Excalibur Electric Food Dehydrator Machine 9-Tray with 26-Hour Timer, Automatic Shut Off Accurate Temperature Control and Fast Drying with 15 Square Feet of Drying Space, 600-Watts, Black

I don't have a ton of experience dehydrating food, but this machine seems pretty nice. I liked the reviews I saw so I went for it. First batch turned out very good. Machine seems to run efficiently. Very quiet. Very easy to use. Can't wait till summer time to experiment with different fruits and herbs. We have so much fresh fruit in the area, it seems weird to buy fruit in the winter when prices are higher. Will definitely stock pile this summer. Haven't made jerky yet, but I feel like it will be a breeze when I do!!

We have tried other dehydrators...most had fan issues and we finally decided to just go for what everyone said was the best of the best. So far, we are not disappointed! We had beef jerky marinating when the machine was delivered...yeah we had that planned! It turned out beautiful. Next batch - chicken jerky for the dogs. Again results were amazing. Just ask the dogs - they'll tell you how good it was! Then bananas and three pounds of apricots. We had done bananas before but never apricots - we were very pleased with the outcome. They take a long time but they are sure worth it! Next chicken/sweet potato dog treats. I ordered the nonstick sheets to go with this and they work well too. The racks are easy to clean - they fit flat in my sink (I have an over-sized sink). It runs quiet! I love the option to leave out racks if you have thicker foods to dry. This has run almost daily since delivery. Figured put it to the test and see how it holds up and so far it has passed the test with flying colors. When you order they give you a several day delivery window. My Excalibur was delivered on the first day of that window which was awesome. It was well packed and everything was there. The book is rather nice to that comes with it. We have done a lot of dehydrating but was nice to have references for all the fruits that we have not done before. This is the first dehydrator we have owned with a timer. I could probably live without it, but it is a very nice feature to have available. Never have to worry about it when you get busy and lose track of the time. And if you can, go for the 9 tray! I had looked at the 5 tray but I think I would have regretted that purchase. Saw where everyone said get the 9 tray so I followed everyone else and got the 9 tray and I am SO glad I did! The warranty is nice for peace of mind. There are tons or recipes on the Excalibur site. I know exactly where all the extra tomatoes from the garden are going to go this year! What an advancement from the old round Ronco that I started with many many years ago, bought at a flea market for $5. Got to admit tho, that thing ran for years! So old there was no fan...just the heating element in the bottom. I think I prefer my Excalibur over that one ha! I don't think you will be disappointed with this machine. Yeah it is big. Be sure you measure where you are going to put it so there is no surprise when you unbox it. It is lightweight tho. I guess overall I can say I am VERY happy with this purchase! I hope it serves me well for many years to come and from comments of others, I have a feeling that it might just do that! UPDATE 5/27/14: Having used this now for a few weeks almost nonstop, my statement of "I could have lived without the timer" is definitely FALSE. That timer sure does make life easier! So glad I got the one with the timer. We have put out multiple batches of chicken jerky (pet treats), dog cookies made with chicken and sweet potatoes, beef jerky (for us not the dogs ha), 15 pounds of apricots, 6 pounds of onions, bananas. Nothing is safe from the Excalibur! I should have bought this one first.

I have been using an Excalibur dehydrator that my mom purchased in the early 70's, (which still works great if you're concerned about the quality and durability of Excalibur products!), but was becoming increasingly worried about its energy efficiency especially since I live in a high-rate electrical district. After calling the company directly to get more information on the newer model efficiency, I ordered this unit from Harvest Essentials via Amazon. First, this seller is fantastic! I placed my order Monday morning and received my dehydrator the next day via Fedex! It was packaged very securely and arrived in great shape! I also ordered a clear door from the same seller which arrived the same day in a separate package. I fired the dehydrator up today and it runs like a champ! I will say that it is much quieter than my prehistoric model and since it's made of plastic, is also much lighter than the wood cabinet of old. :) I am also a fan of the new (to me) trays which consist of a plastic frame and a removable BPA-free mesh liner that sits on the frame. They are a huge improvement to the metal "window screens" in my old version! I haven't gotten any of the Paraflex liners, choosing to use parchment paper instead. That may change with time. Just a heads up - the unit will arrive with the timer and temp switches probably still in "factory test" mode - meaning that the unit will turn on when you plug it in. Don't make the same mistake as I did in thinking the unit would then run without the timer. (My old unit did not have a timer, so it stayed on until turned off.) I put my fruit into the dehydrator, plugged it in, and thinking the dehydrator was on, set my mental clock for 11 hrs and merrily went back inside. I went out two hours later to check on it, only to find it was no longer running. :/ The timer, which I guess had arrived with a few minutes left on it, had run out and shut the unit off. Thus I lost 2 hrs of drying time. Oh well. Lesson learned. :) (Side note: Yep, that info is in the manual. Guess I missed it on the first read-thru!) As for efficiency - since Excalibur doesn't provide any of the official yellow tags showing the expected energy usage, I can only go by a comparison between my old unit used last Saturday, my new unit used this Saturday, and my solar/electric meter. With my old unit on, the electric meter was "running forward", showing that there was more energy being used than my solar system was currently generating. With the new dehydrator running at approximately the same time of day (and with roughly the same energy load in the rest of my house), the electric meter is now happily running in reverse, which means the new dehydrator models are much more energy efficient than the old versions! Also, for those of you concerned about the warranty; as confirmed with Excalibur directly, the warranty IS still valid if purchasing from Amazon or an authorized seller via Amazon. I am thrilled with this dehydrator, and with the seller, Harvest Essentials, as well. I can't wait to see what the next 40+ years of use bring! Thanks Excalibur!!

AMAZING!!!! I have been wanting one of these for SO long. I have always used just the small round dehydrators you get from Walmart, etc. and while they do the job okay, it is nothing AT ALL in comparison to what this baby can do. I was floored by how quickly and evenly it was able to dry the food. Also just how much I can dry at once! It holds SOOOO much food at a time. I also loved the convenience of never having to rotate the trays, and being able to set a timer so I didn't have to watch it like a hawk. So far I have dehydrated bananas, apples, bell peppers, tomatoes, green beans, onions, pineapple, kiwi, strawberries, peaches, chiles, and made fruit leather. They have all turned out perfectly! My kiddo is happily snacking on dried fruit now instead of candy and junk. My whole family loves the final product. I love shopping at our local farmers market, but pretty soon with the seasons changing that won't be an option. it is great for me to be able to buy up a ton of fresh, locally grown produce and dry it, so that we can enjoy it throughout the winter months. For example, I dried about 3 dozen bell peppers that I chopped up, and now everytime I make spaghetti, etc. i can just throw a handful into the sauce without having to run to the store to get them. SO convenient, and better quality ingredients! This is also ideal for preparing food for food storage. It does such an amazing job, compared to dehydrators I have used in the past. I can confidently store the food now, without worrying about wether it will spoil or not, because this dehydrator does the job so well! I cannot say enough good things about it!

I bought this dehydrator because it was the #1 choice of America's Test Kitchen. What a mistake! I'm trying to dry three trays of cherry tomatoes - tiny little things that I put in 9 (!!!) hours ago! They're still not done. The booklet that came with the machine says to dry tomatoes at 125F for 5-9 hours. I started at 125F, bumped it up to 135F a few hours later, and have had the machine on max temperature (165F) for three hours now, and those itty bitty tomatoes are still not done. It's not even humid today. It's much more effective to do them in the oven. A few days ago I followed a recipe online to dry cherry tomatoes at 250 in the oven, and it took five hours. They turned out perfect. But I didn't want to tie up my oven for that long on a warm summer's day. It seems like now I'll be up all night listening to this machine whir another 9 hours in my kitchen... unless I want to transfer all of my half-dried tomatoes to baking sheets and finish them in the oven. A waste of almost 300 bucks. So annoyed! ETA: the trays are all lightweight plastic. Not metal. For 300 bucks, one might expect light-weight metal trays and screens, but no. I've used this dehydrator for a few days now, and your best bet is to put food in first thing in the morning and let it go all day while you're home... unless you're the type to run a heating element in your house while you sleep, which I wouldn't do. Since I'm retired, I can put new batch of fruit and veg in every day to dry my produce and keep up with it, but if I were still working, I'd have lost a ton of food by now. This machine is impractical and disappointing.

When my Excalibur 3926TB Food Dehydrator arrived, I was at first surprised at how large it is. I'm going to have to rethink where I'll be keeping it - it isn't a countertop accessory, that's for sure ... unless your kitchen is massive. But if you have the space somewhere else, you'll find this unit is impressive in its quality of construction and its sturdiness. And, okay, it's a little bit on the loud side - but I haven't anything to compare it with, so maybe they're all a bit loud. I mean, it's an appliance - it's going to make some noise, obviously. I didn't buy the gel sheets, so I can't comment as to their performance, but without them, the unit does a fine job dehydrating veggies. At least, it made great sweet potato snacks for my puppy! I'm still experimenting with other fruits and veggies - although I'm not planning on doing 'fruit roll-ups' (which is why I didn't get the gel sheets). Overall, I think this unit is well worth purchasing if you're looking for a top-of-the-line, enduring product. It comes with a 'guide' book to tell you various 'recipes', and I guess that's the only thing that I feel is a bit wanting. I've seen books offered on Amazon that strictly address dehydrating, and they seem to be far more robust than this little booklet I got with mine - so for the price, I think I'd have been happier to get something a bit more substantial with respect to 'how to make awesome snacks', or whatever. And that's the only criticism I could offer. Everything else about this unit met (or exceeded) my expectations and/or requirements, so if you're on the fence about purchasing it, you couldn't do much better that this one. Just make sure you have the space for it.

I just got the machine and I know I like it better than my 20 plus year old American Harvester by Nesco. My old one was a 4 tray plug it in and let it dry. I love having a timer built in (no cumbersome wall timer), and the adjustable thermostat is going to be nice with keeping my food alive. Also, the 9 trays allows me to more than double my drying space. I'm doing 4 pounds of organic strawberries and 5 pounds of organic green beans as I write. They are are doing well and should be done soon. The flexible mesh screens will help with sticking. I haven't tried the paraflex sheets yet, so I don't know how they'll work. BTW, read the book on how to use. It is simple, but if you've never owned an Excalibur, it does a few things slightly different. For instance it recommends turning the trains 180 degrees halfway through. Cons: It is a little noisy, but tolerable. If you've owned a dehydrator you'll find it on par or a hair louder. The door will rattle some but a simple repositioning seems to take care of that. Not really a con for me, but be aware, the machine is going to be large. Make sure you note the dimensions before purchasing. I do wish the opening were on the side in my case verses the skinny front. It would fit nicer on the counter that way but it is a minor. Cleaning of the tray mesh is a little time consuming if you don't have a sprayer. You can't put those in the dishwasher like the tray itself, but I'd recommend not doing that either. Plastic and high heat isn't a good thing. Don't forget the Paraflex sheets can't be soaked, only wiped off, but I haven't used them yet, so I don't know how much of a chore that will be yet. Would I buy it again? Yes - It is a good machine and on Amazon, the price isn't horrible and if you use your dehydrator like I do, you'll get your money back soon with just the savings on snacks you make yourself verses buying and you'll know what is in your snacks and control things like bad fats and too much sugar and salt. I'm making crunchy green bean snacks right now. I paid 6.39 for 5 pounds of Organic green beans, I used a little coconut oil and a little sea salt and I now have about 5 bags worth. If I bought the same amount I'd not have organic, they'd be made with unhealthy oils and cost 6.99 for a small 8 ounce bag, plus shipping. I figure I saved $25 dollars already. I've done the same for Organic strawberries too and we all know dried fruit is ridiculously expensive, especially for the organic ones.

My uncle used these exact same model of dehydrator almost 30 years ago in our small processing plant making jerky almost daily. That's why we just got two more. If you want a dehydrator that's going to last these are the best.