Excalibur Food Dehydrator Select Series for Jerky, Fruit, Vegetables, Herbs, Pet Treats with Adjustable Temperature Control, 9-Tray

I really like this step up from my last dehydrator. This unit has nine trays and adjustable temperature and timed hour control so it can dehydrate while you are away. You can also skip using all the trays and stack every other tray if desired. It is a very good unit and worth the price in my opinion. I bought mine in 2014 and it is now 2020 as of the update of this review. Still working fine! I have done everything from apples, pears, peaches, bananas, pineapple, squashes, carrots, etc. even crispy kale and okra - and it does a great job! I like to make things extra crunchy not leathery and this does a great job. The clean up is much easier, especially with the screens because the screens can roll up in the sink and are easily submersible for easy cleaning. The plastic black racks are easy to clean as well and slide easily. The whole thing is a simple box with a heated fan in the back. (So simple, yet why can't others make them like this?) I really like the dual controls of the temperature control as well as the timed timer. Some of the reviewers have complained it makes a lot of noise. I think that also depends on what surface you have it running on. I have my dehydrator on my laundry dryer which is a metal surface. It would be quieter on my sink counter. but I find the noise is acceptable like the sound of a soft background fan. Since it's off to the side in our kitchen it doesn't interfere with anything in other rooms of the house. at night it is nothing more than sounding like white noise in the background. I think putting a towel underneath it to keep the vibrations down might help people who are very ultra sensitive to the sound but to me it is very tolerable. It has never interfere with our activity or our sleep. Very worth it in my opinion.

I absolutely love this food dehydrator! I has a much smaller one that couldn't hold much and it was frustrating to go to the effort to prep food to dry only to be able to do so little of it at a time, so I took the plunge and bought this Excalibur model and am so happy I made the change. This dehydrator fits on my kitchen counter under the cabinets just fine and it has enough capacity to do a five pound bag of sliced potatoes plus several trays of other produce at the same time. My other dehydrator could manage about 3 pounds of sliced potatoes at best, so I love having more capacity. I'm still fairly new to food dehydration so I refer to a book I bought for the proper way to prepare food items and for drying time and temperature, then I follow those directions and I'm having nothing but success so far. My other dehydrator had open plastic mesh trays that food items could fall through as they dried, but that isn't a concern thanks to the poly-screen tray inserts in this Excalibur. Now I can shred potatoes and dry them in order to have hash browns on hand whenever we want them without having them slip through the screens as they dry. By the way, we rehydrated some to see what they were like and it's like having freshly shredded potatoes. So much more useful for what we want to do than canning! (Now I have a large All American Pressure Canner I no longer want) I bought some non-stick liners to use when making fruit leather but haven't tried it yet. This dehydrator seems to get much better air flow through the trays than my other one did because vegetables are drying more quickly even though they're set at the same temperature they were in the other machine. It does produce some fan noise, but nothing that I find obnoxious. It's easy to operate, signals when the time is up, and the trays are super easy to clean up so I'm very happy with the purchase. I think small dehydrators are useful as a way to learn about dehydrating foods, but this is a model I'd recommend getting if you're serious about doing it.

We have tried other dehydrators...most had fan issues and we finally decided to just go for what everyone said was the best of the best. So far, we are not disappointed! We had beef jerky marinating when the machine was delivered...yeah we had that planned! It turned out beautiful. Next batch - chicken jerky for the dogs. Again results were amazing. Just ask the dogs - they'll tell you how good it was! Then bananas and three pounds of apricots. We had done bananas before but never apricots - we were very pleased with the outcome. They take a long time but they are sure worth it! Next chicken/sweet potato dog treats. I ordered the nonstick sheets to go with this and they work well too. The racks are easy to clean - they fit flat in my sink (I have an over-sized sink). It runs quiet! I love the option to leave out racks if you have thicker foods to dry. This has run almost daily since delivery. Figured put it to the test and see how it holds up and so far it has passed the test with flying colors. When you order they give you a several day delivery window. My Excalibur was delivered on the first day of that window which was awesome. It was well packed and everything was there. The book is rather nice to that comes with it. We have done a lot of dehydrating but was nice to have references for all the fruits that we have not done before. This is the first dehydrator we have owned with a timer. I could probably live without it, but it is a very nice feature to have available. Never have to worry about it when you get busy and lose track of the time. And if you can, go for the 9 tray! I had looked at the 5 tray but I think I would have regretted that purchase. Saw where everyone said get the 9 tray so I followed everyone else and got the 9 tray and I am SO glad I did! The warranty is nice for peace of mind. There are tons or recipes on the Excalibur site. I know exactly where all the extra tomatoes from the garden are going to go this year! What an advancement from the old round Ronco that I started with many many years ago, bought at a flea market for $5. Got to admit tho, that thing ran for years! So old there was no fan...just the heating element in the bottom. I think I prefer my Excalibur over that one ha! I don't think you will be disappointed with this machine. Yeah it is big. Be sure you measure where you are going to put it so there is no surprise when you unbox it. It is lightweight tho. I guess overall I can say I am VERY happy with this purchase! I hope it serves me well for many years to come and from comments of others, I have a feeling that it might just do that! UPDATE 5/27/14: Having used this now for a few weeks almost nonstop, my statement of "I could have lived without the timer" is definitely FALSE. That timer sure does make life easier! So glad I got the one with the timer. We have put out multiple batches of chicken jerky (pet treats), dog cookies made with chicken and sweet potatoes, beef jerky (for us not the dogs ha), 15 pounds of apricots, 6 pounds of onions, bananas. Nothing is safe from the Excalibur! I should have bought this one first.

it dries copious amounts of fruits, beef jerky, or anything else we thru it. Excellent product! Cleans easily. have heavily used it for 2 or 3 years so far.

I just got the machine and I know I like it better than my 20 plus year old American Harvester by Nesco. My old one was a 4 tray plug it in and let it dry. I love having a timer built in (no cumbersome wall timer), and the adjustable thermostat is going to be nice with keeping my food alive. Also, the 9 trays allows me to more than double my drying space. I'm doing 4 pounds of organic strawberries and 5 pounds of organic green beans as I write. They are are doing well and should be done soon. The flexible mesh screens will help with sticking. I haven't tried the paraflex sheets yet, so I don't know how they'll work. BTW, read the book on how to use. It is simple, but if you've never owned an Excalibur, it does a few things slightly different. For instance it recommends turning the trains 180 degrees halfway through. Cons: It is a little noisy, but tolerable. If you've owned a dehydrator you'll find it on par or a hair louder. The door will rattle some but a simple repositioning seems to take care of that. Not really a con for me, but be aware, the machine is going to be large. Make sure you note the dimensions before purchasing. I do wish the opening were on the side in my case verses the skinny front. It would fit nicer on the counter that way but it is a minor. Cleaning of the tray mesh is a little time consuming if you don't have a sprayer. You can't put those in the dishwasher like the tray itself, but I'd recommend not doing that either. Plastic and high heat isn't a good thing. Don't forget the Paraflex sheets can't be soaked, only wiped off, but I haven't used them yet, so I don't know how much of a chore that will be yet. Would I buy it again? Yes - It is a good machine and on Amazon, the price isn't horrible and if you use your dehydrator like I do, you'll get your money back soon with just the savings on snacks you make yourself verses buying and you'll know what is in your snacks and control things like bad fats and too much sugar and salt. I'm making crunchy green bean snacks right now. I paid 6.39 for 5 pounds of Organic green beans, I used a little coconut oil and a little sea salt and I now have about 5 bags worth. If I bought the same amount I'd not have organic, they'd be made with unhealthy oils and cost 6.99 for a small 8 ounce bag, plus shipping. I figure I saved $25 dollars already. I've done the same for Organic strawberries too and we all know dried fruit is ridiculously expensive, especially for the organic ones.

I had NO idea how fast and easy it was to make FANTASTIC beef jerky. Overnight, I marinated ribeye steaks strips (little less than half inch thick slices) in four different flavors (brown sugar/cinnamon/vanilla, jalapeno, salt and vinegar and 18-year-old scotch), set the dehydrator to 155° for 6 hours and out came the best tasting, most(ly) tender jerky I could have imagined. I had my doubts about my choices of marinade, but, surprisingly, they all taste really good. The jalapeno gives a really nice, warm burn and the brown sugar is so sweet. I'm really excited about this thing, I kid you not. The unit itself arrived in perfect shape. It's lighter than it looks because it's mostly empty space. It comes with plastic grills to lay on top of the trays. It could be considered a little bit loud, I guess, but it's no louder than your average microwave. The fan blows just hard enough where you can kind of feel the breeze coming out of the sides where it's vented. It has a nice clean look to it and the dials (one for the heat, one for the timer) feel sturdy, not cheap. In fact, the whole structure is very solid, so I'm not worried about beating it up when I move it around. The book that came with it has general instructions for different kinds of food; several types of jerky, fruits, vegetables, etc. and suggested dehydration times. The jerky was sliced in different thicknesses, so the thinner slices were a little too dry and the thicker slices could have used another 30 minutes to an hour, maybe, but I definitely liked it just like it was. You can tell the book wasn't slapped together, like you might expect as an added "accessory" used as a selling point. it is actually useful. I might add to this after I've dehydrated some fruits and other things, but, as fast and easy as it was to make this, I don't see how I could be disappointed. One thing is for sure. I have bought my LAST bag of beef jerky from the Internet/store. UPDATE: 06/17/2015 In addition to the more expensive ribeye, I'm also dehydrating thick cut pork chops the same way. They are even better than the ribeye. I marinate overnight and dehydrate for 6 hours and they are done. I've also been dehydrating a dozen bananas at a time in addition to apples. I sliced them kind of thick, maybe a little larger than a quarter of an inch and even bigger on the apples since they dry out down to nothing. I usually add cinnamon to the bananas and dehydrate for 12 hours. The book says less, but 12 hours gets them nice and dry. They end up a little leathery and chewy. It's very sweet, like I've added sugar to it. Very surprised how sweet they get. The apples are amazing. They also are extremely sweet. I usually add a little cinnamon to those as well. I don't add sugar to any of the fruit I dehydrate, ever. It is just that sweet all by itself. The dehydrator will hold about 10 moderately sized apples on the 9 trays. I also am dehydrating Roma tomatoes. If you've ever eaten the sun-dried tomato or had it on your salad, you will absolutely LOVE the dehydrated tomatoes. I snack on them straight out of the bag or put them on sandwiches which gives it a flavor I've never tasted before. Needless to say, it is excellent. I sliced them very thick -- like nearly a half an inch - since they shrink down to nothing. if you like them thin, then they are excellent that way also. Next I'll be dehydrating watermelon, cantaloupe, kiwi and mango. After dehydrating, the flavor and sweetness multiplies by 10, so anything you can think of that is sweet will be supersweet once it's done. I can't believe what I'm eating is all natural! The plastic mesh comes with the dehydrator, but do yourself a massive favor and by the Teflon coated dehydrator sheets specifically for this model. They are about $14 for 9 of them. It is WELL worth it, because cleaning up the mesh screens that came with it is rather difficult.

I've had this unit for 4 years and it has performed exactly as expected. I've had it on for greater than 24 consecutive hours many times and it has worked great. I have purchased silicone trays with lips to use in this (not the same brand, but ones that work great just the same). This helps when I want to dehydrate squash puree to grind in a nut grinder and make squash flour. They'd work great for fruit leathers as well. I had thought I could just use cut parchment paper, but found the airflow often lifted the edges and caused issues so I was wasting too much time paperclipping the parchment down. I discovered that the plastic trays are actually easier to clean than I had anticipated. I hand wash the white plastic mesh part and run the black tray frames through my dishwasher all piled up on the top rack (my water doesn't get hot enough to melt them). I'll share 2 of our favorite snacks: 1. Peel a banana (not overripe). Push your thumb into the center of the non-stem end. The banana will naturally split into thirds. Dehydrate these thirds and we call the result "banana licorice." It does keep some moisture in for a chewy texture, so we eat them up quickly rather than long storage. 2. Instead of dipping apple slices in lemon or citric acid water to prevent browning, dip them in 100% pineapple juice. Trust me! I have also learned that my dehydrator will quickly dry tricky items (the blades of a blender/grinder) for me if I wash them between batches and need them bone dry. Some people use them for yogurt making (I haven't tried this). I'm using mine on its lowest setting to infuse acidified garlic into coconut oil because where I live this time of year coconut oil is solid at room temperature. If you have the room, splurge on the larger size. Someone dropped of a case of bananas to my house once as a gift. Boy, was I glad I had the larger size. I've used it to dehydrate potatoes I purchased in bulk, countless produce from our garden and bulk purchases, and smaller batches like a few hot peppers from the package I wouldn't get to using in time. It works just as well on a smaller batch as it does a large one.

Great!!!

Prodotto veramente scadente!Presa elettrica non adeguata al mercato europeo!I vassoi cadono !Amazon deve controllare la qualita Euro 1361,00 euro!!!una truffa!

Si te sobran frutas o verduras este es un método de conservación estupendo. Yo tengo una huerta y me ha venido fenomenal para los excedentes.

Esta práctico es fácil de usar y casi no pesa

I bought this as a gift for my husband. He adores biltong which costs a lot of money for what it is, so I thought it would be great to be able to make our own. We have had our first attempt, and it was so easy and the machine worked brilliantly. But this machine has also opened a whole new world to us, in terms of raw foods. My husband is wheat intolerant, so we have to avoid bread and biscuits and try to follow the "caveman diet" (natural, unprocessed foods). Raw food has many recipes that use dehydrators to create all sorts of breads, crackers and treats that use natural raw ingredients that replicate the texture of our highly processed diet without the bad bits and with more flavour. I've been having fun experimenting with all sorts of things, and this dehydrator works away in the background drying the foods out. It has a huge capacity, so I have yet to fill it up, but I have needed more than 5 drawers, so it's good to have the big one. Also the timer is helpful, switching it off when it's completed, so I can leave things in at night and not worry about them being overdone. It is rather large (the size of a large microwave) and it does make a gentle hum, but I keep mine in a backroom, so it doesn't bother me at all. My children love the dried fruit that it makes (dried mango is a favourite) and I know it is pure goodness - no added sugars or preservatives that dried fruit from the shops has in it. There are some great raw recipes at therawtarian.com which are simple to make, with great success. And I'm looking forward to perfecting my biltong. I feel I have definitely bought the Rolls Royce of dehydrators that dries things easily and is reliable, and it's going to take a few years for it to pay itself off on the biltong front, but I believe my family's health is definitely benefitting from the healthier direction of our diet and reduced additives that we are eating.

Bought it used vs a new Nesco simply because the excalibur website offers maintenance advice for 20 year old machines. Anyway, it looks built to last and it does do well, what it was designed to do. Why four stars rather than five? Mine being used, came in white and shows stains and dirt, which is not something you want in food prep.