Freeze dryers compared on batch capacity, power and price
Tray area, food per batch, power draw and price for every home, lab and small-commercial unit, with head-to-head comparisons.
New to this? Start with freeze drying 101 or the explainer on what size you actually need.
Every unit we track
Harvest Right Small Pro
- Batch
- 8 lb
- Trays
- 4
- Pump
- Oil
- Power
- 110 V · 15 A
Claims up to 1,800 lb/yr = 225 cycles est.
HNZXIB Home -45 °C
- Batch
- 8 lb
- Trays
- —
- Pump
- included, type not published
- Power
- 110 V
Prep4Life Cube Select
- Batch
- 12 lb
- Trays
- 5
- Pump
- Oil
- Power
- 110 V · 15 A
Claims up to 3,400 lb/yr = 283 cycles est.
Prep4Life Cube Elite
- Batch
- 12 lb
- Trays
- 5
- Pump
- Oil-free
- Power
- 110 V · 15 A
Claims up to 3,400 lb/yr = 283 cycles est.
Harvest Right Medium Pro
- Batch
- 12.5 lb
- Trays
- 5
- Pump
- Oil
- Power
- 110 V · 15 A
Claims up to 3,000 lb/yr = 240 cycles est.
Stay Fresh Home 5-Tray
- Batch
- 15 lb
- Trays
- 5
- Pump
- Oil
- Power
- 110 V · 15 A
Claims up to 3,600 lb/yr = 240 cycles est.
HNZXIB Home 8-Tray
- Batch
- 15.5 lb
- Trays
- 8
- Pump
- included, type not published
- Power
- —
Holland Green Science Xiros Mikro
- Batch
- 21.2 lb
- Trays
- 5
- Pump
- not included
- Power
- 220 V
Harvest Right Large Pro
- Batch
- 22.5 lb
- Trays
- 6
- Pump
- Oil
- Power
- 110 V · 15 A
Claims up to 5,000 lb/yr = 222 cycles est.
Stay Fresh Large
- Batch
- 27.5 lb
- Trays
- 6
- Pump
- Oil
- Power
- 110 V · 20 A
Claims up to 7,000 lb/yr = 255 cycles est.
Blue Alpine XL Commercial
- Batch
- 40 lb
- Trays
- 10
- Pump
- Oil
- Power
- 220 V · 30 A
Claims up to 8,000 lb/yr = 200 cycles est.
Three different purchases
Home units are specified in trays and pounds, lab units in condenser litres and degrees. Comparing a kitchen appliance with a production machine on one axis is how people end up with the wrong one.
The size ladder
All sizes →The maker’s own tier names, in the catalog’s order: the four home tiers by size, then the lab and commercial tiers, which are not on the same scale. Tier names are not standardised between brands, so batch capacity is the figure to read across them — one maker’s Large holds what another calls Medium.
The pump decides your maintenance
An oil pump is cheaper up front and wants its oil changed or filtered every few batches; an oil-free pump costs more and mostly does not. Of the units here, 28 ship an oil pump, 2 ship an oil-free one, and 8 ship no pump at all — mostly lab benchtops, where the pump is a separate purchase and a separate budget line.
All 22 brands
Brand hubs →One unit each, so they get no hub page of their own: BUCHI, CryoDry, Cryonaut, Cuddon Freeze Dry, Holland Green Science, Kolice, Lab1st, LyoDry, Martin Christ, Millrock Technology, Parker Freeze Dry, SP VirTis, TechSource, Telstar, VEVOR. They are all in the full catalog.
Guides
Data last updated 2026-10-07