Anyone used Blue Alpine freeze dryers?

Has anyone tried the Blue Alpine freeze dryers? They are supposedly a new brand focused on better components and customer service. Only 5 shelves on the large model but they are slightly larger than HR although still a bit less total sq inches shelf space than our usual. We currently have 8 large harvest rights at the lab but usually have one or two down at any given time with issues. I am looking into alternatives for our next models if anyone has recommendations for scaled production.

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What issues do you have with HR if I might ask?

Slow drying, screens going out and boards going out. We have backup parts for most of them now. One of the harvest rights ramped shelf temps and roasted the hash even when set at 35. Only happens every so often but was filled with fire tolling material the last time it happened and I had to try and explain that to the farmer and make that right. I sent HR the data and paid for troubleshooting but they had zero idea why this was happening or how to prevent it again. I use that one for strictly edible grade now

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With a lilā€™ bit of know-how, some elbow-grease, and a great relationship with your local fabrications, youā€™d be able to make your dream freeze dryer.

Youā€™d just also have to pay for 3rd party certification to use it in a licensed operation, assuming the relevant regulatory body is competent. Lilā€™ bit of paint and some custom stickers, and you may be able to squeak by, but Iā€™d recommend just going for the cert for peace of mind.

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Sounds like a faulty temp probe or relay/ssr.

Either it didnā€™t know what the temp was, or was unable to turn the heat off.

If you had data showing it got hot, then it has to be the latterā€¦

Adding an overtemp cuttoff isnā€™t rocket surgeryā€¦

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Between clueless customer service, voiding your warranty for barely anything at all,neutering ā€˜final dryā€™ temps and having to actually fucking rewrite the firmware to actually achieve the temps you want WHICH THE HARDWARE IS VERY CAPABLE OF WITHOUT PUTTING IT AT RISK OF BREAKING you have the lionā€™s share of complaints.

Unless you have 6k+ or the time for R&D youā€™re sort of stuck with them.

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I own a HR and never had an issue, fingers crossed, so I was just curious. I only use it to make my own personal medicine, Iā€™m sure yours gets far more wear and tear. Mines only been run under 50 times. Harvest Right Med Pharma model :+1:

I do know their customer service is notoriously ass though. One time I sent them a question about buying a new rack for the freeze dryer, The wider one that can fit food instead of the pharmaceutical one made for hash. They didnā€™t answer the question whatsoever they just sent me an invoice for it.

@Fungnificent Iā€™ve always fantasized about doing this. BVV sells their own DIY kit tooā€¦ Really anyone can make a freezer dryer. ā€œDream freeze dryerā€ of course is a different story Iā€™m sure.

Iā€™ve seen many people run these and never seen any of the hash come out of them turn out any good to be totally honest

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Harvest Right or my DIY crap you mean?

DIY freeze dryer, even the BVV kit too Iā€™ve never seen work out well for people but thatā€™s just what Iā€™ve seen. Who knows someone could have figured out the secret sauce for it though

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Precisely the reason I spent $6k and I didnā€™t try it myself, I figured it would create a worse product inherently.

Itā€™s a numbers game. Like Exzaction said, if you walk into a lab with 8 harvest rights, one of them is probably on a table in many pieces

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The secret sauce is a good local fabrications guy with a decent sense of workmanship :ok_hand:

The rest is just some simple python script, an arduino board, and some of the high-end relays and misc. bits nā€™ bobs.

Donā€™t cheap out on your boards folks lol

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Yeah, we discontinued that Freeze Dryer Kit it gave people too many issues

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