If your freeze dryer is not detecting heat, there are a few possible items to check. Please follow these steps:
- If you are currently in the middle of a batch, remove any food from the freeze dryer and place it in your freezer temporarily. Cancel your batch.
- Navigate to the functional testing screen by clicking the green leaf logo in the top left corner of the main home screen. Turn on the toggle labeled “Heater”.
- Watch the Tray temperature reading.
- Is the tray temperature number going up?
- If the tray temperature is number going up: Watch the tray temperature number go up until it reaches 90 degrees. At this point the shelves should start to feel warm. Please touch the shelves with your hand.
- Are the shelves starting to feel warm?
If the shelves are starting to feel warm: It looks like the shelving unit is heating up as it is supposed to. Feel free to run your next batch. If you get the "Mid Batch Heater Failure," error on your next batch, it's likely you have an intermittent functioning heat relay and your heater relay may be starting to fail. If this is the case, a Harvest Right support technician may need to help you reconfigure your relay board to fix the issue or get your modular electronic subassembly sent in for repair.
If you continue to have problems completing batches due to the food not finishing or the heat not kicking on, please be aware that the vacuum pressure (mTorr) needs to be low enough during the batch to trigger the heat to kick on. If the heat is working properly on a test but the batches aren't drying, it could be a vacuum problem. See the vacuum troubleshooting steps if this is the case.
If the shelves are not starting to feel warm: Upload your log files so that a Harvest Right technician can further assist you. By providing the log information, Harvest Right will be able to fast track your problem and get it resolved faster.
- If the tray temperature is number is not going up: Watch the video https://youtu.be/ZHm88pMh118 showing how to check the reset heat button on the back of your shelf. It's possible that by just clicking the reset heat button will fix the heater problem.
- After clicking the reset button and testing your heat, did the shelf heat up?
If yes: Great, problem resolved
If no: Let's check the wiring on the back of your shelf. There might be a wire that just needs to be reconnected.
- Please be sure the heat is turned off on your functional testing screen. Then, follow this video showing how to check the wiring on the back of the shelf and re-test the heat: https://youtu.be/5yjjQvhw7WI
- After checking the wiring and plugging in any disconnected wires, did the shelving unit heat up?
If yes: Great, problem resolved
If no: It sounds like all of your wires are properly plugged in and your shelving unit did not need to be reset. It's very likely that you will need a new relay board in order to solve the heat issue.
To be sure, send your log files to a Harvest Right technician. Relay Board failures are easy to identify with the log files. We want to confirm that this will fix the issue.
