hey guys retired at 40 here I've got my new harvest right medium size
freeze dryer and today I want to make a video about the initial setup and then
go through the entire freeze drying process from start to finish the reason
being is when I got mine about three weeks ago I couldn't find a good video
that explained everything from start to finish including the setup and I'm not a
very good learner from going through a bunch of pamphlets and stuff
most of them contradict each other and they're not real thorough there's not
really a lot of pictures to describe things so I figured if you're a visual
learner like me this video should be beneficial for you
so here's most of the stuff that came in the package when you get all the wrapping and all that stuff
taken off I was pleasantly surprised because mine actually came with some
mylar bags and some oxygen packets and it came with the mylar bag sealer and
then an extra sealer strip
I'm assuming they wear out over time so manual mine
actually came with some oil too for the first cycle which is really nice and
there's the pump
I'm not sure if there's different versions of the pump
Mine is the Eliminator it's made by just better and so far seems to be doing the
trick so like I said earlier mine is the standard (medium) size it has four trays and I
believe it's supposed to do six to eight pounds on average of food when you're
doing a freeze dry process so let's get started on kind of going through and
setting everything up on the outside of the machine first things first
you definitely want to elevate the machine reason being this drain valve
right here on the side you will you'll need to open that at the end of the
process and that will actually defrost and put water into a bucket
it just from the the drying process and it has to be done every time if you have
it sitting flat on the floor it's actually going to it won't drain you
need something that's sitting lower than the drain valve so the drain valve was
already hooked up on mine it was actually just tucked up inside of this
hole right here just pulled it out and stuck it in the bucket and we were good
mine is sitting probably about 12 inches off the ground ideally I would maybe
even do a little taller than that it also makes it easier for the pump
maintenance at the end of each cycle and just kind of makes it a little easier
it's more chest level than or waist level I guess then if it was sitting on
the ground next thing you want to do is hook up your pump and it should come
with this line right here one line you don't need teflon tape or anything it
just screws right onto the fittings one side of the line goes into the actual
machine other side goes down into this brass nipple and screws on to there and
then there should be a mister which is just a piece of plastic you want that facing
up and you might want to just keep some towels and stuff around if this pump
does get hot it does blow out some oil every once in a while this makes a
pretty big mess I might try and fashion up something that will go over the mister
that will still let it breathe but will catch most of that oil that comes out
next thing you need to do is unscrew this brass cap here that's where your
oil goes in I like to keep a funnel handy just because it's hard to get this
little thing down in here without spilling oil everywhere you want to fill
up your oil level so it matches with these guys here just over the center
little circle there and then for future reference or before you actually put oil
in you're going to want to make sure that this valve down here which is the
drain valve for the oil make sure that's closed righty-tighty
lefty-loosey that's always the rule of thumb to go by so make sure it's all the
way to the right like i said mine came with an actual quart of oil which was
nice you will have to buy some more oil eventually because it does evaporate
over usage and one quart does you'll have a little extra after the first
batch so you might be able to get two batches out of the the oil and then
after that you'll have to filter it which I'll show you later in the video
okay so after your pump is hooked up I like to set mine off to the side here so
it hangs over and I can show you that in another video when you do the oil
changes it's just nice to be able to put an oil pan or something down in here to
catch your oil after you're done and it's nice to do it while the oil is
warm because you get all the the crud out of there
so next after you plug it into the wall obviously there's a switch back here
that'll turn the machine on alright once your screen comes on you'll see set date
time customize and start and then there's a clock over here with the date
just go ahead and hit start and then that will remind you to close the drain
valve on the side it's just kind of a courtesy thing that they do after before
every cycle they're referring to this drain valve over here which currently is
closed because it's going against the the way the valve is if it's open it
will actually be going the same way as the valve so that's closed when it
closed because otherwise the vacuum will not increase and it'll probably actually
give you a warning if you accidentally do leave it open so next thing is if
your machine hasn't already been adjusted on the door there's two screws
on the bottom here and two screws on the top and that just kind of adjusts this
door so it matches up against even get a decent picture here
against this seal and you can actually see when it's pressed up against there
once it starts to vacuum you'll need it you you'll want to be able to see this
whole seal just kind of pressed up against that glass there is an
insulation a little pillow thing in here that just keeps the cold in and keeps
moisture and all that stuff in so I've got my four trays all loaded up with
nectarines peaches cantaloupe and peppers and a little bit of pulled pork
on here try and keep your consistency of your moisture in the food try to keep
it the same until you get used to the machine it'll kind of make your life a
lot easier otherwise some things will be dry and some things will not be dry so
go ahead and close the door after you put your insulation back in there and it
kind of clicks and then once you twist it that pulls the door in and going back
to the screen again after you closed your drain valve just hit continue and
that will start your nine hours of freezing you can hear the compressor
kick on so it actually will take the Machine down to I think it's about
negative thirty degrees and that nine hours is a standard every time so I will
catch you after that nine hours is done for the next part of the process it's
like we're just finishing up the freeze cycle we've got ten seconds left
and as soon as that counts down to zero then it'll go into drying and that sound
of the compressor (vacuum pump) when it first kicks on it's a little loud
it does quiet down after a few seconds so if you look at the screen now it just
goes into drying and then this right here the 2500 right now it says greater
than 2500 as it continues to dry that number will go down and as soon as it
gets down below 500 consistently for half an hour then they will go to the
next cycle which is the final dry and I'll catch you then it looks like we're
in the final dry time and it's real hard to catch I was gonna try and catch it
right when it switched over but it's definitely dependent on this vacuum
pressure right here so it kind of that middle section of the drying it can be
five hours sometimes sometimes it can be twelve hours it just depends on the
moisture that is in the food that you put in so right now we've got five hours
and 41 seconds the stuff that I am freeze-drying is has a lot of water
content so if you're doing something like cucumbers or watermelon or grapes
or something like that blueberries I usually add a little bit of extra time
so in this case I'm going to add two hours extra and
the way that you do that is just hit this up button right here
now i've added about a two-hours onto there that should give it enough time to get
all the rest of the moisture out the basic or the standard time that it
automatically sets is seven hours so like I said if you if you're drying
something that has a lot of water in it you're gonna want to add some time to it
and I actually have a PDF file that I can send to you if you message me that
has a good rule of thumb for certain types of foods like and even I can even
give a picture of that on the video here coming up all right looks like we're a
few seconds away from the final dry time being up and this low-pressure right
here at 146 vacuum pressure that's a good sign that means that it's every
every batch that I've done it's usually in between 100 and 200 and if it's in
there it usually seems like it's all the way dry so the vacuum pump shuts off
after it's all the way done with the final dry
and this just gives you a chance to basically check and see if everything is
dry so in order to do that you have to open the drain valve which is over here
that will let all the air out
and then once you do that pressure should be released here
tangerines
peaches all look dry
cantaloupe and pulled pork
more pulled pork and a few peppers and everything looks dry
so since it's dry
next thing you want to do
is click this defrost button if it was not dry then you can hit more dry
time that'll give you that same screen that was in the last one which you can
add time on to you can also do it no defrost and then the machine will
actually just defrost itself over time just from the no room temperature or
whatever the defrost will actually speed up the process and it will come out of
that same bucket and that's where your bucket comes in or your pan or whatever you put
under your drain that's what that comes into play because the as the machine
defrost it will it'll go into there so I'm gonna hit defrost up mine I just
told you to remove the food and close the door I don't put the I don't put the
insulation pillow back in click continue and then it'll take two hours and you
can add more time if you want to hours is usually a sufficient what I usually
do at this time while the oil is hot is this is when I change the oil just
because it gets all the crud out of the bottom
we're all done here this is retired at 40 just reminding you to live life
simple thanks a lot we'll see you next time