I bought a freeze dryer so you don't have to

Just understand what you're signing up for.
links 'n' stuff

Technology Connextras (the second channel where I put stuff sometimes)

Technology Connections on Bluesky:

Technology Connections on Mastodon:

Have you ever noticed that I've never done a brand deal? That's all thanks to people like you! Viewer support through Patreon keeps this channel independent and possible. It's how I can express my true thoughts on things like freeze dryers. If you'd like to join the amazing folks who fund my work, check out the link below. And thank you!

00:00 Intro
02:01 Basics of food preservation
04:30 Sublimation
06:53 Overview of the freeze dryer and operation
14:22 The result of freeze drying
18:19 Eating freeze dried McDonald’s
21:28 steamed hams
23:45 freeze dried eggs and milk
27:24 freeze dried coffee taste test
29:06 Various lessons learned and all the duds
35:28 Some of the successes
39:17 Whether you should own one
41:25 It’s energy-intensive
42:25 All the other work you’re signing up for
45:20 A cost comparison with… regular freezers
49:28 The flaws of the process and machine
57:47 Conclusion / wrap-up

[somefreshbread]

Alec really loves the "box that makes things hot/cold wet/dry" genre

[veronicavaes]

A–A steamed hams reference?!
At this time of year,
At this time of day,
In this part of YouTube,
Localized *entirely* within the Technology Connections Freeze Dryer video?

[Flynnsomething]

>It's $3, 000.
>It requires a lot of prep and maintenance.
However.
>It gives me access to infinite freeze dried strawberries.
Tempting.

[rayraywashere]

I am an engineer who was specializing in "novel" refrigeration machinery until I went to the dark side and became management. I also bought one of these machines from this company to play with and understand the process. The control board will happily spit out a pretty nice log file automatically if you plug in a flash drive to the USB port. I was able to understand what it was doing and its control points by using that log.

[rampy]

I'm impressed that Alec made it thru an entire video about a device with a refrigeration unit without once explaining what Latent Heat of Vaporization is.

[diedrino]

This machine is also used to salvage wet books, since it can make the water evaporate without heating the paper too much. This process is the best solution to try and save libraries and archives’ collections if they get wet, as in floods and hurricanes. It's funny to think that if a library gets wet the best option is to put the wet books in freezer cells and store them until there’s one of these machines available. They are not that widespread yet and the process is very slow, but it does work. I have not finished the video yet, but I really hope Alec will try wet paper in there just to see what happens since I've never seen the process take place!
EDIT: he did not try it. Please everybody help me get this comment to his attention so maybe we can get a demonstration in connextras 🙏

[TomasGradin]

Home canning is somewhat jarring 😂
This was probably the punniest video so far 😶

[gracedreifuerst]

I appreciate this one last long, effortful video before no effort November hits

[dr.trebuchet]

Thanks for being one of my favorite influencers. I've bought so many heat pumps on your recommendations.

[Piupiumacher]

Regarding the 'Magic Physics' for your ice buildup problem:
The cold spot does not attract the Water/Ice, the gaseus water moves to every place with roughly the same chance, but the cold area is the place where the water looses it's energy and is significantly less likely to leave again, so it accumulates there.

[cursedvoid]

As someone who owns a small freeze drying company i love the video, although a note about the gummies and stuff, run them on Candy mode, you have to increase the temp in the settings menu to 135-150 (just do 150) peach rings can work do check any candy you use doesn't have modified corn starch as the top 5 ingredients, use albanese branded gummies, run harder candies for 3-4 hours of dry time and then run gummies for 8-10 hours. For liquid products you could run them in ice cube trays you have to run them for an extra 24 hours probably, i personally despise the silicone trays from harvestright. On the note of peppers being hotter, capsaicin is a pain in the ass molecule due to being an oil so it is not disturbed at all and it spreads out in your mouth as soon as your saliva interacts with the dried pepper. -edit- silly me for forgetting this dont and i mean don't filter and reuse the oil, it will ruin your pump dont be like me and follow directions on the package, just buy new oil "Black Gold" is a good brand.

[GarrettSerack]

Ok, a few comments:

I got a slightly smaller version of this same product at Costco for $1600 -- which was the upper limit on what I'd pay. It has four trays that are a bit slimmer, but more than enough for my needs.

Your opening statement about the 'preppers' and the rabbit hole of hell about freeze drying on YouTube is PRECISELY what I said a few weeks ago to some people. OMFG. You nailed that one.

Things I've found:
- Pineapple - surprisingly good
- Berries - awesome
- lowfat yogurt - OMFG SO BAD I WANNA DIE - and even worse, don't mix with water!
- caramels - BLEW UP SO BIG - but quite interesting
- ice cream - awesomesauce!

[DJSMedicate]

Now I get why the food industry likes using egg powder and milk powder so much. This process saves so much on storage and shipping costs

[alexforce]

My man, bro, compadre, you are NOT an influencer. You are educator.

[joehaeg]

12:49 Hi! I work with Ultra High Vacuum equipment! The reason the water deposits on the sides is due to the how the particles in the chamber interact. The air molecules are basically bouncing around the chamber randomly and the pump is just scooping them out when they reach the vacuum pump. Imagine a crowd of people PACKED in the lobby of a hotel and milling about, but they only change direction when they hit the walls or each other. The only way out is through the automatic revolving door that scoops people out as they bounce into it. More people will bounce into the door when there are more people in the lobby to bounce off of, but the fewer people inside, fewer objects to bounce off of and the lower the odds that they'll bounce into the door. Now, you're still introducing more people to the lobby from the elevator, but it's still not packed enough for them to push into the door like they had earlier. Now, because the walls of the lobby are a bigger target than the door opening, and the walls are now cold, the particles will instead condense on the cold surface and freeze, effectively removing them from the chamber. Hope that helps!

[emmalastname]

I gotta say I really appreciate the disclaimer of you being an influencer at the beginning.
Not because I was going to buy a freeze dryer, but because its super nice to see someone with an audience recognize and respect the responsibility of having a trusted voice.
Thank you for being awesome!

[Tangylives]

I used to design freeze driers so I appreciate this video. The last one I designed before leaving the industry had an drying chamber 8m long, 2.5m in diameter and was designed to dry out archaeological artefacts.

[wiesejay]

Freeze drying works pretty well with fresh herbs especially when compared to conventional dehydration—try mint, basil, cilantro parsley, spring onions, etc.

[crabmansteve]

Freeze dried strawberries are the secret to why my homemade icecream is so good. I can jam a lot more strawberries into the same volume than you can with fresh and the flavor is way more concentrated.

[ossapinhosfazemhumah]

i find it endlesly fascinating that a miracle of engineering like this, which requires constant upkeeping, spare parts from the same manufacturer, oil changes and a robust source of energy to operate is the thing that Doom-Preppers gravitate towards for their apocalypse preparing scenario.
all of these people, who are convinced that society will colapse any day now, all rely on tech, energy and locistical infrastructure for manufacturing and transporting from a society that never fails to deliver those things and never seem to colapse.