dehydrators Food Dehydrator Opinions

patrick

patrick

After reading several posts where folks recommend the Excalibur brand dehydrators, mainly due to the fan being in the back providing a more even drying, I did some shopping. For about the same amount of money for a 4 tray Excalibur I can get a 10 tray STX International. It too has the fan in the back and a couple of other neat tricks. Here's a link to it: http://cgi.ebay.com/STX-DEHYDRA-600...ryZ32883QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Does anybody have any experience with the STX?

Thanks.
 
I've never seen that one before..nor have I ever used one with the fan in the back. Seems like that fan is a little small/offset from the center. You might have to still rotate the trays a little bit since some of them are directly in front of the fan while others aren't. Don't quote me, as I'm not an expert...just what I figure from looking at the pictures. Have you tried googling model and seeing if any sites that sell them have customer feedback?
 
I agree with everything said. I like the choice of settings it has. It seems it doesn't have a timer though.
 
So far the only feedback I've been able to find is posted by the company. I need to find something a tad more impartial.

Chiliac, since this goes on for hours and hours and hours is a timer really necessary?

Thanks to both of you guys for your comments.
 
A timer is pretty helpful when you let it run unattended while you're away or overnight, but it isn't exactly necessary. If you can do without one, that reason alone shouldn't keep you from buying it if you think it's a good one!
 
You're talking about a timer that shuts it off automatically right? Should have known. That would be a good thing to have on it. Thanks Chiliac.
 
A timer is important, but you can get a lamp timer for next to nothing.
Get a good one though. If you're drying peppers, you really don't need one, but if you get into other things with the dehydrator, you'll need one for sure. Don't want that Jerky to be brittle. Same thing goes for your Habanero
fruit roll ups.
 
I have an excalibur 9 tray that cost nearly 10 times more than that one does...to me the cost delta indicates there are definitely some design differences...unless it is like a Buick vs a Cadillac...some of the older buicks looked just like the cadillacs but the Cadillac was 30% higher in cost...
 
Thanks THP, that may do the job.

AJ--that's why I'm here asking questions man, I am very aware of "you get what you pay for" in this world.
 
thanks to THP my kitchen is going to get even more cluttered with gadgets like dehydrators, ph meters, and an additional coffee grinder to replace my motar and pestle..
 
JUST WANTED TO NOTE

IF IT DOESN"T HAVE A FAN DON'T FREAKING BUY THE PIECE OF SHITE!!!!!!


When my old one croaked my wife came home with the one from target.

NO FAN WTF??????!!!!?!?!?!??!?

I plugged it in and waited for a noise.....any noise....what the hell?.......

It gets warm. that's it. It "clicked" a time or 2 as it got luke warm.....

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLY CRAP does it suck!

I am trying to figure out how to attach a fan since I needed one bad and went ahead and used it.


Good god. Somebody kill whoever invented that piece of junk!

No mercy! Execute them! AAAAAAAARGHHHH!!!! AAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!






;)seriously.
 
I have an Ultra FD1000 (1000 watts), it's round dehydrator. has anyone compared say an Excalibur (are they 600 watts) to one of the FD 1000s as far as drying speed goes? I'be been thinking about upgrading to a 9-tray Excalibur but if my 1000 watt-er is better then I'll just buy a few more trays.
 
CM - this is my opinion only...

if the unit has more watts, it can attain a higher temperature in the unit...that may be needed for things other than peppers but I dry my peppers between 125 and 130F (~52-55C)...

drying peppers is the only thing I have used it for so far but what I have found is that if you are drying the peppers quicker (usually means higher temperature), they don't retain as much of their original color...

again, this is my experience and my opinion, I am sure others will have different opinions...

I will say that it takes me about 48 hours to dehydrate my 9 tray Excalibur full of peppers...and it is working overtime right now...
 
I dried a big batch of red habs a couple of months ago but I did not dry on full heat - it took about 48 hours also and I got a really dry product which powdered really well and still has no signs of clumping, and is a beaut red colour.

I mainly use mine for drying jerky.
 
chilliman64 said:
I dried a big batch of red habs a couple of months ago but I did not dry on full heat - it took about 48 hours also and I got a really dry product which powdered really well and still has no signs of clumping, and is a beaut red colour.

I mainly use mine for drying jerky.
Click to expand...

That powder was savage CM64 - its burn per sprinkle ratio was right up there.

very, very nice.

Same device for jerky....mmmm CM64 jerky :drooling:
 
yes mate, I made a batch two weeks ago but it was of very poor quality so I suppose I'll have to eat it all myself - seriously, it was very very dry, so dry in fact that I can crumble it with my fingers. naturally I'm still going to eat it! as soon as it's gone I'll make some more.
 
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