About Summit Freeze Supply

Summit Freeze Supply is an independent, authorized reseller of Blue Alpine home freeze dryers, their accessories and replacement parts. We sell the two Select machines and the supplies and parts that go with them, and you can call us about any of it. This page explains what Summit Freeze Supply is and isn’t, what we stock, how we help before and after an order, and how to reach us.

What Summit Freeze Supply is

A specialist store. Summit Freeze Supply doesn’t sell blenders or air fryers. We carry one category from one brand, so the dryers and everything that goes with them, down to M2.5 screws, are in one catalog.

We are not Blue Alpine. Summit Freeze Supply is a separate company that Blue Alpine has authorized to resell its products. The Blue Alpine name is a trademark that belongs to its owner, not to us. When you order here, your order and payment go through Summit Freeze Supply, and so do your questions afterward.

What Summit Freeze Supply sells

The catalog is arranged around how the machines get used, from the dryer itself down to the screws.

Freeze dryers

Two models: the Blue Alpine Medium Select and the Large Select. Both have five stainless steel trays and a 1-inch acrylic door. They also run recipe software you can edit, and both come with the premium vacuum pump in the box. The Medium works off a standard 15-amp outlet. The Large has twice the tray area and needs a 20-amp circuit. Blue Alpine builds both in Idaho, and both use R1270, a propane-based natural refrigerant.

Accessories

Spare tray sets, silicone mats, mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, and the vacuum pump on its own. They’re all in accessories. Trays and mats are sized per model: 9 × 13 inches for the Medium, 13 × 18 for the Large.

Replacement parts

Summit Freeze Supply lists replacement parts by Blue Alpine part number, in four groups: electronics, body and doors, plumbing and filters, and fasteners and tools. In practice that means PCB boards and sensors, handles and latches, hose and filters, and packs of 10 screws and nuts. If you know the part number, you can order the exact part.

Merchandise

A Blue Alpine cotton tee ($10.84) in 100% US-grown cotton, classic fit with a crew neck, and a mountain logo sticker for $1.25. For owners who want the logo on something besides the dryer.

Why Summit Freeze Supply sells dryers as full kits

A dryer without bags and a sealer leaves you with a tray of crisp food and nowhere to put it. So every machine we sell comes with the premium vacuum pump and oil, five trays, five silicone mats, 50 mylar bags, 50 oxygen absorbers and an impulse sealer. You can set it up and run a first batch without waiting on a second order.

First-time owners feel this most. Finding out on day one that the bags are missing is a poor start to a $3,000-plus purchase. At Summit Freeze Supply, the listed price of a dryer covers everything the first batch needs.

Before you buy: what Summit Freeze Supply will ask

A dryer has to suit your wiring and the room you have. We’d rather sort that out before you order than after. On a call, we cover:

• How much food. We’ll ask what you plan to dry and how often, then point you to the Medium (about 8 lbs per 24 hours on average) or the Large (about 16).
• Your outlet. The Medium plugs into a standard 120V, 15A outlet. The Large needs a 20A breaker and a 20A receptacle, and we can tell you what to look for on the panel.
• Your space. You’ll get dimensions and weights (110 lbs and 130 lbs with the pump), plus a reminder that the pump should sit within 5 feet of hose.
• Running costs. We’ll do the electricity math with you from Blue Alpine’s average draw: 1,080 watts for the Medium, 1,440 for the Large.
• What won’t work. Mostly pure fats and sugars. You’ll hear about the limits as well as the good parts.

If the Medium will do the job, we’ll say so, even though the Large costs $1,000 more.

After the dryer arrives

Call after it’s set up, too. That’s when the more specific questions tend to come.

Setup

We can go through it with you on the phone: where the cabinet goes, connecting the pump and adding oil, the right outlet, and the first-run steps in your owner’s manual. A clean setup saves a lot of first-week guesswork.

Troubleshooting

Long cycles, or a vacuum that won’t pull down, often have ordinary causes. The drain was left open. There are crumbs where the door closes. The hose is loose, or longer than 5 feet, or the pump oil is tired. We’ll go through those checks with you before anyone talks about replacing a part.

Parts

When something does wear out, the catalog has it by part number. If you don’t know the number, send Summit Freeze Supply your model and a photo of the part, and we’ll help you identify it.

A look at the Summit Freeze Supply parts catalog

Every part carries its Blue Alpine part number as the SKU. The vacuum and drain hose, for instance, is H00101-00, and the pack of two 3M 2097 filters is A00103-00. If the number on your old part or in your manual matches, that’s the part.

• Electronics: the Buffer PCB Board ($24.99), the Rev 2 Power PCB Board ($74.28), a 3.5-inch touch screen ($42.53), a PT1000 RTD sensor ($7.80), a 75 °C thermal switch ($1.78), a 20A rocker switch ($3.88) and a 15 amp, 14 AWG power cord ($16.26).
• Body and doors: a stainless pull handle ($4.75) and a T-handle latch ($18.95).
• Plumbing and filters: hose at $4.50 a foot, and 3M 2097 P100 filters at $19.98 a pair.
• Fasteners and tools: screws, nuts, rivets, washers and standoffs in packs of 10, most at $2.50, plus a T20 Torx screwdriver ($3.91) and a 5 mm hex key ($3.89).

One board, the Digital PCB Board (SAMD51), doesn’t have an online price yet. Call or email Summit Freeze Supply for a price on that one.

Where we’ll tell you to double-check

Some orders have a catch, and we’d rather point it out now than have you find it later. A few examples:

• Large silicone mats. They fit Blue Alpine’s current tray only. If your trays shipped before December 2024, these mats won’t fit them.
• The pump on another brand. The premium pump can work with other brands of freeze dryer through an adapter. Summit Freeze Supply doesn’t sell those adapters.
• The cooling fan. The 120 × 25 mm fan with wire guard is listed for the Medium. If you own a Large, ask before you order.
• Hose length. Hose is cut to the foot, so it’s tempting to buy extra. Blue Alpine’s own warning is that a hose over 5 feet tends to cause errors.

If we’re not sure a part matches your machine, we’ll say so and help you check the part number. We won’t guess.

The two machines at Summit Freeze Supply

The product page always shows the current price. The full spec sheet, with amp draw and compressor details, is in our guide to Blue Alpine freeze dryers. Or go straight to the freeze dryer shop.

What we think about home food preservation

Keeping food at home is worth doing properly. Freeze drying lets a household hang on to what it grows or buys in bulk for much longer, and throw less of it away. Summit Freeze Supply puts its effort into advice and parts, because that’s what keeps a machine useful after the first month.

We’d also rather be blunt about the limits. A cycle takes 12 to 20 hours. The pump is audible while it runs. The Large needs a 20A circuit, and some foods won’t dry at all. Better you hear that from us now. For the science, the Wikipedia article on freeze drying is a fair place to start. Food safety guidance comes from the National Center for Home Food Preservation, which publishes advice on preserving food at home.

Foods that work, and a few that don’t

Most food freeze dries well. Fruit is the classic: strawberries, peaches, blueberries. Vegetables, cooked meat, soups, chili and pasta dishes come back as quick meals with hot water. Yogurt drops and cheese work too, and candy turns light and crunchy.

The exceptions are foods that are almost all fat or sugar. Butter, pure honey, jam and syrup won’t dry. Fat is a storage problem as well. Oils oxidize without any help, which is why oxygen is the main thing to keep out of a sealed bag. If you’re unsure about a food, run a small portion on one tray before you commit a full batch.

Who a home freeze dryer suits

Gardeners with more tomatoes than they can eat. Hunters who’d rather not buy another chest freezer. Parents who want snacks and quick meals ready for busy weeks. Hikers and campers after light food that rehydrates at the trailhead. Households building an emergency pantry, or just trying to waste less. Summit Freeze Supply can help any of them pick a size.

How ordering from Summit Freeze Supply works

1. Pick what you need. Add a dryer, accessories or parts to your cart. Each product page shows the current price.
2. Check out. Enter your delivery details and pay.
3. Watch for the confirmation. Summit Freeze Supply sends an order confirmation by email.
4. Track it. Sign in to My account to see your order history and where each order stands.
5. Ask if anything’s unclear. Call or email with your order number and we’ll look into it.

Habits that keep a machine working

Bought from Summit Freeze Supply or somewhere else, a Blue Alpine dryer does best with the same few habits:

• Thin, even layers, kept below the tray rim.
• Silicone mats under anything sticky.
• No bagging until the thickest piece is dry all the way through.
• Mylar and an oxygen absorber, sealed soon after the cycle ends.
• Pump oil checked regularly, and changed when it turns cloudy.
• The door wiped and the drain closed before the next batch.

Keep the owner’s manual and your order confirmation together, with a note of which model you have. A photo of the model label is a good backup. When you call about a part, those details make the conversation quicker. If the manual goes missing, Summit Freeze Supply stocks the printed one ($5), and the PDF comes from Blue Alpine.

Freeze drying basics for new owners

From the outside the process looks mysterious. It isn’t, and knowing the stages makes each batch more predictable.

First the chamber freezes the food solid, with a fan circulating the cold air. Then the vacuum pump drops the pressure, and the ice turns to vapor without melting. That’s sublimation. Last, the trays are warmed slightly to pull out the remaining moisture. The pre-programmed recipes pick settings for common foods. Once you want more control, Blue Alpine lets you set a pressure limit for each recipe.

Expect 12 to 20 hours a cycle. Sliced fruit is quick. Stew and thick cuts of meat are slow. Cutting food into even pieces and spreading it thin will do more for cycle time than anything else you control.

At the end, check the thickest piece. It should be crisp or firm all the way through and room temperature in the middle, not cool. Anything soft or cold gets more drying time before it goes in a bag.

Picking a size, in more detail

Volume first. Medium trays are 9 × 13 inches and Large trays 13 × 18, five of each, which works out to roughly 8 lbs per 24 hours against 16. Big harvests and batch cooking lean toward the Large.

Then power and space. The Medium fits most homes without changing anything. The Large needs the 20A circuit and a bit more room: 4 inches wider, 4.5 deeper and 4 taller. If adding a circuit isn’t practical, the Medium is the right call, and it runs the same software.

Last, frequency. Some people like running a small machine often. Others want fewer, bigger batches. Tell Summit Freeze Supply which sounds like you and we’ll suggest a size.

Packaging, briefly

1. Bag food soon after the cycle ends, before it pulls moisture from the air.
2. Portion it: a bag per meal, or per snack.
3. Put one oxygen absorber in each mylar bag, then close it with the impulse sealer.
4. Mark the bag with its contents and date, and the water it needs.
5. Store bags in bins somewhere cool and dark. Use the oldest first.

Packed like this, freeze-dried food can last for years. A puffed-up bag, or one that smells wrong, goes in the trash.

A maintenance routine

A freeze dryer doesn’t ask for much, but it asks regularly. This is the routine we suggest.

• Every batch: defrost and drain the chamber, wipe it dry, clean the acrylic door and the face it closes against, and close the drain.
• Every few batches: check the pump oil level and top it up if it’s low.
• When the oil looks cloudy or dark: drain and replace it, following your manual.
• Monthly: look over the vacuum hose and fittings for cracks or loose ends, and dust the cabinet vents.
• When something wears: replace it by part number. Hose is sold by the foot, and the 3M 2097 P100 filters come in pairs.

A short log of batches and maintenance helps you spot a change in performance early.

Contact Summit Freeze Supply

For anything from model choice to a part you can’t identify, call Summit Freeze Supply on +1 (443) 514-5708, email sales@summitfreezesupply.us, or send a message through the contact page. If it’s about an existing order, put the order number in your message.

Summit Freeze Supply FAQ

Is Summit Freeze Supply an authorized Blue Alpine reseller?

Yes. Summit Freeze Supply is an independent, authorized reseller of Blue Alpine freeze dryers, accessories and replacement parts.

Is Summit Freeze Supply owned by Blue Alpine?

No. We’re a separate business.

Can I buy parts if my dryer came from somewhere else?

Yes. Where you bought the machine makes no difference to ordering parts from us. Check the part number in your owner’s manual first, or call and we’ll help you match it.

Can you help me choose between the Medium and the Large?

Yes. Tell us roughly how much food you deal with and what your outlet is rated for.

How do I reach Summit Freeze Supply after I order?

Call +1 (443) 514-5708 or use the contact form, and include your order number. We’ll get back to you as quickly as we can.