DIY Food Dehydrator Plans

How to construct a food dryer powered by the sun, a stove or electricity; including materials, diagrams and assembly.

article image
by Unsplash/K8

Learn how to dehydrate food with a dehydrator for long-term food storage. You can make a DIY food dehydrator powered by the sun, a stove, or electricity.

When I first took up self-­reliant coun­try living in the 1960s, I tried drying foods in a sandwich of old window screens laid at a sun-facing angle across a pair of sawhorses, but found that Mother Nature dries slowly in our changeable New England weather. I also tried an antique sheet-metal wet-heat corn dry­er designed for wood-stove-top use, but its single, rusty-hard­ware cloth tray left barbecue­-marks on the apple slices. Plus, it was too small to keep up with our kids’ hearty appetite for dried delicacies.

In the 1970s I gave in to progress and got one of the MacManniman’s big yard-­square electric food dehydrator. For two decades, its gentle electric heat preserved apricot halves and apple sections for babies to teethe on, along with other fruits, fishes and meats.

But in time the plastic screen on the racks snagged and frayed, and the oversize box got creaky from being hauled from cellar to kitchen and back. When it came time for a new dryer, all I could find for sale were little round, plastic kitchen gadgets and a couple of large and expensive wood-box units from makers I’d never heard of. So I designed and built my own diy food dehydrator.

Being of dark-stained ply­wood, it absorbs solar energy for sun-drying and works with stoveheat and electricity as well. Just one of its trays holds as much as one of the plastic dry­ers, fully-loaded, but the box is hinged to fold flat for easy car­rying and storage. Here’s how to make one for yourself! It’s a great late-winter project offer­ing a promise of the gardening season and harvest to come. Materials cost about $50, or half again that much more if you buy the optional electric fan and thermostat.

  • Updated on Sep 19, 2022
  • Originally Published on Feb 1, 1993
Tagged with: dehydrate, dryer, folding box
Comments (0) Join others in the discussion!
    Online Store Logo
    Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368