Our recent purchase of a Stay Fresh freeze dryer with an industrial pump has been an excellent kitchen investment. Our family has totally enjoyed experimenting with freeze-drying a wide variety of foods. We are extremely pleased with its ease of use, the amazing results, and the top-notch customer support. We couldn't be happier with this product.
After more than 2.5 years and 7,300 hours of operation i decided to replace my de-mister. No reason other than preventative maintenance.
With the old de-mister in hand, it was time to see how it looked inside. I ground off the crimp on the can and the filter element popped right out.
The outside of the element was a brilliant white yet. I expected it to be discolored and saturated in oil. Nope!
Next, I went to the metal cutting band saw and cut the filter in half. The saw bald was definitely dirty and black from previous items. The inner-most wall of the element consists of a perforated metal surface. Surrounding this is a band of filter media, wing encompassed by another band of perforated metal.
Beyond this is another band of media, being approximately the same dimensions as the inner-most media. The outermost surface of the outter media is not covered in any way. It is bright white in the pictures.
The cut surface of both elements was definitely blackened by the blade.
The inner-most portion of media appears to have been darkened oil.
The outer-most portion is very white except for the mess my blade did to it.
Inside the demister, where it screws onto the pump, there is a wee bit of rust formation. I don’t find that the least bit surprising. Actually, not nearly as much rust as I anticipated.
Since only about half of the available media has been saturated with oil, I’m wondering if I could have gone another 2.5+ years and waited for a 5 year change cycle?
At New Horizon we make a blood sugar supplement called Gluco Minder. One of the processes involves freeze drying a natural fruit. The Stay Fresh freeze dryer has been pheromonal in doing this process, love the unit and it works great. The only issue was the space is tight where I have the freeze parked is tight and the vacuum pipe does not like sharp bends, the solution was to use a KF 25 90 degree elbo at the
I just love my stay fresh dryer. The learning curve was very short..I like the engineering put into this machine and when I need another freeze dryer it will be a Stay Fresh. It's just iron clad reliable.
This freeze dryer is built better than any other machine I’ve used. The cold trap reaches -30 F very quickly. The fittings are all high quality as are the fit and finish oh the housing. I highly recommend this freeze dryer to anyone who is serious about freeze drying.
I love my StayFresh so far customer service is excellent. The commercial pump is very quiet.
Always available for questions so happy I chose Stay Fresh!!
I did a lot of research and decided on Stay Fresh. I couldn't be happier with my decision. The company is wonderful to work with and answered all my questions. We love freeze drying fresh herbs for cooking and greens for smoothies and green drinks. We also freeze dry a lot of eggs from our chickens and our kids love the candy and fruits. The seven shelf unit trays are a little to close together. The only change I would make would to have purchased the five tray unit. Stay Fresh is simple to use, and has worked flawlessly.
Purchased my freeze dryer and it arrived damaged. No fault of the company. Tim sent me a new freeze dryer and it works like a charm. It's a great company to work with, Tim was wonderful and answered all emails quickly. Don't hesitate to make your decision to buy one.
Save yourself some time & order the 50ft SS hose along with your FD. It is very high quality. I am 100% sure it will stand the test of time & provides flexibility in your setup. Also I don't remember if included, you need another KF25 clamp with O ring. Get the clamp here. I ordered one from the big online company & the quality was subpar. Think about your setup, you may want the 90• elbow too (get another KF25 clamp). Just order everything in your FD order & save some postage.
I have a harvest right, nothing but problems which is now fixed. During that time I bought a stay fresh What a difference in Quality. Stay Fresh is way above when it comes to enormous pump, quality hoses and connectors. Absolutely no problems. Harvest right doesn’t now have WiFi, which is great, but I’m sure Stay fresh will have that soon. The owner is great also.
Video will show the difference between the two.
Perfect product. Fits trays perfectly no trimming no gaps Absolutely perfect.Thanks
Having purchase a FD 7 years ago in Hawaii I have to say we have some experience with FD machine. I just retired to Alabama about 2 years ago and we brought the machine with us but about 2 months ago the machine started to have problems. I was able to fix it but like an old car you can omly do so much before other things start happening so I started looking to buying another machine and after watch a lot of you tube videos it was easy to see that the stay fresh machine was more up to date with technology. It arrived it perfect condition, everything unpack easily. Thanks to all the you tube video I had a good idea on how to setup it up and run it . This machine runs great right out of the box no problems. I know the one thing people say is it must cost a lot in electric believe it or not it doesn't even when I lived in Hawaii which has the highest cost of electric (48 cent Kw) it only cost me an extra $150 a month to run 24/7 here in Alabama I would say maybe an extra $60 running 24/ 7. I love the machine only thing I wish we could have is some kind of Wi-Fi system to monitor the unit. I did hook up a Wi-Fi camera to monitor with my phone but an app would be great.
This clamping system was a major factor for my purchase of StayFresh over the other guys.
I purchased this clamp to attach the 90 degree elbow to reduce stress on the hose between vacuum pump and freeze dryer.
The clamp is an easy to use super easy way to attach and seal hose multiple times during routine maintenance.
I did alot of research on different brands before making this investment and decided on Stay Fresh. I absolutely made the right decision. Stay Fresh FDs are very competitively priced & the quality of its parts & overall setup is substantial reassuring your return on your investment will be many years - a principle lacking in today's "disposable" world. It is logically set up for your own maintenance and problem-shooting with clear instructions. Tim, the creator of this system, is personally available for questions via email, calls and text, what company does that any more! He responded immediately to my important questions & to my not-important questions w/i 24 hrs. (Just remember he's on CA time.) For me a recent sr widow whose husband did everything, it was simple to set up & use out of the box with pre-programmed settings. For those technically minded, there is the capability for fine-tuning to personal specifications, another big benefit. I greatly recommend purchasing the industrial pump. It is exactly as it implies, heavy duty, easy to maintain & oil stays cleaner longer. I also recommend purchasing the longer stainless steel hose as it provides more flexibility in placing the pump. I did not order originally, but after, I switched up & I would've saved some $ and time if I had included in my original order. I was really apprehensive about buying a freeze dryer & it took a month for me to decide. I don't regret buying a Stay Fresh FD & like my title says, I didn't know I needed one. Now I can't live without it.
We have used our new Stay Fresh freeze dryer for a few months now and I can say with confidence that we made a great decision! We know quite a few people that own Harvest Right freeze dryers and they have had soooo many problems. This heavily influenced our determination to do research into alternative brands, which led us to the small dryer with the industrial pump. So easy to use, no hiccups or unexpected issues or setup complications - just exactly as expected with easy to use controls and consistent results. Thank you!
I bought the standard model with KF25 and industrial pump upgrades. I had a small issue with a sensor upon arrival. I sent a DM, got an instant response, and had an appointment for the next day for tech support. The owner of the company called me right on time for our appointment. Within 10 minutes the machine was running like a top. This level of customer service is very hard to find these days. Super impressed with this company.
The machine itself has exceeded my expectations. It just works. The user interface is very intuitive and allows for as little or as much control as i want over the run cycle.
Im super glad i bought this unit and super glad that i chose the StayFresh over another brand.
I am now in the middle of my third batch. No problems whatsoever. This is everything I expected it to be and more. Very happy and pleased with my new Mega. I wasn't able to use it for the first two and a half months after I got it, but it is now in full time operation and I am happy to say that this is one of the best investments I've made. Thanks to Mr. Tim for a very good freeze dryer. Top Of The Line. It don't get any better than this.
I wish I had purchased the elbow when I first bought my machine. I have the stainless steel hose and this elbow allows for a better stress free connection. It is a quality product and seals very well.
Works as it should. I definitely thought these would be whole solid sheets like a baking sheet, but between the grid patteren, there are holes. For solid foods, that's fine, but for liquids, it would go straight through, and youd loose alot of products that sticks to the mat.
Product arrived as expected. Perfect condition . Delivery was painless and within an hour of the expected arrival. Set up was painless.