Hi,I'm thinking about buying a dehydrator.I'd like to hear from people that use one.Should I invest in one with a fan?I borroughed one with just a heating element on the bottom of stacking trays and had various sucsess with it,seemed to depend on the weather.We can have humid weather in VT. in the summer.So I wonder if a fan would help with this.I would like to do fruits,vegies,meat,herbs.Thanks for any help.Gayle

-- Gayle Torrey (gayletorrey@yahoo.com), December 28, 2001

Answers

You don't necessarily have to have a fan, even in humid weather; however, the biggest advantage to the fan type dehydrator is that you don't have to rotate the trays. If you don't have a fan you will have to rotate the trays around so all the food drys evenly. Sometimes you even have to rotate the food itself (bring in the ones from the outer edge to the inside, etc.). It can be a pain if you need to go away or get busy. With the fan, you just basically set it and forget it, although you still sometimes have to move the food, but very rarely (usally only if you didn't get the food cut up in even slices or pieces). I've have both types and could not part with the fan dedydrator. Just be sure and get a good quality dehydrator - it is worth the investment and will last forever!

-- Karen (db0421@yahoo.com), December 28, 2001.

I bit the bullet several years ago and bought an Excalibur dehydrator. Well worth the money! But you could make a dehydrator with a computer fan in it.... And a light bulb... Anyway. I really like the one I have.

-- Gailann Schrader (gtschrader@aol.com), December 28, 2001.

I have discovered that having both types works best for me. I can use the combination to dehydrate foods rated "extremely poor for drying" by speed drying on the fan driven Magic Chef for the first few hours, then moving the trays to the Tornado convection unit to finish off without scorching. Just make sure the units use the same type of trays so you won't have to move food product tray to tray.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), December 28, 2001.

I have an Excalibur (has a fan). I wouldn't trade it for any other kind. Have dried jerky, tomatoes, and everything in between and love it. Even drying in the summer, its heat output is low and the stuff dries great. Not to sound like a commercial, but well worth the money.

-- Sue (sulandherb@aol.com), December 28, 2001.

GO with the fan,YOU won't regret it!!!!!

-- David R In TN. (srimmer@earthlink.net), December 28, 2001.

I borrowed a dehydrator and used it several times then bought an Excalibur - the big one. Have never regretted it because it does a super job, doesn't make a lot of noise and doesn't heat up the room it's in. We have a lot of humidity here and it still does a grand job of drying my foods. I find that I do have to turn the trays around about midway but that's no big job. We won blue ribbons at our county fair last summer for dried mushrooms and celery. Will enter more dried foods next year!

I have jars of dried parsley, carrots, garlic, celery, onions, summer squash and wildcrafted catnip as a treat for the kitties. Can store a whole lot of dried anything in very little space. I love my dehydrator.

-- Carol - in Virginia (carollm@rockbridge.net), December 29, 2001.

I couldn't afford the Excalibur so I bought an American Harvester from Wal-Mart. I think it was about $40.00 then added the extra trays (I found a much larger American Harvester at anotehr store it was about $130.00). I use it every week. Wish I had another one! one for drying meats on and another for drying fruit and vegetables on.

-- Ima Gardener (ima@gardener.com), December 29, 2001.

I bought an Excalibur in the early 80's and it's still running like a champ. Since you can remove the trays from the cabinet, it's easy to use the dehydrator to incubate jars of yogurt or similar products. We used to live in a very cold house and raising bread was a challenge. It turned out perfectly when I put the pans in the Excalibur. This year I dried Christmas ornaments made from flour/salt dough to which I added a 12 oz. package of cinnamon from WalMart. They made the house smell wonderful while drying and when we put up the ornaments.

I needed to clean the fan once and called the company's 800 number to see if I could get some help. As it turned out, the man who answered and talked me through the process was the owner of the company. He told me that the fan/heating units were easily and inexpensively replaced if necessary. How's that for customer service? And the machine was long out of warranty coverage when I called.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), December 30, 2001.