Digital Food Dehydrator for Fruit, Jerky, Vegetables & More

I have been having a blast with this thing. It works so well! The night it arrived we went out and bought a bunch of fruit and just filled the whole thing up. Set it up overnight, and had dehydrated fruit for breakfast (and yes, our stomachs hated us for it, but it was SO GOOD).The next trial was spices. I do a lot of gardening, and had a massive Oregano bush out back on the patio, so I harvested the whole thing and filled it all up. This was the one "Ehhh" area of the machine. It did a wonderful job dehydrating my oregano, don't get me wrong! But it only comes with ONE fine mesh tray, which I mean, is okay, I can put it at the bottom. But that "fine mesh" isn't very fine. A lot of the dehydrated oregano leaves fell down into the machine. It wasn't a huge deal, not even enough to take off a star, but I DO recommend getting some actual fine mesh if you ever plan to do your own spices.The machine is great though. It's super lightweight yet feels durable, it's compact, and it's reasonably quiet. It's a little quieter than like, a box fan on low setting. It's also really easy to use, and comes with an excellent manual explaining how to dehydrate different foods, what temperatures to use, and how long, even with a list of different fruits and veg! Really all you do is set the temp, set a time, and leave it. Anyone can use this thing. It's great!

For the price compared to other, no complaints. It does what it's meant to. Not too noisy, and easy to use. Great if your not sure if dehydrating is something you'll do enough to invest in the fancy ones.

This is my first food dehydrator, and buying on the low end of the price spectrum, I wasn't sure what to expect. My first attempt at drying food was with bananas. As the manual stated, I cut them into 1/4" slices and loaded them onto the bottom, middle, and top trays (there are 5 all together), leaving the 2nd and 4th trays empty. I was a little surprised by the noise level when it came on. I had to double the volume on my TV set in my living room to hear it over the dehydrator in the kitchen (next room over, with just a half wall in between. It didn't take too long up to the temperature of 135 where I set it. There was a little bit of a chemical smell when it turned on, but I'm assuming that's because it was brand new and hadn't been used before. The smell only lasted for less than a minute. After running the dehydrator for 10 hours, the bananas were for the most part, dehydrated. They weren't like banana chips that you find in the store, but rather sticky and a little gummy, and incredibly delicious. While they were significantly dried out, they weren't completely dry. My relative room humidity is somewhere around 45%, so maybe they would have dried more if I were in a less humid environment. The bananas on the top rack were the most dry; so if you are drying for a long period of time, it might be smart to rotate the order of the racks (though the top rack must always be on top). The banana sliced closer to the center also seemed to dry more than the ones that were far to the outsides and in the corner. In addition to the standard drying racks, the dehydrator also comes with racks for small fruits and one for fruit rollups. Overall, I'm happy with the purchase and look forward to my next use.

I've been researching dehydrators for a while now, and finally went with this one, due (mainly) to (1) The adjustable temperature (not all dehydrators have this, and I wanted the option of changing it), (2) the fact that it is square (space optimization) (3) and the price point was great. So far I am incredibly pleased! I have made apple chips, banana chips, and even my own 'green powder' from dehydrated salad greens..and I've only had it a few weeks.As far as noise goes, I have to say when I first turned it on I was INCREDIBLY disappointed...it was SO LOUD I had to turn it off. It whined and made a grating high-pitched noise that was impossible to ignore. I was even in the middle of looking up how to return it when I decided to give it one more try. I'm not sure what exactly changed or what I did differently but I haven't had any more trouble with that noise since then. It is not whisper silent but it isn't loud either. It is somewhat equivalent to a box fan, in my opinion.My only complaint with the entire thing (other than the random, unexplained initial noise) is that mine came with no directions...which is really a minor thing as you can print them off from the Hamilton Beach website ([...]).So for an overview...-Has adjustable temperature-Has timer that automatically turns off when finished (so I can start things before I go to bed and not have to worry about them over-drying )-Comes with the fruit leather tray (I have yet to try it out)-Comes with herb drying tray (works great for the salad greens!)-Square shape makes it easier to store-Not unpleasantly loud (think a little bit louder than a box fan)-Lid is clear so you can check the progress of your foodI also have not had to rotate the trays with anything I have made yet, so that is a bonus. SO, so far so good! I'm very pleased with this purchase. I would definitely recommend as a starter dehydrator.

We have had this for four years now. It’s still working great! Easy to use and clean. We love to make jerky with it.

As soon as I opened I sliced an apple, I had apple chips 6 hrs later. So far I used for apples, peaches, strawberries and chicken. The fan it is loud and the drying takes long time, it is better to leave it working overnight.

I bought this to make dog treats. I was disgusted with the warnings about buying them, so I really paid attention to the ingredients. I then spent some guilt ridden hours over what we had been feeding our babies. A downside of making treats without preservatives is that they can get moldy. Add in humid Florida weather, then make room in your freezer. Hence, the dehydrator.I spent weeks comparing makes & models, going back & forth. From other reviewers I knew that I wanted a timer, the right fan placement, and not too noisy. Price of course, for what I was going to use it for.This fit the bill. I started just drying the dog treats after baking them but then I got cocky and decided to make jerky. OK so the 1st batch was disgraceful and inedible. Hint: you are warned to not make the meat too thick. Well the opposite is true- don't make it too thin, either!I had the butcher slice some meat for me, but I also found thin slices of sirloin that I simply had to cut in half with scissors. Perfect. I partially froze a chicken breast to slice it, and that was easy. Flank steak is wonderful. I even sliced a beef heart and wrapped it with sweet potato strips that I steamed for a few minutes to soften.While I've made some mistakes, they were all mine, the unit performed great. I never have to move items around because one section is drying faster. Keep everything the same size, or at least the same size on each tray where you can pause the unit to remove a tray and keep the rest going.I have 6 months at this and I couldn't be happier. That includes 3 dogs (one diabetic ) one daughter and one very happy jerky loving son-in-law. Not to mention the money I've saved and why I bought it in the first place. If offered a store bought treat or a homemade one, they immediately go for homemade. Smart dogs!

I searched for quite a while trying to find the best "bang for the buck" dehydrator. I'll be using this primarily to make jerky and potentially experiment with fruits. I thought for the price this was a nice unit that had a digital readout with built in timer. The idea is so I don't have to plan my day around the dehydrator. I'll pay a few bucks extra for that luxury. But I will point out that the digital readout isn't easy to read, you need to be eye-level and look directly at it. So if it's on a counter (where it normally should be at) then you'll find yourself bending over a little to see the time left. The timer will shift to minutes when it's under an hour. Otherwise it just shows the hours left.I've done two batches so far of jerky and both have come out great. Approximately 2lbs of top round thinly sliced will fill all trays. If you have a butcher, have them slice it on the 3 or 4 setting at the store. That way each piece has the same thickness. It'll take 4 hours at 160F to dry them out. I also haven't needed to rotate the trays during drying.Cleaning the trays can sometimes be a chore with all the little slits, but overall I'm pleased with the product and there isn't really anything negative that would deduct stars. If you're looking for a fairly compact and well made dehydrator you probably don't need to look any further.EDIT 8/10/2016I'm really loving this dehydrator. I will add that it might take more than 4 hours to fully dehydrate beef jerky. I've had to let it go up to 6 hours depending on the thickness. I'm having a blast with this unit, I just hope that it lasts a long time!