I want to buy a Freeze Dryer for food

I've seen a home version of a Freeze Dryer, manufactured by a company called HarvestRight in the States, but of course the voltage will be all wrong for NZ. Has anyone found a company besides Cuddon, that makes freeze-dryers small enough to be suitable for home use?

The thing I liked about the HarvestRight brand, is that its really easy to use. press the button on the touch screen and its going. Preserving food this way, has got to be quicker and easier and way more nutritious than bottling with sugar or salt. Not having to use up freezer space for frozen blanched veges or ice cream containers of stewed fruit, sounds great as well. Plus, there's no on-going cost of power to keep the food frozen or what to do if someone turns the freezer off at the wall by mistake or doesn't close the door properly on an upright freezer.

Mylar bags of freeze dried food takes up way less space as well. It just sounds like the easiest, best option to store the excess food from our orchards and vege gardens. Plus it means not having to eat courgettes every night of the week, during the growing season and frozen courgettes aren't very nice. They turn to mush, once you thaw them out. No such problems with freeze dried vegetables.

You can get transformers that change the voltage. We had a model railway controller that was USA made, and it ran on our 240 volt system quite happily through the transformer

Could try www.cuddonfreezedry.com/contact-details/

These guys are based in Blenheim. Seems they do a 5.5kg model. No idea on pricing, but based on the American models I'd say be sitting when you make the call.

I have an Ezidri made by Hydraflow that I bought at Newbold's in Upper Hutt. The address of Hydraflow is 26 Montgomery Cres Upper Hutt, 04 526 4415. I bought extra lyers so I am not sure how big it was but I have found it worked really well.

It can be interesting following links sometimes. I did not know there was a growing demand for freeze drying pets. (After death of course...)

The Engineer says that the 'frequency' of the power is different too Stikkibeek, what ever that means, so in this instance, an American made machine won't do. Pity.

Thanks Keppelk, I've had a look at the Cuddon website, the pricing is quite high though, which is why I was hoping there was another alternative.

Thanks Eelcat, I had a look at the Ezidry, but it's just a dehydrator, not a freeze-dryer. I've already got a dehydrator. It takes days to dry stuff properly, the food discolours badly and it shrinks a lot. This doesn't happen with a freeze dryer. Which is why they're so cool.

Definitely not into freeze drying pets Hawkspur. :pinch: They make much better memories when buried under a new fruit tree. That way the fruit tree is a memorial.

Indeed. Brain not engaged Inger. I did read freeze drier the first time

Hi, did you ever find a home freeze dryer, I live in Coromandel, and have access to so much fruit, cheers

Oz farmer in Australia sell Harvest Right freeze driers (currently out of stock) so that would be a possible source suitable for Australia/NZ.
I don't know what freight costs would be like getting it from Australia to NZ though.

"The Engineer says that the 'frequency' of the power is different too Stikkibeek, what ever that means, so in this instance, an American made machine won't do. Pity."

The frequency of an alternating current is the rate at which it reverses its flow, per second. The US has 60 Hertz mains (which means that the current reverses its flow 120 times a second), at 110 volts. Most of the world uses 50Hz mains at 230 volts. A transformer will change the voltage, but not the frequency.

Whether or not something designed for 60Hz will work on 50Hz depends entirely on what sort of circuitry it has, and without knowing what is inside a freeze drier I can't opine. Usually the only problem is that if the appliance is made for 60Hz any transformer inside it will have a smaller iron core than one intended for 50Hz, and this could cause possibly problems if the current draw is getting up to the limit for that particular transformer. A synchronous motor made for 60Hz will usually rotate perfectly happily on 50Hz, albeit at only 83% of its rated speed.

I would contact the company and ask their advice. I think there is only a compressor motor for the freezing and a vacuum pump for the dehy. Both of these can be replaced or run via a step down transformer, plenty of advice on the net to do this. There are even lots of sites showing you how to make your own drier!

The smallest Cuddon freeze drier takes 2.2kWh of electricity to dry 1kg of food. At the price we pay for electricity here in the Far North that's 99 cents. It also takes up a floor space 900mm square, stands 2 metres tall, and weighs 340kg.

I have no idea what it costs, and in the absence of cheap power, a seriously large surplus of free food, or a large family to feed I am not going to ask!

Did you ever get a Freeze dryer?

Yes, we did get a freeze dryer. Had to import it from the U.S. at great expense, but it works well and we have a few totes full of mylar bags full of fruit and this autumn, eggs as well. It was a Harvet Right brand. If you can get a new model with an oil-free vucuum pump, it would save you money on expensive oil changes and less maintenance as well.

We have solar power, with batteries, so it makes freeze drying a lot more affordable. I especially like the fact that once its in bags, there is no more cost involved in keeping the product AND I can reserve most of my freezer space for meat, instead of heaps of frozen fruit.

We don't have an over supply of vegies at this stage, so I haven't had to process those.