Best Nesco FD-60 Snackmaster Express 4-Tray Food Dehydrator Deals

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List Price: $67.99
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I just bought this dehydrator as a gift for a good friend. So why am I writing a review on it, and how do I know what to rate it? Because I owned one for many years! I just replaced my FD-60 with the new almost-square FD-80 several months ago. I did it not because my dehydrator had broken, but because I have a limited amount of room and the FD-80 holds more in the same space. However, my FD-60 went to a young couple who is financially challenged and they are saving money with it.

I've been dehydrating for 30 years with Nesco. I've been aware of Excaliburs and other more expensive dehydrators because friends have bought them. I have no beef with that, but my Nesco machines have worked perfectly and inexpensively. As with so many other kitchen appliances, a dehydrator ain't gonna do you any good if it's sitting somewhere, unused.

There are two things on this FD-60 that you absolutely want: an adjustable thermostat and a fan. There are others on here who have bought machines lacking one or both of these features and they've regretted it. You need a higher temp for jerky, for instance, than you do for bananas, etc. The fan keeps the hot air circulating and things will dry both faster and more evenly. Nesco has the fan on the top of these, which makes sense to me because that way food won't drip on it. L'Equip has now rebadged and started making the old Magic Mill dehydrator, but it's got the fan built into the base! Excalibur has it in the back as does Tribest, but that also means it takes more counter space. The top is easy to lift, and most importantly for me, it's very, very quiet. In my kitchen, using this FD-60 or my newer FD-80 I have to be right next to it to hear it at all.

Don't make the mistake of thinking you've got to have some huge batch of food to dry, either, at a time. Not so. The other day I had two bananas that were going bad and a couple of baking potatoes that were starting to get 'eyes'. While watching TV I sliced up both the bananas and potatoes, put them in the dehydrator and by the next morning I had banana chips and raw potato chips. I have some Roma tomatoes in the icebox right now that are doing in there some time today because they're going to go bad otherwise. I often use my dehydrator for such things and it's absolutely saved me wasting good food.

Another use for this dehydrator is rice! Anyone ever thought about that? You can cook a pot of rice, let it cool enough to handle it, then dehydrate it. Then, whenever you're making a soup or whatever and want rice in it, just drop the dried rice in the hot soup and in a few minutes you've got perfectly cooked rice in the soup. Not only much, much cheaper than 'Minute' rice, but also doesn't have that funky texture, either.

This FD-60 is a perfect size to get started with dehydrating. Nesco has a great guide that comes with it, and you'll find tons of information all over the internet to help you get started. If you learn how to use it wisely, it will absolutely pay for itself within a year. Good luck, and I wish all my purchases were so wise!

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We bought a Snackmaster, Jr. about twenty years ago and never had any problem

with it. It finally died. So we looked for another one and we found this one.

The air and heat comes from the top of machine and circulates around the food that is being dried. It seems to dry the food faster than the old one and it is much

easier to clean. We really like it so far.

Best Deals on Nesco FD-60 Snackmaster Express 4-Tray Food Dehydrator

I purchased this dehydrator so I could take advantage of the fresh produce that is about to be in season in our area.

This is the second dehydrator I have owned. My first, a different brand, had no temp. control and the heat/fan unit was in the bottom. I hated the thing. The food wouldn't dry evenly even with tray rotation. This Nesco drys from the top and drys more evenly. I still rotate the trays but do not have to do it as often.

The only issue with this unit is like with most of the dehydrators out there, the drying tray ventilation spacing is to wide for some foods. I suggest buying the Clean-A-Screen inserts to use when drying foods that will shrink up a lot.

Overall I really like this dehydrator and would purchase another in the future if I cannot afford a more expensive unit.

Honest reviews on Nesco FD-60 Snackmaster Express 4-Tray Food Dehydrator

I have had my dehydrator for almost two years. I use it heavily (3-4 times a week) during harvest season and about once a month during the rest of the year.

I dry/cook a variety of items in my dehydrator. Granola bars, fruit leather, jerky, dried fruit and veggies. I love that I can adjust the temperature. The fan makes it dry the foods much faster than my old Ronco brand unit.

Jerky takes about 9 hours, apples take about 12, fruit leather (at my house) is never consistent in drying time because I just pour in as much puree as I want without weighing or measuring. This is a way easier method for making fruit leather than using the oven.

I bought 4 extra trays and extra fruit roll inserts. I also have a silicone insert for each of my trays. I have never dried anything directly on the plastic tray so I don't know if the dried fruits/veggies come off easily.

I DO NOT recommend ever dehydrating onions or garlic. They are very cheap to buy already done. The smell is very hard to get out of your house and it seems to stay in the plastic forever.

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I read an article with food dehydrator recipes in Vegetarian Times magazine and got the impulse to buy a food dehydrator. Without doing a lot of research, I settled on this model. I have not owned a food dehydrator before, so I can't compare it to other models. I am generally quite happy with it, though, and able to tell you what works and what doesn't (for me).

First, the reasons I took off a star:

A) 1/2 for not having an on/off switch. As you might expect, items placed closer to the top part, which contains the heating element and the fan, dry faster than items placed at the bottom. You have to remove the top part to switch the trays around, and you have to just directly unplug the dehydrator from the wall during the tray rotation process because there's no off switch.

B) 1/2 for being difficult to clean. The trays are just big enough that they don't fit flat in my kitchen sink. One of the things I dry frequently is kale (more on that later) and the trays really need a good scrubbing and/or soaking after that. It's a bit difficult to do that when I can't lay them in the sink. (I am pretty sure my sink is a standard size.)

I didn't take off any stars for this next thing, but be forewarned that if you live in a small space, the smell of what you are dehydrating will permeate the space. This is not usually a problem for fruit, but some vegetables can stink. (I tried to dry onions once...) Also, for what it's worth, this dehydrator takes up a big chunk of counter space while in use. It also tends to warm up the kitchen a little (which can be nice on a winter day).

I've tried to dry all manner of things in this food dehydrator, and it does a good job for most of them (including pineapple, cantaloupe, watermelon, bananas, and other items to be mentioned below). I tend to gravitate towards fruits more than vegetables, but only because I'm not sure what to do with dried vegetables, whereas dried fruits usually make a good snack on their own. (I don't make jerky because I'm a vegetarian, so I can't say anything about that.) I did try to use the fruit roll tray once, and the texture was right, but it was way too tart. It's not the dehydrator's fault, though, I just need a different recipe.

There is a manual that comes with the food dehydrator, but I didn't use it. It's not that complicated of a device to operate. There is a dial on top with temperatures (I haven't measured them so I don't know how accurate they are); the temperature settings are also labeled with food types. I just turn the dial to the desired temperature setting (I pretty much always leave it at "fruits and vegetables" which I think is around 135 degrees F), plug it in, and go.

Dried apples take most of a day, probably at least 8-10 hours when sliced thin. I rotate the trays when the mood strikes, usually every 2-3 hours. (Dip the slices in lemon juice mixed with water before dehydrating to minimize browning.) I leave the peel on. Dehydrated apples last quite a long time (several weeks, if I don't eat them all first), even un-refrigerated (though you should keep them in an airtight container), and are addictive to snack on. I've tried with several different apple types, although Pink Lady and Honeycrisp are especially good this way.

Small fruits with a rounded or oval shape (e.g. grapes, pitted cherries, etc.) are going to work better if you cut them in half and put them peel side down, cut side up, in the trays. Otherwise, you'll be drying them forever.

Another thing I make quite often is kale chips. Rinse and dry the kale, toss with a little olive oil, black pepper, and Parmesan if you want, and they're done in about two hours (very little tray rotation required). (Don't add salt if you're using real Parmigiano-Reggiano or the kale chips will be too salty.) The reason scrubbing is required after drying kale (as I mentioned above) is to get the olive oil and little crusted-on pieces of kale off the trays. (FYI, if you make kale chips using Parmesan, your house will smell like cheese, and if you have cats, they'll go batty trying to figure out how to get to the cheese smell.)

Don't expect the dried fruit you make at home to taste or look like what you get in the store -you're likely not adding all the sugar and preservatives. However, it's also probably better for you without all that junk!

Anyway, for an occasional dehydrator user like myself, this one is a good option.