Excalibur Electric Food Dehydrator Machine 4-Tray with Adjustable Thermostat, Accurate Temperature Control and Fast Drying with 4 Square Feet of Drying Space, 250-Watts, Black

I've had this unit for 4 years and it has performed exactly as expected. I've had it on for greater than 24 consecutive hours many times and it has worked great. I have purchased silicone trays with lips to use in this (not the same brand, but ones that work great just the same). This helps when I want to dehydrate squash puree to grind in a nut grinder and make squash flour. They'd work great for fruit leathers as well. I had thought I could just use cut parchment paper, but found the airflow often lifted the edges and caused issues so I was wasting too much time paperclipping the parchment down. I discovered that the plastic trays are actually easier to clean than I had anticipated. I hand wash the white plastic mesh part and run the black tray frames through my dishwasher all piled up on the top rack (my water doesn't get hot enough to melt them).I'll share 2 of our favorite snacks:1. Peel a banana (not overripe). Push your thumb into the center of the non-stem end. The banana will naturally split into thirds. Dehydrate these thirds and we call the result "banana licorice." It does keep some moisture in for a chewy texture, so we eat them up quickly rather than long storage.2. Instead of dipping apple slices in lemon or citric acid water to prevent browning, dip them in 100% pineapple juice. Trust me!I have also learned that my dehydrator will quickly dry tricky items (the blades of a blender/grinder) for me if I wash them between batches and need them bone dry. Some people use them for yogurt making (I haven't tried this). I'm using mine on its lowest setting to infuse acidified garlic into coconut oil because where I live this time of year coconut oil is solid at room temperature.If you have the room, splurge on the larger size. Someone dropped of a case of bananas to my house once as a gift. Boy, was I glad I had the larger size. I've used it to dehydrate potatoes I purchased in bulk, countless produce from our garden and bulk purchases, and smaller batches like a few hot peppers from the package I wouldn't get to using in time. It works just as well on a smaller batch as it does a large one.

I had NO idea how fast and easy it was to make FANTASTIC beef jerky. Overnight, I marinated ribeye steaks strips (little less than half inch thick slices) in four different flavors (brown sugar/cinnamon/vanilla, jalapeno, salt and vinegar and 18-year-old scotch), set the dehydrator to 155° for 6 hours and out came the best tasting, most(ly) tender jerky I could have imagined. I had my doubts about my choices of marinade, but, surprisingly, they all taste really good. The jalapeno gives a really nice, warm burn and the brown sugar is so sweet. I'm really excited about this thing, I kid you not.The unit itself arrived in perfect shape. It's lighter than it looks because it's mostly empty space. It comes with plastic grills to lay on top of the trays. It could be considered a little bit loud, I guess, but it's no louder than your average microwave. The fan blows just hard enough where you can kind of feel the breeze coming out of the sides where it's vented.It has a nice clean look to it and the dials (one for the heat, one for the timer) feel sturdy, not cheap. In fact, the whole structure is very solid, so I'm not worried about beating it up when I move it around.The book that came with it has general instructions for different kinds of food; several types of jerky, fruits, vegetables, etc. and suggested dehydration times. The jerky was sliced in different thicknesses, so the thinner slices were a little too dry and the thicker slices could have used another 30 minutes to an hour, maybe, but I definitely liked it just like it was. You can tell the book wasn't slapped together, like you might expect as an added "accessory" used as a selling point. it is actually useful.I might add to this after I've dehydrated some fruits and other things, but, as fast and easy as it was to make this, I don't see how I could be disappointed. One thing is for sure. I have bought my LAST bag of beef jerky from the Internet/store.UPDATE: 06/17/2015In addition to the more expensive ribeye, I'm also dehydrating thick cut pork chops the same way. They are even better than the ribeye. I marinate overnight and dehydrate for 6 hours and they are done.I've also been dehydrating a dozen bananas at a time in addition to apples. I sliced them kind of thick, maybe a little larger than a quarter of an inch and even bigger on the apples since they dry out down to nothing. I usually add cinnamon to the bananas and dehydrate for 12 hours. The book says less, but 12 hours gets them nice and dry. They end up a little leathery and chewy. It's very sweet, like I've added sugar to it. Very surprised how sweet they get.The apples are amazing. They also are extremely sweet. I usually add a little cinnamon to those as well. I don't add sugar to any of the fruit I dehydrate, ever. It is just that sweet all by itself. The dehydrator will hold about 10 moderately sized apples on the 9 trays.I also am dehydrating Roma tomatoes. If you've ever eaten the sun-dried tomato or had it on your salad, you will absolutely LOVE the dehydrated tomatoes. I snack on them straight out of the bag or put them on sandwiches which gives it a flavor I've never tasted before. Needless to say, it is excellent. I sliced them very thick -- like nearly a half an inch - since they shrink down to nothing. if you like them thin, then they are excellent that way also.Next I'll be dehydrating watermelon, cantaloupe, kiwi and mango. After dehydrating, the flavor and sweetness multiplies by 10, so anything you can think of that is sweet will be supersweet once it's done. I can't believe what I'm eating is all natural!The plastic mesh comes with the dehydrator, but do yourself a massive favor and by the Teflon coated dehydrator sheets specifically for this model. They are about $14 for 9 of them. It is WELL worth it, because cleaning up the mesh screens that came with it is rather difficult.

Big capacity, controls easy to use, temperature control is accurate

Update: Excalibur finally responded and said the light bulb wasn't under warranty (which I expected, even though it lasted for only a few seconds). What I wanted to know was how to access the light bulb to change it out. They said I would have to disassemble the dehydrator to access it and by doing that I would void the warranty. What in the world???!!!Overall I like the dehydrator. However, after the 2nd use, the light bulb either burner but or the switch doesn't work. I had only turned it on to inspect the produce, then right back off. I reached out to Excalibur and they needed a list of items from me - just short of my first born child. A 10 second minimum video has to be included. I provided all this information. Wanted to know what bulb and how to access it. SILENCE!!! Now I know this is a small thing, but this is a clear indication of what would happen if the problem were larger and it made my dehydrator useless. Perhaps I will get a Corsi if this one dies.Let me add, that the first one I ordered arrived with the glass falling out of the doors. I returned it to Amazon for a replacement. I know ow someone above in the comments said the racks were plastic. They are NOT plastic, they are metal.

I love how easy this is to use. The design of the glass doors really makes it easy to see how everything is doing without having toped it up. It has almost no noise at all. It really works great. It has such a large capacity I can process so much at one time.