Can anyone give me advice about a dehydrator?

[Buffie]

Next week I hope to buy a dehydrator. I can't afford the super expensive; it will have to be middle-of-the-road. Unfortunately I don't know anyone who has a dehydrator, so I'd like to ask the folks on this board: what brand do you recommend? Are there any special features I should look for? Can I get it at Walmart? Thanks for any advice. :willy_nilly:

[Noahs ARK]

I have an American Harvest that I got from my mom. It's got 10 stackable trays.

I had another one that finally died after 15 years. Can't remember the name of it, but I got it from Emergency Essentials and it was rectangular.

WalMart dehydrators - depending on what each store carries......http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_constraint=0&ic=48_0&search_query=food+dehydrator&Find.x=23&Find.y=6

Whatcha gonna dehydrate?

[signseeker]

I got two from the DI I'm gonna' give a try this summer! I have no idea what brand they are. But hey, they were $5 each. But you know, go ahead and buy new if you feel prompted to spend your money on that which is of----- err, if you feel so inclined. :l0 (49):

I've also heard it's practically a sin to live in the hot, dry country and not dehydrate.

[hiccups]

I've also heard it's practically a sin to live in the hot, dry country and not dehydrate.
No, no, not a sin... dehydration pretty much happens all by itself. :tongue_smilie:

[Dolcezza]

I have just bought an Ezidri (from New Zealand) and it is excellent!

[Julie]

I"ve got 3. One is a big (at least 5 ft tall) homemade one that someone gave me. I'm anxious to try it out. I've got a table set out on the back patio that I'm putting my dehydrators on so they don't heat up the house. Its been so hot lately that I may not even have to plug them in. Dehydration is how the pioneers got their food storage back in the olden days. I know a lady who even puts her stuff on cookie sheets and puts them in her car. Some use their oven. So basically you can dehydrate creatively without even purchasing a dehydrator.

[Justme]

I have an American harvest which works well except I don't like the noise at night. Putting it as far away from me as possible takes care of that. i have had it for over at least 17 years. I also had a high stacked homemade one years ago that unfortunately got taken to DI by an over zealous son cleaning my basement - he liked the American Harvest better, don't remember why. If one picked up the homemade one at DI in Idaho all those years ago and are through with it I'd like it back. The good thing about the homemade was it could be used outside with no electricity if I wanted to. For a couple of years when we had no money but lots of free fruit we used cookie sheets on the top of the car with netting over the fruit to keep bugs off. Fruit had to be checked frequently to avoid over drying though.

[prairiemom]

Questions to ask:
What will be the main food you dehydrate? Fruit, meat, herbs, veggies, other? If you want to do meat, you do not want the stackable or tower dehydrators (Ronco, American Harvest) If you do herbs you will have to get an insert for the trays on the stackable ones. Ordered from the company they can be expensive or you might be able to make make your own out of plastic canvas mesh. If you do small fruit (berries, cherries) or tomatoes you do not want a dryer with the motor on the bottom--the fruit can leak onto the motor and ruin it.

Do you plan to do much fruit leather? You do NOT want any with a hole in the middle (i.e. American Harvest, Ronco, L'Equipe)

How many in your family?
How big a garden or source of food to dehydrate? For small family or small source of food the budget dehydrators (like American Harvest, Ronco) will probably be enough. Do not believe their sales pitch that you can add as many trays as you want. The trays on the bottom dry efficiently but those on top will not dry as well. You can solve this by rotating the trays, but then that means constant vigilence and fussing with it. The more trays you add the less efficient the dryer is.

How much time do you want to spend? Smaller dehydrators will not dry as quickly, making less effective use of the electricity. Tower dehydrators may need to have the trays rotated frequently, depending on contents.

Will you be drying more than one food at a time? Tower dehydrators are not good if you are drying different foods at one time--onions, fruit, herbs, etc tend to mix flavors and aromas more when the heat source moves from bottom to top. You do not need to worry so much about flavor contamination with models that have the fan in the back.

Do you have humidity in your area? Solar dryers or drying in your car is perfect.

Are you just experimenting or do you want to make this a serious part of your preparedness plan? If you want a long term investment, L'Equip or Excalibur are your best investments. They have a 10-12 yr warranty. My Excalibur is 16+ yrs old and used year round.

Will this be something you take out and use once in a while or a much-used appliance? Stackable or tower dehydrators are best for leaving on the counter. Homemade, solar, Excalibur or L'Equip are not so good for the counter-top.

How much do you want to spend? As others have said, you can get good buys at thrift stores or garage sales. You can make your own for $5-40 depending on what materials you use and what you already have on hand. Tower models are $25-50 new. L'Equip is $150 new. Excalibur is $180-220 depending on model.

I've used virtually every style of dehydrator there is. Once I knew that I wanted to dehydrate regularly and had a consistent source of food (garden), the Excalibur became the clear choice. It is the most expensive of the home dehydrators but worth every penny. Every year it pays for itself two to three times over. I use it not only to dehydrate food, but also to dry flowers, make yogurt and granola--something you can't do with the tower models.

I've attached a chart that I use when I teach my dehydrating class that compares some of the pros and cons of the different models.

[KF7EEC]

I haven't done this yet, nor can I remember where I first saw it (maybe here on GLO), but here are directions to build a solar powered fruit dehydrator.

[North_Star]

my wife loves the Cabela's commercial dehydrator.


http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0019202515819a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Products&QueryText=food+dehydratior&sort=all&Go.y=0&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form23&Go.x=0

[Dolcezza]

I would love to see that granola recipe in my site's dehydrator area, please!!!!!!
Also, is is true that you can make tortilla chips (with corn) and how?

[prairiemom]

Wow, that looks like a NICE dehydrator! I like the glass doors and stainless steel exterior. A few questions:
How fine is the mesh in the racks? Is it like a mesh or more like oven racks?
Is there a fan? If so, where is it in the machine--back, top, bottom?
Is there temperature control? What is the range of temperatures?
How much space is between each rack?
What is the warranty on it?