Dehydrating? Excalibur or??

[cristeen]

I know I'm not the only one here who does it.

I just went to load the machine, and the motor is dead. So I need to order a new one, like today. I was leaning towards the Excalibur, since that seems to have the best reputation, but I can't figure out what their racks are made of - from the pictures it looks like plastic (and I've managed to break the plastic trays on the one I have now). So I thought about the Sausage Maker machines, since they have SS racks, but are they as reliable?

Anyone use one of these machines on their food and able to comment? What do you dehydrate with it, and how well do you think it works (have you used another brand so as to be able to compare performance)? So far I only use my machine for fruit, but I use it pretty much weekly year-round.

Are the racks on either machine dishwasher safe? The machine I have now, the racks won't even fit in the dishwasher.

Do you use these machines for non-produce foods? i.e. culturing, jerky, etc.? I'd love to be able to culture during the winter, but our house is just too cold, so it'd be great if this resolved that problem.

[cristeen]

Really? Noone uses a dehydrator??

[pixiepunk]

i have 2 of the round Ronco ones and an Excalibur, and strongly prefer the excalibur. we've only had it for a couple months so i haven't done a whole lot with it yet, but i think i will probably use it for yogurt and other cultures because without the racks it's nice and big inside and would fit a bunch of jars. so far the temperature seems to be very consistent across the racks which i really like.

i had a major problem with the Ronco one, it heats unevenly because the heating element is at the bottom in the middle, so stuff on the bottom, and further up in the middle, dries out first so you have to really babysit it a lot. the Excalibur has been very even. and i much prefer the screens on the Excalibur too. plus you can do huge sheets of fruit leather instead of weird donut shaped ones.

we still use the Ronco ones for stuff because they're in perfectly fine shape and they boost our capacity so much, which is important this time of year when everything's coming in from the garden. but i dream of a day when those die and i buy 2 more Excaliburs to replace them

oh, i do believe the racks are dishwasher safe, they'd definitely fit. but i find it easier to just wash by hand since you have to scrub them if you're doing fruit anyway.

[JElaineB]

We have the Excalibur. The trays are made of some type of plastic but they are pretty strong. The food sits on a flexible mat. We've used it for dehyrating fruits and vegetables, making jerky and also making yougurt a couple of times. It works really well. DH just said that he thinks it is the best dehydrator you can buy.

[dogmom327]

The Excalibur trays are plastic and the Sausage Maker has both a plastic and a stainless steel option. Both are awesome machines--way better than the round ones you can buy at a variety store. Very reliable, etc. Honestly the biggest difference is price. The stainless steel SM model comes at a heavy premium over the Excalibur.

[AnnaNova]

we have an excalibur, and although i dont use it weekly, i definetely think it's a pretty good machine. we've made dried fruit and jerky in it. ive also tried a few dishes from the raw cuisine like cookies and stuff, and that turned out pretty well too. actually the reason i got the excalibur was because i was trying to learn more about raw foods, and it seemed like every resource i was reading mentioned it.
my husband gets cabella catalogues and they have some awesome looking dehydrators in there, for large quantities mostly, and they are also more expencive...