ExcaliburElectric Food Dehydrator Machine 9-Tray with Clear Door and 48-Hour Digital Timer, Automatic Shut Off & Temperature Control and Fast Drying with 15 Sq. Ft. of Drying Space, 600-Watts, Black

I really like this dehydrator. I had previously used on of those round, stacking dehydrators, which was a little bit of a pain because it had limited capacity and required me to monitor it to ensure it didn't overdry the jerky. This dehydrator has nine square trays which are very roomy. But even better, this has a digital temperature setting AND a timer. The timer is a game changer because it frees me from having to monitor the jerky has it cooks. Makes it very easy to dry stuff overnight, since the device simply turns off when complete and you can simply collect the jerky in the morning.The heating and fan project from the back of the device and blows forward, which is different from the round devices where the air and heat comes from above. This is important because even when I pack lots of jerky on the trays, each tray still gets equal attention from the fan and heater. On the round devices, the lower trays can suffer if too much stuff is packed on the upper trays.As far as build quality, the Excalibur 3948CDB seems pretty solid and have had no issues. It is pretty bulky, so be prepared, and otherwise seems much more substantial that my prior (round) dehydrator. Curiously, the front window/door is not permanently attached to the rest of the device, but simply hangs off of a lip built into the top of the device. I'm guessing there's a reason they did it this way, but I'm no engineer so I don't know what it is. For me, its a little bit of a pain when lifting or storing the device because the front window/door (which is plastic and not glass incidentally) is prone to coming off the lip and falling off the device. It's no issue when the device is dehydrating.Overall, I'm very satisfied with this device. It was much more expensive that the smaller round dehydrators, but does a noticeably better job, and provides much more room. For me, if I had to identify the most important upgrade, it would be the timer. Maybe you could replicate that on other timeless dehydrators by plugging those into some sort of third party timer, not sure, but it does make the process so much easier.

I love beef jerky. I love making beef jerky. It is more expensive to make at home than it is to buy at the store, but the results are so much better it is worth it.I upgraded from a disc-style dehydrator after the motor burned out. This thing actually holds more meat despite looking smaller overall. The trays are close together, and without a hole in the middle, I can pack a lot of meat on them tightly (but not too close) and use space more efficiently. It actually has more surface area than my old one, too.This is a really nice dehydrator that dries evenly. I never have to rotate trays or flip meat. I just load them up, set the timer, and test when done. I can literally come back four hours later and not touch anything until them. With the disc-style dehydrator that is nowhere near true: meat at the bottom will be wet, meat at the top will be charcoal. The underside of the meat will not be as dry as the top. Sure, you save money on that style, but the process is nowhere near as easy (they are just as difficult to clean).The only problem with dehydrators in general is cleaning them. Keep in mind I only care about beef jerky: if you are drying vegetables or flowers it is probably easier to clean.First of all, lay some foil on the bottom of the unit before loading trays. Then throw it out when you are done.Once you are done with the trays and ready to clean, you need to pre-clean them. While dishwasher safe, experience tells me no dishwasher can remove the caked-on grease well enough without a little help.First, I scrub the trays themselves (the black parts) using a non-abrasive scrub pad. I aim for all the grease, top and bottom. I then remove the top rack of the dishwasher entirely and slide the trays in vertically. Run the dishwasher, remove right away (no heat dry).Next, I scrub the liners to get grease, peppercorns, and other chunks out of the tiny grates. I run them through in the top rack, three at a time (three loads of three liners equals the nine total liners). Again, no heat dry, just get them all through the dishwasher ASAP. If you try putting them all on the top rack at the same time they will not get clean. It wastes more water to do three loads but at least they are clean and sanitized.Once that is all done I load all the damp trays and liners back into the dehydrator and run at full temperature for an hour or two to dry off. The heat and time here also makes them lay flat if they curled at all in the dishwasher due to not laying perfectly flat.Those liners are murder on scrub pads, and the whole process of spending an hour or so scrubbing all those pieces makes my wrist sore. However, I end up with a nice and clean product ready for another batch of beef jerky.This product may cost more than a lot of others, but you get what you pay for. I have never been happier with a dehydrator than with this one.

I upgraded from the 4 tray 250 watt Excalibur to this 9 tray 600 watt Excalibur. This unit is like new and performs quite well. My first use was in making meringue cookies. They were perfect and they dried much faster than with my small unit. So glad these used units are sold at discount. Mine was perfect and the price greatly appreciated.