Full Product Manual

HarvestRight.com | 1-800-700-550828
We had oil spurt out of our vacuum
pump, what is happening?
1. It is likely that there is a large leak
in your system. This can happen if the
drain valve is accidentally left open,
the door isn’t clean/aligned properly,
the door seal isn’t clean, or the
vacuum hose is not completely tight
on both ends. It can also occur if all of
the caps/ttings on the pump aren’t
tight. These are the most common
reasons for an oil spurt.
2. The oil level gets too high because
of water vapor coming through the
vacuum hose adding moisture to the
oil level (it is important to drain this
water out of your vacuum pump so
that you can preserve the life of your
oil as well as prevent an oil spurt).
3. Sometimes when the vacuum
pump shuts off, a portion of the
oil will get trapped in the vacuum
pump cartridge. When this happens,
the oil level will appear low in the
sight glass because some of that oil
is now in the cartridge. Often this
will cause the user to believe that
there isn’t enough oil in the pump,
so he/she will add oil to cover the
small circle in the center of the
sight glass window. Adding more oil
in this circumstance will overload
the pump with oil. When the pump
is turned on, the oil that is trapped
in the pump cartridge will be
restored to the original oil reservoir.
If the user has added additional
oil, thinking that the level was low,
there will now be too much oil in
the pump and cause an oil spurt. If
you recognize that the oil level has
lessened, simply continue to run
your freeze dryer as normal.
4. Possible moisture in the drain valve
or in the oil. Verify that the food has
been adequately frozen and the oil is
not milky or opaque in appearance.
When the process is complete,
sometimes the shelves are warm
and sometimes they are cold. Why?
The nal step of the freeze dry
process is a post-dry. The shelf
heaters will turn off for the last hour
of the freeze drying process. This is
so the trays are not hot when pulled
out. When the process nishes, the
heaters turn off and the vacuum
pump turns off. The condensing unit
(freezer) stays on.
If the food is removed immediately
after the process is completed, the
trays will be hot from the heaters
that are on during the post dry. If
you take the food out a few minutes
after it beeps, the trays will be cold.
If you don’t get the food out within
a few hours, the trays will be very
cold. In all cases, the trays should be
removed with a glove because they
will either be warm or cold.
Although the trays are at -40
F, because there is no water in
the food to freeze and make the
food cold, the food will be room
temperature on -40 F trays.
A good way to test that the food is
100% complete is to break or bite