AMARU as a Home Freeze Dryer

We often receive the question: Can AMARU be used for freeze-drying food at home, without any commercial purpose?

TL;DR: Yes, it’s absolutely possible – and we already have a number of users who keep AMARU “in their kitchen”. But from a pricing perspective, it’s definitely not an ordinary household appliance.

From the very beginning, we designed AMARU as a food freeze dryer for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Not only in terms of its capacity – which can reach up to 15 kg per batch today – but mainly from a regulatory point of view.

In order to be used commercially, a machine must comply with the European Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC. During development and production we also considered the fact that the device would not always be operated by the owner who paid for it, but sometimes by employees with less motivation or experience. Over the years, this has led us to gradually improve or replace parts that proved more vulnerable to rough handling or poor maintenance.

Of course, none of this prevents anyone from buying AMARU for personal use – for example, to process harvests from their own garden. In fact, non-business owners often appreciate:

• application support, including consultations before freeze-drying new types of products,

• robust and durable design,

• industrial-grade components, such as the vacuum pump and cooling unit,

• on-site service, when troubleshooting cannot be resolved over the phone.

What prevents AMARU from being a household appliance?

Essentially nothing – except for the price. The cost of AMARU is still comparable to that of a company car, not a typical home appliance.

It’s not unusual to hear comments like, “Such a device should cost no more than a high-end microwave.” We would love that too. But in reality, the vacuum pump alone exceeds the price of a good microwave.

So why don’t we simply use a much cheaper HVAC-type pump and move production to low-cost countries in Asia? That’s a topic for one of our next articles.