Food dehydrators - Any thoughts? Buying & recipes now!

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Food dehydrators - Any thoughts? Buying & recipes now!
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Sally Too

Joined: 14 Sep 2006
Posts: 2511
Location: N.Ireland

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 08 7:16 pm Post subject: Food dehydrators - Any thoughts? Buying & recipes now!
Hi, I've been looking at dehydrators and considering buying one. Any thoughts? Sally Last edited by Sally Too on Sun Jan 20, 08 2:16 pm; edited 2 times in total

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 08 8:31 pm Post subject: Re: Food dehydrators - Any thoughts before I buy one?

Sally wrote:

Hi,

I've been looking at dehydrators and considering buying one. Any thoughts?

Sally

What are you looking for, something small-ish for just domestic use or are you after something a bit bigger, a bit more oomph?

Pilsbury

Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 5645
Location: East london/Essex

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 08 8:36 pm Post subject:

I got myself a l'equip one and it is fantastic, loads of drying space and I can add more trays if i need to, it dries frit, veg, meat, herbs and flowers and is easy to clean.
However they are not cheap but when I had a problem with my base unit it was replaced without question and free of chargeby these people

https://www.ukjuicers.com
I got mine off www.gumtree.com and that was the reason I had a problem with it, I got sold a dud but as I said it was sorted in no time

martin the jerkymiester uses Excalibers and again they are fantastic but you cant add extra shelves if you need to.

sneeuwklokje

Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 277

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 08 8:56 pm Post subject:
How much do they cost to run?

Pilsbury

Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 5645
Location: East london/Essex

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 08 9:00 pm Post subject:
pennies, when I first had my l,equip i ran it full, overnight for 10 hours at full power, that allowed me to dry 2kg of beef and my electricity meter went down 12p, but remember that included me running 1 fridge 2 freezers and a couple of alarmclocks as well. My average daliy electricity cost is just over 90p at the moment but it is dark early and cold so it is really cheap to run.

Pilsbury

Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 5645
Location: East london/Essex

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 08 9:03 pm Post subject:
OK just got my base unit and im sure someone can do the math on the bottom of the unit are the following figuers 240VAC 50Hz 4.5 Amperes 500W Im sure someone here can work out the maximum power usage per hour from that.

AnnaD

Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Posts: 2777
Location: Edinburgh

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 08 9:36 pm Post subject:
I got this one https://www.ukjuicers.com/dehydrators/HottopKN128E.htm for my birthday, but I haven't used it yet. I know that some don't do jerky, but mine does. I'm just waiting for my next veg box to arrive so I can give it a try

Andrea

Joined: 02 May 2005
Posts: 2260
Location: Portugal

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 08 9:47 pm Post subject:
I got one for Christmas, but I haven't used it yet. It's major selling point (for me at least) is that I can buy extra layers to add to it if I find it works well for me. It's an EziDri (isn't that the worst name in the world?). I've heard the Tchibo dehydrator recommended elsewhere, though I've no personal experience of that either.

wildberries

Joined: 04 Jan 2005
Posts: 23
Location: highlands

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 08 10:29 pm Post subject: food dehydrators
We have a Excalibur I have found it much easier to control with the temp control and it has 10 shelves. I used to have a similar dryer to the hottop but found it difficult to control and took a long time to dry produce.

vegplot

Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 21301
Location: Bethesda, Gwynedd

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 08 10:38 pm Post subject:
Have you thought about a solar hydrator? They are very easy to build and should work fine in our climate throughout the growing season.

Sally Too

Joined: 14 Sep 2006
Posts: 2511
Location: N.Ireland

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 08 10:40 pm Post subject:

Thanks for all the replies.

cab, I'm probably looking for something reasonably big (six in the household, 4 adults + 2 post primary age!) and I do grow quite a bit of my own stuff. Lots of fruit bushes and trees, also quite a bit of veg.

So here's what I'm looking at-
I'm tempted by this one: https://www.ukjuicers.com/dehydrators/Excalibur5Traycharcoal.htm
or it's big brother:
https://www.ukjuicers.com/dehydrators/Excalibur9TrayCharcoal.htm
but the price seems high. Yet they do seem to get good reviews, and I do want one that will stick the pace! Just. . . well you know there are other things I could spend that type of cash on!

The Mary Bell book says to get one with a fan (and I take her point) and so I'm not sure what other ones meet that criterion.

This one also looks nice, and has a fan:
https://www.ukjuicers.com/dehydrators/StockliDehydrator.htm

But I like the idea of not having to dismantle the stack to check individual trays so that brings me back to the Excalibur ones. Ho hum!

Actually, perhaps this one would let me open it. . . and it has a fan. https://www.ukjuicers.com/dehydrators/HottopKN128P.htm

Does any one have experience of this one? Or of UkJuicers?

Can you tell I'm still debating! Feeling indecisive tonight. Any thoughts welcome!

Thanks again for the replies so far!

Sally

PS I dried some stuff in our oven tonight - apple (great) banana (still rather pliable but tasty) turnip (crunchy and delicious!) and a tomato (not quite dry but eaten by the locals all the same!) So I do think this will go down well in the long run.

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Sally Too

Joined: 14 Sep 2006
Posts: 2511
Location: N.Ireland

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 08 10:41 pm Post subject: Re: food dehydrators

wildberries wrote:

We have a Excalibur I have found it much easier to control with the temp control and it has 10 shelves. I used to have a similar dryer to the hottop but found it difficult to control and took a long time to dry produce.

Now I think this is JUST what I wanted to hear!

You feel it is worth the extra?

Sally Too

Joined: 14 Sep 2006
Posts: 2511
Location: N.Ireland

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 08 10:44 pm Post subject:

vegplot wrote:

Have you thought about a solar hydrator? They are very easy to build and should work fine in our climate throughout the growing season.

Yes! In fact it was through this that I thought of getting an electric one. Basically I work FT and the solar one may require more nursemaiding at difficult times than I can achieve. OH has promised to build me one (& I have the book!) and I would use it weather permitting in preference to the leccy one. But I also need to get started and have some successes! (and perhaps know what I'm aiming for too!)

Have you a solar one? What success have you had?

Sally

kevin.vinke

Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Posts: 1304
Location: Niedersachsen, Germany

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 08 11:10 pm Post subject:
Not quite the same thing but I´ve had some success with a pasta drier (wooden built together setup) on top of our woodburner. Did a great job on sliced apple (pieces keep disappearing, children suspected) and most recently biltong (beefy!) works very well.

Pilsbury

Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 5645
Location: East london/Essex

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 08 11:18 pm Post subject:

I have a l'equip and taking the stack apart to check layers really isnt that hard, martin uses Excalaber in a professional capacoty and has 10 of them in his work room so will easily cope with a family of 6 as will the l'equip.
Both of these come with fans so that covers that point.
the Excalabers if i recall blow the hot air from the back to the front so all trays are dried at the same rate whear as my l'equip blows from the base up so the top 3 trays benifit from being swopped to the bottom and the bottom 3 put on top about 3/4 through the process but I take this oppotunity to give it all a quick once over.
the excalaber gets a few degrees hotter than the l'equip but I find I can dry anything i like with no problems
the excaliber has a slightly larget footprint as it is square and the l'equipe is rectangle and the l'equipe has a hole running through the middle of the trays to allow the air up from the base so it has less drying area per tray but you can add extra trays unlike the excaliber.
Basically either of these machines are fantastic and the only thing that swayed my decision was that i got my l'epuipe second hand for £60 otherwise I would probably have gone for an excalaber but that is only because I had seen them in operation at martins.
If you intend to spend this amount of money on a dehydrator then either of these will be perfect for you.
as for the others I cant comment as I havent used them or seen them used.
If you have anymore specific question then please ask, I did months of searching before i took the plunge but i am glad I did.

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