Find your true cost per pound of freeze-dried food — electricity, food input, packaging, pump oil, and machine payback all computed from your inputs.
Select a preset or enter custom wattage. Based on Harvest Right published specs.
Electricity cost = Watts × Hours ÷ 1000 × Rate/kWh
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Most blog posts and even Harvest Right's own website quote electricity as the primary cost — typically $1.00–$3.00 per batch. That's only one piece of the picture. Your true cost per pound of dried output also includes:
This calculator adds them all together so you know your floor cost before you set a sell price or decide whether a food type is worth running.
Freeze drying removes moisture through sublimation — ice converts directly to vapor under vacuum. The dry yield formula is:
Dry Yield = Fresh Weight × (1 − Moisture Fraction)
For example: 10 lbs of strawberries (91% water) → 10 × (1 − 0.91) = 0.9 lbs dry. This is why freeze-dried strawberries command high prices and why understanding yield is critical before pricing your product.
Moisture values used in this tool are based on USDA food composition data references. Your actual yield may vary slightly based on ripeness, pre-processing, and machine cycle settings.
Electricity alone is roughly $1.00–$4.00 per batch depending on machine size, run time, and your local rate. But when you include food input, Mylar bags, oxygen absorbers, vacuum pump oil changes, and machine amortization, the true cost per batch typically ranges from $10–$60+, driven mainly by what you're drying and how much fresh food you loaded.
Divide total batch cost by the dry yield weight. Because most foods lose 70–98% of their weight during freeze drying, even a modest-cost batch can result in a high cost per dry pound. Use this calculator to see the breakdown by component so you can identify which costs are driving your number.
Yield depends on moisture content. High-moisture foods like strawberries or cucumbers (90%+ water) shrink the most — you get roughly 0.9–1 lb dry per 10 lbs fresh. Lower-moisture cooked meats or starches yield more per pound loaded. Moisture values in this tool are drawn from USDA food composition references and are typical averages; your results may vary slightly.
Harvest Right recommends changing pump oil every 20–30 batches. Many users drain, filter, and reuse oil after every batch to extend oil life. A fresh oil change costs roughly $10–$20 per quart. At 25 batches between changes, that's $0.40–$0.80 per batch — a small but real cost that adds up over hundreds of batches.
Use your cost per pound dry as the floor, then add your target margin. Popular retail freeze-dried products sell for $2–$20+ per ounce depending on the food and market. Always verify cottage food laws in your jurisdiction before selling — regulations vary significantly by state and country.
Typical food batches run 24–36 hours total (freeze phase + sublimation drying + final dry). High-moisture or dense foods can take 40–48 hours. Candy batches are much shorter — often 2–4 hours — because sugar-based foods have very different thermal properties. Batch time directly multiplies your electricity cost, so high-moisture foods are doubly expensive: they take longer AND yield less dry output.
For many foods, yes — especially when buying seasonal produce in bulk or preserving your own garden harvest. Store-bought freeze-dried strawberries commonly retail for $6–$12 per ounce. Home production typically costs $1–$4 per ounce at small scale. The math improves significantly with higher batch volumes and lower electricity rates. Use the annual projection in this calculator to estimate your savings at your typical usage pace.