Last we heard Grainlady was going to buy a freeze dryer. I think it is was in the $4000-5000 range. It also sounded like something I'd be more interested in than a dehydrator, but way out of my range for the amount of use I'd get from it. Let us know what you find out.

I don't have one but I would like to. Why? Beats me, they are far more machine than I would ever need and my Excaliber does a perfectly fine job of dehydrating.

If you pay any attention to Amazon reviews, it only gets 2.5 stars, and it seems that people love them when they work, but a large percentage of them don't work well or even at all. This is relatively new to the personal consumer market, so hopefully they will get better and cheaper, as most devices do after some time.

I did enter a contest that had one as a prize, but I obviously did not win, LOL.

Annie

It is a very complicated piece of appliance. So many motorized moving parts and electronics to go wrong.

I don't think this will ever be a mass produced common appliance, so it will always be expensive, and even more expensive for replacement parts.

I don't think there will be local factory repair shops in most areas. Imagine how much it will cost to ship this heavy big chunk of metal back for repairs.

dcarch

A good discussion on egullet. Some have them. One on-line reviewer gave a good report but says they are more like tending an appliance that needs maintenance and often like a car. It is not a toaster easily replaced at Target.

Needs oil changes. Takes hours to run for very small trays. Maybe with a big garden and lots of berries/fruit/veg. But you will run it 24/7 for a couple months.

I did read about great customer service/trouble shooting.

Popular in more high end molecular gastronomy restaurants.

When it first came out I researched. I was working on a project making freeze dried soups for kayak and boating trips. Much better quality than dehydrating. I purchased freeze dried foods and spent probably way less than a hundred. A dozen varieties of veg. (nearly zero weight so 4-6 oz is a lot of food). And this was a few years ago.

I calculated even if I spent 100bucks a year, I could purchase for 30 years what the freeze dryer cost. I still have half of my original foods. (all out of the leeks and the mushroom flake). Makes excellent travel soups. Storm emergency soups.

Maybe an 'ender' prepping and stock piling would find use with a big garden. Once the world wide power grid goes out, call it useless. : )

"----Needs oil changes.---"

High vacuum pump oil is not the same as regular motor oil.

Commercial high vacuum machines have filters and dehumidifiers to keep the oil pure. It is important to have pure oil to achieve high vacuum.

I don't know about these home freeze dry machines, I would not be surprised that you need to change oil after a very few uses. 1? 2? 3? ------5 times?

dcarch