I tried a few completely unscientifically just to see if they would germinate afterwards. They germinated fine but I didn't store any. I would imagine storage would be similar to anything else although I'm curious about the shelf life.
Sorry, I had missed your reply. So, no heat pads, the connection shorted out if you look at al the pictures. Both plugs, rack and FD, have some damage. I have no idea what caused it, the rack is a brand new replacement under warranty on its third load. I had noticed that the connection between the FD and rack was very tight and hard to remove for cleaning. New harnesses and plugs for both will be here Friday
Holy cow, that looks like a bad short! I read through your other post to catch up with the issue once I found it and I must commend your patience and persistence solving this issue. Sorry I donʻt know much about electronics - my first thought would be a bad ground somewhere because a) I just discovered and replaced a bad ground on my machine and b) a recent post by another user highlighted deficiencies in the way HR grounds the unit. It doesnʻt explain what may have caused the damaging spike in voltage but it may help explain why it discharged at the tray connectors rather than the ground wire.
This is the functional testing screen, it's accessible by pressing the Harvest Right logo from the main screen. It is used to test the machines functionality. You can exit the screen by pressing the "done" button.
Sorry I'm not familiar with the pharma software so this answer may not be relevant but on the home units if you interrupt the process before the machine hits final dry the device cancels the cycle.
So could you filter the oil though the Britta style filter harvest right offers and then only pour the actual oil back in and leave the water out? Or should the entire oil be thrown out?
You can check your product while it's in "extra dry time" by pressing the down arrow until it's at 00:00, then releasing the vacuum and opening the chamber without ending the process. If the product isn't dry yet you can always add more dry time. I've done 2 hours extra and like another poster said little ice pebbles end up in the finished product.
I didn't again with about 3-4% sugar and it was a lot sweeter. It may be more bitter freeze-dried - I believe the oxidation helps to mellow the bitterness. It's really delicious though and looks gorgeous in the light.
If you’re wanting to learn to temper easily, then check out using seed chocolate for tempering. It’s what I recommend for easier tempering without needing marble or anything fancy.
Thanks for the tip. I wouldn't want to taint the purple coloring with seed chocolate but I have considered getting some cocoa butter for seeding (I think they call it cocoa silk or something?) I would really like to get the process figured out though so I can do 100% bean to bar chocolate. I know, it's silly and tempering can be a total nightmare but the science behind it fascinates me.
Thanks for the suggestions - I didn't smell anything when it popped. Going to take the back off today and check the cables running from the power to the board, the HR website has that being replaced as a solution to power failure. I'm not super optimistic that the failure occured on bare wire before the board as it has no fuses or protective circuitry, but since it's easy to check I'm going to start there.
It’s hard to tell but the ground looks like corrosion, not arc damage. I am trying to remember, is that the ground up top by the main board or the one down at the bottom of the unit?
It's the one up top where it grounds next to the main board. The wire comes out of a molded sleeve with 2 other wires and appears to go down to the compressor or something at the bottom of the unit. I also couldn't tell whether it was arc damage or just corrosion, though I'm unsure how it could have corroded that much on its own.
You will likely get some pushback for this post, as there is a certain propensity for defending glorious leader, and the machines do work for most of the people, most of the time (source???).
I believe the machine also uses the baseline temperature reached after the 15 minute cool to detect whether the trays warm the temp sensor back up to room temperature when placed in the machine, which tells the machine whether the food on the trays is pre-frozen or not.
That makes me believe I must have a small leak in my system somewhere. While it holds vacuum pressure under 300mt while running without issue, I've noticed once the cycle completes it will only hold its vacuum for a few hours after completely equalizing with outside pressure.
Are you using a standard oil pump? IME the standard pumps do not hold a vacuum like the premier and oil-free pumps do. Mine doesn't and several other people with standard pumps have chimed in that theirs don't either.
Basically any fruit - strawberries, papayas, pineapples, the fresher and sweeter the better. Ice cream but Melona bars specifically. Extra sharp cheddar and other tasty cheeses (I may be alone here). Juices (POG, guava juice, etc. [Haven't tried cane juice yet but it's way up on my list!]). White sweet corn (the big frozen bag from Costco) this one impressed me so much with how simple and delicious it is. Experiment and find your own favorites, and come let us know :D the possibilities are staggering!
I found the same problem when the fruit pieces are too thick. If it is too thick, the whole piece won't be fully dehydrated. I would either cut the pieces thinner or increase the extra drying time. I found my strawberries when sliced to skinnier pieces, the whole thing was completely dry.
When your fruit wasn't finishing because it was too thick - was it frozen on the inside or thawed? I've definitely had problems where food that is too thick needs more time, but never where the ice is melted INSIDE the food. Thanks for the suggestion!
Quick dry isn’t really meant for fruits. It’s more for liquid type stuff like soups and chili. Another thing to note is that at 90 cherries and mangos will take much much longer. For cherries specifically, I’ll add an extra 12 hours minimum before I even check them. The mangos sound like they were too thick as iron man stated, especially if the bottom looks significantly different than the top. Whenever I do cherries I do them by themselves because they tend to be finicky on doneness and anything you do them with are usually done at different times.
Thanks for the input - the cherries are pitted so I figured may not be too bad. The mangoes go about to the top of the trays so don't seem like they'd be too thick, and they are uniform dryness all the way around, just liquid on the inside.
Welcome to the community, excited to be part of your freeze drying journey! Candy mode (and candy in general) is definitely tons of fun and as others have said, the trick is to fiddle around with the settings and see what works best for each candy.
There is actually, I believe, an explanation that doesn't require a background in chemistry to understand. From what I gather, the mTorr settings prevent the trays from providing heat energy until the atmospheric pressure goes below a certain level. So if the machine is set at 200 mTorr, the pump will need to sustain a vacuum of around 200 to activate the trays. Because atmospheric pressure rises during sublimation (the solid ice expands into a gas), the machine needs to use the trays more sparingly to keep the mTorr at the lower setting, hence the longer dry times. Were the machine set for 500 mTorr, the trays would be able to provide heat much earlier and more often during the cycle, without having to turn off due to increase in atmospheric pressure from sublimation.
I know that my machine is able to run on pharma software but it runs on x.0.x software Maybe someone can chime in whether x.1.x is something other than home, and what the difference there might be.
Well, I thought I fixed it, thinking I had not properly connected the plug, which by the way, is a different and improved one from the one shown in the video. The load ran perfectly, and around 4:35 total time, including freezing, it was almost finished as I had ran it the day before as the issues appeared, so there was little moisture left, and a much smaller ice ring on the tub, the message appeared. I happened to be watching the screen tickled that maybe the KISS principle had worked, and checking the connection had fixed it. Earlier I was watching the mT around 230 and tray temp of 137F. All of a sudden the temp reading went wild, going down in 15-20 degree increments until reaching almost OF. Of course, the message returned, and almost as quickly, the temp reading started climbing up just as fast to around 125F, and the pump restarted. It did it again, so I ended the process, and the cheese was fine, zero moisture and I got to bag it. Here is where it gets more interesting. I told it to defrost, and where I had first seen the message a day earlier, but it went into defrost with no issues. But it gets better as I am still fixed watching the screen, and a "detecting too much heat" and turn power off message appeared. I happened to have the manual opened to that page, read what it said, and the message was gone with the tray temp around 165F by the time I was getting ready to cut power off. Only did it one. I am thinking I may have a bad board.
Based on what you've said and the fact that you're still under warranty, I would say it's time to call and speak to an advanced tech there. Let them know everything you've tried and the problems you're having. You will likely have to try a couple of things but hopefully they get you fixed up pretty quickly. I've heard the names of a few techs thrown around in here as recommended, but don't have enough personal experience to give one myself. The only other possible user-end fixes I can think of are to either check the plug to make sure it's clean inside or to try updating your firmware. As mentioned there are letters attached to the end of the versions which you can view if you tap the version number on the home screen. We are now on version 5.*.24W. Hope this helps, -C
Thank You, I have 5.1.24 and it was sent to me before it was made public to fix a vacuum issue. RandomComments0, one of our gurus here, put out a number and a person to ask for there. As I mentioned before, the plug is totally different from the one in the help video, and appears to be much improved. BTW, and you may be aware of this, I was not and again RandomComment0 explained it, the middle number is irrelevant as far as the "latest" version of the software. The middle number relates to slight mechanical differences in the machines, and the first and last numbers are what are looking for.
You're correct about the differences: the middle numbers represent the difference between the different models. You are only really concerned with the last numbers at this point as 4.. Has been phased out and all current models run on 5.. as far as I know. As you already have the name of a good rep to speak with, I'd say you're on a good path. And since you just got an advance copy of that software I'm sure it's the most recent one, and if the problem is present on that software it is likely a hardware issue (which it sounds to be anyway). Again if you ever want to check the exact version you are using you can tap the version number on the home screen and a letter will appear after the numbers. As far as I know this is the only way to check the actual version, as there is no indication of the iterations 5.*.24A through W on the download page.
Best advice I can give for ice cream is to lower your shelf temps. I've seen 80f thrown around a lot. As others have said be sure the bars are completely frozen as well. Certain things like to expand in the FD (gummi bears, Skittles, etc.) so it could be that whatever they are putting in the ice cream to give it that cookie crunch is your culprit.
They're one of my all-time favorite freeze-dried treats. Right up there with POG and liliko‘i juice. Definitely recommend especially if you can find them on sale at Costco.
Might be thread jumping but... I have the standard pump and my machine also bleads off fairly fast after the vacuum stops. Is everyones machine like this or should it hold vacuum after the pump turns off?
Great question. I read on a HR troubleshooting PDF that loss of pressure after pump shut-off could indicate a bad check valve in the pump, and was running under the assumptions that a) my pump has a check valve and b) it's not functioning properly.
Thank you for the info, this is what I was looking for. If I'm understanding you right, the idea is to plug the surge protector into the pump outlet, and the pump and check valve into the the surge protector.
All raw meats are safe to freeze dry, provided you follow proper raw meat-handling protocols when rehydrating. Freeze drying DOES NOT make the meat fit for consumption the way cooking does, but it is a safe and effective method of long-term storage and preservation.
So, I just learned way too much about the science of freeze drying. Apparently the machine is designed to maintain a balance between pressure and temperature to avoid structural collapse of the item being dried which prevents drying.
Thanks for the detailed reply, that definitely makes sense. So it seems like i don't need to worry about over-sealing unless my pump starts pulling under 200mTorr during initial dry cycle. It's nowhere near that yet. It also seems the software is probably sophisticated enough to ramp up the microwave thermal radiation within parameters to compensate for stronger vacuum, at least as long as there's sufficient ice to sublimate and raise mTorrs.
That’s actually not a bad frost pattern. It doesn’t need to be 100% of the chamber all the way from from to back. Also, kudos for getting the tray holder out with all that ice! I think that was the most annoying part of the water test for me.
Awesome, thanks for the info. The ice-free area is appx. the rear 5" of the chamber and since the tray normally blocks my view of the rear of the unit it could be that this was always the case and i simply never noticed it before running the tray-out test.
Thank you, these pics are extremely helpful. I'll run a water test and see if rings develop at the rear of the chamber. I have a suspicion it's a refrigerant issue that isn't yet severe enough to cause failure, but glad to have it on my radar. I will see if there are any competent refrigerator repair people around here. Based on information provided it sounds a bit more advanced than recharging a vehicle condenser, which is about the extent of my experience with refrigeration. Thanks again all, having a supportive community makes these problems much less daunting.
I tried a few completely unscientifically just to see if they would germinate afterwards. They germinated fine but I didn't store any. I would imagine storage would be similar to anything else although I'm curious about the shelf life.
I would first check the tray connection, unplug the trays at the back and plug them back in.
Sorry, I had missed your reply. So, no heat pads, the connection shorted out if you look at al the pictures. Both plugs, rack and FD, have some damage. I have no idea what caused it, the rack is a brand new replacement under warranty on its third load. I had noticed that the connection between the FD and rack was very tight and hard to remove for cleaning. New harnesses and plugs for both will be here Friday
Holy cow, that looks like a bad short! I read through your other post to catch up with the issue once I found it and I must commend your patience and persistence solving this issue. Sorry I donʻt know much about electronics - my first thought would be a bad ground somewhere because a) I just discovered and replaced a bad ground on my machine and b) a recent post by another user highlighted deficiencies in the way HR grounds the unit. It doesnʻt explain what may have caused the damaging spike in voltage but it may help explain why it discharged at the tray connectors rather than the ground wire.
This is the functional testing screen, it's accessible by pressing the Harvest Right logo from the main screen. It is used to test the machines functionality. You can exit the screen by pressing the "done" button.
Sorry I'm not familiar with the pharma software so this answer may not be relevant but on the home units if you interrupt the process before the machine hits final dry the device cancels the cycle.
So could you filter the oil though the Britta style filter harvest right offers and then only pour the actual oil back in and leave the water out? Or should the entire oil be thrown out?
You can filter and reuse the oil without issue.
You can check your product while it's in "extra dry time" by pressing the down arrow until it's at 00:00, then releasing the vacuum and opening the chamber without ending the process. If the product isn't dry yet you can always add more dry time. I've done 2 hours extra and like another poster said little ice pebbles end up in the finished product.
I'm really curious if you have done more with this!
I didn't again with about 3-4% sugar and it was a lot sweeter. It may be more bitter freeze-dried - I believe the oxidation helps to mellow the bitterness. It's really delicious though and looks gorgeous in the light.
If you’re wanting to learn to temper easily, then check out using seed chocolate for tempering. It’s what I recommend for easier tempering without needing marble or anything fancy.
Thanks for the tip. I wouldn't want to taint the purple coloring with seed chocolate but I have considered getting some cocoa butter for seeding (I think they call it cocoa silk or something?) I would really like to get the process figured out though so I can do 100% bean to bar chocolate. I know, it's silly and tempering can be a total nightmare but the science behind it fascinates me.
Going to rule out a silly one, but have you tested the outlet to make sure it wasn’t a GFI popping when you attempted to power up?
Thanks for the suggestions - I didn't smell anything when it popped. Going to take the back off today and check the cables running from the power to the board, the HR website has that being replaced as a solution to power failure. I'm not super optimistic that the failure occured on bare wire before the board as it has no fuses or protective circuitry, but since it's easy to check I'm going to start there.
It’s hard to tell but the ground looks like corrosion, not arc damage. I am trying to remember, is that the ground up top by the main board or the one down at the bottom of the unit?
It's the one up top where it grounds next to the main board. The wire comes out of a molded sleeve with 2 other wires and appears to go down to the compressor or something at the bottom of the unit. I also couldn't tell whether it was arc damage or just corrosion, though I'm unsure how it could have corroded that much on its own.
You will likely get some pushback for this post, as there is a certain propensity for defending glorious leader, and the machines do work for most of the people, most of the time (source???).
I believe the machine also uses the baseline temperature reached after the 15 minute cool to detect whether the trays warm the temp sensor back up to room temperature when placed in the machine, which tells the machine whether the food on the trays is pre-frozen or not.
That makes me believe I must have a small leak in my system somewhere. While it holds vacuum pressure under 300mt while running without issue, I've noticed once the cycle completes it will only hold its vacuum for a few hours after completely equalizing with outside pressure.
Are you using a standard oil pump? IME the standard pumps do not hold a vacuum like the premier and oil-free pumps do. Mine doesn't and several other people with standard pumps have chimed in that theirs don't either.
Basically any fruit - strawberries, papayas, pineapples, the fresher and sweeter the better. Ice cream but Melona bars specifically. Extra sharp cheddar and other tasty cheeses (I may be alone here). Juices (POG, guava juice, etc. [Haven't tried cane juice yet but it's way up on my list!]). White sweet corn (the big frozen bag from Costco) this one impressed me so much with how simple and delicious it is. Experiment and find your own favorites, and come let us know :D the possibilities are staggering!
I found the same problem when the fruit pieces are too thick. If it is too thick, the whole piece won't be fully dehydrated. I would either cut the pieces thinner or increase the extra drying time. I found my strawberries when sliced to skinnier pieces, the whole thing was completely dry.
When your fruit wasn't finishing because it was too thick - was it frozen on the inside or thawed? I've definitely had problems where food that is too thick needs more time, but never where the ice is melted INSIDE the food. Thanks for the suggestion!
Quick dry isn’t really meant for fruits. It’s more for liquid type stuff like soups and chili. Another thing to note is that at 90 cherries and mangos will take much much longer. For cherries specifically, I’ll add an extra 12 hours minimum before I even check them. The mangos sound like they were too thick as iron man stated, especially if the bottom looks significantly different than the top. Whenever I do cherries I do them by themselves because they tend to be finicky on doneness and anything you do them with are usually done at different times.
Thanks for the input - the cherries are pitted so I figured may not be too bad. The mangoes go about to the top of the trays so don't seem like they'd be too thick, and they are uniform dryness all the way around, just liquid on the inside.
Popeyes is open in Pāhoa as of today. Louisiana fast on Hawaii time. Mean grinds tho
Welcome to the community, excited to be part of your freeze drying journey! Candy mode (and candy in general) is definitely tons of fun and as others have said, the trick is to fiddle around with the settings and see what works best for each candy.
Why would lower mtorr make it take longer?
There is actually, I believe, an explanation that doesn't require a background in chemistry to understand. From what I gather, the mTorr settings prevent the trays from providing heat energy until the atmospheric pressure goes below a certain level. So if the machine is set at 200 mTorr, the pump will need to sustain a vacuum of around 200 to activate the trays. Because atmospheric pressure rises during sublimation (the solid ice expands into a gas), the machine needs to use the trays more sparingly to keep the mTorr at the lower setting, hence the longer dry times. Were the machine set for 500 mTorr, the trays would be able to provide heat much earlier and more often during the cycle, without having to turn off due to increase in atmospheric pressure from sublimation.
I know that my machine is able to run on pharma software but it runs on x.0.x software Maybe someone can chime in whether x.1.x is something other than home, and what the difference there might be.
Well, I thought I fixed it, thinking I had not properly connected the plug, which by the way, is a different and improved one from the one shown in the video. The load ran perfectly, and around 4:35 total time, including freezing, it was almost finished as I had ran it the day before as the issues appeared, so there was little moisture left, and a much smaller ice ring on the tub, the message appeared. I happened to be watching the screen tickled that maybe the KISS principle had worked, and checking the connection had fixed it. Earlier I was watching the mT around 230 and tray temp of 137F. All of a sudden the temp reading went wild, going down in 15-20 degree increments until reaching almost OF. Of course, the message returned, and almost as quickly, the temp reading started climbing up just as fast to around 125F, and the pump restarted. It did it again, so I ended the process, and the cheese was fine, zero moisture and I got to bag it. Here is where it gets more interesting. I told it to defrost, and where I had first seen the message a day earlier, but it went into defrost with no issues. But it gets better as I am still fixed watching the screen, and a "detecting too much heat" and turn power off message appeared. I happened to have the manual opened to that page, read what it said, and the message was gone with the tray temp around 165F by the time I was getting ready to cut power off. Only did it one. I am thinking I may have a bad board.
Based on what you've said and the fact that you're still under warranty, I would say it's time to call and speak to an advanced tech there. Let them know everything you've tried and the problems you're having. You will likely have to try a couple of things but hopefully they get you fixed up pretty quickly. I've heard the names of a few techs thrown around in here as recommended, but don't have enough personal experience to give one myself. The only other possible user-end fixes I can think of are to either check the plug to make sure it's clean inside or to try updating your firmware. As mentioned there are letters attached to the end of the versions which you can view if you tap the version number on the home screen. We are now on version 5.*.24W. Hope this helps, -C
Thank You, I have 5.1.24 and it was sent to me before it was made public to fix a vacuum issue. RandomComments0, one of our gurus here, put out a number and a person to ask for there. As I mentioned before, the plug is totally different from the one in the help video, and appears to be much improved. BTW, and you may be aware of this, I was not and again RandomComment0 explained it, the middle number is irrelevant as far as the "latest" version of the software. The middle number relates to slight mechanical differences in the machines, and the first and last numbers are what are looking for.
You're correct about the differences: the middle numbers represent the difference between the different models. You are only really concerned with the last numbers at this point as 4.. Has been phased out and all current models run on 5.. as far as I know. As you already have the name of a good rep to speak with, I'd say you're on a good path. And since you just got an advance copy of that software I'm sure it's the most recent one, and if the problem is present on that software it is likely a hardware issue (which it sounds to be anyway). Again if you ever want to check the exact version you are using you can tap the version number on the home screen and a letter will appear after the numbers. As far as I know this is the only way to check the actual version, as there is no indication of the iterations 5.*.24A through W on the download page.
Best advice I can give for ice cream is to lower your shelf temps. I've seen 80f thrown around a lot. As others have said be sure the bars are completely frozen as well. Certain things like to expand in the FD (gummi bears, Skittles, etc.) so it could be that whatever they are putting in the ice cream to give it that cookie crunch is your culprit.
Just curious, how did the other Melona bars turn out?
They're one of my all-time favorite freeze-dried treats. Right up there with POG and liliko‘i juice. Definitely recommend especially if you can find them on sale at Costco.
Might be thread jumping but... I have the standard pump and my machine also bleads off fairly fast after the vacuum stops. Is everyones machine like this or should it hold vacuum after the pump turns off?
Great question. I read on a HR troubleshooting PDF that loss of pressure after pump shut-off could indicate a bad check valve in the pump, and was running under the assumptions that a) my pump has a check valve and b) it's not functioning properly.
You'll want one that is rated for the same or greater CFM as the pump. The one you linked is only 2CFM.
Thank you for the info, this is what I was looking for. If I'm understanding you right, the idea is to plug the surge protector into the pump outlet, and the pump and check valve into the the surge protector.
I tried raw chicken breasts. Is it safe to freeze dry raw chicken? They seem fine.
All raw meats are safe to freeze dry, provided you follow proper raw meat-handling protocols when rehydrating. Freeze drying DOES NOT make the meat fit for consumption the way cooking does, but it is a safe and effective method of long-term storage and preservation.
Very interested to see how the porn lion came out! I did not even know that was a thing you could freeze dry!
So, I just learned way too much about the science of freeze drying. Apparently the machine is designed to maintain a balance between pressure and temperature to avoid structural collapse of the item being dried which prevents drying.
Thanks for the detailed reply, that definitely makes sense. So it seems like i don't need to worry about over-sealing unless my pump starts pulling under 200mTorr during initial dry cycle. It's nowhere near that yet. It also seems the software is probably sophisticated enough to ramp up the microwave thermal radiation within parameters to compensate for stronger vacuum, at least as long as there's sufficient ice to sublimate and raise mTorrs.
That’s actually not a bad frost pattern. It doesn’t need to be 100% of the chamber all the way from from to back. Also, kudos for getting the tray holder out with all that ice! I think that was the most annoying part of the water test for me.
Awesome, thanks for the info. The ice-free area is appx. the rear 5" of the chamber and since the tray normally blocks my view of the rear of the unit it could be that this was always the case and i simply never noticed it before running the tray-out test.
This is an example of a freon puron needing recharging
Thank you, these pics are extremely helpful. I'll run a water test and see if rings develop at the rear of the chamber. I have a suspicion it's a refrigerant issue that isn't yet severe enough to cause failure, but glad to have it on my radar. I will see if there are any competent refrigerator repair people around here. Based on information provided it sounds a bit more advanced than recharging a vehicle condenser, which is about the extent of my experience with refrigeration. Thanks again all, having a supportive community makes these problems much less daunting.