Recommend a dehydrator?

[Snal~]

The wife has a ton of herbs growing at the lake place, so I'd like to get a good dehydrator for harvest.
Any recommendations for a good one?

 

[Tim]

We used to dehydrate a LOT of stuff for backpacking meals. I found the cheap plastic ones similar to this to work very well.

 

[two77]

I have a plastic 4 tray unit made by Nesco that I bought about 15 years ago for about $50 and it has served me well. I use it mostly to make jerky.

 

[RR]

I have this one.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082XT3FCD/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_4105GMPKZTP0E1A7VAFC

I had it for about a month when the unit died. One email to the company and they replaced it quickly with no hassle. It's worked perfectly since.


I'd buy it again.

 

[Les White]

I've seen them made with a cheap box fan and cheap furnace filters. Seems to produce good results, and the box fan can be used for more than one thing.

Make Your Own DIY Box-Fan Beef Jerky

There's no reason to pay the outlandish store prices for beef jerkyit's the ultimate DIY food.

www.popularmechanics.com

 

[Spekter]

We have one of the old dial type of excaliber model with multi trays and several heat settings. It's great, a little pricey, but unreal in its stability in temp, etc

Our oven alao has a dehydrate function..

 

[REELDOC]

Best one we've ever had.

https://www.amazon.com/Excalibur-3926TB-Dehydrator-Temperature-Dehydration/dp/B008OV4FD0/ref=sr_1_9?_encoding=UTF8&c=ts&dchild=1&keywords=Dehydrators&qid=1628530094&s=kitchen&sr=1-9&ts_id=1090752

 

[Snal~]

Thanks all!

 

[georgel]

Another vote for the Excalibur. It's highly rated by the groups my wife communicates with. And we bought one.

 

[noway2]

We bought one for my parents at xmas. I forget the brand, but one of the key features is that it can go to 165F which makes it safe to dehydrate meat (jerky).

 

[TRaGiK]

I've got two recommendations.

First, I'll preface this with I had a "side hustle" making and selling beef jerky. In a total of about 2.5 years time, I sold roughly 2,000 pounds of jerky. In that time, I got some experience with 2 brands of dehydrators.

Nesco FD-61. I've got somewhere in the ballpark of 10,000 hours on a single unit. It sucks for jerky and sucks to clean, but it is as reliable as a anvil. These days, it gets used primarily for herbs and veggies.

Excalibur 9 tray. The black plastic models. I had roughly 5,000 hours on 3 different units. One of them I got rid of a couple years ago when we moved. Two of them I bought 1.5 years ago. One of the two is essentially worn out. The plastic case broke. It's still usable, but I'll likely be testing out their warranty soon. That aside, even if they don't warranty it, I've got nothing to complain about. It ran almost 24/7 for a year straight.

I guess what I'm saying here is, if you want cheap ($70ish) and good, Nesco FD-61. If you want something with a lot more capacity and don't mind spending around $300, Excalibur.