"I bought a Harvest Right home freeze dryer." A saga.
Dec 28, 2022 19:32:04 GMT 10
SA Hunter, hd1340, and 5 more like this
Post by Stealth on Dec 28, 2022 19:32:04 GMT 10
After a solid year of debating, I finally took the plunge and bought a medium Harvest Right freeze dryer to add to our prepping supplies. Lots of research went into the decision and suffice it to say we decided (well, I did, hubby took a little convincing 😏) that it was a food preparation and storage method that would provide the most optimal nutrition for our family as a long term option.
I thought I'd start a post with my experiences so that others can learn from mymistakes learning and decide if it might be an option for them as well. I've given the below info so that if anyone's interested it might help make your choices a little easier.
So the turn of events was;
Start of August - Queried both Oz Farmers (Aus) and HR (USA) directly on their prices for a medium black HR FD with the Premier pump. We elected not to go with the oil-free pump as despite the reduced maintenance I've heard a lot of reports of people having trouble with the oil-free. I only have to change the oil every 10-20 loads with the premier pump and even then I can filter it for quite a few runs before needing to buy more oil. The process is relatively short and pain free so I preferred to do the extra work but get a more solid workhorse pump.
The premier pump is also quieter when running so that had an impact on our choice.
HR quoted $6670.37 AUD including shipping, a free impulse sealer, a free oil filter, a pack of mylar bags and O2 absorbers. An additional cost for import taxes was not included, I'll address that further on. Shipping was estimated for end of January 2023, curb-side delivery to your house no matter where you live.
Oz Farmer quoted $7,995.00 not including shipping and no extras. Shipping was estimated for Oct/Nov 2022, shipping to the closest TNT depot and then you have to organise pick up of a 150kg crate/pallet combo yourself to your home.
Oz Farmer obviously have to organise a repair of your machine should anything go wrong although HR are still the people you contact for tech support/assistance that doesn't require a full machine return anyway. The largest benefit to buying from Oz Farmer is that you have the 'ease' of dealing with Australian Consumer Law if you happen to get a dud machine. That being said any requirement to ship the whole machine back to Oz Farmer is going to be at your own cost anyway and the shipping costs no more and no less to have it shipped cross-country as cross-continent. For the price difference we felt it was a measured risk worth taking.
We chose to order direct from HR.
End of August - Paid a deposit of $1k USD which was approximately $1.4k AUD to order the unit with an Australian plug. Payment was made via Wire transfer which I found odd. I would have preferred to pay by credit card for the international payment protection however they'd experienced a lot of credit card fraud and only accepted payment via wire for international customers. I figured out how to make a wire payment via my bank and it all worked perfectly. I received an email from HR saying that they'd received my order and were processing it. Delivery was estimated to take 16-20 weeks. The wait began.
Mid October - I emailed HR asking for an update as it'd been radio silence since the order confirmation. I was informed that the order was still in the system and to expect delivery around the end of Jan/start of Feb. Cool beans, I'd expected that. Would have been nice to get an automated email update after a couple of months though.
Early December - Received an email saying that our machine was ready to ship and requesting final payment. Paid in full via wire the same day. The next day I received an invoice for the payment and an email from Fedex advising that they'd received the shipping request from HR.
15 Dec - FD was picked up from HR in Utah.
20 Dec - Arrived in Sydney (You read that right, five days from Utah to Sydney, including a stop over in Hawaii!). I received an email from Customs requesting import release payment for a total of $634.76 including $112.23 for Duty, $434.53 for GST, and an $88 entry fee . Those fees were anticipated so I paid them via credit card and the FD was released for on-shipping the next day. Transit was then taken over by TNT for internal shipping. Got an email saying the FD would be delivered on 23 Dec.
23 Dec - No dice. Delayed. Fair, given the time of year. It will be delivered on the 24th. Uh... Unlikely but ok.
24 Dec - No dice. Call Fedex, shipping is delayed further due to shut down for Xmas. Ok. No worries. Delivery anticipated on 29 Dec.
28 Dec (Today) - Phone call. "Will you be at home to accept delivery between 12-2?". Absolutely. Luckily. I only put that part in because it's worth noting that your delivery may be earlier than anticipated by Fedex depending on your local shipping schedule.
FD arrives in a large wooden crate on a pallet. Driver is friendly enough, although when I said "I'm supposed to not accept delivery if there's any damage at all" to hubby, driver said "Well for next time just so you know we can't hang around while you inspect every inch of it, we just don't have the time". This is absolute horse honkey. HR pays for a 15 minute window for the customer to inspect everything and make sure it's not damaged as you're supposed to refuse delivery if there's any damage at all for it to be returned and replaced. Doesn't matter whether it's in Aus or the US they're paid to wait for that 15 minutes.
HR are very clear on this and highlight it several times in bolded, red text in the shipping email. So don't let your driver take the mickey. Luckily our crate was in perfect condition so I felt comfortable signing for it.
We were in the middle of moving house during the payment process and had a little confusion over whether to send it to my brother in law's house or not due to timings so I had a bit of concern about everything going smoothly. But I needn't have worried, it all worked out just fine.
My awesome father in law made an amazing steel-framed trolley for us to put the machine on when it arrived so that it's at a good height. It was in the house ready for us when we got to our new home. It's worth having a sturdy bench or lockable trolley to sit it on so that you're not bending over to load/unload it into your machine and have it at eyeball height to check how a load is going. He generously made one with a shelf underneath for storage space and somewhere to put the pump.
So now my new toy is sitting in the garage settling from it's arduous but shockingly short shipping experience. Tomorrow if it's not going to get too hot outside I'll do my first run which is a bread run. The bread run is purely to take the 'new car smell' out of the machine and make sure it's running properly before the first cycle.
Disadvantages to date - Bloody expensive. Ouch. Saved some dollaridoos and got there though.
The machine's optimal running environment temp is 32c or lower. Given that our garage gets very warm during the day at the moment it may only be infrequently that I can run cycles before the weather cools a bit. You can run it higher however you need to have a fan blowing on the pump to keep it cooler and the cycle will take longer. I'm not in a desperate rush and I'd rather not put unnecessary strain on the machine so despite being keen I'm willing to wait for the cooler days. We're also investigating insulation for the garage door as that'll help reduce the temp in there significantly.
If anything goes wrong that requires a machine return, we'll have to cop the shipping costs on the chin. Potentially several thousand dollars worth. Tech support is mostly by phone. We might be lucky to find someone within cooee that can service the machine but I'll be learning as much as I can to fix it myself if anything breaks. It's not a simple 'return to the store if it doesn't work' situation. Same with any FD from overseas, but it's worth noting.
Mine shipped with the wrong plug. It's wired for our system, but whoever packed it obviously had a spud moment. It plugs in with a standard kettle cable (ie. computer cable) and as geeks we have heaps of spares so it wasn't a problem for us but might be frustrating for others.
Other than that, the machine is plugged in and ready to go for tomorrow's bread run.
I thought I'd start a post with my experiences so that others can learn from my
So the turn of events was;
Start of August - Queried both Oz Farmers (Aus) and HR (USA) directly on their prices for a medium black HR FD with the Premier pump. We elected not to go with the oil-free pump as despite the reduced maintenance I've heard a lot of reports of people having trouble with the oil-free. I only have to change the oil every 10-20 loads with the premier pump and even then I can filter it for quite a few runs before needing to buy more oil. The process is relatively short and pain free so I preferred to do the extra work but get a more solid workhorse pump.
The premier pump is also quieter when running so that had an impact on our choice.
HR quoted $6670.37 AUD including shipping, a free impulse sealer, a free oil filter, a pack of mylar bags and O2 absorbers. An additional cost for import taxes was not included, I'll address that further on. Shipping was estimated for end of January 2023, curb-side delivery to your house no matter where you live.
Oz Farmer quoted $7,995.00 not including shipping and no extras. Shipping was estimated for Oct/Nov 2022, shipping to the closest TNT depot and then you have to organise pick up of a 150kg crate/pallet combo yourself to your home.
Oz Farmer obviously have to organise a repair of your machine should anything go wrong although HR are still the people you contact for tech support/assistance that doesn't require a full machine return anyway. The largest benefit to buying from Oz Farmer is that you have the 'ease' of dealing with Australian Consumer Law if you happen to get a dud machine. That being said any requirement to ship the whole machine back to Oz Farmer is going to be at your own cost anyway and the shipping costs no more and no less to have it shipped cross-country as cross-continent. For the price difference we felt it was a measured risk worth taking.
We chose to order direct from HR.
End of August - Paid a deposit of $1k USD which was approximately $1.4k AUD to order the unit with an Australian plug. Payment was made via Wire transfer which I found odd. I would have preferred to pay by credit card for the international payment protection however they'd experienced a lot of credit card fraud and only accepted payment via wire for international customers. I figured out how to make a wire payment via my bank and it all worked perfectly. I received an email from HR saying that they'd received my order and were processing it. Delivery was estimated to take 16-20 weeks. The wait began.
Mid October - I emailed HR asking for an update as it'd been radio silence since the order confirmation. I was informed that the order was still in the system and to expect delivery around the end of Jan/start of Feb. Cool beans, I'd expected that. Would have been nice to get an automated email update after a couple of months though.
Early December - Received an email saying that our machine was ready to ship and requesting final payment. Paid in full via wire the same day. The next day I received an invoice for the payment and an email from Fedex advising that they'd received the shipping request from HR.
15 Dec - FD was picked up from HR in Utah.
20 Dec - Arrived in Sydney (You read that right, five days from Utah to Sydney, including a stop over in Hawaii!). I received an email from Customs requesting import release payment for a total of $634.76 including $112.23 for Duty, $434.53 for GST, and an $88 entry fee . Those fees were anticipated so I paid them via credit card and the FD was released for on-shipping the next day. Transit was then taken over by TNT for internal shipping. Got an email saying the FD would be delivered on 23 Dec.
23 Dec - No dice. Delayed. Fair, given the time of year. It will be delivered on the 24th. Uh... Unlikely but ok.
24 Dec - No dice. Call Fedex, shipping is delayed further due to shut down for Xmas. Ok. No worries. Delivery anticipated on 29 Dec.
28 Dec (Today) - Phone call. "Will you be at home to accept delivery between 12-2?". Absolutely. Luckily. I only put that part in because it's worth noting that your delivery may be earlier than anticipated by Fedex depending on your local shipping schedule.
FD arrives in a large wooden crate on a pallet. Driver is friendly enough, although when I said "I'm supposed to not accept delivery if there's any damage at all" to hubby, driver said "Well for next time just so you know we can't hang around while you inspect every inch of it, we just don't have the time". This is absolute horse honkey. HR pays for a 15 minute window for the customer to inspect everything and make sure it's not damaged as you're supposed to refuse delivery if there's any damage at all for it to be returned and replaced. Doesn't matter whether it's in Aus or the US they're paid to wait for that 15 minutes.
HR are very clear on this and highlight it several times in bolded, red text in the shipping email. So don't let your driver take the mickey. Luckily our crate was in perfect condition so I felt comfortable signing for it.
We were in the middle of moving house during the payment process and had a little confusion over whether to send it to my brother in law's house or not due to timings so I had a bit of concern about everything going smoothly. But I needn't have worried, it all worked out just fine.
My awesome father in law made an amazing steel-framed trolley for us to put the machine on when it arrived so that it's at a good height. It was in the house ready for us when we got to our new home. It's worth having a sturdy bench or lockable trolley to sit it on so that you're not bending over to load/unload it into your machine and have it at eyeball height to check how a load is going. He generously made one with a shelf underneath for storage space and somewhere to put the pump.
So now my new toy is sitting in the garage settling from it's arduous but shockingly short shipping experience. Tomorrow if it's not going to get too hot outside I'll do my first run which is a bread run. The bread run is purely to take the 'new car smell' out of the machine and make sure it's running properly before the first cycle.
Disadvantages to date - Bloody expensive. Ouch. Saved some dollaridoos and got there though.
The machine's optimal running environment temp is 32c or lower. Given that our garage gets very warm during the day at the moment it may only be infrequently that I can run cycles before the weather cools a bit. You can run it higher however you need to have a fan blowing on the pump to keep it cooler and the cycle will take longer. I'm not in a desperate rush and I'd rather not put unnecessary strain on the machine so despite being keen I'm willing to wait for the cooler days. We're also investigating insulation for the garage door as that'll help reduce the temp in there significantly.
If anything goes wrong that requires a machine return, we'll have to cop the shipping costs on the chin. Potentially several thousand dollars worth. Tech support is mostly by phone. We might be lucky to find someone within cooee that can service the machine but I'll be learning as much as I can to fix it myself if anything breaks. It's not a simple 'return to the store if it doesn't work' situation. Same with any FD from overseas, but it's worth noting.
Mine shipped with the wrong plug. It's wired for our system, but whoever packed it obviously had a spud moment. It plugs in with a standard kettle cable (ie. computer cable) and as geeks we have heaps of spares so it wasn't a problem for us but might be frustrating for others.
Other than that, the machine is plugged in and ready to go for tomorrow's bread run.
