Freeze drying is the most popular method for salvaging important documents and books. Although it may take several weeks to months before document freeze drying can be completed, most people are willing to wait for it since it claims to restore documents that have been damaged by water or fire. However, recent reviews suggest that document freeze drying cannot really return the books back to its pre-damaged state.



The process of document freeze drying involves freezing the documents in a -40 Celsius environment. This causes the moisture to disappear or to be 'sucked out' of the documents. Afterwards, the documents are slowly warmed to room temperature. Document freeze drying can certainly restore and save documents, no doubt about that.

However, severely damaged documents cannot be handled by document freeze drying. Those that have been almost unreadable in its damaged state, such as those with smeared ink, certainly cannot be brought back to what it once was. Aside from the above task, what freeze drying professionals do is to encase your documents in a plastic and photocopy them. But do not expect your documents to emerge shiny and new, for it will always bear some marks of fire or water damage. That is something that cannot be undone even by the most skilled document freeze drying professionals.

When you avail of the services of freeze drying companies, you can be assured that the content of your documents will remain confidential, since it is part of their policies.

Documents that should be freeze dried must be brought to a skilled freeze drying professional as soon as possible, not longer than 48 hours after incurring water or fire damage. This is to avoid further damage, and also because document freeze drying takes time to be completed.

There are different document freeze drying techniques that you can choose from. One is the freezer drying, which you can do by yourself and without the aid of a specialist. Here, the document inside a zip-lock bag must be placed inside the freezer. The paper can remain inside for weeks, until it is ready for the next step of the drying process.

The other three types of document freeze drying include the vacuum freeze drying, vacuum thermal drying, and cryogenic drying. Take note that these other types must be done by a document freeze drying professional so as to avoid further damages.

Vacuum freeze drying makes use of the process of sublimation. Since it bypasses the liquid phase, the resulting document has no signs of swelling or additional wetting. Moreover, the ink would not smudge. The main disadvantage of this type of freeze drying is that it is very expensive. Hence, it is only recommended for bulk documents.

Another type is the vacuum thermal drying, wherein there is a higher chance of distortion of documents because the document remains wet during treatments. This type is best for those documents that have been extensively damaged.

Lastly, the cryogenic drying makes use of an advanced freezer to freeze documents. In fact, this is the most expensive method of the three, and is recommended for rare documents.

Even though freeze drying cannot return a document to its original state, what matters is that it can salvage the documents, making them still readable and useful.