Excalibur Electric Food Dehydrator Machine 9-Tray with Adjustable Thermostat, Accurate Temperature Control and Fast Drying with 15 Square Feet of Drying Space, 600-Watts, Black

We love dehydrating our tomatoes and herbs. We've been using 2 round dehydrators with a fan for many wonderful years. One finally wore down so we "shopped around" and decided to get The Excalibur. The 9-tray model has been on our "wish list" for a long time and now was the time to get it.The manual/recipe books that come with it are easy to read and informative. Granted it's been a long time since we read a dehydrating manual but I think the dried puree/fruit roll-up type recipes listed in these guides may work for us.So much herbs and tomatoes got us to buy a second round dehydrator. No regrets but glad we were able to get The Excalibur this time. It's a bit pricey but we knew from everything we read that this was going to be THE dehydrator to have and we are not disappointed.I actually had dry tomatoes in a few short hours! Ours were sliced a little thinner than recommended since it was the first time. We also used only 3 trays spaced apart. The trays held more tomatoes than we thought. I used parchment paper carefully wrapped around the bottom mesh shelf to catch any dribbles.--Parchment IS recommended in the user guide. Very happy the company gives recommendations so you can fully use the dehydrator without buying more accessories. The special shelves would probably be easier and cost/time efficient over using parchment if you intended to use them often for roll-ups or craft work.I dried twice as much sage in one machine without any hassle other than checking for dryness. Most was dry at the same time. From 9 full sheets down to one to finish drying.When we dried the dill I noticed that the dill had been blown away a little from the fan on the center trays. Made sense since it's so light. It didn't seem to really affect the drying in any way. It was very quick.Clean up is always a chore dehydrating anything wet; it would be expected. With our round dehydrators I would spray a little oil on the racks. They were bulky and had to be scrubbed with a brush thoroughly anyway so why make it even harder? The racks from Excalibur are soooo much easier to clean. The black, hard plastic supports are light and durable. Easy to clean off. The mesh had quite a mess from the tomatoes that I would've been really down about had they been the thicker round shelves. I just put the mesh in the dishpan to soak while I washed other dishes and viola! Clean with no scrubbing :DYeah, I'm reallllllly happy with this purchase

I've used several dehydrators over the past 35 years, including a home-built unit, and this Excaliber unit is by far the best I've ever used, although it has one annoying feature (see below). It is a true no-nonsense, workhorse design that gets the job done. You remove the side cover—which hangs from the top edge—slide out the trays, load them up with food, slide them back in, replace the cover, and set the thermostat. The internal fan moves air efficiently through the unit at the same rate, regardless of thermostat setting (i.e., fan speed does not vary).The sideways air flow design is a MUCH improved approach over vertical flow designs for the simple reason that moist air exits sideways from each separate tray, rather than transferring moist air from one tray vertically to the next, and the next, etc., which takes longer because it is not efficient. Thus, the Excaliber is a workhorse that can dry more food faster while using less energy. Using this unit, you can dry at least two to three times more food than the smaller, vertically stacked, round designs sold in stores. (I've bought and used a number of these cheaper units over the years, and none of them worked particularly well. My last one melted itself!)The basic unit does not feature a built-in timer, which is not a problem. We usually set our dehydrator up at night, right before we go to bed, and turn it off in the morning when we get up, which is typically about how long it takes to dry a load of food. We have also plugged it into a standard, wall-type timer such as are used for lamps, and that works just as well. In fact, a standard wall timer is actually better since you can set up a schedule of on-off drying periods of varying duration.It is helpful to rotate trays 180 degrees midway through each drying cycle to get the most even drying. This helps with thicker-sliced food, whereas thin-sliced food will dry fairly evenly without rotation. Thick-sliced food toward the rear of each tray will generally dry faster than food toward the front.The ONLY annoyance of this unit is that it is loud. The ample fan, which is mounted to the center of a sheet metal rear panel, sets up a resonance with the panel, sort of like the way a National steel guitar uses its metal back as a resonator. While the fan is running—which is continuously whenever the thermostat is turned up from the "Off" position—the Excaliber emits a loud, resonate hum. If you locate the Excaliber in a separate area of your home, in a garage or laundry space, for example, it won't be any bother at all. But if you live in a small apartment and have to sleep next to it, this might be a bother. Hopefully, future designs will employ dampening washers on the rear sheet metal panel and/or a spring tensioner to absorb vibration from the fan motor.Overall, all things being equal, this is the best dehydrator I've ever owned. And because it works so well, I actually find myself drying more food than ever. I would recommend this Excaliber unit to anyone who wants a reliable, no-nonsense design that gets it done.

I love this dehydrator...I've been using this dehydrator from Excalibur for over 16 years. I moved across the pacific and did not bring a majority of my things, hence buying a new one. it's VERY east to use, LOTS of room, you can almost dehydrate and entire rack of bananas! Cleaning is fairly easy. I would definitely recommend!