Dehydrator

[ArmsOfLove]

if you have one, which one, and what do you think of it? We've got the cruddy one from Walmart and want to get one that actually works

so . . . . do tell

[mommylove]

I have the Excalibur 9 tray.

I love all the typical selling points.

I would only improve 2 things. 1) It would be great if the trays had a lip to keep sauce from falling overboard. This only happens when I dehydrate chunks of veggies in a thin sauce like Braggs/lemon juice/etc. Thicker things like pureed fruit stays put. But even when it falls overboard, it's not that big of a deal because it's easy to wipe up later. It's really operator error because that doesn't happen if I put less on each tray. (But I sometimes overfill them because of #2)

2) The (Teflex?) sheets for using with sauces are a pain to clean. They're big & floppy when I try to hand wash them & set them out to dry. It's actually more convenient to use parchment paper than to wash the Teflex sheets. But I'm stubborn & since I bought the sheets, I want to use them.

Those are my only gripes, which I think is pretty good.

Cabela's has their own brand that looks identical & is priced slightly lower.

[MTmomma]

Oh oh oh....I'll come back to this when I'm on the computer but I have a wonderful dehydrator that I cannot recommend enough.

[rjy9343]

Subbing since I want one when we go back to the US.

[Soliloquy]

Excalibur 9 tray. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. If you can afford it, a dehydrator with removable trays is wonderful because you can use it for many things. Like soaking dried legumes at 95 degrees instead of room temp, fermenting things that need a steady temperature, etc. And it's great for general dehydrating, too. And drying out all the glue on Valentine cards.

[gerberadaisy]

This is the exact dehydrator we have. I guarantee we bought it on sale w/ free shipping but I do not recall how much we spent on it. I like it fine but I wanted a smaller one for small batches. Hubby, in his overzealous way, went for the big one. We used it a lot last summer to make zucchini chips, practically every other day it seemed. This year we haven't used it at all. When my little guy gets teeth & can eat gummy stuff, I want to make dried fruit and fruit leathers for us.

I do like it a lot though. It's simple to use though to use it on the counter I need a step-stool because I'm short.

[shekinah]

I ordered the Good4u one, and it should be here next week. Normally I don't go for the made in China knock offs, but I had been reading reviews for months, and so many people like the good4u and have fan issues with the excallibur. So I got the ten tray one for the same price the 5 tray excallibur is. Maybe I will regret it, lol, but I'll write a review once I start using it!

[ViolaMum]

because I've been thinking of buying one

[ArmsOfLove]

I've had dh researching this for awhile too and this morning I went ahead and ordered this one http://www.amazon.com/STX-Dehydra-DE...pr_product_top

The reviews seem to present it as as good as the Excalibur, with some extra features, and better customer service It was on a really good deal at amazon. I hope we love it--can't wait to take this pojunk back to Walmart. It's been nice for super simple things and to give us a taste of what we can get done, but it's so cheap

[shekinah]

Ya, I think that's the same one I got, they have a couple different brand names they market it under.

[ViolaMum]

I would love to hear what you both think of that one!