# Freeze Dried ? DIY or Buy



## stowlin (Apr 25, 2016)

So Ron Paul is peddling a $3,000 freeze dried machine. I'm thinking for $3,000 I can buy a lot of freeze dried food. It's just my wife and I, and storage is now as issue as we live on a boat. Does freeze dried mean lighter weight? Does it take up less space? Is there a machine that's less than $3k I just started looking. Anyone into it?


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## RedLion (Sep 23, 2015)

Emergency Essentials has advertised freeze dry machines for about $3,000 for the past 6 months. They appear to put out only one small batch every 24 hours. Worth it versus buying freeze dried? I am not sure. As far as weight, freeze dried is lighter weight versus canned and likely most mylar bagged food stuffs in buckets.
I do buy freeze dried food on a smaller scale as I see value in having ready made, quick to eat food stuffs that last longer than MRES. Not as a long term solution, but a good couple month solution for when a SHTF event is likely most dangerous and there really is not a lot of time for food prep.


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

I looked at it a while back and while you could certainly get a return on your investment if you freeze dried enough food, the upfront expense was just too high.


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## Targetshooter (Dec 4, 2015)

Remember when you have freeze dried food you need water , so you will need to stock up on more water or have a very good way to filter water .


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## RedLion (Sep 23, 2015)

Targetshooter said:


> Remember when you have freeze dried food you need water , so you will need to stock up on more water or have a very good way to filter water .


But if he lives on a boat and has a desolenator and/or filter than he should be good.


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## stowlin (Apr 25, 2016)

RedLion said:


> But if he lives on a boat and has a desolenator and/or filter than he should be good.


This is correct. We also have back up parts for desalination.


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## FLPrepper (Jun 6, 2016)

It is still going to take up quite a bit of space that I am sure you cannot afford to lose on the boat. The expense is also probably not something that can be earned back. If you are intent on trying out freeze drying for yourself get a smaller $200-300 machine to try it out and see if it is right for you anyway and then you can get a good gauge on how much space you would need to be able to freeze dry enough food to overcome the cost if at all possible.


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## preponadime (Jun 15, 2016)

I had my wife bake 2 apple pies one with freeze dried apples and one with dehydrated apples they there was no difference. So why would you spend $3000 for a freeze dryer when you can get a dehydrator for $65 or like us build a solar dehydrator with scrap for about $10? So I will be having apple pie for desert the next couple days.
And before someone should ask freeze dried and dehydrated if stored properly have about the same shelf life.


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## stowlin (Apr 25, 2016)

Now I thought freeze dried stored longer than dehydrated ????


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## jdbushcraft (Mar 26, 2015)

FLPrepper said:


> It is still going to take up quite a bit of space that I am sure you cannot afford to lose on the boat. The expense is also probably not something that can be earned back. If you are intent on trying out freeze drying for yourself get a smaller $200-300 machine to try it out and see if it is right for you anyway and then you can get a good gauge on how much space you would need to be able to freeze dry enough food to overcome the cost if at all possible.


Where can you get one for $200?

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## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

$3,000 is a lot of canned goods (Which actually have WATER in them)


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## Maol9 (Mar 20, 2015)

Slippy said:


> I looked at it a while back and while you could certainly get a return on your investment if you freeze dried enough food, the upfront expense was just too high.


I looked at this also and briefly concluded it would be a good way to contribute to my church/group etc. I thought it would make for really good team building activity days. Then I found out how long it takes.

A quote from a overall positive review on Amazon I culled just now.

"...A few things to be aware of with this machine. It will take 24-36 hours for the process to complete. The machine has a noisy buzzer that goes off when the process is finished. Without a way to turn it off, I have found myself having to get up in the middle of the night sometimes to unload the machine. It would be nice to be able to turn that off.

The machines capacity is a limited. The ice capacity is about 3 pounds of water. More than that and you will need to stop the process and defrost the machine. It takes about 20 minutes with a hair dryer. I determined the weight by weighing the amount of water that drained into the drain bucket. This roughly works out to about 3 full trays. I always weigh what I put into the machine now and put in no more than three pounds. If the food is relatively dry, you may be able to put more, but 3 pounds is a pretty safe quantity.

The machine puts out a lot of heat in operation. No real surprise here. You are running a freezer, heater and vacuum pump all at the same time. Electricity cost something to keep in mind here. I figure it costs me about one dollar per pound of food processed in the machine..."


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## 8301 (Nov 29, 2014)

Freeze drying food doesn't save much space. Freeze dried food in an airtight container lasts longer than dehydrated food. If the grid ever goes down for the long term there won't be power to run a freeze dryer although you may be able to dehydrate food using more traditional methods like a solar oven ect.

For long term stored food I'm fairly sure that by the time you put the money and effort to freeze dry your own food you would have been better off just buying pre bagged freeze dried food.

For the most food in a small space I'd suggest looking into www.honeyville.com for canned long term storage food. Not the tastiest but high quality in easy to stack #10 cans. White rice is the most calories for the space and stores for 20-30 years.

Personally while I've got quite a mixture of types and qualities of stored food there is at least a month worth of easy to prepare Mountain House and Legacy meals per person with the bulk of the stores in Honeyville #10 cans. It's a compromise between price, shelf life, and easy to prepare / high flavor. Walmart online and Amazon also both offer quite a bit of canned storage foods. I like the Augason foods canned flours with a 10 year shelf life. The calories will still be there in 10+ years but the yeast may not last longer than 10 years.

For the ultimate in space saving you can't beat a 5 gal bucket with oxygen absorbers full of white rice,. A 40 pound bucket of white rice has 112,000 calories and will keep a person basically going for 56 days.


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## stowlin (Apr 25, 2016)

I've bought from honeyville.com and it's ok. I bought some stuff from Costco too which was alright. One thing I notice on companies that sale #10 cans is they are 1/2 or more empty. I don't want to waste space. In my situation space is critical and limited. Weight is secondary but worth noting. I want food supplies for a year for two people and we may be able to suppliment with birds, fish, and shell fish. In SHTF I doubt we can just sail right to where we want, my guess is it will be quite slow, methodical, and cautionary. Hence a year.


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## 8301 (Nov 29, 2014)

stowlin said:


> I've bought from honeyville.com and it's ok. I bought some stuff from Costco too which was alright. One thing I notice on companies that sale #10 cans is they are 1/2 or more empty. I don't want to waste space. In my situation space is critical and limited.


That's why I suggested 5 gallon pails you top off yourself. Although the #10 cans stack well, especially is left in their 6 can cases.


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## A Watchman (Sep 14, 2015)

Mountain House proved to be worth my money and time. I have a large store of #10 cans and smaller packages. Of course, I have 5 gallon buckets w absorbers and canned goods from beans to tuna.


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## Mad Trapper (Feb 12, 2014)

I've a LOT of freeze /dried shit in my freezer chaep? Now those would be older things. PM me : )


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## preponadime (Jun 15, 2016)

We dehydrate in a solar dehydrator then vacuum pack either in bags or jars. We have an attachment for our vacuum sealer to seal jars.

If interested here is the amazon link where we purchased ours http://amzn.to/2b4fEqG


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## jdbushcraft (Mar 26, 2015)

John Galt said:


> That's why I suggested 5 gallon pails you top off yourself. Although the #10 cans stack well, especially is left in their 6 can cases.


Don't forget the mylar bags.

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