Choosing a Food Dehydrator

I'm using the large garden 15 sq ft drying area 9 tray Excalibur model for the first time this year to dry lots of hybrid Argonaut winter squash. I peel and slice lots of it and fill up the trays, and when a batch is done I pull out bins from the refrigerator of squash slices and fill the trays up again and again. I take the dried slices and break them up in my Vita-mix blender to granule size, then pour them into clean dry plastic fruit juice bottles. Next year I hope to make watermelon/lemon juice/sugar fruit leather.

I have a magic chef stackable dehydrator that I've used for years. My mom bought it about 10 years ago when she decided that we were going to go on the raw foods diet. well, needless to say that didnt even last a month and I don't believe that she ever usd it again. I however, have used it to dry numerous fruits and jerkys and beans. It came with a cook book, I don't know where it is now. I just rotate the trays every few hours and pull off the ones that are done. I absolutly love my dehydrater.

To dehydrate potatoes I boil them until they are still firm, but cooked. Drain the hot water and plunge in cold water until cool, then drain. Then put the potatoes in the refrigerator overnight, slicing them in the morning then putting them on the dehydrator. I have done slices and small chunks and gotten along very well. If you are storing with a vacuum packer, the slices tend to break apart when vacuum-packed and need to be double bagged. Hope this helps. :)

The best place to do your price comparison is on Amazon. They have a wide selection, from Excaliburs to Nescos to more obscure ones. I found http://www.dehydratorbook.com to have some useful reviews to read in addition to the Amazon ones.

For potatoes, how thin were they sliced? Potatoes have always been troublesome for me, so I don't usually dry them and just bake them instead. You definitely do need to blanch them, otherwise they'll turn dark brown.

The electricity consumption is something like five cents an hour. Even running it for a day is cheaper than buying pre-packaged dry stuff. The fan doesn't need to be blasting the air; it just needs to move it around.

karen m; Have your potates dried yet? I have not started dehydrating yet, but how did you prep your potatoes? Dried ptatoes could be a real help to me, instead of buying store bought boxes of mixes. Thanks for any advise you can share.

Mike,

Your article at the end of your website was helpful. Perhaps I am overloading my new dehydrator. Do you think I should just put food on one half of the ten trays and see what happens?

I purchased a VegeKiln and am trying it out for the first time. I placed blanched potatoes in the kiln, and turned it to the recommended temperature. It has been on for almost 24 hours and only about 1/3 of the potatoes are dried. I don't hear a very loud fan, although I do hear a slight wurring; I do see the heater element burning though. I am very worried about the electricity consumption and am concerned that it may not be working correctly. Does it take a long time to dry the items out, or should the fan be much faster? How much "wind" should be going through the dehydrator? HELP!

I was wondering how these dehydrators compare in cost. I notice you didn't discuss this part of the decision-making process. Do you have any recommendations on where to buy the dehydrators for the best price? Thanks

This is interesting stuff. I actually have my own food dehydrator
shop at http://www.coffeewineandgifts.com/food-dehydrator.html NAd
find this information very useful as some of it I have not yet even
written about myself. Thanks for a good resource.
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