swmalone
Member
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2016
- Messages
- 484
I have had this dehydrator for a few years and thought I might write a review on here.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004Z915M4/?tag=backcountrypo-20
I had been using the Nesco round food dehydrator for years. These combined with a lamp timer worked well for doing a few dehydrated fruits, jerky, and the occasional backpacking meal. The problem is as my garden grew and I couldn't keep up with everything with canning the Nesco was not keeping up. Also since the heater was at the top if you wanted even drying you had to swap trays around a lot.
I started looking for upgrades to our dehydrator and came across the excalibur. The large rectangular trays hold a massive amount of material to be dried. They come with some screened tray inserts and the one I ordered also came with non-stick sheets for doing fruit roll-up type materials.
The thermostat allows for a variety of products to be dried at the proper temperature and to save a few dollars I bought the model without the timer and again used a lamp timer. The great thing about this one compared to the Nesco is that the heater and fan are at the back and the air is circulated extremely well. I really haven't had a need to turn or rearrange the trays. The other thing that is great is that if you have bulky items to dry like large herbs or something similar you can leave out a few trays to make space. With the round ones you have to stack the trays on top of each other which gives you a limited amount of space for drying on each tray.
This thing has worked great for making large batches of backpacking meals but even better it is awesome to take the extra garden produce that doesn't get eaten fresh or canned. In August and September this thing runs non-stop along with the water canner and the pressure canner.
One downside is that since it is so large I often feel bad using it just to run a tray or two of items. I try to make sure I have a full dehydrator full when I use it but if I am forced to just do a tray or two I am sure to place them dead center in the dehydrator.
If you have any questions regarding the dehydrator feel free to let me know. And with that it is time to go cut down some mint to thrown in there.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004Z915M4/?tag=backcountrypo-20
I had been using the Nesco round food dehydrator for years. These combined with a lamp timer worked well for doing a few dehydrated fruits, jerky, and the occasional backpacking meal. The problem is as my garden grew and I couldn't keep up with everything with canning the Nesco was not keeping up. Also since the heater was at the top if you wanted even drying you had to swap trays around a lot.
I started looking for upgrades to our dehydrator and came across the excalibur. The large rectangular trays hold a massive amount of material to be dried. They come with some screened tray inserts and the one I ordered also came with non-stick sheets for doing fruit roll-up type materials.
The thermostat allows for a variety of products to be dried at the proper temperature and to save a few dollars I bought the model without the timer and again used a lamp timer. The great thing about this one compared to the Nesco is that the heater and fan are at the back and the air is circulated extremely well. I really haven't had a need to turn or rearrange the trays. The other thing that is great is that if you have bulky items to dry like large herbs or something similar you can leave out a few trays to make space. With the round ones you have to stack the trays on top of each other which gives you a limited amount of space for drying on each tray.
This thing has worked great for making large batches of backpacking meals but even better it is awesome to take the extra garden produce that doesn't get eaten fresh or canned. In August and September this thing runs non-stop along with the water canner and the pressure canner.
One downside is that since it is so large I often feel bad using it just to run a tray or two of items. I try to make sure I have a full dehydrator full when I use it but if I am forced to just do a tray or two I am sure to place them dead center in the dehydrator.
If you have any questions regarding the dehydrator feel free to let me know. And with that it is time to go cut down some mint to thrown in there.
