 Worth every penny |
| Date Of Review: August 18, 2009 |
| Reviewed by: Ross E. Nelson, Casselton, North Dakota United States |
I've used virtually every dehydrator on the market and even a few home-made versions. Trust me when I say that this dehydrator is the best you can get for the money.
The round tower-type dehydrators are inexpensive for a good reason: they aren't worth it.
-The trays are flimsy and crack too easily.
-The holes on these trays are too big to use with herbs or diced foods, so you must use the mesh inserts.
-You only have about 1/2" of space between trays, so you cannot dry bulky items--like flowers or granola.
-When it comes to fruit leather, the only thing more inefficient than the round shape is the hole in the middle. Yes, I know they come with fruit leather trays, but have you ever tried to store fruit leather pealed off of the tray and rolled up? A shredded mess to begin with and a sticky mess once they've stored for a while.
-With the motor on the bottom any food or juices that fall through the cracks shortens the life of the machine.
-The drying process in these tower-types is not uniform--the bottom trays dry quicker than the top trays, the center dries quicker than the edges.
-Some models have only recently started adding temp controls. Still, it does little good because there is more heat on the bottom than the top.
-The motor is loud--I had one model I had to run on the porch because it was so loud.
The two round models I bought died within a year and a half of use.
The next best dehydrator on the market is the L'Eqip. It is much quieter, comes with a healthy 10yr warranty and has temperature controls. But it is a hybrid with many of the faults of the round models and few of the benefits of the square-shaped Excalibur. It still has a hole in the middle. It still dries unevenly. It has deeper trays but you still can't dry flowers. It still has a motor on the bottom. I have a friend who dried berries in her L'Equip. They leaked on the motor and it died the first summer of use. Now granted, the folks at L'Equip stood by their machine and replaced it for her with no hassle, but how many times do you want your summer-time dehydrating held up while you wait for your replacement to come?
The Excalibur is perfect for anyone who is serious about dehydrating. Here are the features that I like:
-Heat source and fan are in the back, forcing air to distribute evenly throughout the chamber. Other than the way you place the food, there is no reason for uneven drying spots.
-Love the timer. I can set it and leave. It'll turn off automatically whether or not I'm there. That means 'round the clock drying during the height of your summer harvest. Put the food in when you go to bed, wake up to dried food and put another batch in.
-Temp control lets you choose low heats for herbs and flowers, higher temps for fruits and jerky.
-Love the square trays. For fruit leather I line the trays with plastic wrap and spread the fruit puree out. When it's dry I cut the leather into 2" wide strips, roll them up and secure with the tail end of the plastic wrap. The plastic peels off easily when it's time to eat.
-BIG trays--you can pack a LOT of food into this. This is especially important at the height of the summer harvest when there's a non-stop stream of food that needs drying. (This is also the one single thing that is in my negative column--the trays don't fit flat in my kitchen sink, making them a little hard to wash. I solve this by washing them in my outdoor garden sink--old fashioned tubs on a stand. Since I like the big trays, I really shouldn't complain.)
-Mesh liner on all trays. I can dry herbs, diced onions and finely chopped fruits without having it fall to trays below. No food cross-contamination means I can dehydrate more than one thing at a time.
-Removable trays. If I have bulky items--flowers, herbs, granola, etc--I can just remove every other tray and have another 1/2" or more room.
-Makes a great proofing box for sourdough. Also good for culturing yogurt, esp if you like to make it in larger containers. For both sourdough and yogurt, make sure it is covered so that the moving air doesn't dry it out.
-10 yr warranty. I've had mine for almost 15 yrs and it's still going strong. Every year the money I save on herbs alone pays for what it originally cost me. That means this machine has paid for itself 15 times over.
If you're at all serious about dehydrating, don't waste your money like I did--get the best from the get go. That's the Excalibur.
(Written by Ross' wife. He's also happy that I like it so well and have gotten so much good use from it.)
|
Great machine
|
| Date Of Review: May 11, 2009 |
| Reviewed by: Connie, Tallahassee, Florida, USA |
| I've had my Excalibur for a while now and use it on a regular basis. Before purchasing it, I tried several of the round type, including the Gardenmaster. This dehydrator beats the round variety as it has the side fan and adjustable thermostat. The side fan means you very rarely have to rotate trays and it cuts the drying time. The Excalibur is also much easier to clean than the round dehydrators. Besides using it for drying food, I take the trays out and use it to raise bread and make yogurt. Don't bother with the 5 tray version - you'll wish you had went for the 9 tray instead. The added height inside the 9 tray makes it easy to use for raising a bowl of bread dough. |
Most efficient dehydrator
|
| Date Of Review: November 4, 2009 |
| Reviewed by: 2pedals, TN United States |
| This is my second dehydrator. The first one I saved a little money and bought the Nesco FD-80 American Harvest Square-Shaped Dehydrator it works but if you are serious about dehydrating then you want to get an Excalibur. It is amazing the difference in how much more efficient the dryer is with the fan blowing across the food instead of like my first dehydrator that pushed the air vertically through the food. The Excalibur is noisier than the Nesco I had. But with it being better at drying I don't have to run it as long. It does not bother me that there is no timer. You can't really over dehydrate if it ends up running a few hours longer than needed because you are sleeping. I would not want it to shut off in the middle of the night sitting there until I woke up. If you leave dehydrated food out in the room air for long it will absorb moisture from the room air. If you want some good information on how to dehydrate the excalibur website has free instructional videos. [...]. |
Great item, but what I wish I'd considered prior to buying...
|
| Date Of Review: April 5, 2010 |
| Reviewed by: K. Salinger, Bay Area, California |
We absolutely love our excalibur dryer - it works so much better than the cheaper, round versions that are out there. However, there are a few things we hadn't considered prior to buying that we wish we had:
*****This model has no timer, thus no auto-off. If I had it to do over again I'd buy the one with the 26 hour timer for sure! We recently started a recipe only to realize it would be done at 4 a.m. - ugh! not a fun time to get up just to shut off the dryer!!
*****There is no on/off switch, just the plug. I don't know if the model with the timer has an on off button or not, but I really hate items that don't offer one. Perhaps this is no biggie to most folks, but it really bugs me.
*****This thing is BIG! We had to do some serious rearranging to make room for it on our counter, and unfortunately the only place it fits is right in the middle so that it's the first thing you see when looking at our kitchen from the den (we have an open concept floor plan). It is also so big that we cannot fit it in any of our kitchen cabinets or drawers. So, we either have to leave it out on the counter all the time (and it aint' pretty - just a big black box) or we have to carry it into the garage.
*****If you don't get a deal that offers the teflex and plastic mesh sheet liners with it (enough for every tray) than be sure to buy them - you will need them for most recipes.
*****If you're not going fully raw or making massive quantities for a large family you may want to consider the smaller ones so that the size doesn't become a big issue for you as it has for us.
All-in-all this dryer is the top in dehydrators for good reason and you'd be doing yourself a disservice to buy a different brand. However, consider the issues I listed above to help you get the best set up for your situation. |
Much better than I expected
|
| Date Of Review: July 2, 2010 |
| Reviewed by: PooBear, USA |
After reading some of the more negative reviews I expected a rather flimsy appliance, but what I received was anything but. It is a well-constructed appliance with a heavy-duty, solid feel.
I found in my prior research that a less robust model of this device, the 2900, exists, and that the differences were an improved fan motor and thermostat system in the 3900, along with better construction materials for the unit itself.
We have run several loads of fruits through ours already, and I can't imagine having any of the other dehydrator appliances I've looked at as they require tray rotation for proper operation. I haven't the time, nor desire, to babysit a lot of things, let alone a dehydrator.
I could have just as easily purchased the timer model of the 3900 directly from the factory's easy-to-use web site, but choose not to. The reason is that the timer on such models is also the on/off switch, so there is no way to get such models to run indefinitely. I personally want it to run until I tell it to stop, rather than time-out and sit there letting my dried goods soak up atmospheric moisture and rotting. And if I want a timer, I'll just plug this thing into one.
Best of both worlds.
Initially, I wanted the 5-tray model but the discussion on the cooking forum led me to this 9-trayer. I'm happy that I went with that advice, because filling trays is easy, especially if you break out the food processor. If I'm drying, I prefer to get it all over with ASAP, but not be too big a machine. The 3900 is a good happy medium.
The dehydrator comes packed with a very nice quality dehydrator cookbook and a smaller cookbook as well, very worthwhile in their own right and not some cheap afterthought I expected them to be.
And Excalibur is Made in USA to boot.
I am very happy to have this high-quality, domestically produced appliance.
|
Great!!!!!!!!!!!
|
| Date Of Review: February 6, 2010 |
| Reviewed by: Janet G. Schilling, |
| I got this product for my husband for Christmas and he loves it. He's already broken it in. It's so much bigger and you can really put alot more into it than the others. If you want to have things in bulk this dehydrator is for you. It is really easy to clean up too, just put the shelves in the dishwasher. Oh and it dehydrates faster than the smaller ones. I would highly recommend this product to others. |
Best Dehydrator I've owned
|
| Date Of Review: May 9, 2010 |
| Reviewed by: Bryan, Indiana |
I bought this a few weeks ago and simply love it. It's fast on drying just about anything, has the adjustable thermostat for varying temperatures depending on what you're dehydrating. Doing an entire 9 racks of jerky (which is a LOT of pre dehydrated meat), I didn't have to shuffle the racks around to get the jerky even on it's dehydrating, so it does a good job of evenly dehydrating things.
Worked a lot faster than other dehydrators I've used before (Oster, a few other brands from walmart). Completely dehydrated 5 lbs of jerky in about 6 hours (as in the jerky didn't bend, it snapped).
Highly recommend it.
|
sturdy and dependable
|
| Date Of Review: August 4, 2010 |
| Reviewed by: bread baker, Leoma,TN |
One reviewer wrote "WHAT YOU GET A lightweight box of molded plastic. A metal back with a fan, heating coils, and a thermostat. 9 plastic trays." Well I would have to agree with his description. That is exactly what you get. If you bought a $2500 convection oven you buy a box, an element, and a fan. The Excalibur doesn't dazzle you with quality but it really works. The first impression may be a little off putting. However you can't beat the guarantee. It is probably better made than it appears. We have put our Excalibur through its paces and it has performed better that I had expected. It has a huge capacity. We can dry about six gallons of just about any fruit or vegetable at one time. The key word here is a fruit or veretable. You will have problems if you mix different produces. Over all, it is very consistent and the final product is great. This size of dehydrator is better suited to people with large gardens and or orchards.
|
|
There are no video reviews for this item.
