Review on Excalibur 9-Tray Electric Food Dehydrator: Faster Drying with 26-hour Timer, Automatic Shut Off and Temperature Settings by Katie Jackson

Okay, so it looks like a piece of a 1980's stereo, it's black plastic with the leathery texture you're used to from car interiors, and it's big enough to tell the difference make, but it seems works pretty well. Does it work well enough to be twice the price of anything else on the market? I am not really sure. This is the first and hopefully only food dehydrator I will buy. Dried meat and veggies still dry most of the day, so should every other dehydrator take longer to dry? Plus, washing these trays is a real treat if you don't have a dishwasher. By treatment I mean it's a second job. They also don't include trays for making fruit bowls, they sell them for about $30 for a pack of 3. I guess their kids still have to get through college. That's strange because this device could have been made at least 30 years ago. Not only does the tech look dated, as mentioned above, but it's just two curved knobs for temperature and time. You can make fancy rotary knobs these days, but they're definitely not those, it's more of the kind that toggles on and off, like a homemade radio. And on that subject, the whole unit is plastic, the shelves are plastic, the door is plastic and somehow lifts up instead of being hung, everything seems really easy (*cheap quality). Which is odd, because it costs over $200, while there are other devices half that price, with glass doors, electronic displays, and free fruit bowl leaves. This device is still being touted as the best dehydrator on the market, I'm just wondering what I don't understand? How bad do the other options have to be? Have I made a fool of myself and paid full premium price for a lightweight oven? On the plus side, it's spacious so you can dry a lot of things in one sitting. Although you will sit for a while.