dmccarty
Super Star Member
We have been looking at food dehydrators for years. The round models I have seen have not seen large enough the reviews have been iffy at times. We eat quite a bit of dried fruits and we are planning to plant Blueberries and Apples this fall so it was time to look at dehydrators again. I read a bit of this and that as well as watched some YouTube videos. It seemed that quite a few of the videos were using the brand we ended up buying. The particular brand was rectangular with the heating and fan at the back of the unit not at the bottom. The round dehydrators have a heater and fan unit on the bottom which seems to lead to uneven drying AND these units seemed to have small capacities. The unit we bought was that it had five or nine trays which can dry a fair amount of food. The big clincher was that people said that they had their unit for 10-20 years with constant use and no problems. I found a special that included a 10 year warranty on the unit for free as well. I did not want to buy something that was going to break in a year or so.
So tell us what you bought already? :laughing::laughing::laughing:
We bought the Excalibur nine tray unit with a timer for $300. They sell units without the timer and that timer is a high profit item with them but I figured I don't want to dork with a separate timer on the plug. If this this last as long as I expect and we use it as much as I think we will the extra for the timer will be worth it. Look carefully on their site though. They had a special buried under a web page that included a book, non stick tray, 10 year warranty, free shipping, etc. It looks like that special is over but they might have another one so look.
We have been running the unit for a good month which means all day Saturday and Sunday. All day means 8-12 hours. The only nit I have with the unit is the knob that sets the temperature does not lock on the thermostat. It works just fine and I have not bothered to see why the knob did not lock. Another nit is that parts of the plastic mesh trays cannot be washed in the dish washer. I guess my last nit is the structural part of the tray. It is sturdy, but not sturdy enough, since the tray can flex under a full load of food WHEN being carried by one hand. Since we are keeping the dehydrator outside I use one hand to carry the tray and the other to open the door. With one handed use, the tray can flex which risks dropping food. I have started to put a regular cookie type tray under the Excalibur tray to stop the flexing when carrying one handed. This also help keep any drips from the food from getting on the floor. This is not a big deal and the dehydrator was inside would not be noticed by most people.
The wifey thought we should buy the five tray unit and not the nine tray. I figured we would be loading this thing up and it would be better to have an empty tray than to be needing an empty tray. The right decision was to buy the nine unit. The only time we have run it at less than full capacity was because I got busy with other things and could not process the food to put in the dehydrator. We had the food, just not the time.
I was going to hold off starting this discussion but the Doomsday thread pushed me to post earlier. My reason to hold off the discussion was non stick trays. The trays that ship with the Excalibur are in two parts. There is a structural 14x14 inch plastic tray that supports a plastic mesh tray. These are fine for drying jerky or chunks of fruits or veggies. However, an easy way to process fruits is to blend or food process into juice and make fruit leather aka roll ups. Since this turns a solid into a liquid the mesh trays ain't gonna work. We have been using plastic wrap, wrapped around the mesh tray. This works but the leather can stick to the plastic and can be hard to remove. Parchment paper might work better but we have not tried. Excalibur DOES sell non stick trays that would work real well for leathers but they want $80-90 for NINE which is outrageous. I found on Amazon a company selling 14x14 inch non stick trays for $24-25. These trays look just like what Excalibur is selling minus the brand name. The reviewers said they were the same but I have not received mine yet. I was hoping to try these out before posting this discussion but Doomsday has pushed me to post sooner. :laughing:
These non stick trays should be here soon so I can try them out over the weekend.
$300 is quite a bit of money but we eat a fair amount of jerky and even more dried fruit. We have had the Excalibur for about a month and I think we have saved $100 over buying store bought dried fruit. We certainly don't need to buy jerky again. The food is really easy to prepare for drying. It does take time but it is not bad and it is fun. A big problem is sampling. :licking:
The unit itself is maybe 16x18x18? I am guessing but the specs should be on the web site. It is kinda bulky but not bad. It is plastic and bulky but not that hard to move. We are keeping ours on the porch when in use to keep the noise, heat and humidity outside. In the winter, I suspect we will put it in the utility room to keep the heat and humidity in the house. It is not really noisy but I don't think you would want it in a space near the TV or near a conversation. Short of dropping this thing I don't see how it will break. There is a door that lifts simply off the front to allow the trays to slide in/out. The heater and fan are a simple assembly at the back of the unit. The fan blows the heated air over the trays with what seems to be an even distribution. I move the trays around as I check on the food but I don't really need to move the trays from top to bottom. It does help to rotate the trays away from the fan when drying food pieces. For leathers I don't bother.
Excalibur says the unit uses 600 watts. For fruits we have been running it at 135 degrees. Given that it has been 80-100 degrees outside the heater in the unit is not having to work hard. We have been drying for 8-12 hours so lets just say 10 hours on average. Worst case the Excalibur is using 6,000 watts over 10 hours or 6 KWH. We pay 10 cents per KWH so we might be paying 60 cents to dry nine trays of food. Nine trays could be four pints of Blueberries, four Apples cut into rings, two Pineapples, two Mangoes and one Papaya. That is quite a bit of food but dried down it would fit in a 3-4 plastic sandwich bags. Given what we would pay to buy dried food, 60 cents is cheap, and our food is just food. No added anything. Just the food.
I think that is about it for the Excalibur itself. I will post again on what we have been drying.
Later,
Dan
So tell us what you bought already? :laughing::laughing::laughing:
We bought the Excalibur nine tray unit with a timer for $300. They sell units without the timer and that timer is a high profit item with them but I figured I don't want to dork with a separate timer on the plug. If this this last as long as I expect and we use it as much as I think we will the extra for the timer will be worth it. Look carefully on their site though. They had a special buried under a web page that included a book, non stick tray, 10 year warranty, free shipping, etc. It looks like that special is over but they might have another one so look.
We have been running the unit for a good month which means all day Saturday and Sunday. All day means 8-12 hours. The only nit I have with the unit is the knob that sets the temperature does not lock on the thermostat. It works just fine and I have not bothered to see why the knob did not lock. Another nit is that parts of the plastic mesh trays cannot be washed in the dish washer. I guess my last nit is the structural part of the tray. It is sturdy, but not sturdy enough, since the tray can flex under a full load of food WHEN being carried by one hand. Since we are keeping the dehydrator outside I use one hand to carry the tray and the other to open the door. With one handed use, the tray can flex which risks dropping food. I have started to put a regular cookie type tray under the Excalibur tray to stop the flexing when carrying one handed. This also help keep any drips from the food from getting on the floor. This is not a big deal and the dehydrator was inside would not be noticed by most people.
The wifey thought we should buy the five tray unit and not the nine tray. I figured we would be loading this thing up and it would be better to have an empty tray than to be needing an empty tray. The right decision was to buy the nine unit. The only time we have run it at less than full capacity was because I got busy with other things and could not process the food to put in the dehydrator. We had the food, just not the time.
I was going to hold off starting this discussion but the Doomsday thread pushed me to post earlier. My reason to hold off the discussion was non stick trays. The trays that ship with the Excalibur are in two parts. There is a structural 14x14 inch plastic tray that supports a plastic mesh tray. These are fine for drying jerky or chunks of fruits or veggies. However, an easy way to process fruits is to blend or food process into juice and make fruit leather aka roll ups. Since this turns a solid into a liquid the mesh trays ain't gonna work. We have been using plastic wrap, wrapped around the mesh tray. This works but the leather can stick to the plastic and can be hard to remove. Parchment paper might work better but we have not tried. Excalibur DOES sell non stick trays that would work real well for leathers but they want $80-90 for NINE which is outrageous. I found on Amazon a company selling 14x14 inch non stick trays for $24-25. These trays look just like what Excalibur is selling minus the brand name. The reviewers said they were the same but I have not received mine yet. I was hoping to try these out before posting this discussion but Doomsday has pushed me to post sooner. :laughing:
These non stick trays should be here soon so I can try them out over the weekend.
$300 is quite a bit of money but we eat a fair amount of jerky and even more dried fruit. We have had the Excalibur for about a month and I think we have saved $100 over buying store bought dried fruit. We certainly don't need to buy jerky again. The food is really easy to prepare for drying. It does take time but it is not bad and it is fun. A big problem is sampling. :licking:
The unit itself is maybe 16x18x18? I am guessing but the specs should be on the web site. It is kinda bulky but not bad. It is plastic and bulky but not that hard to move. We are keeping ours on the porch when in use to keep the noise, heat and humidity outside. In the winter, I suspect we will put it in the utility room to keep the heat and humidity in the house. It is not really noisy but I don't think you would want it in a space near the TV or near a conversation. Short of dropping this thing I don't see how it will break. There is a door that lifts simply off the front to allow the trays to slide in/out. The heater and fan are a simple assembly at the back of the unit. The fan blows the heated air over the trays with what seems to be an even distribution. I move the trays around as I check on the food but I don't really need to move the trays from top to bottom. It does help to rotate the trays away from the fan when drying food pieces. For leathers I don't bother.
Excalibur says the unit uses 600 watts. For fruits we have been running it at 135 degrees. Given that it has been 80-100 degrees outside the heater in the unit is not having to work hard. We have been drying for 8-12 hours so lets just say 10 hours on average. Worst case the Excalibur is using 6,000 watts over 10 hours or 6 KWH. We pay 10 cents per KWH so we might be paying 60 cents to dry nine trays of food. Nine trays could be four pints of Blueberries, four Apples cut into rings, two Pineapples, two Mangoes and one Papaya. That is quite a bit of food but dried down it would fit in a 3-4 plastic sandwich bags. Given what we would pay to buy dried food, 60 cents is cheap, and our food is just food. No added anything. Just the food.
I think that is about it for the Excalibur itself. I will post again on what we have been drying.
Later,
Dan