In any case, maybe it will help some newbie HR Freeze Dryer owners to answer some of the questions I once had.
Pelo way, that's pretty cool. Do you have a picture of it, how much are we talking here? 600 lbs seems rather unlikely; I'm thinking more like 60.
I’d recommend that anyone stick with buying any freeze-dryer or heavy equipment directly from the manufacturer. And if you’re ready to shop for a Harvest Right, you can use this link to shop current sales.
The only way I know to filter the water vapor out would be a cold trap. They usually use liquid nitrogen or dry ice to keep the temperature low enough that all the water condenses out. Obviously you would need a supply of the liquid nitrogen or dry ice that would probably not be cost effective for most of us. The other option to get that cold would be to use a cryocooler and build a cold trap around it. It could be done, but would be pretty expensive. I've been watching some electronics on ebay that have cryocoolers in them, but the cheapest I've seen is around $600. Still not a cheap option, but you wouldn't need dry ice or liquid nitrogen to feed it.
When it comes to Harvest Right, they have hundreds, or possibly even more stores (they keep popping up every day) and authorized resellers across the USA and Canada.
Given the outrageous cost of freeze dried fruit, I have also been watching e-bay for an inexpensive freeze dryer, with the thought of using it to dehydrate stuff that could then be added to chocolate centers, adding flavour without adding liquid. I make a strawberry centre that uses strawberrry puree, freeze dried strawberry powder, as well as a bit of strawberry compound to produce an intensly strawberry experience.
These enormous freezers are mandatory for any food service operating at a very high volume. Commercial kitchens require plenty of room to store frozen food and this is why a walk-in is needed.
The item is then heated up again and as the water starts to leave instead of melting (ie going from a solid to a liquid) it sublimates (ie goes from a solid to a gas) under the influence of the negative pressure produced by the vacuum. So you are left with the cell minus water in an intact shape and size.
Let's do a simple math exercise. Non Frozen food put in freeze dryer at an ambient temp of 70F needs to be at -40F before the dry cycle begins. things go linear, each hour the temps would drop the food by 12.
When isolated, the pump seems to behave well. Short of putting a meter on the pump, my impression is that it is operating properly. I'm considering investing in a good meter to verify that it is reaching a good ultimate vacuum.
After buying our freeze dryer I was naturally curious as to how it "knew" when something was done, since batch times varied so much depending on what was Know More being processed. Watching the cycle times didn't seem to tell me anything at first -- especially without a thermometer to tell me what was happening inside -- until I finally caught on that applying heat to the frozen food affected the vacuum, which provided the measure of how dry the food had become.
and this piece was placed on the vacuum hose fitting. I can still remove the panel without removing the hose to clean the coils. Simply remove the screws and slide the panel down the vacuum hose a few inches.
In many cases, people are in need of a fridge repaired but are too afraid of the potential cost of having to buy a new one; as a result, they avoid cooking for days at a time and dabble in the bad habit of ordering take incessantly.
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