Adventures in self control

Went to Murdoch’s the other day to pick up a 16-gallon ‘blue barrel’ for rice storage and as I walked down the aisle I beheld….this:

I know it doesn’t seem like I have good impulse control, but I actually impressed myself by not just buying the bloody thing right then and there. BUT….I had a long, long talk with myself basically talking myself in and out of whether I should buy it. Fact is, it ain’t cheap at around $2800~. But I can freeze dry my favorite foods that may be unobtainable elsewhere and get myself a nice stash of FD meats without paying the crazy prices that they normally command. I actually should fab up a spreadsheet to calculate just how many pounds of chicken and beef I’d have to FD before the thing hits the break even point.

But…I already have a pretty healthy (so to speak) stash of freeze drieds. Sure, more would be nice and being able to get exactly the foods I want has a pretty nice attraction as well. And I suppose I could get a couple of the LMI to come in on it with the expectation we could all take turns using it. But..but….expensive. Although people pay more money for far stupider items….jet skis, expensive living room chairs, Manolo Blahniks, etc.

To my way of thinking its the same financial equivalent as:

  • 4 mid-tier ARs
  • 5 Glocks
  • 1.5~ oz. of gold
  • 150 oz. of silver (hey its a 100:1 ratio)
  • 1/3 of a decent used pickup
  • 13k 9mm ball ammo

What I really need is a friend who has one of these things. 80/20 ….. get 80% of the usage for 20% of the cost.

But, dang, it would be kinda fun to see what does and does not come out well.

25 thoughts on “Adventures in self control

  1. Rawles over at Survival Blog has quite the discussion in the archives about the good and bad with the Harvest Right. Also mentions what food worked well and others not so much. I was deterred by price, maintenance, noise, and space for the appliance. Others seem to really like em though.

  2. Got one about 5 yrs. ago. Definite learning curve but now I have a serious stash of FD veggies and meat. All my leftovers go in as well. Now I only use it in fall and winter because it will heat up the house a bit. I have my 3rd bdroom as a prep room but the heat will affect the whole house, but its a bonus in the winter. Noisy? Yea but its a constant hum so I can sleep with it on. Buy the water/oil separation kit as well to extend life of vac pump and to save on oil. Incorporate along with a good canning regiment and you will be loaded for bear. There is eating to live and then there is eating to survive.

  3. I’ve hand one for a couple of years and I love it. Great machine. Yes, you have to change the oil but no big deal. Yes it’s noisy but I have it out in the garage. Get a big batch of hamburger on sale, make the patties just the way you like them, cook them up, freeze dry them. Want a quick burger, just pour some boiling water on a patty and bingo you got your burger.

    I like chili and usually make a big batch. Used to freeze some and eat some. Takes up a lot of space. Now I freeze dry it and vacuum seal it canning jars. Want a quick shot of chili, just add boiling water to the jar.

    The great thing is you get what you want and you know what is in your food. I don’t think it really saves you money but I love the thing. Sell a couple of ARs and get one.

  4. I think I’m gonna buy one and freeze dry you…cause you a CHICKEN!
    bok, bok, bok!!

  5. I’ve had one of these things for several years; have run more than one hundred loads through it. First, there is quite a learning curve. It is not, repeat not, easy to operate. (I’m a retired Porsche/VW mechanic. Not a quite complete idiot.)

    Second, it requires regular maintenance: oil addition after every load, and serious disassembly after about every ten loads. I mean serious and messy. Occasionally, you will find a load of food blasted all over the inside of the chamber. That’s a big job to clean up. True, when that happens you have made a mistake, but that is part of the learning curve. It helps to read the instructions, but much of the instructions do not make much sense until you have used the machine for awhile.

    Third, it is very sensitive to the ambient temperature, operating best, or at all, within a narrow range. Since it is very large and messy, operating it in an air conditioned room is not always possible.

    Finally, there is a particular electronic part that fails regularly. It is not easy to replace, very fussy, difficulty to reach. My machine sits there now for lack of that very part.

    I’m tired of repairing or cleaning it, but don’t have the heart to trash it.

    If you want it, it is yours for the pickup. It just needs the one part to work.

  6. I forgot another negative: You will need several gallons of compressor oil since the machine eats it at a great rate. Acutally, it sprays it out the exhust vent of the compressor, another problem. Also you will need such bags and containers as required to storge your product. You will have at least another thousand invested to be up and running. Oh, and funnels for all the oil pouring.

    There’s more. I kept a journal, but I’ve said enough.

  7. I did the calculations last year, as meat prices were crazy low ( I averaged it out to $2 a pound ), and the cheapest machine. I think it was just a couple of months running 24/7 and it was paid for. The price of commercial FD per pound was about $12 wet weight at the time, so $10 a pound savings times however many pounds fit on trays. I was told if you freeze the tray of meat in a conventional freezer first, the FD time goes down to about half the regular run time. I decided not to do it, as that would have been most of my savings after a few years worth of meat plus the machine, but I sure would have been a hero now if I had

  8. Hi Zero
    Last but not least, how much amperage does it draw.
    Something to think about in a no electricity environment

    • Why would you be using it in a no electricity environment? It seems like its a piece of equipment you use against the fear of a no electricity environment.

      • Perhaps the no electric situation lasted for a long time and you wanted to freeze dry rather than air dry
        Freeze drying might last longer and be more sanitary as flies can get to your stuff you are hanging up like in the remote villages here in Alaska

    • I had mine on a dedicated 15 amp circuit. It draws a lot of power and if you lose power during a cycle you have to start over. I think it worked out to about $20 worth of electricity per month running pretty much full time.

  9. Zero

    Seems like it has some serious drawbacks and some nice returns. Weight them out for a solution. But I wonder if you took the 2800.00 and bought a buy in of MH foods, how much would that get you, all packaged and done and also minus the electricity you have to pay for and oil to buy and run this thing? Something to consider.

  10. Sounds like a business opportunity. Get a bank of freeze dryers, provide electricity, maintenance, and help and rent them out to do-it-yourselfers for a flat hourly rate. Sort of like the do-it-yourself LDS canners used to be. It would be expensive for the individual but would probably be lower in bulk costs than buying commercial FD and you could FD foods the way you like.

    Regards

  11. CZ, would you buy one if it were $1400? (2 users sharing one.) How about $950? (3 users.) Probably, more than 2 users sharing wouldn’t turn out well – if everyone owns it then no one owns it.

    If it were used for FD food that’s not readily available, or very expensive – currently, a #10 can of MH ground beef (~29 oz, dried) or diced beef is about $70-85 (or $49.95 at one place that doesn’t have any….), 20 cans at $70 = $1400, plus the cost of the meat. At $2800 that’s 40 cans – 6 2/3 cases – of MH ground beef. When supplies return to “normal,” whatever that turns out to be it’ll be cheaper than $70, but if it’s not available at all then even “free” ain’t exactly a bargain. And, foods other than beef have considerably lower “dollar density per serving” so that changes the amortization rate.

    Reports are that’s it’s a PITA to use and there’s a steep learning curve with some “new user” failures; BUT I’ve yet to read a report on it saying “I didn’t get storable freeze-dried food out of it once I figured it out.” Factory FD is nitrogen-packed, better than air-packed, maybe N2 + vac-packing is best, and N2 is readily available at gas suppliers.

    It would be handy to see real, detailed data on purchase price, operating & maintenance cost (and time required) and per pound or per ounce costing on final product, especially from several users. My big question would be “does it successfully produce long-term storage food that’s nutritious?

    Factory FD is a known quantity; what I do in my own kitchen isn’t, at least not until I’m “trained and fluent” on the machine and process. At the moment, though, one of those options produces storage food the other leaves me still hungry. I suspect a home freeze drier is just “one more tool” that increases the options along with pressure canning, a couple good freezers and store-bought food.

    • Actually, if I sold off four PSA ARs at the going rate these days, I could buy this and my basis would be $1400….much more reasonable.

  12. I saw it in Murdock last week as well. For me it’s cost and power consumption. Living offgrid I’d have to run a generator to use the thing. If a group of people (mag) could get it they could share the cost and run the thing on grid.

  13. If you sign up for their email notifications they do go on sale from time to time. Of course, then it’s not really an impulse control problem.

  14. I’m currently working on a cut-rate version, trying to get that 80% of function with 20% of the money. The first run was… unsuccessful, but showed signs of promise. The parts for beta version 0.81 should come in next week, hopefully I will have an update for y’all soon after.

  15. I really like my new living room chair. Nice leather with an ottoman, stitching like a baseball glove. Super comfy, I’ve never had a piece of furniture this nice. Did I buy it? No, it followed my wife home. It was $1800, she got it for $825. Sure, there is other stuff the money could have been spent on but, I’m a grown-up so I get at least one nice chair in this life.

    • Plus, if you get hungry enough, you can eat it. The ‘chair’ I mean. 😉

  16. Looks like it might be a good item for a group. But, with just little old me to take care of it wouldn’t make sense.

    There’s a lot of stuff that I see as making sense if you have a group or a big family to think about, but with it just being me and I’m easy and low maintenance I take a pass on it.

  17. There are people who ordered them months ago and are still waiting delivery. Might let them know to either let them buy and ship or buy and resell at reasonable profit.

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