Food Dehydrator vs Freeze Dryer
A dehydrator makes jerky, dried apples and fruit leather for about $150. A freeze dryer keeps whole meals for years, for about $2,000 and a day or more per batch. For most kitchens, I'd buy the dehydrator.
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Buy a dehydrator, and specifically the Cosori Premium. It's about $147, and it turns a flank steak into jerky, a bag of apples into chips and a pint of strawberries into fruit leather. A freeze dryer does something a dehydrator can't (whole meals that keep for years and come back close to fresh), but it starts at around $2,000 and needs a day or more per batch.
Food dehydrator vs freeze dryer: the comparison chart
A dehydrator blows warm air over the food until the water evaporates. A freeze dryer freezes the food hard, then pulls a vacuum so the ice turns straight to vapor without ever melting.
| Food dehydrator | Freeze dryer | |
|---|---|---|
| How it dries | Warm air, usually 95°F to 165°F | Freezes, then a vacuum pump |
| Price | About $50 to $380 | From about $2,000 (about $2,550 for the VEVOR) |
| One batch | 4 to 6 hours for beef jerky, says Excalibur | 20 to 40 hours, longer for sugary fruit |
| Water removed | 80% to 95%, says freeze dryer maker Harvest Right | Up to about 99%, by the same maker's count |
| Texture | Chewy, leathery, shrunk | Light, airy, crunchy, close to full size |
| Keeps | About a year for fruit, less for vegetables | Several years sealed with an oxygen absorber |
| Noise | Quiet fan (the Cosori is under 48 dB) | 62 to 67 dB with the pump running |
| Size | A countertop box or a stack of trays | About 28 by 15 by 24 inches for the small VEVOR |
| Makes jerky | Yes | No |
How each one dries food
A dehydrator is a heater and a fan in a box. Herbs dry at the low end of the dial, fruit and vegetables around 125°F to 135°F, and meat at the top, and you check a piece every hour or so near the end. You can open the door, add a tray, or pull the apples out early because you like them a bit soft.
A freeze dryer runs on its own once you press start. It chills the chamber to about -30°F, which takes around 9 hours, then switches on the vacuum pump and warms the shelves a little at a time while the ice leaves the food. Utah State University Extension puts a typical batch at 20 to 40 hours, and fresh pineapple at 48 to 52. When it beeps, you open it and squeeze the thickest piece. If the middle is still cold, it goes back in.
Which one tastes better?
Jerky and dried mango are better from a dehydrator, because they're chewy and the flavor gets stronger as they shrink, and a freeze dryer can't make either one. Freeze-dried meat strips come out crunchy and puffy (Common Sense Home compares its fajita strips to meat-flavored cheese puffs), which is fun, but it isn't jerky.
Where a freeze dryer wins is anything you want to eat as if it were fresh. Strawberries come out whole and red, with what Common Sense Home calls a melt-in-your-mouth texture. A pan of beef stew or a tray of scrambled eggs comes back with a little hot water and some patience, where dried vegetables want a long simmer in soup. And then there's ice cream and candy, which a dehydrator would just melt. Sugar makes food puff up in the vacuum, so freeze-dried candy comes out bigger than it went in and crackly all the way through.
How long does each one keep food?
Dried fruit keeps about a year in a cool cupboard at 60°F and about six months at 80°F, says the National Center for Home Food Preservation, and dried vegetables last about half as long. That's plenty for snacks you'll eat this winter.
Harvest Right, the best-known maker of home freeze dryers, says its food lasts up to 25 years when it's sealed with an oxygen absorber and stored somewhere cool. Nobody has had home machines long enough to check that: Iowa State University Extension notes that very little university research exists on how long home freeze-dried food keeps its quality. Plan on a few years and you won't be disappointed. Fatty foods (cheese, bacon, butter, peanut butter, salmon) go off sooner either way.
The bigger difference is what happens once you open the bag. Jerky and fruit leather keep fine for weeks in a zip-top bag or a jar. Freeze-dried food acts like a sponge, and on a humid day it can go from crisp to soggy in a couple of hours, so you bag it the moment the cycle ends.
What a freeze dryer really costs
- Bags and absorbers. Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers for every batch you want to keep, and Utah State Extension notes the absorbers are single-use.
- Pump oil. Pumps that use oil need it changed, at about $20 a gallon (you can filter and reuse it), unless you pay more up front for an oil-free pump.
- Room. Even the small VEVOR takes a good piece of counter, and the bigger machines live on a cart or the floor. The pump throws off heat, so it wants a ventilated spot between 45°F and 80°F.
- Noise. Nearly as loud as a vacuum cleaner while the pump runs, for a day or more at a time. A garage, a basement or a laundry room is the usual home for one.
A dehydrator just plugs in, and there's nothing on it to replace.
Freeze dryer vs food dehydrator: which should you buy?
A dehydrator is the right call if you want snacks: jerky for the truck, apple chips for lunchboxes. That's most people, and the Cosori Premium does it well. If you're not sure you'll use one much, the Cosori Compact at about $50 is a cheaper way to find out. (For jerky in particular, my dehydrator picks for jerky go deeper.)
A freeze dryer makes sense when you grow or buy a lot more food than you can eat, and you want to keep it for years in a form you'd actually want to eat: bushels of peaches, or a freezer full of leftovers turned into camping meals. Then $2,000 or more starts to look reasonable.
One thing to know before you shop on Amazon: several machines under $100 there are called "freeze dryers," but their listings describe hot air circulating over stacked trays at 95°F to 167°F. That's a dehydrator. A real freeze dryer has a vacuum pump and costs thousands. Harvest Right sells its machines on its own site and through other stores rather than on Amazon, so on Amazon the VEVOR is the one to look at.
Is freeze-dried food safe?
Yes, if you handle it the way you would fresh food. Freeze drying doesn't kill bacteria, says Utah State Extension. It just puts them to sleep, and they wake up when you add water. So raw meat, raw fish and raw eggs come out of the freeze dryer still raw, and need cooking before you eat them. Freeze-drying meat after you've cooked it takes care of the problem.
What you need
- Cosori Premium Food Dehydrator The dehydrator for jerky, fruit and herbs.$143.99
- Cosori Compact Food Dehydrator A smaller, cheaper dehydrator for a first try.$49.99
- VEVOR Vacuum Freeze Dryer A freeze dryer for whole meals and long storage.$2,552.99
- Pleasant Grove Farm Mylar Bags with Oxygen Absorbers Bags and oxygen absorbers to store either one.$44.95
Get the Cosori Premium for jerky, dried fruit and herbs. Get a freeze dryer only if you're putting up a garden or a hunting season and want to eat it years from now.
