food dehydrators

I have had a 4 tray excaliber for 30+ years. It has been a good one. Sits right on the counter year around. It runs almost everyday drying something. We have 3 other small ones also, picked up cheap here and there. We don't do a lot at a time but we end up with a lot for the year. Jerky or fish almost every week, Vegetables, mushrooms, dried sprouted wheat for bread, crackers or wraps, dried fruit and leathers. There is beef jerky drying right now, almost ready, was put in at 10:00 last night. Smells great and I like it warm. Nothing goes to waste, if it can be dried it is....James

I could use some advice. I am frugal but not cheap.

I would like to get a dehydrator. 9 tray that much better than 5? Timer worth the extra $?

What add ons/sheets/tools/thingys do I need to get if I just want to get one box of stuff, one time?

Vegetarian drying.

Thanks ahead.

I got the 9 tray Excalibur without the timer (but came with the $30 book) for about $193 off gardensalive.com, brand new. Saved me about $70 ($100 if you count the cost of the book) ordering there instead of Excalibur's website.

It is a bit pricey, but it is quality, and should last a long time. I don't have any of the extras yet (will get by with parchment paper instead of paraflex sheets for now) but will consider it a worthwhile investment when I'm able to upgrade.

I'd rather buy once than cry twice, if you know what I mean.

(Also, I find the 9 tray to be worth more than the 5 tray, considering jerky takes 4-6 hours, and my husband could easily eat all 9 trays worth in 2 hours if I'd let him, haha!) Especially since you can dry different foods together, the extra footage is invaluable, at least, to me.

I had a Harvest Maid round dehydrator for 30 years, and loved it. It did its job well, wasn't very loud, and could easily be moved outside when I wanted to dry garlic and onions. Just this last Christmas the thermostat died, and I decided to upgrade to an Excalibur. I am having such fun with it! It does seem to dry things faster than the old one (maybe because of the fan in the back rather than on the bottom?). I got the 9 tray, and would recommend that; there is always more to dry than one thinks. I didn't bother with the timer, as I don't run it when I'm not around to check, and I always use low heat so it doesn't matter if it runs a bit longer than necessary. I find it too loud, in our open plan house, to run through the night. If I ever really need a timer I would use the plug in one that I use for the Christmas tree lights. It is certainly an expense, but if you do a lot of dehydrating I think you will be happy with it.

one thing I did not like about the 4 tray dehydrator I had was that it barely heald anything and it took forever to dry it out. It seemed like a lot of time and energy for so few results. I am wating for the 24 tray commercial dehydrator from cabelas to go back on sale and I am most likely going to get one. With 24 tray I might be able to make more product for my time

I bought an excaliber that was considered "reconditioned" from their website for a decent price. It has the timer which I LOVE! I don't have to worry about timing things to come out at times that I'm at home. I've had others, too, but really love the excaliber. I use it to raise bread, too, without the trays in it.

I got my excaleber on ebay 2end handed it works great I love it works great .I have a deal with a friend with a produce- fruit store to take all the bruised or spoiling things for the livestock .and I keep it running with last chance bananas the unbrused half of apples pears peachesand on and on .this makes the best snacks ever :-) :-)

Got my Excalibur on Craig's List. Can't remember the price, but was under $100 I'm sure. It was nearly new, and it works fine.

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You won't ever regret spending the money on an Excalibur. Get the 9-tray, you don't have to always use all of them, but when you have a lot to dehydrate, it really cuts down on time. I also got the timer, just so that I won't have to get up during the night to shut it off if that's when the time is up.

One of the best things about the Excalibur is the fan and heat come from the back, not the bottom. It blows across the food, not through it from the bottom. For this reason, you can dehydrate different types of food in the same load without flavor transfer.

I had a cheap kind first that had the heater on the bottom. The second time I used it, juice from the apples I was drying dripped onto the heater element and burned. I could never get rid of that smell, so had to pitch it.

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All good input.
I have been hoping to trip across an unwanted one used.

These sheet things and books worth the money?

I just use parchment paper and poke some holes in it. But I don't make a lot of the leathers anyway. I used parchment to dry tomato juice, though! (powdered it up later for "instant" tomato juice). I never buy books....can borrow them from the library or find MUCH more pertinent info online.

There are some very informative dehydrator threads in the Preservation area of HT.
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/preserving-harvest/

A convection oven can be used for dehydrating often called a micro/convection oven will sell fairly low price--we bought one used on Craig's List for $25.
I've only heard good things about the Excaliber--but I have two almost identical micro/convection ovens (one for outdoors, one for indoors) that have dehydrating functions on them that I use.

Has anyone built a decent dehydrator? It doesn't look like it would be that hard to do.

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The 9 tray is the only way to go, I thought it'd be too big for us, but we fill it up almost every time we use it. I liked that the Excalibur is mostly metal (except the fancy plastic that goes on the trays). Looked like all the others were plastic. I suggest the timer unless you are really on the ball, if you forget the time and food stays in it for a few hours or overnight it's no big deal. I don't have an issue paying more if it's good quality and you'll get a lot of use out of it.

Oh, but don't pay the ridiculous price for fruit leather trays. Parchment paper works just fine.

We got our Excaliber 9 drawer (with timer) from Craigslist for $95.

During the summer and fall, it runs pretty much non-stop.

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[raising chickens] [diatomaceous earth] [permaculture] [rocket mass heater] [lawn care]

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We have a 9 tray with timer, hubby bought it for me for Christmas years ago. I LOVE it.

I use the sheets at the bottom to catch juices. They turn into a kind of fruit leather, which I then use to make smoothies.

Dehydrating removes the water from fruit, which concentrates the sugars. Dehydrated fruit, especially pineapple, turns it into nature's candy.

I also use it to dehydrate fruit peels, usually apple after processing for applesauce. Sprinkle the peels with cinnamon, and you have a great tasting tea. I keep citrus peels for tea, too.

If you have ever looked at the prices of dehydrated fruit, buying an Excalibur doesn't seem all that expensive! Plus it is huge, which works really well for us.

Having a fan at the back, rather than the bottom, makes all the difference in the world.

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We got the 9 tray Ex with timer about 14 years ago. Love the thing. Have not ever used any other brand though so I can't compare.

We have the 9 tray Excalibur without the timer. We also got the reconditioned unit that has been perfect. The sheets are great to have for making fruit roll-ups or any other we things like tomatoes. We run ours for several days a month and have been for 5 years. I would not trade it for another.

I bought one at Bass Pro for $37.00. I love it. I have dehydrated huge amounts of food in it. I'm having a hard time imagining why another dehydrator would be worth nine or ten times more money.

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