We had a small one years ago when I was a kid in the 70's. My dad got it from a friend of his that had bought to freeze dry fruit for their farm stand, It was maybe the size of one of those small refrigerators or wine coolers.
I think it was more a novelty back then. My mother dried various fruits, a few vegetables and beans but after a while I think they got tired of eating dried fruit or having the thing take up space in the kitchen.
I'm not sure where it went but seem to think it got given to my uncle and we didn't miss it. I did like bananas and figs dried as a snack but to keep them you still had to vacuum seal them or vacuum can them in jars. Something I still do with grains and bulk items but the freeze dryer never seemed all that practical as a means to preserve food. It was more just a way to make snacks.
The dryer we had had about 20 trays or so and it used a good bit of electricity but I'm sure newer models do better. I can still here my dad complaining about it and he too was tired of eating dried snacks,
Back then we had several plum trees, fig bushes, apple trees, peach and pear trees and a row of blueberry bushes so there was plenty to freeze dry but never all at the same time.
I think it would have made more sense if it were a larger unit capable of doing a larger amount all at once and be done with it till the next harvest but doing 10 or so jars at a time took too much time too often. (Us kids were free labor), We would have to sit and wash and peel fruits and prepare the trays. I think what made it so costly to run was the start up each time, It had to run over night if you were going to use it the next day and then it would run for most of the next day or two as you prepped more trays of fruit. Freezing the trays first made things go faster but it created a lot of frost that way which didn't happen when only using the freeze dryer. After a productive summer the pantry and one small hutch in the kitchen plus a few boxes of sealed bags of fruit done for longer term storage which were vacuum sealed and stored in the chest freezer.
The only two things that I really liked from that thing was bananas and freeze dried ice cream sandwiches made on graham crackers. On occasion dad would bring home sweet peas and do sweet peas or snap peas and those were like candy.
The bottom line though it was more of a toy who's novelty wore off and the cost and necessity of it was never really justified.
Back then we would have never had that thing if it hadn't been free. Seeing what they sell for now there's absolutely no way I can see one ever being able to produce enough to justify the costs,
