Review--> Excaliber 9 tray dehydrator

[problemchild]

My dehydrator arrived today so I made a trip to the Asian grocery store for some produce. If you want to save about 75% on produce make a trip to a big Korean grocery store. The place I went to is called Zion in Cypress (Socal). Fuji apples 3lbs for .99c. Onions 5lbs for .99c. Raw fresh head on jumbo shrimp $3.99/lb. Bell peppers .69c per pound. Bananas 3lbs per .99c. You cannot beat the price of these Asian stores. Last week at 99 Ranch Market I got whole salmon for 1.99lb. I filet, or have my wife filet, the fish into two huge filets and then smoke them with pecan wood.

But I digress...

I followed the info contained on Youtube for preparing and drying the fruit. I purchased about 30lbs of fruit and veggies for dehydrating. I purchased a squirt bottle and filled it with lemon juice. Also picked up a V slicer at BB&B. For a hand slicer it is the cats meow. Makes quick work out of slicing anything including whole oranges. The videos list which fruits and veggies need what prep work. Some fruits need to be sprayed with lemon juice to keep from turning brown. Some veggies need to be blanched and some steamed. I figured I would stick with the easy stuff to start. Im making a quick run of a few fruits to see how they turn out before I run all of it. I cant wait to open the dehydrator tomorrow.

I am happy with the dehydrator as it holds a lot of food and makes quick work of pounds of fruit or veggies. It has to be equal to 4-5 regular round style dehydrators in capacity. There is also no need to rotate trays as the air blows horizontally from back to front. All trays dry equally.

I will post some pictures tomorrow when this first batch finishes. Boy does my house smell good right now. I am going to be busy this weekend.

Batch 1

Apples, oranges, bananas, strawberries.

[desertdweller]

Zion kick ***. We have one in San Diego and, yes, very cheap on meats, veggies and fruits.

I'm waiting on your review!

[covertcombatant]

I am thinking of picking one up, what are you going to use for storage? Long term?

[Henry Shooter]

A quick way to process apples is with a Applemate, it cores, skins and slices the apple all in one shot. The slice is spiraled and about 1/8" thick. Works great with my dehydrator.

[problemchild]

OK well.......

I used too strong of lemon spray and made the fruit a bit sour. I also cut the fruit too thin. Lesson learned. Moving on to batch 2. I am going to watch the videos one more time and see if I missed something. I guess 50-50 water-lemon juice is too strong. Maybe 10% would be better. I made my own spray by squeezing lemons. The fruit is OK and Ill eat it but I think I can do better. Maybe use pineapple juice instead of lemon. All you need to do is coat the surface with citric acid so they dont turn black or brown. The apples and bananas are good the oranges and strawberries are a bit sour.

On a side note this dehydrator would be super easy to make with a floor heater that blows really low temp (about 120f) and a box of some kind. Mount the heater on the back a small fan to circulate the air and holes in the front. Construct a rack system and you are GTG. Maybe I will take a picture of the inside when finished if there is any interest.

[seanbo]

Thanks for posting the vid of the dehydrator lady. Lots of good info. Hope it works for you.

[devilinblack]

They sell stuff for canning fruit that prevents the browning. Works great on the apples I've dehydrated.

Ball Fruit Fresh.

[problemchild]

I think that jar is Pectin powder and they charge 5 dollars for it.

Can someone check my electricity math?

The dehydrator is 600 watts x 24 hours divided by 1000 = kw hours correct? So one day is 14.4 kw hours or about $1.93 per day to run at .13x per kwh?

[Henry Shooter]

Great job. I know you said that the bananas turned out good, were they a little gummy in the middle. Seems mine do that even cutting them a little thinner.

[problemchild]

If the bananas are gummy you need to dry them at a higher temp (135f) maybe?

UPDATE

This picture shows 8 bell peppers dried, 8 bundles of green onions, 2 apples, 3 bananas, 1 box strawberries and 1 box sliced mushrooms. Total dried weight about 2-3 oz.

[Henry Shooter]

Another way to dry mushrooms is to put them fresh into a brown paper bag and set them in the back of the frig. Dries them good takes awhilebut it works. Ill try the higher temps for the bananas. How did the orange turn out?

[sfguyhere]

Wow ! cool thread. I bought a dehydrator about a year ago but haven't opened up it yet. . . I may just have to now !

[77bawls]

I always wanted to make one with a box fan and some furnace filters.

I've also wondered about freeze drying my own food. I have the vacuum pump, I would just need a chamber.

[problemchild]

Before and After...... The bag equals one whole very large pineapple.

The pineapple is my favorite so far. Tons of flavor like a starburst candy.

[77bawls]

How do you make them thick and sugary like the store?