Hands down the best pump I've had so far, I've been through a few of them with my freeze dryer. The large range oil view port is great, the case vent actually works to keep water contamination down. So far with the few dozen batches I've done I typically get just a dribble of water to drain between batches sometimes none. once on a heavy batch I got a couple tablespoons. All previous pumps would have a plethora of water to drain. Nothing bad to say other than the KF-25 fittings get a tad expensive.
Commercial pump works great and is pretty quiet
The tray stackers are great, fit perfectly, and really help to free up freezer space while prefreezing my trays!
The freeze dryer has been all we were looking for and a great addition to our kitchen appliances.
I like the size of the trays a lot over my other freeze dryer. But I wish that they would nest inside each other without using the corner stackers.
Love the freeze dryer, customer service has been great (thank you Tim!), recommending to everyone and enjoying my freeze drying experiments!
I'm still learning, but so far I am really happy with my freeze dryer. I purchased it primarily to preserve all the goodness from my garden and all the eggs from my hens, but am looking forward to expanding onto other foods. I went with Stay Fresh for the product quality and customer support, and both prove to exceed my expectations. Happy preserving!
I am a retired manufacturing engineer, and the machine seems to be made of top-quality components. Lots of stainless steel. No plastic tubing or piping. The door to the chamber is over an inch thick. The gasket to seal the door weighs almost 2 pounds. The chamber itself is made of stainless about 2mm thick (I only have inch calipers), not out of round anywhere that I can see, and beautifully welded. The valves and the cabinet are metal, and the wiring is skillfully done. The shelf unit is assembled with bolts, no spotwelds. The trays are fabricated from 1mm thick stainless, welded and ground at the corners and dead flat and uniform. Not stamped from a sheet of thin metal. I was a little concerned about noise from such a machine, but it's not noisy at all.
It came very securely packaged, banded to a wooden pallet. The only assembly required was connecting the wiring to the shelf unit, and it only goes together one way, so you can't get it wrong. And connecting the machine to the vacuum pump, but that was straightforward. It's quite heavy, and it was a 2-man job setting it on its bench.
It was almost plug and play for me to get started. The user interface is simple and informative. When I researched freeze driers, most reviews talked about how great customer service was helping to get a machine running. I have done almost 60 batches in the machine so far and not had a single alarm or malfunction, and haven't needed customer service for the smallest glitch.
It is a very impressive piece of equipment. The build quality is excellent. If you want to buy a freeze drier and plug it in and use it successfully the day it arrives, and use it successfully every day after, this is the machine to order.
I would say that the user manual could benefit from some work. Very tiny print. Such a costly machine could come with better documentation. But it contains the information I needed to operate the equipment.
Unit came scratched front and back, logo was attached crooked. Unit works as expected. A bit disappointed about the larger scratch on the front.
Love our machine, but love the customer service even more! They will answer any questions you have and it’s a real person you talk to every time.
I wrote a big nice review and then it would not submit and then it went away. So I’ll try to do another one but probably will not have everything in it. I do like the machine but I had to get in the right mind frame and that could just be me. I had lots of questions We watched videos on you tube and they helped. I enlarged our book we could not read the tiny print. I think it would be nice if there was some examples of length of time to dry items. I didn’t d order a second set of pans and I am glad. I am able to have one set in machine and second set in freezer waiting for the next run. I am enjoying trying different foods. I like my dryer
Man this machine is "a tank"! There's nothing flimsy about it. There is a bit of a learning curve when your used to a one button push machine but not bad. I could tell right away that this will be a work horse. I bought the standard machine with the Premier pump because I already had an HR dryer so I didn't see the need to go Max. I'm a small candy, fruit, pet treats, and camp food business and it's perfect for me. I only wish the owners manual was a little larger with a few step by step instructions for newbies. But all in all I would definitely buy this again and I wish I knew about Stay Fresh when I bought my first dryer!
The end product has been so good! I’m looking forward to our produce ripening so it can get at preserving.
The Mega is a monster. Well thought out and built like a tank. Tim the owner stays by your side (figuratively speaking), answering any installation questions in a very timely manner. So far very happy with my purchase and would recommend to anyone.
I bought their Mega Freeze Dryer, and I couldn't be happier with it! The customer support is second to none. Tim (the owner) spent several hours over two days helping me troubleshoot a few issues that were entirely due to user error and ensuring everything was running perfectly. It's been operating almost every day for the past two weeks without a single hiccup.
We've had our freeze dryer going on 2 years now and not experienced a single issue with it, it just works right out of the box and keeps on working!
Love it so far. My only complaint is the instruction manual is printed too small and just copied and stapled together haphazardly. Not a big deal
My StayFresh Freeze Dryer was so worth it. For weeks, I compared other brands and the complaints against each. I wanted something that was sturdier and would last. The first 2 weeks were trial and error and Tim was kind and helpful each time. I know people went with other brands that were American made. The issue I have with that is there are sometimes higher standards overseas when it comes to machinery and food because they don't allow certain
Chemicals and additives to be used. As much as I do support American made products, this one in particular had better ratings and lasts longer without problems arising. I love how powerful the commercial pump is and how many runs I can get before changing the oil. Overall, I would choose this freeze dryer again in a heartbeat.