Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Got my second one of these dehydrators a couple of weeks ago. These are very dependable and the company stands behind the product. They may only have a guarantee of 10 years in the USA, but since I have had the first one for 35 years, I had no worries about buying a second one for a spare because the 35 year old one might go belly up some day--or maybe not. This may be the next miracle--dehydrator de la perpetua--or something. However, if this new one lives as long as the old one, it will likely outlive me. (Wonder who I should leave them to in my will?) I didn't get this exact model but went whole hog and got the stainless one with the stainless shelves and the timer. My ancient one didn't have a timer,(they probably didn't offer that feature 35 years ago) but I would usually check on it frequently enough to not overdry stuff. The old one's design is entirely different than the new one. The door hangs on to the front of the new machine rather than being VELCROED on and lifts off easily, and yes the velcro on the 35 year old one is still good although I had to reglue it back on a few weeks ago. But staying on for 35 years is nothing to sneeze at! However, it's plastic shelves had started to droop, making for uneven drying of leathers--but that's no big deal because people start to droop after 35 years, too! So, I bought new stainless shelves for the old one. They have not changed the demensions of these things for at least 35 years so brand new stainless mesh shelves fit my ancient dehydrator perfectly. The new one has a timer and a wider range of temps. You will need to set time on the new one to start it running if you get the one with the timer. The old one just has a knob that sets the temp and starts it running. The new ones's knobs are on the top. The old one's knobs are on the front and to the side. The new one has a fan and heater in the back. The old one has the fan and heater to the side, and blows the air out of the shelf brackets which are perforated with little holes. The new one's design is much better than the old one and easier to clean. The new one's stainless door is opaque--of course--while the old one's door is darkened translucent plastic.But the old one is still running fine after 35 years so there's no room for improvement. It even outlasted my late husband who bought it for me! I made some amazing smoked salmon and chinese beef jerky and about a dozen different types of fruit leather over about a 3 week period.The dehydrator is great to raise bread, dry nylons or lingerie, or put that "glaze" on the brined salmon for perfect smoking in your smoker! I've made two batches in the last two weeks and they are both almost completely gone. I was using both of them nearly constantly and there was no indication of any malfunction or strain on the machine. I had to develop my own recipe for the chinese beef jerky to make it like the stuff I used to buy in Chinatown in San francisco and that was completely done in the dehydrator. YUM. I also developed my own recipe for rose hip fruit leather! YUM. All of these were lept upon and devoured by a crowd of very hungry people. I also sprung for their silicone rubber sheets--ordered one set for the new one and then a second one for the old dehydrator because they worked so well. I even had a "dehydrate-off" pitting the old one with the new one and neither outperformed the other and both worked perfectly. I still have two sets of the teflon sheets that I bought for the old one and they fit the new one perfectly. I've also just gotten some of their disposable 14x14 sheets that are non stick and appear to be like bakers parchment. I plan to do some more fruit leather as soon as I can go out and get more fruit! Excaliburs are absolutely wonderful, and they do a great job. However, the one suggestion I can make is to not bother to replace your drooping plastic shelves with another set of plastic ones if you've lost your "mesh" that came with them. The mesh has to be bought separately. When you add up the cost of buying new plastic shelves and new mesh,you may as well just spring for an entire new set of stainless shelves because you won't need the mesh with them. Plus for those of you who think they are noisy--they are about the same as a convection oven or a breeze box fan on medium. The lovely white noise they put out can put me to sleep in about 15 minutes--because I have to keep a fan running to sleep because of a very noisy snoring husband. So GET USED TO IT. It will be worth it.