Harvest Right vs. Stay Fresh

• EXPERIENCE – Harvest Right developed the very first freeze dryer for home use over a decade ago. Since that time, Harvest Right has led the industry in home freeze drying and has continually found ways to innovate and improve home freeze dryers while also lowering costs.

• SALES – Harvest Right has sold over 450,000 freeze dryers. Stay Fresh units are new to the industry, and they have sold very few freeze dryers.

• TRAY SIZE – Harvest Right’s medium freeze dryer is $850 less than Stay Fresh’s and it has more drying space. Harvest Right’s large freeze dryer still costs less that Stay Fresh’s standard and has nearly twice the capacity.

• PUMPS – A Harvest Right Premier vacuum pump (which comes with every unit) only needs the oil changed after every 30-40 batches. The Stay Fresh pump needs to have the oil changed after every 5 batches. The Harvest Right Premier industrial pump comes free with every unit, whereas it would cost a $1,000 or more to purchase a similar industrial pump for a Stay Fresh to the one that comes with every Harvest Right freeze dryer.  

• PUMP OIL – Because Harvest Right’s vacuum pump uses so little oil (compared to Stay Fresh), Harvest Right customers will save as much as $300 per year in oil costs. Harvest Right units also come with a vastly superior oil filter that filters oil much better, saving even more on oil costs.

• EFFICIENCY – A Harvest Right freeze dryer has software that keeps track of how a freeze dryer is functioning. This software saves all the operational data into the freeze dryers computer memory. Because of this, if you ever have a problem, one of Harvest Right’s technicians will be able to easily use this data to determine what the problem is and resolve it quickly. Alternatively, data from a Stay Fresh unit is confusing and difficult to understand. It is of very little help in resolving issues.
  
  
• QUALITY—Because of Harvest Right’s patented technology and processes, the quality of freeze-dried food coming out of a Harvest Right freeze dryer is much higher. Food from a Stay Fresh unit is often smaller, shriveled, and wrinkled.
  
  
• NOISE – Harvest Right’s freeze dryer is much quieter than Stay Fresh’s. As a result, it can be placed in living areas because it won’t bother people.

• SIZES – Harvest Right offers a wide range of sizes including small, medium, large, and XL. Stay Fresh only has two sizes.

• REVIEWS – Harvest Right has thousands of reviews with an average 4.8 star ranking. Stay Fresh has relatively no reviews.

• AVAILABLE IN STORES – Harvest Right freeze dryers can be seen, touched, and purchased in over 3,000 retail locations (Tractor Supply, Ace Hardware, Scheels, Sportsman’s Warehouse, and hundreds more).  They can also be purchased online at Home Depot, Tractor Supply, Ace Hardware, and others.

• INNOVATIONS – Harvest Right is always working on improving units while keeping costs low. This continuous research has resulted in several model updates through the years including the recent release of the newest Harvest Right Pro models.

• SCREEN – Harvest Right’s screen (and electronics package) is small, advanced, and can easily be removed from the front of the freeze dryer. Stay Fresh screen and electronics is 10 times the size and is extremely complicated. If it needs to be replaced, it is very difficult to do so.   

• CUSTOMER SUPPORT – Harvest Right has over 6,000 support technicians located throughout the United States who can come to your home if there is a serious problem. Help is always just a phone call away. This isn’t possible with Stay Fresh. If you have a serious problem with that unit, you will have to figure out a way to pack up a 115 lb. unit along with a 35 lb. vacuum pump and send it back to Stay Fresh.

• PRICE – Harvest Right’s medium freeze dryer has more drying space than Stay Fresh’s Standard freeze dryer and costs $850 less! The Harvest Right large freeze dryer has nearly twice as much drying space as the Standard and still costs less.
  
  Another major price difference is that Harvest Right’s freeze dryers come with industrial quality vacuum pumps. These pumps require an oil change once every 30 batches compared to once every 5 batches for a Stay Fresh vacuum pump. This significantly reduces the cost of oil and also means Harvest Right users will have far fewer oil changes to deal with. If Stay Fresh were to offer an industrial-style vacuum pump like Harvest Right’s, their freeze dryer would cost $1,000 more than it currently does. Therefore, in direct comparison, a normal price for a Harvest Right medium Pro is $2,895 compared to a Stay Fresh unit which would be $4,734, if it had an equivalent industrial vacuum pump with it. This is an increase in cost of $1,839 for a freeze dryer that won’t produce freeze-dried food that is as high quality as the food that is done in a Harvest Right freeze dryer.