http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x47396wildeyed Donating Member (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-01-08 08:15 AM
Original message
What is the best brand of food dehydrator?
I am thinking of getting one to preserve my summer garden harvest. Looking online, there seems to be a variety of price points. The raw foodists use the Excalibur and say it is the only thing going, but it is pricey. I would probably only use mine during for a few months in the summer, but use it often for that period. Any suggestions?
Comments about food dehydrators will have to come from experts here, as I'm not familiar with the things.
I've never even eaten dehydrated food in my life (that I know of); not even a piece of beef jerky.
I want to preserve something, I simply jam it into the freezer. No muss, no fuss.
hippywife Donating Member (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-01-08 08:30 AM
Response to Original message
1. I haven't used it yet but I ended up buying a Nesco American Harvest off of craigslist for $20. It's not the top of the line so that was about half the original cost. It's not been used because the girl I bought it from is both pregnant and lost her job so they were trying to liquidate things they didn't need.
It seems like it's kinda cheap plastic construction but we'll see how it goes. Wishing us both luck!
wildeyed Donating Member (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-01-08 08:57 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. I honed in on the Nesco brand, too.
They seem to have two levels, snackmaster and gardenmaster. The gardenmaster seems to be larger and dry faster but it is also two or three times as expensive. Let me know how you like yours and if it is adequate to save produce from a small home garden. I borrowed a cheapie Ronco form my friend, so I can use that until I figure out what I want.
hippywife Donating Member (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-01-08 09:56 AM
Response to Reply #2
3. There are more than two sizes.
Mine seems to fall in between the two somewhere. I looked at a used Ronco about a month ago but read reviews before I bought it and decided against it. It still takes a long time for certain things to dry according to the instruction manual so who knows, I might end up reselling it if it eats alot of electricity.
Tab Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sat Aug-02-08 12:35 AM
Response to Reply #1
12. Yeah, well, it is plastic. See my point downstream about the Nesco Gardenmaster
The gardenmaster model is a lot more, but it doesn't need to be more than plastic. It just a temperature controlled heat and fan that doesn't have to support a lot of weight on the racks. It's not you're cooking lasagna in it or anything. It needs to have good air circulation and a convenient design, but there's no need for it to be made out of metal to hold a few vegetables or fruits or meat strips or whatever you're putting in it.
Don't let the plastic fool you. I don't know about the American Harvest, but I get the impression, at least if it's a recent model, they all have the same design, they just differ in how many trays or accessories and whether or not they have timer control and such. I'll think you'll be okay, and $40 is cheap enough that if you don't like it, it's not the end of the world, and if you really like it then you can justify one of their other models, if you get tired of not having a timer or whatever.
hippywife Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sat Aug-02-08 04:02 PM
Response to Reply #12
14. I totally expected it to be made of plastic, dude!
I just didn't expect it to be such cheap, fragile looking stuff, ya know? That just means I have to be even more careful with the stupid thing lest I crack it but good.
Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-01-08 11:36 AM
Response to Original message
5. The people I worked with used the cheap Ronco "as seen on TV" dehydrators and those did a good job of both veggies and meats. I'm not a meat eater, but I did sample the dried fruits and fruit leathers. They were very good, evenly dried.
That tells me anything with ventilated trays, a low heat source and a fan will do the job.
Gormy Cuss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-01-08 11:59 AM
Response to Reply #5
6. The basic Ronco does work well but it takes much longer than models with fans.
I have a ten year old Ronco (no fan) and a new Aroma (fan, rotating trays.) Both do the job well, but the Aroma handles high water content fruit better than the Ronco and everything dries much faster in the Aroma. The latter is important when we have a bounty to handle.
We will continue to use the Ronco for drying chiles and some herbs for as long as it keeps working. It's cheap to run and it does the job.
Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-01-08 12:10 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. After I hit "send," I realized the reason the Ronco worked so well is probably because this is the desert and our thin, arid air helped the process along considerably.
wildeyed Donating Member (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-01-08 03:40 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. I am in the steamy, wet south.
But if the Ronco works well here, I might buy two. They are cheap on ebay and I could do big batches that way.
Has anyone done real sun drying? I stopped by a friend's this AM and she had a pile of old window screens she wanted to get rid of. I could dry stuff on those for free, but I am concerned about insects and vermin getting the food before it was finished drying.
Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-01-08 03:49 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. Get some tobacco netting
They sell it at garden stores. Arrange the food on the screens and make a tobacco netting tent over the whole arrangement to keep bugs away.
Food has been air dried in the south for a long time, usually in the form of "leather britches beans" and fruit leathers. Jerky is different, though, and requires a heat source.
Tab Donating Member (1000+ posts) Fri Aug-01-08 09:49 PM
Response to Original message
10. I have a Nesco Gardenmaster, and it's great
I paid a little more for it than the lesser models because it has a digital timer so you don't have to remember to turn it off. Granted you could also buy a wall timer and plug it into that, but those are a pain for how you have to set them.
It comes with five or six racks - all removable, so you only use the racks you need (they stack, so it's taller the more racks you have). it blows down from the top and is designed to get even circulation no matter what you have on each rack, and it also has a small holed rack overlay that you can use for some of the wetter veggies or whatever.
I haven't regretted buying it for a second. my main objective was to do beef jerkey, which i'm working on, but obviously you can dry most anything. my next thing would probably be tomatoes - i love dried tomatoes.
