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

I bought this in October, 2014 and just now in December, 2025 writing the review! I've used this now for 11 probably every month and it still runs like new. It's a work horse, so easy to load, clean, fill and reload. Super quality of materials and I've never had a problem. I almost exclusively make jerky and my friends look forward to that. I use cure and pasteurize the meat before dehydrating for safety. I have my Excalibur out in my laundry room to keep the aroma out of the house as I tend to run it at night when electric rates are low though this is only 600 watts. Meat jerky I think taste best with a slower dry. I make a popular jerky with crushed pineapple and it's covered with the dried bits of the pineapple all over the jerky. For Holidays I'll chop maraschino cherries and jalapeños also for the red and green colors to be festive. I'll use beef, pork or poultry for jerky, the Excalibur can dehydrate them all. I've dehydrated honey and maple syrup to grind into sugar which I've used in curing my own bacon or dusting icing on cookies or to serve to company to sweeten their tea. To freshen the Excalibur after rounds of jerky I put a paper plate on a rack and sprinkle some baking soda on it and let it run an hour to freshen up the marinade odors. I have citrus trees and dehydrate sliced lemons, limes, oranges and tangelos to make Arizona Christmas Wreaths for the door and tree ornaments.

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.

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 :D Yeah, I'm reallllllly happy with this purchase

I had a NESCO before I got this one. I made the mistake of purchasing something much cheaper, and of course the cheap dehydrator stopped working in 3 weeks. If you dehydrate often, take my advice, don't order anything else but the Excalibur, even if you have to wait a little to save up. This machine is well worth it, and it puts the others to shame. I dunno what the other models of Excalibur are like, but this one rocks! I'm glad I was able to get a refund on the NESCO, but I certainly learned my lesson. The trays are great because the holes are small enough to where food doesn't fall through. The only complaint I have is that the trays don't have lips to where food won't roll or fall off when moving them. Like peas for instance. Be careful when you put your peas on the tray, they will roll right off since there's nothing to catch them from going over the edge. The motor is loud, but powerful. It gets the job done, and you can pack it full. I'd say this is good enough for professional use. I'd go with the 9 tray for sure, because after you start using it, you'll find yourself putting more and more food in at a time. It's fun to use because it makes it easy. PROS: Powerful, well-positioned motor for even drying Easy to use Built for every day use Heavy-duty construction Very large food capacity Small holes in screens for easy drying and removal Cleans easily CONS: Loud Very bulky Flat screens that allow food to easily fall off So glad I was able to get this machine. I should have done it the first time around. BTW: There are no timers because each load will vary. I haven't found a large dehydrator that has that feature, because food cannot over dry. It can get case hardening, which happens in the first 3 hours if temp is set too high. But, if you leave your machine on for a long period of time accidentally, you are not at risk of ruining your food. It may however take longer to rehydrate. Good luck everyone!

I have been wanting one of these for years, having heard so many good things about them. I have an old Aroma Dehydrator that I have had for at least 15 years, and it was passable--but slow. And I know I could not dry certain foods in it at all without problems. So, after drying some surplus zuchinni (who doesn't have that?!) that took 18 hours, I decided to pull the trigger. These dryers are not cheap. I passed on the economy version, as well as the one with the built in timer. I figured I could just use a plug-in timer. When the box arrived, I was initially dismayed at the sheer size of this thing! Now, I know it would be big, but somehow I hadn't imagined a machine just as big as my big ol' microwave! I have a tiny kitchen, and this dryer was certainly not going to fit on any counter. I put it on my little table, and it took of half of the real estate. Now, I have lots of kitchen equipment stored in the basement. Canner, meat grinder, the old dehydrator, etc. But the Excalibur was so big and bulky, I was reluctant to have to carry it up and down the stairs--hey, I ain't getting any younger. So what I did was set it up in the basement on top the dryer, laid some paper on the adjoining washing machine, and plugged it in. I sliced my zucchini upstairs (better light) and put the slices in a bowl to take downstairs. I like to sprinkle a light coating of salt on the zucchini chips, so took that with me. I used 6 medium zukes, and it only fit on 5 of the trays. I set the timer for the maximum time (14 hrs), and went upstairs to bed, figuring I could take off the chips that were dry, and figure how much more time it needed while I was away at work. Seven hours later I awoke, and decided to check on the progress, and was amazed to find EVERYTHING was dried perfectly an evenly! 7 hours (and they might have even been finished at 6 hours) as compared with 18 hours with my old dehydrator! So I am initially VERY impressed. I like the built in thermostat, and I like the way the trays are nice and square, and the massive amount of space that can be utilized. Last year I dehydrated tomatoes, and had to do 2 or 3 loads, 24 hours at a time. I cannot WAIT until I get those 'maters on this workhorse! I have a lot of peaches coming in. I am going to try my hand a leather, and even use up some of that apple butter I put up last fall that nobody eats much of. I ordered some silicone sheets from Amazon; I would have gotten the Excalibur ones, but the cost was just too prohibitive. I know they are an American company, and cannot charge the cheap prices that China can, but I am on a budget, so have to make do. All in all I am really happy with this machine. It will live in the basement, but that is okay for my needs. The only thing I will miss is the wonderful smell the permeates the house when I dry the basil. Maybe if I leave the cellar door open... UPDATE--- If yours makes that annoying vibration that starts after it has warmed up (not the fan guard), I found a fix for mine. Once the vibration starts, turn it around and gently loosen one or both of the nuts in the back that attach to the fan. Not much, just a tiny bit--less than a quarter of a turn will quiet it down, but the nuts will still be tight enough to be secure. What a relief!

Update 11-2025: I bought this dehydrator in 2020 and used it for about 5 years before tossing it. The bottom plastic broke on the edge so the wall of the dehydrator was leaning down onto the table it rests on. There's a decent amount of weight that bears down on the feet/bottom so it should really be more reinforced. I think the plastic was also affected over time by salts/residue from drying food that I wasn't able to catch in drip or clean off. The trays were a hassle to clean with very small openings in the plastic. It would be less of a hassle if I had a dishwasher. But for my next dehydrator I'm definitely going for stainless trays. That said, I never had any issues with the actual dehydrating. The thing was high capacity and I was able to deal with the top and bottom trays drying a bit slower by just rotating trays halfway, really not an issue. I will look for a similarly high capacity dehydrator next, and a taller one so that I can hang large things vertically. I was able to dehydrate around 15lbs of beef in one batch. I forget what I bought it for, but for the current list price of around $250 I would have expected a bit more durable construction, I guess. The dehydrator bits worked fine. So I'll lower it from 5 to 4 stars. Overall, not a bad outcome though. 2020 review: Very high capacity - I haven't filled it yet. Stuff towards the back does definitely dry faster, but I just start checking near the end of dehydrating and remove finished pieces, not much of an annoyance. Hard to see in the pictures - the plastic finish on it seems like something you'd see in the early 00's, very unmodern. But it does hide dust and other dirt, so I don't have to clean the outside often, which is nice, or a bad thing depending on your perspective. It's probably a little overpriced, but it is a very good dehydrator, there's no debating that.

This is definitely a large dryer both in capacity and counter space. It will not be something I leave on my counter which does not bother me at all. I received this on Monday and so far have dehydrated strawberries apples and 4 pounds of jerky. The strawberries did not turn out well but this was totally user error. I'm used to using my square smaller dehydrator and did not check them soon enough. They dehydrated 1-2 hours earlier than I am used to. The apples over dehydrated also but they still taste fine. This unit handled four pounds of ground beef and chicken jerky just fine with actual room to spare. I'm sure I could have put another's pound in there and been fine but wasn't sure what the capacity would be so I didn't. My jerky came out delicious and again didn't take as long as I was used to but this time I new to watch it closer. It came with a large book on dehydrating how to along with recipes and other ideas on how to use the dehydrator. I've actually learned a few things by reading the book!!! I put my trays in and turned it on for the first time to hear a horrible rattling noise but on closer inspection found that i had pushed the trays to far back and they were hitting the fan cage. Of course it makes noise but no more than my other dehydrator and in fact it actually might be a tad bit quieter. You can't expect something like this to be able to do its job and be whisper quiet. I upgraded to this dehydrator after I realized my other one ( which I will also still use) just didn't have the capacity that I needed and its very nice to have a square tray without a hole in the center like all the others. I also didn't want to buy this one until I could justify the price. This will be a lot easier to clean than the big bulky trays of my other unit and the plastic sheets that go in the trays have small holes so my small food (like diced carrots) won't fall through. I also like all the different temperature options as my other one had veggies and fruits drying at the same temp. I did not buy one with a timer as if I feel I need one i will just buy the plug in outlet timer that I will plug this unit into. The only con I have found so far is that I feel for the price it should have come with at least one para flex sheet. I know I've not had this long but so far it is exceeding my expectations. I will post an update in about a month. JUNE 2022 Well I guess I forgot to post an update!!!! I still have my awesome dehydrator and still use it often. It was a purchase I do not regret!!! I’ve even used it now to make dog jerky.. with the prices of everything being so high or things just not being in stock I really appreciate my dehydrator more. Now if I could just get a food sealer machine to last… I’ve gone through 3 since my original post.

My husband and I write outdoor cookbooks as a side hobby. We actually tested all of our recipes for Lipsmackin' Backpackin' and Lipsmackin' Vegetarian Backpackin' on a used Harvest Maid we found at a yard sale. It was a box thing that you could have dropped from a 5 story building and it would have survived. I loved it, but it had uneven heating. Eventually it started to scare us, and we just thought it might catch fire or something, so we got rid of it. So because we weren't working on any books at the time, we switched to the cheap round ones you can buy anywhere. Absolutely hated those. I can't stand the way you have to pull trays apart to see what is going on while food flies all over the place. I had two different brands of those and hated them both. You also have to use their own circular plastic liners for leathers or messy things, and it's a pain to cut parchment paper in a circle when you need more liners. So when we got a couple of new book contracts we needed something decent. We were checking out the new Sedona and comparing it to the Excalibur. Well, we ended up going with the Excalibur. We did this for a couple of reasons: It's American, and Lord knows America needs our business. The price was definitely a factor. Even though the Sedona looked like it might be a nicer piece of equipment (and Sedona, AZ is certainly a nice place to wait for the Mother ship:-)) the company didn't have any reputation to stand on like Excalibur. But as ridiculous as this may sound, one of the biggest issues I had was the fact that they didn't have any liners that went with their product. I know we can cut parchment paper or Excalibur sheets, but I found it kind of odd that a company in the business of drying food wouldn't have a "liner plan" in place. It was kind of like they didn't know what they were doing ya know? So we went with the Excalibur and we love it! There are no fancy bells or whistles, no mother ship, but it dries evenly and quietly and it's a huge improvement over everything we've ever dried with in the past. It's about to be put to the test again with another book, but I am confident that it's going to handle the job just fine!

No more wasted fruit! Very well built and works great. This unit will dry a full load of apples or pears in 10 hours +/- and it's like making your own candy, except it's obviously a lot better for you. Better to have these at the TV set than a bag of chips! So far I've dried apples, pears, asian pears, cranberries, pineapple and yams. My dog loves the dried yams and I have the comfort of knowing his treats have nothing in them but yams. Yet to try tomatoes and jerky, really looking forward to the jerky! The nine tray unit is a must (5 would be too small) considering the time it takes to dry a load. In my opinion the timer isn't necessary since you don't want to leave dried product sitting around for long as it will rehydrate. I usually load mine up in the evening and it's done in the morning. I didn't find it to be that noisy. Not too bad to clean, drying sheets can be wiped off and trays are dishwasher safe, but mine make a trip thru the sink just to be safe. I did find it interesting that the warranty is ten years if you buy from Excalibur but only 5 from anyone else - strange, but still a good warranty. This is obviously the Cadillac of dehydrators and I'd recommend it to anyone.

食材や花を干しています。 温度調整機能のみ、シンプルで使いやすい。

Me encantó, es súper espacioso, yo lo utilizo para hacer galletas decoradas y les deja un acabado único

I hesitated for a long time before investing in this rather expensive dehydrator, but I'm so glad that I did. It's incredibly effective, and allows us to dry fruit and vegetables from our allotment when there's a surplus. There are a few things to be aware of, but even so I'm awarding this machine 5 stars. PROS Produce dries evenly, and trays can be turned through 90 degrees or 180 degrees to ensure consistent drying. Temperature control is excellent and consistent, as checked with a digital thermometer. The capacity is enormous (but see cons for space requirements) Our machine isn't too noisy (but some reviewers seem to have noisier machines) It's easy to wipe clean, and the shelf inserts wash quickly by hand. Drying is simply a matter of turning the machine on for a few minutes. The smell of drying fruit is delicious when the dehydrator is working. CONS The machine is BIG (but see pros for capacity) This model doesn't have a timer, but a cheap plug-in timer does the job. Note that timing depends on the original moisture content, so you need to check rather than simply rely on a timer anyway. The instruction book is pretty feeble. You'll need to buy "Preserve it Naturally" which is published by Excalibur to get proper instructions. The machine doesn't come with any Teflon sheets needed to make fruit leathers or to dry anything that starts as a liquid. We bought some heavy duty Teflon coated oven liners rather than the expensive Excalibur Paraflexx sheets, and they work brilliantly. The front simply hooks on, and can be dislodged. Take care. It's expensive, but, wow, is it effective!

Worst product. Fan coil got explode on second day of use. Seller refuse to provide any warranty. Don't buy from STS shop. They don't provide any support as money back guarantee is 4 days only.