Dehydrator or Sun Oven, help me decide?

[partndn]

I got a little stash and was set on my next tool.. the Excaliber. Then a friend said "if I had that cash, I would choose a sun oven."

Sun oven would be a great purchase too. But I believe I'll get more use out of the dehydrator, as I am working on my dry storage and want to try a lot of things with it.
Here are some negs to why I thought more use from dehydrator:
I don't get a great deal of direct sun at my place.
I'm gone during the day and couldn't tend it or turn it if need be.
I have nat gas burners and don't use a ton of energy cooking.
Just me and my young adult son, who's on very diff schedule, so I don't regularly prepare full meals much anyway.
Great for camping, but I rarely get to go.
If I got one, I had thought I would choose the SOS Sport
While we still have a grid, and I'm on it, I figure I would get more stores ready now. Get a sun oven later (or just use my fire pit) when/if there's no power.

Just so happens I saw Sun Oven discount code $117 off and free shipping makes it about $246 to your door.
Sun Oven International | The Solar Cooking Appliance » GLOBAL SUN OVEN with Dehydrating & Preparedness Accessory Package

Would you all please tell me which you think is more useful?
And if you have Excaliber, throw in which model you prefer? Looks like you pay about $50 for the timer feature.

Anybody know any discount codes going on for Excaliber?

[mypatriotsupply]

MPS will be carrying Sun Ovens within the next 14 days, we will have them in our warehouse

[partndn]

That is great to know! When there's a choice on equal product, I'll spend my money with YOU everytime!

Now tell me, which do you get more use of?

[mypatriotsupply]

I can't honestly answer that question. I have not personally used the Sun Oven however decided to pick it up after several trusted friends (including the owner of Tattler) swore up and down it was a fantastic product. I've actually been set up as a dealer for a few weeks but hadn't placed my initial order yet...it was on my to do list, and just got bumped up near the top

[naturelover]

My personal viewpoint would be to go for the dehydrator simply because it's a multi-purpose tool. You can use it for drying or warming other things besides using it for dehydrating foods. For example, I've used my dehydrator for drying small items of laundry or leather or wood, etc. and also for hatching chicks.

If you don't want to spend the extra money on a model that has a timer you can get one without and when a timer is needed then plug the dehydrator into a separate timer like this.

[Jakk]

I use my dehydrator a lot, but mostly seasonally and then it sits most of the winter. The Sun Oven I use all year round. My oven in the house is broke so I do a lot of cooking in it.

[stamphappy]

Originally Posted by naturelover

also for hatching chicks.

Do tell!

[RubyRed]

Brilliant Naturelover! Please share with us on the hatching process!

[DryHeat]

If I were anywhere close to a larger city with an active Craigslist, thrift stores, and auctions, I'd consider doing regular searches looking for *both* products, used. I got a second Sun Oven that way myself for $130 and have purchased several electric American Harvester dehydrators in the $10 each range. One didn't work well but I have its trays and two working bases. Given, Sun Ovens are more popular and likely to be on the market in the SW US, not so much elsewhere, I'd think. I've picked up a couple of FoodSavers in the $10-12 each range, too, plus a 6-roll bulk bag set for them for about $4. Time is money as they say, the issue may be how long you want to hold out and how much effort you have to make to spot the deals. If you think we may be pushing the envelope of some oncoming collapse scenario so time is of the essence (not an unreasonable position, imo), I'd be inclined to go with the Sun Oven, on the basis that you could set up jury-rigged dehydrating more easily if you needed to do so. Sun Ovens really get to 350-375F pretty quickly and I've not seen the home-made solar ovens able to match them.

[wy_white_wolf]

niether. With the money that either costs you could easily build both a solar oven and a solar dehydrator.

[jaha]

I have both the Global Sun Oven and the Excalibur Dehydrator. I use the dehydrator a lot, and the oven less, for reasons very similar to yours.

Most people advised me to go with the 9-tray behemoth model dehydrator because of the cost per drying area ratio, blah blah.... I ignored them. I bought the 5-tray. It sits in the middle shelf of a wheeled microwave cart, is available anytime I want to use it, and takes up zero counter space. The space is more than adequate nearly all the time, although occasionally I have the thing running 24/7. But the device is out of the way so it's not a big deal. If it becomes a big deal, I will probably buy a snackmaster to help with the load and keep as a seasonal backup. And store it in the garage.

It took a while to get used to the noise. It's louder than my stove vent.

I really like that I can put a line of herb sprigs on the square trays without spending time cutting and arranging them in circle patterns, and its easier to stack and clean the trays. Like NatureLover, I sometimes use a lamp timer if I need to be away when the food is likely to finish drying.

The Sun oven is more of a toy, a lark, and maybe a piece of emergency equipment. Its just plain fun to use, and I don't rely it for meals. The dehydrator is also fun, and if you haven't dried food before, you may find it turns into a compelling creative pursuit.

I give the dehydrator my vote for most life-enhancement for the money.

[naturelover]

Originally Posted by naturelover
also for hatching chicks.

Originally Posted by stamphappy

Do tell!

Originally Posted by RubyRed

Brilliant Naturelover! Please share with us on the hatching process!

I have two old Iona dehydrators - they're very similar in design to the Excaliburs - and I use one for dehydrating food or other 'clean' things and the older one I've used for an emergency hatcher. I got the idea for using the dehydrator as a hatcher when I was manager at a poultry/duck hatchery and was in charge of the big walk in incubators and hatchers which can hold hundreds or even thousands of eggs. A kitchen dehydrator can be set at the same temperatures required for hatching and depending on its size it will hold anywhere from a dozen to 40 hatching eggs.

In commercial industry hatcheries, approximately 24 hours before the incubated eggs are due to start pipping and hatch out all the trays of 100's of eggs get transferred out of the incubator and into the hatcher. A commercial poultry hatcher is basically a GIANT dehydrator and warmer that helps the chicks dry out and fluff up after they've hatched out of the eggs. It's especially good for drying up weak or "soft & soggy" chicks/ducklings (that sometimes happens if there was too much humidity inside the incubators) who don't absorb the yolk sack into their abdomen quickly enough after hatching out of the shell.

Chicks/ducklings are messy, gooey and drippy when they hatch and their moisture-proof embryonic sheaths drop off their downy feathers quickly and get all over everything. So if you use a dehydrator for hatching chicks it's important to stretch a couple of layers of cheesecloth or fine mesh fly screen to act as filters at the back of the dehydrator to help prevent the feather sheaths from getting through the vents into the mechanism of the heater and fan.

After the babies are hatched and fluffed up they should be removed to a warm brooder box as soon as possible. Don't leave them there in the dehydrator for too long as the forced air from the fan is not good for their eyes for any length of time and can make their eyes crusty and dry.

If you're hatching duck or other waterfowl eggs in an dehydrator you should put a small tray of warm water on the bottom of the dehydrator to keep the humidity up until all the waterfowl babies are hatched, otherwise the shells will dry up and go brittle which makes it too difficult for them to pip and circumscribe the shells. Once they're all hatched remove the tray of water immediately so the feather sheaths can begin to dry out and drop off and the babies can all dry up nice and clean with fluffy down.

The inside walls, top and bottom of the dehydrator and the drying racks need to be thoroughly cleaned and sterilized after using it as a hatcher because it will get messy inside from specks of egg goo and the sheaths that drop off the babies' downy feathers.

.

[doodlemom]

I love the global sun oven! I use it every sunny day to dehydrate herbs. I love it so much I bought a second one so I can continue to bake in one while dehydrating in the other and have a solar crock pot that's constantly being used.

[naturelover]

If I lived in a location that didn't have so much overcast or cloudy skies I'd be mighty tempted to purchase or build a solar oven too.

.

[unregistered29228]

I've got both, but if I had to choose one I'd choose the dehydrator. We get lots of sun here and a solar oven is an easy way to cook unless it's cloudy, but a dehydrator will work in any weather. The sun oven is handy but you have to be close by to turn it every 30-45 minutes so it stays facing the sun. I use my dehydrator all year long.

[partndn]

Ok y'all, thanks everyone for your input..

NOW guess what.. There's an auction tonight, and this LEM stainless steel is an item up for bid. Hmmmmm....

- STAINLESS STEEL 10 TRAY DEHYDRATOR


dang, what to do.

[Sanza]

Originally Posted by doodlemom

I love the global sun oven! I use it every sunny day to dehydrate herbs. I love it so much I bought a second one so I can continue to bake in one while dehydrating in the other and have a solar crock pot that's constantly being used.

OK so now please explain about this solar crockpot because it sounds interesting.

[jaha]

I'm betting that Doodlemom has a more elegant solution in mind, but I use my global sun oven to "slow cook" with my enamelware pots, LOL. Set up the oven and point at the sun to let it get hot; add food. As the sun moves away, the oven cools, so several hours later the food at 200 deg F and "slow cooked" to perfection. It only requires a little watching/attention, and it helps to know about fast the disk will cook. Keep food safety in mind if you try this, and make sure your food has been at safe temperatures all day.