump is sounding/working correctly. When I tightened all the fitting up, I tightened them to what the specs said 1/4 to 1/2 turn tighter than hand tighten. I'm afraid to tighten it any tighter. I have a reputation in this household for stripped engine bolts (5 point and aircraft bolts). It seems like I always want to tighten them up until they bleed. Not good to do when you are messing with a $4k piece of equipment.

Deryn, thanks for your reply. 2030 is 8:30 pm. I looked in the round window of the pump and the oil does not seem cloudy. It is right at the line going across for level. The vacuum currently is going back and forth from about 680 to 700 nT. I have all time settings left at default factory settings. The indoor humidity is around 47%. Thanks for your help. I'm in the learning curve. http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s271/photogman/image.jpg2_zpsuugxoe5l.jpg http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s271/photogman/image.jpg1_zpsbnkcmlcl.jpg

Two more pics of the moisture..... http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s271/photogman/image.jpg2_zpszldovuiq.jpg http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s271/photogman/image.jpg1_zpsxxuscrfn.jpg Before I started the unit, I went around the gasket and did the paper test and it was tight all around with no chance of air infiltration or sign the gasket wasn't tight.

I purchased a HR FD late last year and because of our basement being torn up have not used it until the first time last night. Read the manual front and back and also Part 1 of this never-ending thread in this forum. Much helpful info on this forum that really can't be found elsewhere. We have a large country garden and would like to FD as much of the produce as we can. Started the HR last night about 2030. Got up this morning and the unit is a little noisier coming from the pump. There is some condensation on the gasket with some dripping on our cart is in. The pump seems to making more noise than it did last night before I went to bed. Before I started it I went through all the preliminary steps and I've got them all covered. Just wanted to know if this is normal? By the way, I have four trays of uncooked green beans in it now. http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s271/photogman/image.jpg1_zps9c5u6ynf.jpg http://s154.photobucket.com/user/photogman/media/image.jpg2_zpswyga47f5.jpg.html

I received my FD a few days ago and due to my wife and I being so busy, we won't be able to unpack it and set it up until this Saturday. Is there any setup tips you can share that will help me avoid problems? During the evenings, I will start reading the 17 pages of posts in this thread. I did have one question........I would guess the only packaging you could use for longterm storage would be Mylar. I currently use that for all my longterm storage from dry goods I get from Latter Day Saints storehouses. I see some of you are using those home shrink wrap / vacuum machines which I think will not preserve as well as Mylar, but that is just a conjecture.

Just curious about how long you had to wait for your machine after ordering? I ordered mine on 12/4/2014. Called them today and they thought they would be shipping mine to me at the end of the first week in January 2015. Seems a little long perhaps, but then again it is a professionally constructed machine made in the USA.

Greetings! Newbie to the forum here. I was looking for freeze dryer owners/users. I just purchased a couple of days ago a new stainless steel Harvestright freeze dryer. It hasn't shipped yet and I am anxiously awaiting it. My main thing is to store up freeze dried food for an extended emergency like WSHTF. I went this route because of the extremely long shelf life. I have been contemplating buying a #10 can sealer but haven't made up my mind yet. I know, being an early purchaser of one of these I am paying for a lot of the R&D but that is just the way it is. Anyway, feel fortunate to have found you guys and hope to learn something here.