It disappoints me a little that you don't have more subscribers Phil. I love how comfortable and informative you are about your topics. Great job!!! Keep up the great work and videos.
Just found your videos today. Excellent information - thank you! We have both a medium and a large HRFD and have been freeze drying for almost two years. Wish I had some of your tips when we started.
You have the best HR videos thank you for making this channel. I was hesitant to purchase one because I hear they have issues that are hard to fix, but now I’m confident I can fix these common issues. Keep the great content coming it’s much appreciated!
I defrost my chamber the same way except I have a table I slide under it and have a bussing tub on the table. I put a hand towel under the bottom tray and the other end in the tub to use it like a "wick" . No splattering or dribbling. The tub is bigger enough to catch the ice that comes out. The "wick" works great.
I would to see how to vacuum seal mason jars in the freeze dryer. If you have a video on that, I have not found it. Thank you so much for all the information that you share.
Okay so all I need is something on the sides of the bottom shelf. The ball valve should be all stainless steel. You might try using disposable glad containers to put the asparagus in before you put it in a bag.
Love your videos! I’ve only had my FD for 2 weeks. I have watched your video(s), and I followed your procedure for wrapping the bottom shelf! Wow Wow Wow! The shelf is way more efficient! Thank you! My question for now, is there a way/technique to make my top shelf more efficient??
@@Philat4800feet I've ordered a FD but it's not due for a couple more weeks. I've been watching everything on freeze drying I can find and I love your site, I just found it yesterday. I was watching your 3 "tip" episodes and one had a ham soup that you had FD. If you have other recipes if you'll let me know which episodes there on I'll look them up. I know fat content makes a difference and I thought these wouldn't have too much fat in them. I appreciate you making your videos. I'm going to go back through the ones I've watched again (as well as watching new ones) as you have so much information in them. Thank you so much for doing these for us.
HAM AND POTATO SOUP 1 large onion, diced ½ c. butter 8 cups water or broth 2 cups diced ham or1 ham bone with meat 1 14.5 oz. can green beans 8 large potatoes, peeled and diced 4 cups milk, or for richer soup, half and half or cream 1 tsp. (or to taste) Tabasco or other hot sauce Salt and pepper to taste In a large pot, sauté onion in butter until onion is translucent. Add ham(bone), water or broth, beans and potatoes. Boil until potatoes are tender. Mash half of the potatoes. Add milk or cream, Tabasco sauce and salt and pepper. Heat through. Yield: 6 servings.
Hi , my wife and I just purchased a new Harvest right freeze dryer. We started at 3:30 pm doing the bread run, at 7 am the next morning it was still running. The vacuum pump was very warm and still running. I manually shut it down. Removed the trays and the tray rack. Let the ice melt and drain into a bucket. After when I checked it the water in the bucket had oil on top of the water. Checking the vacuum pump it was down one full line below the half mark. I have called Harvest right and they are to get back to me on Monday, the 6 of June at 12:30. I have been watching your videos and you seem very knowledgeable on these things. Just looking for your thoughts on what is the issue. Where can the oil come from. Is there programming issues. The pump was still going at 7 am when I shut it down and it ran an additional 15 minutes after I shut it down. Thanks. Ken
Lets look at the oil level first: There are are internal compartments within the vacuum pump were oil can "hide". If this is your first run, some of the oil may be "trapped" or "hiding" inside the pump. Drain the oil or top it off and try again. Oil in water: There is a check valve in the pump that should prevent oil from leaving the pump and entering the FD chamber. There is a chance some of the oil you're seeing could be left over from manufacturing. Clean the inside of the chamber (stainless steel surface) with isopropyl alcohol.
If you need to open the chamber in mid-batch, open the drain valve first to release some of the vacuum on the pump. After a few seconds, turn off the pump, at the pump's switch.
New Sub!! This is an absolute genius way to vacuum seal Mylar bags!! Have you tried this on the 7.5 zippered Wallaby bags? I have quite a few of them to use up. I had bought a chamber vacuum sealer, but sent it back. It didn't do as advertised except using their clear vacuum bags. This method is AWESOME!!!! Also, Do you know if this kills the warranty? (My warranty is over, but just curious) Thank you!! 😊
Sometimes the zipper gets in the way of making the diagonal seal. I stay away from zipper bags...just my preference. I have an update on vacuum packing: th-cam.com/video/CDj02lxBFiQ/w-d-xo.html
I was able to get my "shelf" out of the freezer even with the ice surrounding it. It just came out. I didn't try to break out any ice. In your video you defrosted first and then removed the tray for the large bags. Regardless which way it is done, have you thought about waiting to snip the corner of the bags till after the defrosting is done to vacuum seal them? That way you don't have to deal with the fitting the smaller bags into the tray. I found that I have to sometimes break food in order to get the bag to fit in the tray and the rubber heating pads keep the bags from slipping in easily sometimes. So if all the bags are done at the same time, after the tray is removed, then it seems like that would be easier? I wished I would have re-watched the end of this video first. I vacuum sealed some asparagus spears yesterday using the vacuum seal technique. I hope the spears still have some shape when I add water in the future. The bag still feels and looks solid.
How do you get to that function menu where you can operate the vacuum pump by itself? When doing this with mason jars I just bypassed the freeze dryer and operated the pump manually, but your way looks much more convenient.
Phil, The first four bags I extracted the air from the Mylar bags like you show in this video worked. The second time I did it, I had six bags in the inside chamber slots. Five of the bags worked and one did not. I sealed the five bags that worked. The final bag I tried the two minute vacuum procedure two more times. Would not "deflate" like all the others or your video. I finally decided it must be the bag. I got a new Mylar bag and pulled the transferred the food to the new bag. I ran the two minute vacuum procedure again. The bag would not deflate. I finally gave up and since I had an oxygen absorber in the bag, decided it would still last the 20-25 years expected. Do you think the problem could be that I was cutting the corner too big and the hole is too big? Have you ever seen this problem and if so, have you figured out why the air extraction procedure is not successful? Thank you.
I have found the corner area needs to be clean and clear. Powders can keep the two sides from sealing. The corner vent hole will almost seal it's self. I have had times where I missed making a hole and the the bag exploded. I guess you could seal the corner and try a vent hole on the other side. Good luck.
@@Philat4800feet Ok, thank you. Helpful information. Since I changed bags for this particular food, I would have thought it would have worked. The chance that two bas had powders on them in the corner sealing area seems low. I'll try your suggestion of sealing that hole and cutting the opposite corner next time. Just very weird. I'm completely new to this so I'm sure it's operator issues. Funny that out of about 10 bags that I sealed so far using the vacuum, only one had trouble and it failed three times including a new Mylar bag. :-)
HAM AND POTATO SOUP 1 large onion, diced ½ c. butter 8 cups water or broth 2 cups diced ham or1 ham bone with meat 1 14.5 oz. can green beans 8 large potatoes, peeled and diced 4 cups milk, or for richer soup, half and half or cream 1 tsp. (or to taste) Tabasco or other hot sauce Salt and pepper to taste In a large pot, sauté onion in butter until onion is translucent. Add ham(bone), water or broth, beans and potatoes. Boil until potatoes are tender. Mash half of the potatoes. Add milk or cream, Tabasco sauce and salt and pepper. Heat through. Yield: 6 servings.
@@Philat4800feet would it then, be better to wrap the whole tray system to speed up the time? I don't have a grasp on the whole situation, but I was just wondering. I do understand that the other trays are further from the barrel, therefore, get warmer.
@@Philat4800feet Thanks so much for the info. I am new at this , I have only had my FD for 3 months. My hubby thinks I'm crazy because I am so excited about it.
Phil, I can't tell what model you have? You pushed the "vacuum" button or something like that when you went to suck the air out of the bags (2 minutes) with the small diagonal corner cut off of them. When you release the drain valve, the bags shrink and remove a great amount of the air in the mylar bags. 1) What model is the unit in the video? I have a new 2022 large model and I have no control over operating the vacuum pump manually like you did. what I did is move the vacuum pump power over to a plug instead of the back of the freeze dryer. I then manually ran the vacuum pump for two minutes that way. That worked. I see no way to do control the vacuum pump through the freeze dryer operator panel on the large unit I received a month ago. 2) Do you still put an oxygen absorber in those bags even if you remove the air with the vacuum pump like in this video? I assume you would still do that right? Thank you.
What happens when you press the round Leaf Icon on the upper left screen? There are 3-4 touch menus on the screen. Touch the top middle to name your machine. Touch the center screen Set-up Configuration You should also have a custom and start button I have a four tray model. I add an oxygen absorber if I'm going to store the bag for more then 2 years.
Hi Phil, I have a question. When I am doing the functional test before I use my freeze dryer, ...do I toggle off the freeze and then turn on the vacuum. I tried to do the test last night to get my 500 mTorr and the best I could do was 2300 ish and then it was weeping on the outside of the seal. It is the weekend and I cannot get ahold of anyone. Any ideas? Thanks for the video.
From my experience I can pull a better vacuum with the cooling unit on. Cold will contract. Depending on the metal, stainless steel verses, mild steel, verse brass, I think the fitting become tighter and less leaks
It disappoints me a little that you don't have more subscribers Phil. I love how comfortable and informative you are about your topics. Great job!!! Keep up the great work and videos.
Time will tell
Using the machine to vacuum seal mylar bags was Very Instructional. Thank you!
Phil. I want to thank you for doing all this testing.
As a newbie to Harvest Right dryer, the tips you share here is greatly appreciated!!
Thank you so much for ALL the hints! They helped me so much!
Great tips, thanks Phil.
Phil you are a Game-Changer! Excellent.
Thank you for this handy hint. 😊
I appreciate the idea of how much water is needed to reconstitute.
I plan to use mine to send meals to my out of state parents.
🇨🇦🇺🇸 THANKS SO MUCH. I appreciate your scientific approach. The vacuum sealing is a fantastic idea.
Not a big fan of glass jars. Too many drawbacks. I'll cover soon in a new clip.
Greatly appreciate ur videos. It’s nice for us newbies to get tips and such from experienced freeze dryer owners. Thank you.
Just found your videos today. Excellent information - thank you! We have both a medium and a large HRFD and have been freeze drying for almost two years. Wish I had some of your tips when we started.
Super awesome!! Thank you sir!
You have the best HR videos thank you for making this channel. I was hesitant to purchase one because I hear they have issues that are hard to fix, but now I’m confident I can fix these common issues. Keep the great content coming it’s much appreciated!
Freeze drying is addictive
Vacuum trick was impressive! Minute 25:00
I defrost my chamber the same way except I have a table I slide under it and have a bussing tub on the table. I put a hand towel under the bottom tray and the other end in the tub to use it like a "wick" . No splattering or dribbling. The tub is bigger enough to catch the ice that comes out. The "wick" works great.
Good idea
I would to see how to vacuum seal mason jars in the freeze dryer. If you have a video on that, I have not found it. Thank you so much for all the information that you share.
Wow, I thought I made a video on this. I guess I know what I'm doing the next time I'm home alone.
Anxious to try - thanks. Have you noticed a difference from to back, also?
Happy accident I found when I put in two 700 cc OAs for good measure into gallon size mylar and sealed. It actually vac sealed itself!
Okay so all I need is something on the sides of the bottom shelf.
The ball valve should be all stainless steel.
You might try using disposable glad containers to put the asparagus in before you put it in a bag.
Thank you!
Love your videos!
I’ve only had my FD for 2 weeks. I have watched your video(s), and I followed your procedure for wrapping the bottom shelf! Wow Wow Wow! The shelf is way more efficient! Thank you!
My question for now, is there a way/technique to make my top shelf more efficient??
Yes there is. Wrap the entire unit. I'm still gathering data, but it looks good.
Do you have an update/video on wrapping the whole unit coming? Thanks for all the great information videos, by far the best on freeze drying!
Great tips, I’m now a subscriber!
Thanks for the sub!
Thank u for making this video
My pleasure 😊
Thank you!!!!!
You're welcome!
Are you willing to share your recipes? It's nice to have tried and true FD ones.
They should be posted. Which ones?
@@Philat4800feet
I've ordered a FD but it's not due for a couple more weeks. I've been watching everything on freeze drying I can find and I love your site, I just found it yesterday. I was watching your 3 "tip" episodes and one had a ham soup that you had FD. If you have other recipes if you'll let me know which episodes there on I'll look them up. I know fat content makes a difference and I thought these wouldn't have too much fat in them.
I appreciate you making your videos. I'm going to go back through the ones I've watched again (as well as watching new ones) as you have so much information in them.
Thank you so much for doing these for us.
HAM AND POTATO SOUP
1 large onion, diced
½ c. butter
8 cups water or broth
2 cups diced ham or1 ham bone with meat
1 14.5 oz. can green beans
8 large potatoes, peeled and diced
4 cups milk, or for richer soup, half and half or cream
1 tsp. (or to taste) Tabasco or other hot sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
In a large pot, sauté onion in butter until onion is translucent. Add ham(bone), water or broth, beans and potatoes. Boil until potatoes are tender. Mash half of the potatoes. Add milk or cream, Tabasco sauce and salt and pepper. Heat through. Yield: 6 servings.
@@Philat4800feet Thank you.
Hi , my wife and I just purchased a new Harvest right freeze dryer. We started at 3:30 pm doing the bread run, at 7 am the next morning it was still running. The vacuum pump was very warm and still running. I manually shut it down. Removed the trays and the tray rack. Let the ice melt and drain into a bucket. After when I checked it the water in the bucket had oil on top of the water. Checking the vacuum pump it was down one full line below the half mark. I have called Harvest right and they are to get back to me on Monday, the 6 of June at 12:30. I have been watching your videos and you
seem very knowledgeable on these things. Just looking for your thoughts on what is the issue. Where can the oil come from. Is there programming issues. The pump was still going at 7 am when I shut it down and it ran an additional 15 minutes after I shut it down. Thanks. Ken
Lets look at the oil level first:
There are are internal compartments within the vacuum pump were oil can "hide". If this is your first run, some of the oil may be "trapped" or "hiding" inside the pump. Drain the oil or top it off and try again.
Oil in water: There is a check valve in the pump that should prevent oil from leaving the pump and entering the FD chamber. There is a chance some of the oil you're seeing could be left over from manufacturing. Clean the inside of the chamber (stainless steel surface) with isopropyl alcohol.
It's normal for the pump to get hot.
If you need to open the chamber in mid-batch, open the drain valve first to release some of the vacuum on the pump. After a few seconds, turn off the pump, at the pump's switch.
New Sub!! This is an absolute genius way to vacuum seal Mylar bags!!
Have you tried this on the 7.5 zippered Wallaby bags? I have quite a few of them to use up. I had bought a chamber vacuum sealer, but sent it back. It didn't do as advertised except using their clear vacuum bags. This method is AWESOME!!!!
Also, Do you know if this kills the warranty? (My warranty is over, but just curious) Thank you!! 😊
Sometimes the zipper gets in the way of making the diagonal seal. I stay away from zipper bags...just my preference. I have an update on vacuum packing:
th-cam.com/video/CDj02lxBFiQ/w-d-xo.html
I was able to get my "shelf" out of the freezer even with the ice surrounding it. It just came out. I didn't try to break out any ice. In your video you defrosted first and then removed the tray for the large bags. Regardless which way it is done, have you thought about waiting to snip the corner of the bags till after the defrosting is done to vacuum seal them? That way you don't have to deal with the fitting the smaller bags into the tray. I found that I have to sometimes break food in order to get the bag to fit in the tray and the rubber heating pads keep the bags from slipping in easily sometimes. So if all the bags are done at the same time, after the tray is removed, then it seems like that would be easier? I wished I would have re-watched the end of this video first. I vacuum sealed some asparagus spears yesterday using the vacuum seal technique. I hope the spears still have some shape when I add water in the future. The bag still feels and looks solid.
I love asparagus. The only problem is how brittle it is.
How do you get to that function menu where you can operate the vacuum pump by itself? When doing this with mason jars I just bypassed the freeze dryer and operated the pump manually, but your way looks much more convenient.
Depending on software version, touch the leaf, upper left screen.
Phil, The first four bags I extracted the air from the Mylar bags like you show in this video worked. The second time I did it, I had six bags in the inside chamber slots. Five of the bags worked and one did not. I sealed the five bags that worked. The final bag I tried the two minute vacuum procedure two more times. Would not "deflate" like all the others or your video. I finally decided it must be the bag. I got a new Mylar bag and pulled the transferred the food to the new bag. I ran the two minute vacuum procedure again. The bag would not deflate. I finally gave up and since I had an oxygen absorber in the bag, decided it would still last the 20-25 years expected. Do you think the problem could be that I was cutting the corner too big and the hole is too big? Have you ever seen this problem and if so, have you figured out why the air extraction procedure is not successful? Thank you.
I have found the corner area needs to be clean and clear. Powders can keep the two sides from sealing. The corner vent hole will almost seal it's self. I have had times where I missed making a hole and the the bag exploded. I guess you could seal the corner and try a vent hole on the other side. Good luck.
@@Philat4800feet Ok, thank you. Helpful information. Since I changed bags for this particular food, I would have thought it would have worked. The chance that two bas had powders on them in the corner sealing area seems low. I'll try your suggestion of sealing that hole and cutting the opposite corner next time. Just very weird. I'm completely new to this so I'm sure it's operator issues. Funny that out of about 10 bags that I sealed so far using the vacuum, only one had trouble and it failed three times including a new Mylar bag. :-)
So you have the recipe for your ham and potato soup please?
I will find it.
HAM AND POTATO SOUP
1 large onion, diced
½ c. butter
8 cups water or broth
2 cups diced ham or1 ham bone with meat
1 14.5 oz. can green beans
8 large potatoes, peeled and diced
4 cups milk, or for richer soup, half and half or cream
1 tsp. (or to taste) Tabasco or other hot sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
In a large pot, sauté onion in butter until onion is translucent. Add ham(bone), water or broth, beans and potatoes. Boil until potatoes are tender. Mash half of the potatoes. Add milk or cream, Tabasco sauce and salt and pepper. Heat through. Yield: 6 servings.
Thank you so much Phil!
You said you can also vacuum seal your Mason jars. Can you show us. Thanks.
Place them in the freeze dryer just as you would if pressure canning. Keep the ring a little loose.
Does the aluminum stop the FD from pulling the moister out of the food?
Nope. the water vapor gets out just fine and shortens the drying time.
@@Philat4800feet would it then, be better to wrap the whole tray system to speed up the time? I don't have a grasp on the whole situation, but I was just wondering. I do understand that the other trays are further from the barrel, therefore, get warmer.
@@vickiebonano2092 My entire tray assemble is wrapped.
@@Philat4800feet Thanks so much for the info. I am new at this , I have only had my FD for 3 months. My hubby thinks I'm crazy because I am so excited about it.
@@vickiebonano2092 Freeze drying can be addictive.
Phil, I can't tell what model you have? You pushed the "vacuum" button or something like that when you went to suck the air out of the bags (2 minutes) with the small diagonal corner cut off of them. When you release the drain valve, the bags shrink and remove a great amount of the air in the mylar bags. 1) What model is the unit in the video? I have a new 2022 large model and I have no control over operating the vacuum pump manually like you did. what I did is move the vacuum pump power over to a plug instead of the back of the freeze dryer. I then manually ran the vacuum pump for two minutes that way. That worked. I see no way to do control the vacuum pump through the freeze dryer operator panel on the large unit I received a month ago. 2) Do you still put an oxygen absorber in those bags even if you remove the air with the vacuum pump like in this video? I assume you would still do that right? Thank you.
What happens when you press the round Leaf Icon on the upper left screen? There are 3-4 touch menus on the screen.
Touch the top middle to name your machine.
Touch the center screen Set-up Configuration
You should also have a custom and start button
I have a four tray model.
I add an oxygen absorber if I'm going to store the bag for more then 2 years.
@@Philat4800feet I forgot to reply. Thank you, the Leaf Icon works. Piece of cake!
I have found that with fruit if you vacuum seal it it stays in one big clump when you open it up. What mail bag do you use?
I could see that happen, with fruit and other foods that are "sticky".
I just ordered my freeze dryer, I am trying to decide what type of mylar bags I want to order. What thickness are the bags you use?
7 mil. Try pricing from Harvest Right and Pleasant Grove Farms
Hi Phil, I have a question. When I am doing the functional test before I use my freeze dryer, ...do I toggle off the freeze and then turn on the vacuum. I tried to do the test last night to get my 500 mTorr and the best I could do was 2300 ish and then it was weeping on the outside of the seal. It is the weekend and I cannot get ahold of anyone. Any ideas? Thanks for the video.
From my experience I can pull a better vacuum with the cooling unit on. Cold will contract. Depending on the metal, stainless steel verses, mild steel, verse brass, I think the fitting become tighter and less leaks
Which HR freeze dryer are you using? I can't find a vacuum on my machine. Help.
Four shelf medium. Are you having a Vacuum leak?
@@Philat4800feet I found the vacuum by using the green leaf. Thanks for getting back to me.
4800 ft is a long driveway