Customer Ratings: 
List Price: $300.00
Sale Price: $233.99
Today's Bonus: 22% Off
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. I have more information on dehydrating in general and comparin Excalibur with others in particular: )
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
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.
NOTE: Some folks have posted good solutions to the timer issue in the comments take a look.
Best Deals on Excalibur 9 Tray Deluxe Dehydrator
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.
Honest reviews on Excalibur 9 Tray Deluxe Dehydrator
Bought the 9 tray dehydrator with timer from the factory. I have gone through 2 fans. the first fan stopped working about 16 hours into operation. The second fan stopped working about 1 hour into operation. The second fan was really noisy and didnt sound right from the start. I am now waiting for a whole new back assembly with a new fan and heating element and all. What a joke I bought this Dehydrator because i couldnt find any negative reviews on it. I will wait to see if this new piece will fix the dehydrator or not if now im going to throw the thing into heavy traffic. when it was working it worked great i made some darn good jerky with it. Customer service has been good. I am thinking i just got a bad dehydrator but if this replacement doesnt work i will move my rating to a 1 star. If it does work i will move it to a 3 star. I always try to do alot of research before i buy a product and try to buy the best on the market for the money. So it was a real kick in the nuts to have this supposedly great product take 2 dumps on me. not too happy right now but will update when the replacement parts come in.
***************************
**UPDATE**
Excalibur sent me a whole new back piece to the dehydrator no questions asked. I put the replacement part on and let it run on high heat for 16 hours. No problems. I made some beef jerky and the dehydrator was used for 8 hours on high heat. Beef jerky turned out great. Once I removed the Jerky from the unit I tried turning the unit back on. The heating coils got red hot but no fan for the third time.
Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Excalibur 9 Tray Deluxe Dehydrator
I purchased my White 9 tray Excalibur 3000 series 2 years ago and I'm so very pleased that I did!
I purchased it directly from Excaliber and not through Amazon or any of its third party sellers. At the time, Excaliber/KBI direct was the only way to purchase the 3000 series white model but the price was good, shipping free, the service excellent ~ plus, and a big plus with me, a free 10 year warranty!
As it is quite a large(but light-weight)appliance, the white is less imposing than the black model in my small white kitchen. It has worked exceedingly well to meet the requirements of my raw vegan diet. It did get a lot of use the first year that I had it, more so then than now. I have been eating less dehydrated food so don't use it as often as I first did but still I find it easy to use and handy when I do need a dehydrator and I'm glad to have one.
My only problem, and it's a minor one, is the noise. It is not especially quiet but I still give it 5 stars. I have remedied the problem easily enough by simply moving it to another room when I am dehydrating an item that requires a longer drying period, such as the tomatoes I'm dehydrating right now which have been drying for 3 days at low temperature.
If you are shopping for a good dehydrator, Excalibur is the one to buy. I recommend getting the 9 trays too. You'll be glad to have them over the smaller ones. And do shop around for the best price and consider Excaliber for that warranty.
