The metal dividers conduct much better than silicone or plastic materials. They are easy to install in the trays and very easy to wash. Very happy with this product!
I’ve used the freeze dry 5 tray unit 6 or 7 times so far and it works great. My only concern is when I defrost the unit the water has a small trace amount of oil in it. There is no oil residue inside the unit so I don’t know where it’s coming from. I don’t think any oil is on my freeze dried food either. Unless there is oil residue inside the drain tube. This is very puzzling.
Always a smooth purchase with StayFresh! Easy delivery, great products and the best customer service!
We bought the Stay Fresh medium freeze dryer as an investment into our future for long term food storage. Our plan is to have plenty of food for when I retire to supplement our small homestead. My wife has kept it going pretty much steadily for several months now and everything is looking great. We've taste tested several things after re-hydration and I'm amazed at the taste and texture! It was money well spent.
I thought I would give the StayFresh Fresh pre-cut parchment paper a try.
They are cut perfectly to the interior size of my standard trays! They fit like a glove!
Well done!
This review is of the 5 shelf Stay Fresh unit with the Commercial Pump. We are complete newbies in regards to freeze drying. We received Nanook in early October, and are working on our 10th load as I write this. The machine itself has done a very good job on every bit of food that we have put in. If the user manual explained things better I would definitely give the review 5 stars. I have needed to call customer service 3 times because I just didn't understand what was happening or what I was supposed to do. Fortunately, each time I called, I reached Tim, who was EXTREMELY helpful and cleared up my misunderstandings. The first time I called & left a message was on a Saturday morning. I didn't expect to get a response until Monday. Imagine my surprise when I got a call back within 2 hours!! I've been to a couple of Facebook pages that link to the Stay Fresh name. I thought they would be more helpful. Anyway - we are very happy with the Freeze Dryer & the pump, and would highly recommend.
This thing is nice. Was worried about my initial house getting cracked with age. This stainless steal one will last forever and does seem to have better suction. Takes a little finesse to connect and change the ball valve. Customer service is always on point with stay fresh and for that reason, I recommend all their products.
We've had zero issues with the machine and it has produced great results with our batches. Can't wait for the remote app to come out.
I have had the opportunity to use my machine a couple times now. It’s been solid each time and the freeze dried results came out perfectly. I originally had the machine plugged in to a power strip that tripped during operation. Once power was restored, the machine was able to pick up where it left off. Not needing to start over from scratch was a big plus. The build quality, the finish, all solid. I would not hesitate to recommend this machine.
Product received, however not used yet.
Found the parts to fit together nicely, and anticipate they will work nicely!
Similar to other exceptional products manufactured and distributed by StayFresh, the parchment paper is an outstanding product. Its convenience lies in eliminating the need to cut individual sheets, and defiantly streamline cleaning efforts. Thanks again, Tim and the StayFresh team!
I have an elderberry farm, and I sell freeze dried elderberries online, through local stores and at farmer's markets and events. A typical annual elderberry harvest for me is around 1000 pounds, so I need a reliable, large-capacity freeze dryer to produce my products in a reasonable time frame. The Stay Fresh Mega freeze dryer is such a machine.
The Mega is a no-nonsense, heavy-duty tool that simply works. I have freeze dryers from another manufacturer, and they are more home-use oriented than the Stay Fresh Mega. As my business continues to grow, I envision another Mega showing up at my farm.
I am very happy with the purchase of our StayFresh freeze dryer. Love the quality and ease of use. Would like to see them provide more accessories though but the superior quality surpasses the lack of an assortment of accessories.
The tray stackers are amazingly simple but a great item to use when freezing foods or just storing trays.
Well made works great I have some after market ones thin and broke first time used. These worked great. If you need tray stackers by all means buy them from Stay Fresh.Thanks
With our new freeze dryer, we have completed over 10 batches of freeze dried food including peaches, zucchini, grilled chicken breasts, hamburger patties, baked salmon fillets and gala apples. The trays have worked perfectly for each batch. They accommodate significant amounts of food and the tray-stackers work great especially if we use our regular freezer to freeze batches before hand on some batches. The trays slide easily into and out of the Stay Fresh Freeze Dryer. The silicone mats keep the food from sticking to the trays. The trays and silicone mats cleanup easily. We love our new Stay Fresh Freeze Dryer and trays with tray stackers.
Our Mega Freeze Dryer arrived in late August and has been in near constant use ever since. We grow a lot of our own fruits and vegetables and also like to travel and eat our own food even when traveling. We haven't yet been able to try to eat our meals on the road, but we sample most of what we have freeze dried. The taste is consistently better than frozen, canned or dehydrated. While somewhat more expensive the process is much less labor intensive so we are finding that it was a good step to get this equipment. It was also a good step because being such a large dryer for home use we can see that it takes a lot less time to run larger bathes less often. The tool uses industrial grade parts and so we are also confident that it will continue to work well for us for many years. We have needed to contact customer service a couple of times for questions and once for a part malfunction. Customer service at Stay Fresh has also proven to be excellent. They have been available when we call and taken the time to answer our questions and guide through troubleshooting when there was a problem. In that instance when there was a component that failed, they immediately shipped us a new part and it was quite easy for us to do the replacement, largely thanks to their design and high quality clamps and fittings.
Overall we are very happy and satisfied.
I have purchased
D both a freeze dryer and several accessories from Stay Fresh and couldn’t be happier. Everything is of the highest quality and the customer service is above reproach and the standard from which others are judged. If you have a question about the machine or something as simple as “how do I”, just pick up the phone and call. You will speak to a live knowledgeable human being who will answer any question you have or explain what you should do. This is unheard of in this day and age. In short there are several brands of freeze dryers on the market to day for you to choose from but you can’t go wrong with Stay Fresh. Quality, customer service, reliability, and user friendly, you just can’t go wrong. I highly recommend Stay Fresh
Having a 2nd set or even a 3rd set of trays is critical to keep the FD moving. SF trays are well built.
I’m so glad I got this one over the popular competitor. It was easy to set up and it hasn’t given me any problems. The food I freeze dried so far (chicken and fruits) taste amazing! Love it! Deborah
I have used this dryer 3 times now, and am totally impressed. I have read the manual, and have watched the Youtube tutorials, and both proved to be very helpful. I have had another brand of freeze dryer, purchased 2 of them, and ultimately was dissatisfied with them. I hope this will not be the same experience, but I am pleased at this time that I have it. I am very impressed with the lack of noise, the upfront knowledge that a dedicated outlet was recommended, and purchased a fan to blow next to it. I do recommend the dedicated outlet, as this is a large investment.
We couldn’t be more pleased with our freeze dryer. It has worked very well for us and we feel we chose the right machine. The directions are not as clear but StayFresh more than makes up for that with outstanding customer service to fill in any gaps.