Dehydrators - anyone got any experience?

[listenclear]

Hi,
My good lady and i are thinking about investing in one of these. These one's seem to get a good write up but seem fairly expensive

http://www.energiseyourlife.com/Excalibur-9-Tray-Dehydrator-pr-73.html

Thinking about things like jerky, mushrooms, fruit leathers and light weight meals for camping etc...
Was wondering if anyone uses these or similar products and what they think of them... Does it affect the flavour of the food very much?

I know you can use an oven on low heat with the door open but I don't like doing that - hoping one of these will do the job.

Thanks in advance...

 

[TeeDee]

Here you go Listenclear , a recent thread

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43024

HTH

EDIT;- Thats seems quite a 'full-on' dehydrator for starting? in the above thread AJB has had success with a £30.00 model. Maybe worth starting out on a smaller scale?

 

[Toddy]

That's a big one and it's expensive.

A few years ago a thread here had quite a number of us buying £30 five tray ones from a tv sales company. Q something or other ?
Anyway, years later, masses of use and mine is still going strong

I would suggest that you try the £30 kind first and see if it really is something you will use to it's fullest before spending anymore than that on it.

I've used mine for every kind of fruit and veg I can think of. Fruit leathers are really special , dried pears are just wonderful Dried veggies for camping are excellent.

My brother bought one at the same time and we used his for meat. Jerky was devoured as soon as it was made so I think that too counts as a success

cheers,
M

 

[TeeDee]

Here you go , £30.00 model ( Fifth one down )

http://www2.westfalia.net/suche/index.php?suche=suche_hauptseite&suchstring=dehydrator

 

[listenclear]

Hi TeeDee and Toddy thanks for the links/info. Some great stuff to delve into there. Sue, my better half, has read that the nutrition content can be lost when using dehydrators that run at heats hotter than about 47oC/118oF.
It appears that the cheaper models run at higher temperatures and are non-adjustable. I totally agree that the starting price for the one i put a link too is very steep but I am concerned that all effort and time will be pointless with no nutritional content.
However, i do hope that that is pure rubbish and that the cheaper ones do the job. Will see what info comes up.
Cheers

 

[Toddy]

Hmmm, I do know that mine has no temperature control but it just quietly whirrs along. Food isn't cooked in it and it's not hot enough to burn at all when handling either the dehydrator or the food.
It's almost like the heat from a 100w bulb with a fan tbh.
That's all the power it seems to consume anyway.

For best results I rotate the trays bottom up to the top when I mind as I pass by.
If you want to make leathers buy the baking sheets/ silicon oven liners (£store) and cut to size.

cheers,
M

 

[rik_uk3]

Any links for the loss of food value? I would not worry too much about it to be honest.

 

[listenclear]

Thanks for that Mary - given me food for thought (see what i did there?).
Rik, it was my girlfriend who was doing the research (i just said i would check on the forum) so i don't have the links.
Will be interesting to find out more and will keep post if i find anything conclusive.
I may ask a nutritionalist as i know a good 'un.

 

[forestwalker]

I've used one commercial unit (Evermat), and built one myself. The homebuilt one is a plywood box, trays from lath with mosquito screen, a computer style fan and a bunch of incandecent lightbulbs. It works quite ok, but due to the ban on incandecent lightbulbs I'll have to convert it to use a space heater instead. I use an steak thermometer to adjust the temperature.

 

[British Red]

I have had both the cheap models referred to above and an Excalibur 9 tray. Both work just fine. If you are going to use it a lot (and thats a big IF in my opinion), then buy the Excalibur. It has a teperature control, timer, side fan and absolutely vast surface area compared to the cheapy.

The side mounted fan means you don't have to keep swapping the tray order around to get even drying (a real problem with the cheap one when making jerky etc.). Once you know what you are doing, you get set it up, set the timer and go out or go to bed without having to keep an eye on proceedings. If you have a big garden and enjoy, as we do, things like sun dried tomatoes, it'll pay back in a year or two each time you have a "glut". Very much worth while buying the flat sheet inserts to make fruit leathers etc. on.

The entry models are fine and we kept using ours in tandem with the Excalibur until we gave it to a friend. I would suggest try the cheap one and, when you have used it thirty or forty times and find yourself annoyed with swapping trays around and lack of space, then upgrade.

Red

 

[John Fenna]

I use a top of the range 9 drawer Excalibur as well. It has temp control timer etc and I have the plastic sheets for doing fruit leathers and it came with a recipe guide.
A supurb machine.

 

[Mikey P]

Aye, they are superb but it all comes down to how often and how much you're going to use it.

A small £30 model is highly cost effective if you only use it a couple of times a year.

To make the larger system pay, you really need to be a regular user and, if the initial enthusiasm runs out, you have an expensive white elephant in the room (I'm mixing my metaphors there but it kinda works!).

I would second Mary's comments about trying things out with a smaller unit first; if you are happy you're going to stick with it, sell that to someone on this site and buy the big one!

Mike

 

[listenclear]

Wow, thanks everyone!!! :You_Rock_
The comments have really helped. My partner and i are hopefully moving to a new home soon - complete with big veggie patch - and my years of study of wild food/mushrooms is really starting to pay off . We were looking at ways of preserving our treasures and you have convinced us that the cheapo versions are worth a shot.
Thanks again

 

[peasantchurl]

We've got a big excalibur dehydrator in our house, I pack it FULL of wild foods, especially in the autumn will all those wild fruits, it's works a treat, friends have got cheaper dehydrators and they hate them, you get what you pay for.

Temperature control for all different types of food is important also the timer keeps everything full of flavour, meats, fish, fruits, nuts, leafs for teas / herbs etc. I recommend it .

 

[lub0]

I too have an excalibur and can agree wholeheartedly with peasantchurl.

 

[Craghopper]

I'm thinking of buying the aforementioned magical food drier-outer and was wondering if anyone knew of any good recipies? I can google away but was just wondering if you guys had any favourites I could try out?

Cheers

CH

 

[allenko]

Here you go , £30.00 model ( Fifth one down )

http://www2.westfalia.net/suche/index.php?suche=suche_hauptseite&suchstring=dehydrator

I can certainly vouch for this one I am just about to jerk a whole bowl of beef about 3 to 4 trays worth

For the money you can't beat it

 

[red dreads]

Another vote for the Westfalia , does pretty good parch corn too.