drying Overstuffed Dehydrator- 2016 PersonalBest stacking trays

That has commercial kitchen written all over it!  :dance:
 
Small upgrade can get you this....
 
 
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Do you have to rotate the trays ? I do that with jerky or over stuffed trays. Rotate from top to bottom until they all have gone thru a cycle and repeat if not quite the desired consistency. 
 
Hot Mama Bearz said:
Whoa!  What do you do with all those peppers?  Do you have any other food items in your diet?  LOL....  And lordy be, how do you cut all those and so thin? 
 
I am truely impressed!  Great job!  I would love to have all those Jalapenos!
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MamaBearz-
I have a continuous feed (very old) DittoDean.  A commercial chopper with different blades for slicing, dicing, shredding, julienne...I use the dicing set up when making salsa and for the dried chilies and pickled chiles, I use the thin slicing blade.  An absolute Life-Saver for processing.  I've been making and selling salsa fresh salsa for almost 20 years.  When looking at 80 pounds of produce....tools are a good thing!  :cool:
 
There are inexpensive food processors that have the continuous feed attachment.  Just something to watch for when looking for new or replacement appliances. 
 
These chiles in the dehydrator are destined for Salsa and other hot sauces.  I use dehydrated habanero chiles in the "HOT" and "SCORCHER" varieties of the fresh salsa we sell locally.  Some Red Habs are also used in  a couple of the bottled sauces.
 
Last year I made some Seasoning Salt with green jalapenos, this year...I want to try it with Red Jalapenos...
 
 
 
I mostly end up with all these chiles because I have a hard time saying "no" to someone who spent the time and effort to grow a kick-a$$ chile in my area!  I place an order or a certain amount of chiles/color...they show up with more.....What Can I do?!?!??? 
 
It's a good dilemma to have!!!
 
DaQatz said:
Salsalady I suggest you invest in a better dehydrator. If you want a LARGE cheap way of doing it. I suggest converting a 55 gallon drum. Heating elements + hot water heater thermostat + shelves + fans = mass dehydrating on the "cheap".
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DaQ~  if I was doing this more than 1-2 weeks a year....Buddy, we'd be talking!
 
PIC 1 said:
Seriously......................... :lol: 
 
24/7 before that top tray dries
 
Splurge....
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JoynersHotPeppers said:
That has commercial kitchen written all over it!  :dance:
 
Small upgrade can get you this....
 
 
excalibur-com2-stainless-steel-two-zone-commercial-dehydrator-for-international-use.jpg
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Chris! quit teasing me!!!!
 
 
 
But seriously-
I checked the lower levels this morning before work and they were surprisingly dry.  Not all the way dry, but well on the way.  Dry enough that I didn't "fluff" them.   
 
This evening, the lower red habs were dry with just a bit of flexibility.  I was expecting them to still be sort of a soggy blob, but the chiles were 75% dry, and all the orange habs were about 90% dry.  Outer ones are crispy, inner ones still a bit flexible. 
 
 
We are blessed (and sometimes cursed...) to live in a region with typically low humidity which expedites drying. 
 
I did take pics, will post in the AM.  Time for Gracie to say G'Night~~~~~
 
I like your style, quick and simple solution to your problem!
 
What is the purpose of the plastic wrap? Just to keep them from falling out?
 
Spysee, sorry for the late post...
 
The cling wrap is to contain the air flow. 
 
When the trays are sitting all neat and tidy one on top of the other, the air is contained in the column of trays  and evenly dries the product.  If the trays were left stacked with the spacers and open, the air flow of the heater and fan would be ineffective for the upper trays.
 
This particular model of dehydrator says you can stack 30 trays.  Consolidating with the spacers seems to work perfectly!  Same amount of product being dried, less vertical space, less time.....
 
WoW!! you would think with that many peppers there would be a lot of juice at the bottom where your fan is at,  I have two dehydrators one is a cheapo for small amounts and one that I built that looks some what like the big commercial unit,  mine works great for drying 30 pounds of cut apples and just about anything else.  If I loaded my cheapo like that it would overheat and shut down or burn out which what happened to a not so cheap unit when I over stuffed it with tomatoes and peppers,  one minute it was running fine and the next minute nothing! The Spacers are a good idea as they don't let the tower to slide one way or another as it dries.
Chalk one up for creative thinking!  I would be running around like a chicken trying to catch a bug and asking myself what the hell am I going to do with all them peppers? I can bet that your sauces turn out great, I just picked the last 10 pounds of mixed peppers to turn into a red pepper mash to use later to make more ChimChi up or use it to rub into a roast or some chickens.
 
You must have been working extra hard on this batch. Last years tower was almost 4 beers high. This year you only had time for 1 beer. I recommend you drink faster next time since working slower is not an option :drunk:
 
Mad props on your ingenuity
 
wildseed57 said:
WoW!! you would think with that many peppers there would be a lot of juice at the bottom where your fan is at,  I have two dehydrators one is a cheapo for small amounts and one that I built that looks some what like the big commercial unit,  mine works great for drying 30 pounds of cut apples and just about anything else.  If I loaded my cheapo like that it would overheat and shut down or burn out which what happened to a not so cheap unit when I over stuffed it with tomatoes and peppers,  one minute it was running fine and the next minute nothing! The Spacers are a good idea as they don't let the tower to slide one way or another as it dries.
Chalk one up for creative thinking!  I would be running around like a chicken trying to catch a bug and asking myself what the hell am I going to do with all them peppers? I can bet that your sauces turn out great, I just picked the last 10 pounds of mixed peppers to turn into a red pepper mash to use later to make more ChimChi up or use it to rub into a roast or some chickens.
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wildseed~  When drying fresh peppers, I don't get any juice at all in the bottom.  If I have an extra tray, it's good to put one of those fruit leather liners on the bottom tray to catch seeds.  When starting with frozen chiles, Yes definitely put a liner in the bottom, or if you have time, let the chiles thaw out in a colander to drain a lot of the water that is released as soon as they defrost. 
 
My unit had a catastrophic meltdown while doing the fresh jalapeno and habs run this year.  These were fresh chiles.  I loaded up the stack as you saw and let it run for a few days, checking on things.  When everything was dry, I didn't really pay attention, but the fan was on so I turned it off and all the chiles on the lower trays, right around the middle were burnt looking.  They didn't smell or tastes burned, but were definitely very dark.   
 
Hmmm. Ok~  Whatever, I just attributed it to turning up the heat to 105-110. 
 
So I loaded it up with a bunch of sliced frozen chiles with the liner in the bottom rack.  Turned on the fan and off I Go!  When I checked on it the next day, Oh my Goodness!  WHAT a MESS!~ 
 
The dehydrator was totally dead, all the juice from the defrosted jalapenos was Everywhere!  Oh Crap!  Now how to dry these pounds and pounds that I'd Paid For and Prepped and really wanted to use for a special project later.....AAAAGGGH!
 
All I had was a small fan.  So...I set the stacked trays up on a couple square food prep bins and flopped the fan on it's back to blow straight up at the trays.  Desperate times.....It Worked.  I was able to save the red jalapenos. 
 
Hawaiianero said:
You must have been working extra hard on this batch. Last years tower was almost 4 beers high. This year you only had time for 1 beer. I recommend you drink faster next time since working slower is not an option :drunk:
 
Mad props on your ingenuity
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:lol: Thanks Hawaiianero!   I fully intent to take your advice!    :cheers:
 
 
PS- drinking on the job is one of the very few perks of being self employed.  That don't work for doing the electrical work, of course!  But for labeling and such....;)
 
PT- I did buy another one of the same brand hoping to be able to use the old racks with the new unit.  Haven't tried it out yet. 
 
October 2016- just hit a PersonalBest with the Ghetto Dehydrator!!!   WOOT!!!
 
7 Beers Tall!  but I didn't have beer cans, and I couldnt' get the beer bottles to stack up.  :crazy:  So it's 7 7UP tall.
 
I'm going with 7 beers tall...and I added another tray at the top without spacers after this pic was taken.  Here's 40 pounds of jalapenos.
 
 
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:D  Glad to contribute to daily humor! I don't mind people laughing at my inherent laziness~~~  :cool:
 
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