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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program This review is from: Excalibur EXD900B 9 Tray Dehydrator, Black (Kitchen)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program
We now have 3 juicers, a VitaMix 5200, and now 2 of these Excalibur dehydrators. For the life of me (bad pun?) I am STILL trying to figure how I can still get overweight with all this health food equipment surrounding me....If you can live with NO timer and a shorter warranty, this will serve you well. otherwise, pony up for the BIG bucks models. Our other model is the Excalibur Deluxe 3900 Dehydrator that has the extras. However, we just had a Cuisinart coffee maker go up in smoke while we were home and in the kitchen. I will NEVER, EVER use any appliance with a timer when not home again! A very frightening experience and I will just never trust in it again. I will however use my oven or microwave timer as a beeping indicator to alert me as to timing my work. I will also be home and in the house any & every time I ever have any cooking or brewing device active from now on. So for me, this model with NO timer is great.
With about 6 years now watching endless videos from John Kohler, kevingianni and so many others on YouTube, we have dramatically changed our life & health. I admit to not buying wholly organic but still feel better having modified diet with items like this combined with juicing, blending etc. Excalibur has ALWAYS been known for simply bullet proof items so I have little worry that this will long outlive me. There are concerns everywhere about using Teflon sheets with these dehydrators as they often contain Teflon #276. If you see any signs of wear, chipping, tearing etc, I recommend THROWING them out. Otherwise, if neurotic, use wax paper. If you are REALLY lucky try this. See if you have a 9" by 13" baking dish by Pyrex or Corning or whoever. If you do, chances are you can place 3 of them in your dehydrator after removing the trays! This led us to get even more "kinky" in what we would dehydrate for our old cats Lucy & Ethel, making them treats as well as for ourselves. Now fair warning, my brilliant idea of beer batter onion rings was one of my more Frankenstein inventions gone wrong. I will however, continue my mad scientist experiments because I find that just like with juicing, you honestly do not need a bunch of books, recipes etc. ALL you need is to toss stuff in and enjoy the fun of being creative and making your OWN discoveries. Just prep (if needed) to be safe and sanitary. It is honestly extremely rewarding. Except for maybe my beer soaked onion rings.
You will find that even with the cost of electricity & food used to make your own dehydrated foods, you should average about a 90% SAVINGS by doing it yourself over store bought prices. Plus you will be inventing some of your very own & special treats not found in stores. I often use it to raise my home made breads too. This will serve you well for quite a few things other than just being used as a dehydrator. Try making your own yogurt for instance. I strongly suggest you spend some quality time on YouTube and then run amok with your own experiments. Now if your cats bite and claw you if you screw up their treats just remember that they will love you "next time".
I have never seen any model of this brand fail yet. They must however since they actually still stock parts for even WAY old models. Again, that just bodes well for me anyway and tells me that you are dealing with a great company that is there for you to support you after the sale. I have had similar GREAT support for Le Quip with a failed juicer a couple years ago. I honestly just can't find a single negative thing to say about this particular model, any other model, or this company. At the current price point I give this 4 stars. If it were metal, it would be a flat 5 stars and well deserved. As is, currently you can find an older model in metal for about the same price WITH built in thermostat (if you want to trust it that is). So a well earned 4 stars for now. I will revisit this as months & years past as anything changes for better or worse.
If you are unsure about whether or not you want to try dehydrating, possibly go to YouTube and look for How to dehydrate and store food PART 1 by Dehydrate2store. That is what got me hooked and started on this addition to my juicing & blending.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Okay, maybe you're not sure if you really want to invest in a good food dehydrator. Maybe you want to spend the least amount of money for the best possible experience to see if it's something you really are going to do. If this is the case, get your feet wet with this one: Nesco FD-37A American Harvest Food Dehydrator, 400-watt. It will do a serviceable job with a small amount of food, and if you decide you aren't going to bother with it, you aren't out that much.
But if you are serious about food preservation and storage, the Excalibur is THE dehydrator to buy, and you definitely want the nine-tray one because you can process more food at one time. I've had mine now for five years, during which time I have preserved a ton of food, and when I was given the opportunity to review this one, I was happy to get it because I can dry twice the amount of food now. Even though I paid more for my original Excalibur (the 3900), this one appears to be the exact same thing. In fact, the box arrived with the 3900 model checked even though Amazon shows something different. I wrote the company to double-check, and they confirmed it is the exact same model. It works with the Pack of 9 Premium 14" x 14" Non-Stick Dehydrator SheetsFor Excalibur 2500, 3500, 2900 or 3900 I already own, and those are useful for making fruit leathers if you're into that sort of thing...also craft projects like cookie-dough ornaments and the like.
Okay, let me just say: It works. It works reliably. It works efficiently. It is hands-down the best dehydrator available to the consumer market. Now, let me give you a few examples of how I use mine.
I planted three rows of okra three summers ago. I had okra coming out of my ears. I picked, sliced, and salted it, dehydrated it, and then vac-sealed it into mason jars (Claussen pickle jars work great, too) using a Foodsaver and either a FoodSaver T03-0023-01 Wide-Mouth Jar Sealer or FoodSaver T03-0006-02P Regular-Mouth Jar Sealer. We're still eating on that okra now! During harvest season, I can purchase locally grown organic produce cheaply in bulk and dry it as well. This spares me of the heat and electricity canning requires. I can either throw some dry into a soup or microwave a bunch in water to reconstitute it before I rinse and prepare it. Some veggies do better than others; cabbage preserves better when fermented rather than dried, for example. You just have to experiment.
I also dehydrate bagged frozen veggies like the cubed carrot/pea/onion/bean mixes. Why would anyone in their right mind dehydrate frozen vegetables? Because the dehydrated veggies take up a tenth of the space and they don't go bad if your power goes off for days. You can also store them in the freezer if you want to, but your small chest freezer will hold a whole lot more food. Dehydrated foods are lightweight to take on camping excursions or to pack in a suitcase if you're doing the hotel or RV thing on the cheap. As long as you can get hot water, you can have your veggies. Hard-core hikers can literally dehydrate soups and reconstitute them on the trail. And, of course, there's always the jerky, dried fruits, and trail mixes...
An Excalibur is not small, but a Nesco takes up about as much room without offering nearly as much drying space. Mine fits neatly on a utility or closet shelf. I can sit it on top of the dryer in my utility room and run it there so it's out of my way. Like any appliance of this nature, it takes some experimenting to see what works best for you, but there is plenty of information available online and in books.
Even though I no longer am able to garden, I still consider my Excalibur dehydrator to be an essential piece of equipment, one I would never give up. You just can't go wrong with it.
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there are a lot of dehydrators out there but for box styles no on beats excaliber. yes there is a lot the company could do to make things better especially for the price, but im not planning on buying a new one for the next 10-15 years and this does its job well. there is a off switch. no timer but its easy to just but things in over night or make them earlier in the day if they only take a few hours. the people who make it sound like these are the worst thing ever most likely would not be happy with anything because it does not make diamonds out of peanuts. its not a miracle worker but it does its job.if the plastic bothers you they have a stainless steel option but you will pay for it and really, yes we should all watch our plastic use ( BPA or not!) but some exposure really is not going to kill us and long as we limit our exposure in other areas.
Honest reviews on Excalibur 9 Tray Dehydrator
In short: Expensive. But worth it if you do (or want to do) much in the way of food and herb dehydration.
We bought this during an Amazon sale a couple months ago and have never regretted it. We're a family of just two, and growing any kind of garden at all usually means way too many vegetables turning ripe all at once. In addition, we decided that since we tend to use dill in many dishes, we'd grow a bunch.
Well, the dill grew like crazy, and while it's great fresh, it just won't keep forever that way. Hence the dehydrator, which does a great job of taking it down to the point where we can crush and vacuum-pack large quantities of it for future use. (A couple years' worth at this point.) Not quite as much basil and other herbs from our gardens, but those dried nicely, too.
We've also dehydrated tomatoes, zucchini, celery, plums, bananas, strawberries, and lots more. The great thing about the Excalibur over our previous cylinder-style stacking tray dehydrator is it dries much more evenly and it's far easier to get the temperature exactly right.
I know some folks have said in other reviews a drawback to this model is it doesn't have a timer, but quite honestly, you can just buy a $5-10 AC-outlet timer from Amazon or a local hardware store and achieve the same result for a lot less money. Mostly, we just use our kitchen timer to help remember to go check the dehydrator every few hours when it's running.
Cons (besides the price): It is big, with a 19"x17" footprint, and will take up a lot of space. It's also rather loud, so you might want to run it in a utility room or garage. (I'd say it's a little louder than our old dehydrator. On the other hand, it's clearly moving a lot more air, given how much faster things dry in the Excalibur; I'd estimate about 1/3 faster on average.)
More pros: The trays are sturdy and very easy to clean. However, especially for foods that can be messy (like tomatoes), I recommend getting these: Pack of 9 Premium 14" x 14" Non-Stick Dehydrator SheetsFor Excalibur 2500, 3500, 2900 or 3900. They're a big help.
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Don't waste your money on other dehydrators. Bite the bullet and get an Excalibur. I had wanted an Excalibur for years while using cheaper dehydrators. What a waste of time and money that was. The Excalibur is so much faster and more efficient. It is a joy to use, and a purchase you won't regret.
