The Best Food Dehydrators

In our health conscious world dried fruit and vegetables are becoming more popular. They are a good snack, and if you are into outside sports such as hiking, having dried provisions in your pack saves you the inconvenience of carrying weighty cans. There is also a growing raw food movement, which relies heavily on dehydrated foods.

There is a problem, though, with many commercial dried fruits and vegetables. They often contain preservatives, such as Sulphur Dioxide, which is added to the fruit to help retain its color. To avoid exposure to preservatives there are a couple of alternatives: buy preservative-free from a health store, which can be very expensive, or dry your own from fruits, vegetables and herbs in season.

Drying your own fruit and vegetables will give you total control of the process. The best and fastest way is to have a dehydrator. This review will concentrate on three dehydrators with a variety of price-points, so you can pick the one that best fits your needs and budget.

The Nesco FD-61WHC is one of the most popular dehydrators on the market. This is because of its price point, and overall reliability and results. It comes with 5 trays, and uses an overhead fan to dry the fruit. The unit is relatively quiet, and gives your fruit and vegetables an even drying. There's no need to rotate trays to get get them to dry evenly.

Nesco have included additional items such as the Jerky kit, two wire mesh trays for the smaller and more sticky items and includes a fruit roll sheet as well. All in all, everything you need to start dehydrating.

If there's one downside to this unit it is the lack of and on/off switch. This means you will have to switch off the unit in order to check the progress of your drying efforts. There have also been reports that sometimes the extruder in the jerky kit will occasionally pop off when in use.

All of the trays are dishwasher safe, so it is very easy to clean, and the dehydrator is small enough to make it easy to store when not in use.

Recommended for:

If you are starting out this is the ideal unit. The cost, at around $60 from Amazon makes it very accessible, and the addition of so many accessories means you won't need to purchase more items to get maximum use out of the machine.

At around $150 the L'Equip 528 food dehydrator is mid-range in price, and still has the deserved reputation of being one of the best food dehydrators on the market.

You don't get all the fancy accessories like you do with the Nesco dehydrator. This unit does come with fruit roll sheets but no jerky kit, but that is available from them as a separate purchase. It contains 6 trays to give you maximum drying space, and the temperature is controlled via a computer controlled sensor. This means you are certain to get an even temperature throughout and the drying will be consistent, and easily managed.

Where most of the dehydrators at the cheaper end of the scale are round, this one is rectangular and may be easier to fit onto a kitchen bench or into a storage cupboard when not in use. Overall in dimensions it is the size of a small microwave, but not as heavy to lift and can be moved easliy to an alternate location when not in use.

L'Equip has made a reliable dehydrator which works fast, and has plenty of space so that you get maximum use out of each session. Perhaps the only downsides are the lack of accessories and that you must hand wash the trays. Overall, this dehydrator is value for money.

Recommended for:

The person or family which wants to dry foods to eat at home or on the run. L'Equip will allow you to dry a lot of food quickly. This unit is ideal for the medium sized family, or someone who wishes to dry a medium amount of foods in season.

The Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator is for the serious lover of dehydrated food. This is a step up again, from the L'Equip, and unlike its rival, this machine does come with all the attachments.

Like the L'Equip the Excalibur has computer controlled settings, and is a square unit. This dehydrator does take up a lot of space on the kitchen bench, as you would expect, but is light enough that it can be easily carried and stored in another location when not in use.

Excalibur does have the jerky kit, as well as the fruit roll kits. This means you can do almost anything with it. The 9 trays also gives you a much greater capacity. If you want to dry a lot of food because you have a large family, or like to buy and dry bulk fruits in season this is the unit to get. For example this dehydrator has the capacity to dry 25 largish size apples at once.

The unit is reliable and dries the food at an even temperature. As with other dehydrators, this unit works fast, much faster than the traditional manual method.

Recommended for:

The Excalibur is towards the top end of the scale, and I would recommend this unit for people who intend to dry large amounts of food, or have a large family to cater for.

There are a large range of food dehydrators on the market, they range from the very cheap, which have a reputation for warping trays to the very, very expensive, which are meant for more commercial uses.

The three dehydrators reviewed here are the ones with the best reputation on the market for their price-point. The cheaper ones, such as the Nesco, are great for people who will get the occasional use out of the product, but if you are serious then look more closely at the L'Equip or Excalibur. Right now, especially at the prices Amazon are selling them, I would lean toward the Excalibur because of the extra capacity and the addition of the Jerky kit.

If you are into dried and raw foods a dehydrator is the perfect way to make your own without all the fuss involved with air drying.