finishman2000

for those wondering about the before and after weight, here is an example for those who hike and every once matters. I bought a case of eggs and weighed the before and after weight by the dozen. The average weight was 1.9 pounds/doz (without shells) and after was .55 I gave a couple FD dozen to the boy scouts for their next weekend campout along with some fruit. I figure they'll get a kick out of it.

well if you feel you can't take the cover off (I bet you can) you may want to try the mineral spirits washout. Oh and I did try a filter, a very good one from Germany, but as the vacuum lowed it leaked a slight amount of air in (wouldn't go below 550) so it kinda stopped the FD process and was removed. Most filters are designed for pressure and not vacuum.

there is no way to add a filter without bringing the cost up. the cover comes off easy, just 6 allen bolts. Another option to clean it out would be to first drain the oil then use something like mineral spirits for a short time, say 2 minutes. that would more than likely not damage the pump. I'll take a pic next cleanout so you can see the junk left after draining. I was very surprised (I bet the pump manufacture would be too lol)

rock it all you want, it won't get the rust off the inside pump cartridge.....and there is rust.

Tried something new, it was time to drain the oil and I decided to pull the cover off and look at what's it like inside the pump. Well draining the oil does NOT get the goo out. There was a lot of crud which was water and rust filled. There was quite a bit of it. It was easy to get off and the gasket on the pump is heavy duty and should last many many times of coming on and off. I think it will be worth the effort.

if they "softened up" they weren't done in the middle. They thawed and the fd part wicked up the moisture and that is they are soft. high fat foods don't fd well so I'm not surprised that the sausage didn't work out.

I would love to see a before and after pic of the filtered oil.

Wow...great post. Thank you very much

lol since my wife says I have every man toy ever invented I already have one. Temp, water vaper, ice in chamber and vacuum all play a part in the time of cycle. I just wish you could see the temps at certain mp readings. I'm sure the machine is doing it anyway or it would be a simple thing for them to do. it would also allow us to fine tune our freeze time and give us the chance to speed things up.

Christopher, I did talk to HR about doing something to save the pump but they said they could not find away to do it without raising the cost too much which I agreed. $4k was at the top end of my limit. $5k and I would have passed. I'll be sure to post if I try something to filter out the water.

if you guys are running over 30 hours........and it is stays in the second stage (heating and cooling) you may want to deice in the middle od the second cycle. I have found that when the chamber gets too much ice it really really extends the overall time. If I find that I'm still in the second stage after 7 or 8 hours (if I'm home and catch it) I'll turn the unit off, put the trays in my freezer (you will see that they well on their way to being dried out), use a heat gun and quickly get the ice out. I have it down to about 10 minutes. I the dry it way a cloth and get everything back in and turn it on again. I have been resetting the freeze time (stage one) to an hour to an hour and half. and walk away. So far, the unit goes to the third stage very quickly (I haven't been watching to see when it goes) and in 7 hours everything is done. This just what I'm doing...I have no idea if it's right or wrong but seems to be working for me. These units will only handle so much water. I wish they showed the internal temp on the chamber, I bet that would tell us a lot about what is going on inside.

I find there are factors that come into play that decide the amount of water in the oil. 4 trays of a dry cheddar cheese will let you extend the cycles between oil changes, trays full of apples or onions will shorten it. I always drain more than a table spoon between cycles and sometimes drain some out to lower the level while in the middle of the cycle to maintain the proper level. I have yet to have any oil come out of the vent. I do wish there was a way to have another chamber that traps the water before it gets to the pump. I think I could use a small compressor dryer but the cost of running it would more than likely be greater than the cost of the oil change. I'm waiting on my kill-a-watt meter to come in and actually see how many amps I'm pulling. I have a small dryer that I can try and see what my total amps would be and if it made a difference.

Trying to speed things up as much as possible, I have made a 8 tray holder for my freezer with some scrap material and some threaded rod. I'm using corrugated plastic as the trays. Frozen food comes right off. I cut them slightly smaller than the trays so I know what fits on the tray will fit on the factory ones. When doing food that stick I use parchment paper that I slide off the plastic right into the metal one. I take off 3 hours from the freeze cycle.

don't know if anyone else has used this but it works great for filling mason jars as well as bags. It's a parts tray that I pour the FD tray into or my measured out portions into then just open the bag and pour the amount into. I just did a boatload of chili and I measured out two cups of fd chili into the tray then easy breezy pout it into my 6x10 chamber sealer bags. http://www.harborfreight.com/easy-sorter-funnel-tray-37081.html

I think I may have put to much in at once. I make my chili about twice a year and usually can some, retort some and freeze some. I figured with my new toy I would make some FD for on the go (use retort pouches most of the time for that) and loaded up all 4 trays. Well after 28 hours it was still in the second stage I figured there must have been a boat load of ice and I was right. I quickly defrosted and chipped the ice out, reset the freeze time for 3 hours and drying for 4 hours (it was mostly dry when I opened it up) for the final stage of drying. This is kinda fun figuring out all the ins and outs of freeze drying.

I think I may have put to much in at once. I make my chili about twice a year and usually can some, retort some and freeze some. I figured with my new toy I would make some FD for on the go (use retort pouches most of the time for that) and loaded up all 4 trays. Well after 28 hours it was still in the second stage I figured there must have been a boat load of ice and I was right. I quickly defrosted and chipped the ice out, reset the freeze time for 3 hours and drying for 4 hours (it was mostly dry when I opened it up) for the final stage of drying. This is kinda fun figuring out all the ins and outs of freeze drying.

I received my machine last week and love it. I will add that I have found that sometimes the seal on the door isn't set perfectly, I could slip a piece of paper between the gasket and the door. I called and was told to pull the gasket forward and let the door seat it to the machine. I also ordered the oil off of amazon but did use regular mineral oil yesterday since I was out of oil and it worked fine. I won't have to do this again once my oil comes in but was happy I could keep going. So far I have done chicken, raspberries, cheddar cheese apple slices. working on eggs, green peppers and more cheese right now. It's very addictive to see what to freeze next. I was also thinking of getting extra racks to pre-freeze but will see about that...an extra $150 I think.