A new way of drying things?

[Tengu]

I live opposite the local school, and they always throw out neat stuff in their skip.

(and its impossible to keep me out of skips as you know)

Todays find is a load of LEDS (mostly red but some other shades)

and a laboritory incubator.

the incubator has been de leaded, but I can fit one with little fuss.

Im wondering if it would make a good dehydrator, its tempreture controlled, after all, and its got shelves inside.

what do you think? or shall I stick to my oven? (just made some more beef jerky yesterday)

 

[bikething]

I'd be inclined to ask myself WHY it's been chucked out ???

Back in my sparky-ing days it was common practice to chop the lead off faulty / dangerous appliances to stop people putting a plug on the end and trying to use it

 

[Tengu]

But they do that to `everything` now. its a simple device, should work

 

[Eric_Methven]

A dehydrator needs warm air flow over the material being dried. If the incubator allows air to flow in and out, then it will dry food. If it's sealed as in humidity control it'll just warm the food to a level that will allow bacteria to incubate (hence incubator). I'd steer clear of that one. It might make a half decent smoker though (you don't need it plugged in for that).

Eric

 

[xylaria]

A dehydrator needs warm air flow over the material being dried. If the incubator allows air to flow in and out, then it will dry food. If it's sealed as in humidity control it'll just warm the food to a level that will allow bacteria to incubate (hence incubator). I'd steer clear of that one. It might make a half decent smoker though (you don't need it plugged in for that).

Eric

I kind of agree with Eric here, thinking my way through school equipment I don't think you are going to have a something that will do meat safely. You should be able to dry mushrooms, and a selection of fruits though if you can control the humidity. A incubator should be able to rise and prove the best home made bread without any modifications.

We never had incubators when I went to school (eerr them were the days ) but when I was at uni we grew human E.coli and streplacoccus in them. Children are dirty little things on best of days and your incubator will have been exposed to what ever grows on the cerubs. So i would give it one serious bleaching before use/touching .

 

[rik_uk3]

I agree with what some of the others have said, this bit of kit is purpose built to breed bugs, I'd be tempted to put it back in the skip in case temptation over rules logic

And you can buy a new dehydrator for £30 these days
http://www2.westfalia.net/shops/hou...htm?vbSESSID=2ad513a8d6d867d2aa58d4a022f277b2

 

[Emma]

Agreed that incubaters are designed for humidity control.
However what would be the effect of making some holes in it? It wouldn't be as efficient at keeping the inside warm, but it would allow a flow of air.

And £30 is a lot of money. I've been eyeing up those cheap dehydrators for a few years now, but haven't yet been able to justify buying one. I guess Tengu has a similar situation.
I'd make one of those neat solar ones if I had some space outside that was further away from a substantial collection of scavenging rodents.

 

[rik_uk3]

Try this then, cost you under £5, now that's not a lot of money

http://www.alpharubicon.com/prepinfo/dehydratorstryder.htm

 

[Emma]

Thanks Rik, I've had my eye on that for a while too, but until I've found a supply of cardboard boxes that haven't been destroyed I need all mine for storage and moving house. (And £5 is still a lot of money - it's about a week's food if I'm feeling flush, if I'm not then it's more like two or three weeks of food...)

 

[xylaria]

I dry mushrooms by slicing them an placing them on glass and then on a hot raditator. I have done this sliced apples with some sucess. The glass cost me 30p from wilko. Might not be the best method but its really cheap

 

[ecoman]

mmm... could you share your recipe's for good oven dried beef jerky. i dont like it to brittle, its nicer with some "chew" left in it!

m

 

[Tengu]

You will be glad to know the incubator made nearly £40 on Ebay...

 

[kato]

Nice one Tengu now you can afford to buy a proper dehydrator and some produce to dry in it with the money you have made

 

[Tengu]

No, I think Ill get some army boots and continue with my oven.....