A freeze dryer is industrial equipment used in solventless cannabis production to remove water from wet ice-water hash without the heat damage that traditional drying would cause. The process: wet hash (collected from the ice-water washing step at 70%+ moisture content) is loaded onto trays, the trays are placed in the freeze dryer's sealed chamber, the chamber is cooled to -40°F to -80°F and pumped down to a deep vacuum (50–100 millitorr). At those conditions, the frozen water sublimes directly to vapor, leaving the hash dry without ever crossing the liquid phase. The result is fully-dry hash with maximum terpene retention — terps that would partially evaporate during traditional 70°F+ air drying are preserved. A typical 8-tray freeze dryer (Harvest Right or Cuddon brands) costs $3,000–$10,000 and runs a 24–36 hour cycle per batch. Freeze dryers are expensive enough that they're a marker of serious solventless production — the difference between a backyard rosin pressed and a professional hash-rosin operation.
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