06300 Dehydro Electric Food Dehydrator, Standard

I purchased a Presto popcorn maker a few months back, and was very happy with it, so I chanced buying a much less expensive no-frills Presto dehydrator instead of one from the bigger brands. I've been very happy with it, but, I've never used any other so I can't compare. In reviews of the bigger brand dehydrators, people boast about quicker dryer times, but what I've read in recipes from users of these same dehydrators, mine dries just as fast. I've only done fruit leathers, and bought it primarily to do these. It takes 6-7 hours depending on how thick my mix is. I'm still tinkering with my recipes. The applesauce/gelatin mixes take longer than fruit purees, I've found. I'm not a jerky person, but would like to try it just to see how my machine does. I'm a little wary about keeping meat at such low temps for such long periods of time (I know that meat has to be cooked before or after dehydrating.). Someone said this machine goes to about 140. The more $$$ ones don't go much higher than that. So guess it's not a concern and that a more pricey, higher wattage model wouldn't make much difference. I'm so not a cook which is another reason why I hesitate on the jerky. Our meat doesn't look very good in store to begin with plus having to marinade a full day... Anyway, I like it for fruit leathers. I'll eat 4 trays' worth in a day's time, easily. I'm glad I'm the only one in the house who likes these! Even so, I want to buy more trays, and buy the fruit leather sheets. I've been lining my trays with parchment paper (Found this tip in a blog.). A roll is about $4.00, and will do about 3 sessions' worth (for 4 trays). It works well, but a pain to mess with, and not very cost effective IMO. My grocery is putting it on closeout now (and still costs $3.50!!) so it's time to shell out the Wheaties for the sheets. It looks like they'll work well too because they have high edges which should keep the trays from rubbing and getting fruit goo from one sheet onto the bottom of the adjoining tray (a prob I'm having now). My mom wants dried apples, so going to have to try that. I drink spearmint tea, so should save some $ there by drying leaves from my mom's spearmint plant instead of buying tea. I think this will turn out to be a good investment, though the fruit leathers alone make it worth it to me! I mix 1/2 a crate of strawberries, a 1/2 crate of blackberries (about 8 of each), a 1/2 cup of applesauce, and a 1/4 cup of any fruit juice (Minute Maid Berry Punch is good.). Blend it, then pour on oiled parchment paper (I use shortening to oil mine.). Mine turned out a little thick and only covered 3 trays so will use more juice next time. SO GOOD!

This was an excellent buy for me. It works exactly as expected and just the right size for our family (two people). The instructions are simple, it's literally just a plug-in and it turns on machine. I've tried several different fruits, some veggies and a couple batches of jerky so far. Everything has turned out fantastic and in much quicker times than I anticipated. The trays are really big and pretty much impossible to fit in my dishwasher, but they are easy to clean so that's a plus. It runs pretty quietly too so it's not bad having it on for several hours. There isn't a temperature control at all though for anyone interested, you literally just plug it in and it turns on, but the manual says that it runs at 165 Degrees Fahrenheit so just use that as your guide for planning times out. I would absolutely recommend this to anybody who is looking for an easy to use dehydrator at an affordable price, especially if it is their first time using / purchasing one.

Works very fast. My last dehydrator didn't have a fan, just a heat element, so there's a learning curve here. This machine does well with thick cut wet items. I did very thick cut apple rings in 6 to 7 hours. Very thin sliced jerky was overdone in 4 hours, was perfect at about 2.5 hours. I used mesh sheets with large diced onion, 14 hours. Bananas, 1/8" thick took 15 hours for crispy chips (they were still a little chewy once you ate them). Any mesh sheets or teflon will only increase this time. The bananas did stick but I peeled them off the tray and flipped them half way thru dry time and they didn't stick again. Space saver when stored. The Presto trays have a system of alternate inverted trays which makes it about half it's height once everything is compacted down. These trays are better quality than my old dehydrator. They feel like a solid plastic laundry basket. I've bought 2 packs of trays so I can do up to 8 at a time. My complaint is about the noise. This machine is louder than my dishwasher and can be heard throughout the house. This is not something I can leave on all night in the kitchen. Because I was doing onions, I put a folding table in my garage and used the machine there so as not to stink up the house and burn our eyes. This is probably how I'll use it for overnight drying, and items with long dying times like bananas. I could also complain that the trays are too big to fit in my kitchen sink and I keep getting water all over the counter trying to clean up. My old ones fit right in. But these Presto trays clean way easier. The food didn't stick as much as my old unit. It would be even quicker if I could soak them in my sink!

It is big. There is no temperature control and no on/off switch. It dehydrate quickly and the items are dehydrated consistently. I purchased the fruit roll up inserts when I first purchased this (older model). I have never needed to buy replacement trays or any replacement parts. I use this less now that my child is older. The first few years, I used it consistently on a weekly schedule and it has tapered down to once a month these days. Still one of the best purchases I ever made. Easy to use. If you dry something messy, the clean up is more challenging, but not horrendous. I'm one of those fairly impatient people. If it was super difficult to clean then I'd have stopped using it. BUT, I have maintained a 10 year relationship with it and have moved cross country twice and locally once in that time and it has been one thing that I haven't relinquished. I felt inclined to write this review 10 years later after trying a friend's newer, fancier, more compact model. It had nothing on my old workhorse other than more bells and whistles, being smaller AND taking 20 hours to dry raspberries. I'm sticking with my Presto. What some reviewers see as flaws, I find ease of use. And it honestly isn't that loud. I recommend not running it in front of your TV or next to your pillow. It is softer sounding than a blow dryer.

works great out of the box, mine has been in non stop use since I bought it with zero issues

I wasn't sure there would be enough things to do with this dehydrator even though I planned to dehydrate the over abundance of apples and tomatoes from our yard. well, a quick google, and I have a list of more things than I ever expected I could do with this! There are also a ton of good books out there for unique ideas. (salt clay ornaments for the x-mas tree). I found a recipe for corn chips (grind/process frozen corn, add cheese, chili powder, onion, whatever you want and spread on the "fruit leather" tray. No preservatives!) There are also tons of dehydrator granola recipes too. My freezer is going to be full! Instead of an expensive vacuum system, I opted for the $4.00 Ziplock pump system and it's terrific.Ziploc Vacuum Starter Kit, 3-Quart Bags, 1-Pump This dehydrator couldn't be easier to use. The included booklet is surprisingly detailed. From jerky to fruit leathers and fruits and vegetables, every aspect of how to properly dry everything is covered. Pretreatments with lemon juice or fruit fresh are recommended for some fruits to prevent browning, and blanching or steaming for a couple minutes is recommended for most vegetables. The drying times are extremely variable, as expected, depending on how thin or thick you have cut the fruit or vegetable. A food processor, salad shooter, or some other of this type of cutting devise would ensure standardized, uniform pieces. My wish-for Christmas gift is a Saladmaster! From dehydrating books I have learned that the temperatures are not that critical either. I was concerned about getting this dehydrator as there is no temperature adjustment possible, but frankly for the price and all the good reviews I figured I couldn't go wrong. When you consider that food has been dehydrated for thousands of years without the benefit of electric temperature controlled dehydrators, using the best dehydrator of all, the sun, you know that more expensive fancier machines are not necessary. Low tech is good for me! The best features for me are: Pros: Not tying up my oven all day or night drying things in the oven. I can leave it on all night without worry. It's very easy to wash after using. It's very quiet. Sounds like my forced air heater or air conditioner. Totally un-noticeable after a few minutes. It's very light weight. Easily moved. I can set it anywhere in the house to use, (I have mine on top of the dryer), and it takes up very little room. ( approx. 14.5" diameter x 10" tall) There are other things I can use the dehydrator for like clay crafts, dried flowers, drying pinecones from my yard. All my food is free of preservatives/chemicals. This dehydrator is a money saver. Purchase bulk produce in season and have fresh all year. Best feature for me, it is a time saver. I will store vegetables for soup and fruit for granolas. I will be able to prepare these favorite dishes on a moments notice! The included booklet has very complete instructions. This is a super dehydrator, at a super price! Cons? Absolutely none.

So first I'd like to add before I give my honest review, this product is great for time to time use and what it offers to light use but there's some down falls that I can see after owning two of these for a year, that could even become annoying to the average user. I run a very small jerky business that I'm slowly trying to start up and expand, and the most import thing to me about this is that the FDA guidelines are followed. Here's a few issues that I've found with owning these, this strictly differs from user to user but these are mine. - The Temperature Control is non-existance which isn't terrible because it makes it easy to setup and use, as long as the manufacture sets it to 165F it should cover all FDA guidelines on Meat/Chicken. Here's where it falls short, after doing some testing the internal temp doesn't bring all the meat to 165F+ for more than 10 minutes. This is a huge pain in the ass, as this requires more time spent cooking meat (For me 8-16lbs at a time in the oven all for 10 minutes each, and you're lucky to get 3lbs in the oven at a time.) More time spent on this means less preping/loading trays. (Not even flipping the trays is good enough to fix this problem, as the tempature just doesn't hit 165F at all!) - Next is the maintenance which is my #1 issue - I've found over time putting the fruit roll tray on the bottom to catch the run off speeds up cleaning times a little, but the trays.. Those are an entire different story! Nothing seems to work for keeping them clean, or metigating the mess after cooking an entire batch of jerky (Not even the no stick tray covers.) Owning 16 trays - Cleaning these takes anywhere from 45-60 minutes to clean entirely - Removing every piece of residue left on them, and bleaching them from top down. I own a large brush and have to scrub constantly even after allowing them to soak overnight in a large pool of hot water with soap to help break down the gunk. (This is absolutely terrible! Even after all of that - You have to scrub vigorously.) The cracks in the trays make it terrible for a brush to scrub, and food is constantly getting in between them - making it a nightmare to constantly keep up with to clean every single day.

Read previous reviews, and figured for $35, couldn't go wrong. This little machine makes *amazing* dried fruits and vegetables. I ordered the slick sheets and extra trays. The noise is not an issue...it's not hair dryer loud, but it's not ceiling fan quiet. It takes far less time to dry things than the manual shows. -Banana chips - about 4 hours. -Tomatoes - about 3 hours. -Pears/Apples - about 1 hour. We've used canned apricots, cherries and even pineapple. Everything came out great. We've used applesauce and canned fruits to make puree for roll-ups. We've used it to dry vegetables for easy instant soup stock. This product exceeded my expectations, and with all the accessories we purchased, was less expensive than some of the fancier dehydrators. Features: Base unit is easily cleaned, trays stack nested and clear sturdy lid fits on top. The trays are top rack safe and can be used immediately without to much cleaning for the same food. The cord stores in the unit. The noise is tolerable...place it away from your traffic area, we mostly run it at night, which is more than enough time to dehydrate anything. Some options I picked up: Roll Up Makers: National Presto Dehydro Electric Food Dehydrator Fruit Roll Sheets Extra Trays: Presto 06306 Dehydro Electric Food Dehydrator Dehydrating Trays Also a great jerky gun and sausage grinder: Jerky Cannon/Sausage Stuffer: LEM Products Jerky Cannon Meat Grinder: Norpro Meat Grinder, Mincer, and Pasta Maker

I like easy to use products that are practical and work right out of the box - I just plugged it in, put my thinly cliced fruit in the dehydrator and checked on it periodically - yummy!

Deshidrate carne y quedó espectacular. Calculaba 6 horas, se hizo en 3. Superó mi expectativa porque es muy sencillo de utilizar.

Unfortunately at 120 volts this item is not compatible for the UK market

Would recommend. Really saves time and mess. Good to dry fruits vegetables and meat for dog treats

PRODUCTO EXCELENTE