Medium Select

The Medium Select is Blue Alpine’s medium freeze dryer, and it plugs into a standard 15A household outlet. No new circuit, no electrician. It takes five 9 x 13 in trays, averages 8 lbs of fresh food per 24 hours, and sells for $2,995 with the pump included.

Who the medium freeze dryer suits

Smaller households, mostly. Also people who’d rather run steady, regular batches than one huge load, and anyone whose kitchen or laundry room only has ordinary 15A outlets. If this is your first machine, the lower price and simpler power needs make it the easier place to start.

Space matters too. The Medium measures 20 x 21 x 30 in and weighs 110 lbs with the pump. At 30 in tall it won’t slide under standard wall cabinets, which usually leave about 18 in above the counter, so plan on a sturdy table, a cart or a spot with open space above it.

Where a medium freeze dryer runs out is volume. The maximum load is up to 15 lbs, or 1 gallon. If you regularly have more food waiting than that, look at the Large.

Plugging in a medium freeze dryer

Blue Alpine specifies 120V on a standard 15A outlet. Maximum draw is 13 A (1560 W), and the average is 9.0 A (1080 W).

A 13 A peak on a 15A circuit doesn’t leave much spare. Before you settle on an outlet, switch off its breaker and see what else goes dead. If a microwave, space heater or hair dryer is on that same circuit breaker, pick a different outlet. Tripping the breaker mid-cycle is the kind of thing you only want to happen once.

Medium freeze dryer or the Large Select?

Side by side, the Medium first and the Large second:

• Trays: five 9 x 13 in quarter-sheets, or five 13 x 18 in half-sheets (double the area)
• Average output: 8 lbs or 16 lbs per 24 hours
• Biggest load: 15 lbs (1 gallon), or 25 lbs (2 gallons)
• Power: any standard 15A outlet, or a 20A breaker plus a 20A receptacle
• Footprint: 20 x 21 x 30 in at 110 lbs, or 24 x 25.5 x 34 in at 130 lbs (weights include the pump)
• Price: $2,995 or $3,995

If 20A power is easy for you and you have the room, the Large gets through twice as much food a day on average. If it isn’t, that usually settles it.

The bottom-tray heater

One detail specific to this medium freeze dryer: the bottom tray gets a higher-wattage heating pad than the others, so it stays at the same temperature as the rest of the stack.

How Blue Alpine builds the medium freeze dryer

• R1270 natural refrigerant (propane-based), which Blue Alpine calls future-proof next to R404 and R410
• PID control with solid-state relays
• Pre-programmed food recipes you can edit, each with a pressure limit you set
• A circulating fan in the chamber for blast freezing
• A P100 filter in the chamber, the 3M 2097, to keep particulates out of the pump
• Barbed vacuum fittings throughout, and threads sealed with gasket material rather than Teflon tape
• An extruded aluminum frame and a 1-inch thick acrylic door
• A solenoid in the pump to stop oil backflow into the chamber

Blue Alpine quotes 25% more cooling capacity and batches up to 25% faster for the Medium. Those are the maker’s numbers, not ours. Average cycles run 12 to 20 hours, and each machine goes through several hours of QC testing before it ships.

What comes with it

You get the medium freeze dryer, the premium vacuum pump with oil, an impulse sealer, five stainless steel trays, five silicone mats, 50 mylar bags and 50 oxygen absorbers. That covers a first batch from tray to sealed bag. Extra 9 x 13 trays and medium silicone mats are sold in sets of five, so you can load the next batch while the current one runs.

Medium freeze dryer questions

Does a medium freeze dryer need its own circuit?

Blue Alpine only asks for a standard 15A outlet. With a 13 A peak, though, you’ll want very little else running on that circuit.

How far can the pump sit from the dryer?

Not far. Blue Alpine warns that hoses longer than 5 ft tend to cause errors. The pump is 13.9 x 5.4 x 12.3 in, and our vacuum hose is sold by the foot.

Where can I read up before buying?

The National Center for Home Food Preservation covers safe home food storage, and Wikipedia’s freeze drying page explains the process. For anything about your own setup, phone +1 (443) 514-5708 or use our contact form.