Harvest Right vs Blue Alpine - Freeze Dryer Comparison

Choosing a suitable home freeze dryer comes with many considerations and choices. After all, buying a freeze-dryer is an investment. You want to make the most of it and maximize every dollar spent.

Harvest Right has a long-standing name in the marketplace, carving their name into the industry as a popular choice in food preservation. They have been in the marketplace for the last 10 years, developing home freeze drying technology from the ground up. They now have an installed customer base of 500,000 users.

Another brand, Blue Alpine, is a relatively new player hoping to find a place in the market with its solutions for family food preservation.

Product Range and Options

Harvest Right Freeze Dryer Range

Harvest Right stands out for its diverse product range, offering many freeze-drying solutions for various needs. The lineup includes models designed for home use, commercial applications, and scientific research. Their Pro Series update in July 2023 brought many improvements: increased food capacity, faster processing times, enhanced software, better electronics, improved energy efficiency, and better reliability.

Blue Alpine Freeze Dryers

Blue Alpine's product range is not nearly as comprehensive, as it focuses on two freeze-dryer models, although they do have some interesting features to meet the needs of its market.

Winner: Harvest Right

Technical Specifications

Because the Blue Alpine product offering is limited, we will compare their two products to those that closely correspond in Harvest Right’s product line. In the following table you will also see a representation of other freeze dryers offered by both brands. The purpose of this table is to show how much drying space and how many pounds of food can be dried in a batch in each company’s freeze dryers.

Later in this document you will find another table that shows a price comparison for each vendor’s products.

Medium Model Comparison

Harvest Right Freeze Dryer Medium

Harvest Right Freeze Dryer Medium

Blue Alpine Medium Freeze Dryer Black

Blue Alpine Freeze Dryer Medium

Harvest Right Freeze Dryer Small

Harvest Right Freeze Dryer Small

Drying Space 675 Square Inches 585 Square Inches 437 Square Inches
Pounds of Food Up to 15 lbs Up to 10 lbs Up to 9 lbs

Large Model Comparison

Harvest Right Harvest Right Powder Coated Large Home Freeze Dryer w/ Mylar Starter Kit Black / Oil Free Pump

Harvest Right Freeze Dryer Large

Blue Alpine Large Freeze Dryer

Blue Alpine Freeze Dryer Large

Drying Space 1,122 Square Inches 1,170 Square Inches
Pounds of Food Up to 25 lbs Up to 25 lbs

Comparing both brands, the Harvest Right has more food drying capacity in its medium freeze dryer and large freeze dryer than do the Blue Alpine dryers. Harvest Right’s small freeze dryer has almost the same drying capacity as the Blue Alpine Medium Freeze dryer (9lbs. versus 10 lbs. per batch).

Harvest Right offers three sizes of freeze dryers that are not available in the Blue Alpine product line (Harvest Right's Small, XLarge, and HRC100). The XLarge model, manufactured by Harvest Right, boasts an impressive drying space of 2,251 square inches and can process up to 50 pounds of food per batch. Even more impressive is the HRC100 model, also manufactured by Harvest Right, which can handle up to 90 pounds of food per batch. These larger capacity options demonstrate Harvest Right's ability to cater to a wider range of needs, from home users to small-scale commercial operations.

Result: Harvest Right

What's Included in the Box

Harvest Right Freeze Dryer Included Accessories
Harvest Right (Medium) Blue Alpine (Medium)
1x Impulse Sealer 1x Impulse Sealer
1x Premier Vacuum Oil Pump 1x Premium Vacuum oIL Pump
1x Vacuum Pump Oil 1x Vacuum Pump Oil
50x Mylar Bags 50x Mylar Bags
50x Oxygen Absorbers 50x Oxygen Absorbers
5x Stainless Steel Trays 5x Stainless Steel Trays
Oil Filter 5x Silicone Mats
Guide to Freeze Drying (physical)
Recipe/Cook Book

Both Harvest Right and Blue Alpine equip you to start freeze-drying right out of the box. They both include many essential accessories: a vacuum pump, an impulse sealer, vacuum pump oil, stainless steel trays, mylar bags, and oxygen absorbers.

Harvest Right also includes in their out of the box kit the following:

  1. An oil filter (so that vacuum pump oil may be reused to save on freeze drying costs),
  2. A guide to freeze drying, and
  3. A recipe book.

Each of these items are not included with Blue Alpine. Blue Alpine does include silicone mats for sticky foods with their units. Harvest Right offers these silicone mats for an additional $37.

The fact that Harvest Right includes a quality filter for reusing oil is important. This makes it possible to reuse oil over and over. This can easily save $50 to $100 per year for the cost of vacuum pump oil.

Result: Harvest Right

Accessories

When comparing Harvest Right and Blue Alpine freeze dryers, it's important to consider not just the main units, but also the range of accessories available. Accessories can greatly enhance the functionality and convenience of a freeze dryer, allowing users to customize their experience and expand their capabilities. In this regard, Harvest Right stands out significantly from Blue Alpine.

When comparing Harvest Right and Blue Alpine, you'll notice a difference in their product offerings beyond the main equipment. Harvest Right stands out by providing a diverse range of additional items specifically designed to enhance the freeze-drying process. These supplementary products are not found in Blue Alpine's catalog. For those interested in freeze-drying or sometimes referred to as lyophilization, this variety of accessories offered by Harvest Right could be a noteworthy consideration when choosing between the two brands.

Vacuum Pump Accessories

Storage Solutions

Tray Accessories

Educational Materials

These accessories reflect that Harvest Right is a mature company with mature product offerings. 

Result: Harvest Right

Build Quality and Durability

Blue Alpine’s vacuum pumps typically have a lifespan of two to three years. They may last longer if a person diligently changes the oil after every 5 batches. An upgrade to an industrial vacuum pump like Harvest Right’s could easily add another $800 or more to the cost of Blue Alpine units.

Certain businesses such as restaurants, hospitals, laboratories, and commercial applications require stainless-steel freeze dryers. Because of that, Harvest Right offers a complete line of stainless-steel freeze dryers, along specific use case freeze dryers such as laboratory freeze dryers. Blue Alpine does not offer stainless-steel freeze dryers.
Harvest Right has introduced an App that may be used on one’s phone. It provides tremendous benefits to all users of freeze dryers, both old and new. These benefits include:

  1. Recipes for freeze drying that explain how to best freeze dry different candies and different types of food.
  2. This telephone App provides a direct connection to Harvest Right customer support. If a customer has any questions regarding freeze drying or believes there is a problem with their unit, they can immediately reach Harvest Right and receive instant help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
  3. From this App, one may directly purchase all of Harvest Right’s freeze dryer accessories such as Mylar bags, oxygen absorbers, vacuum pump oil, and so on.

Result: Harvest Right

Ease of Use

The Blue Alpine offers a simple interface that is functional. You can press start or use any of the six preset recipes. You can also edit these presets based on your desired results.

Harvest Right offers user-friendly interfaces across its freeze-dryer range. Featuring a touchscreen interface, users can easily navigate through settings for precise freeze-drying conditions. Harvest Right’s latest software allows customers to automatically choose different freeze-drying methodologies (one for quality batches, one for fast batches, one for candy batches, and one for custom batches). Harvest Right has a patented freeze-drying process that provides the ability to automatically and optimally dry food.

Winner: Harvest Right

Innovative Features

Harvest Right provides an industrial grade Premier vacuum pump with each freeze dryer. These pumps should last four to five years. They make it possible to run 20 to 30 freeze drying batches without needing to change the oil. This Premier vacuum pump is extremely quiet. It is 10 decibels quieter than Blue Alpine’s, making it possible to use the freeze dryer in any part of your house

Blue Alpine’s pumps typically have a lifespan of three years. The oil in these pumps must be changed after 5 to 10 batches and the pumps are loud when running. An upgrade by Blue Alpine to an industrial vacuum pump like Harvest Rights could easily add another $795 to the Blue Alpine units.

Result: Harvest Right

Performance and Efficiency 

Both freeze dryers have similar power requirements, particularly regarding electrical current draw. Considering the power load, they are best plugged into a dedicated power outlet.

One of the more popular recipes in freeze drying is candy. Freeze dryers add a new dimension of flavor and texture to it. Putting the Harvest Right and Blue Alpine to the test revealed exciting results.

The Harvest Right units can freeze dry candy anywhere between 2-4 hours, depending on the type of candy and the desired results. The Blue Alpine can also finish batches anywhere between 2 - 4 hours.

When it comes to fruits like peaches or watermelon, freeze-drying can take longer due to their high water content. Peaches typically take 24-36 hours to freeze-dry completely, while watermelon can take up to 48 hours due to its extremely high moisture content. The result is a light, crispy fruit that retains its natural sweetness and can be stored for long periods without refrigeration.

The Harvest Right freeze dryer offers more consistent results across various food types, due to its wider range of settings and presets. This makes it a more reliable option for users who plan to freeze dry a variety of foods beyond just candy. Harvest Right's ability to get colder than Blue Alpine and its ability to maintain precise temperatures throughout the process ensures optimal appearance of the freeze-dried food and optimal preservation of nutrients and flavors in different types of food, giving it an edge in overall performance.

Result: Harvest Right

Price and Value for Money

Vendor/Manufacturer Style Tray Capacity Price $
Blue Alpine Medium 585 sq. inches $3,095
Harvest Right* Medium 686 sq. inches $2,895
Harvest Right* Small 430 sq. inches $2,295
Blue Alpine Large 1,170 sq. inches $4,095
Harvest Right* Large 1,122 sq. inches $3,595

* Harvest Right's freeze dryers are packaged with an Industrial Oil Vacuum Pump at no extra cost, an $800 value.
** In addition to the models shown here, Harvest Right offers a selection of larger freeze dryers for those who have a need for increased capacities. That includes those who have large gardens/orchards and those who have commercial freeze-drying businesses.

The oil you’ll use is another matter. The oil in a Harvest Right Premier vacuum pump only needs to be changed once every 20 to 30 batches whereas Blue Alpine’s vacuum pump oil should be changed after every 5 batches. With that in mind, Blue Alpine’s vacuum pump oil needs to be changed 4 times as often as Harvest Rights. Additionally, Harvest Right includes a high-quality oil filter with every purchase so that the vacuum pump oil can be reused. This will save users about one hundred dollars a year for the cost of oil.

Notably, Blue Alpine offers a lower quality vacuum pump than Harvest Right. Adding this type of vacuum pump to Blue Alpine freeze dryers would increase the cost of their units by an additional $800.
Both companies offer payment plan options.

Harvest Right has a significant advantage due to its lower base price for the medium model and large models and because they include an expensive industrial vacuum pump at no extra cost.

Result: Harvest Right

Note: Although we strive for accurate pricing information, prices listed in this article may be subject to change. Please refer to the most current source for up-to-date pricing.

To check the up to date pricing:

Customer Reviews and Feedback

Harvest Right has sold nearly 500,000 freeze dryers and one can easily find reviews of Harvest Right’s freeze dryers from major retailers such as Home Depot, Tractor Supply, and Lowes to name a few. Additionally, we have our own collection of customer reviews on our website. These reviews come directly from Harvest Right users, offering authentic feedback and experiences from people who have purchased and used our freeze dryers in their homes. This wealth of first-hand user testimonials provides valuable insights for potential buyers, complementing the reviews available on other retail platforms. 

Blue Alpine is a newer entrant to the market, and as such, there are currently fewer customer reviews and retail outlets for their products. This is not uncommon for new companies in the industry.
In the past, some feedback about Harvest Right mentioned challenges with customer support due to high sales volume. In response, Harvest Right has expanded its support network and now has a team of 6,000 repair technicians located in major U.S. cities. These technicians can provide in-home service for freeze dryers needing repair.

For both Harvest Right and Blue Alpine freeze dryers, if an owner lives in a remote location unreachable by technicians, the unit may need to be sent back to the manufacturer for repair in case of serious issues.

Result: Harvest Right

Certifications and Warranty 

Harvest Right offers a CE certification in the U.S. and in Europe. They also offer a CSA certification in Canada. Blue Alpine does not offer any certifications with their units.

Winner: Harvest Right

Overall winner: Harvest Right

Choosing the suitable home freeze dryer involves thorough consideration, and Harvest Right and Blue Alpine present distinct options for consumers. Harvest Right, an established name, offers a diverse product range catering to various needs, with recent upgrades emphasizing performance and efficiency. Blue Alpine, a newer player, focuses on simplicity and offers two size variations suitable for homes and small businesses. 

Closing Thoughts

Ultimately, the decision hinges on your individual priorities. In this comparison, Harvest Right emerges with significant advantages. You should weigh the strengths and weaknesses of each brand carefully to determine which aligns best with your specific needs and preferences.

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