Home freeze drying, honestly costed.
A utility room is the usual answer. The machine needs a room that stays roughly between 10 and 25 C, air around it, a socket of its own and a floor that will not carry vibration into the bedroom.
Nine times out of ten it is the drain valve, the door gasket or tired pump oil. Work through them in that order before you suspect the pump.
An oil pump is cheaper to buy and needs oil changes. An oil-free pump costs several hundred more and asks nothing of you. Over five years the totals are closer than either sales pitch suggests.
Eggs and milk work well. Cheese depends on the fat content, and butter does not work at all. Fat is the variable that decides almost everything here.
Sweets with air or water in them puff. Hard sugar and anything mostly fat does not. A chewy batch almost always means the cycle stopped too soon.
Single ingredient treats are simple to make and keep for a long time. The part most guides skip: freeze drying does not kill pathogens in raw meat.
It is worth it if you want years of shelf life on real meals. It is a poor buy if you mainly dry fruit, herbs and jerky.
Freeze-drying freezes food solid, then removes the ice as vapour under vacuum. The food keeps its shape, loses about 95 percent of its water, and stores for years.
24 to 40 hours for a typical home batch. Water content, thickness and how full the trays are decide where you land in that range.
Small units start near €1,600, medium ones run €2,200 to €3,000, and large ones pass €4,000. Then add a pump, bags, absorbers and the electricity.