Review on 🍽️ NESCO FD-1040 Gardenmaster Digital Pro Dehydrator: The Ultimate Jerky and Snack Maker with 4 Trays by Cynthia Akobia

I first bought a Nesco Square Tray Dehydrator to make sweet potato treats for our dogs without having to pay the vet $15 a pound. If I calculated the cost of a dehydrator along with buying a sweet potato for between 66 cents and 99 cents a pound, I would save about $500 a year if I made my own. The Nesco Square Dehydrator cost about $70, received high praise from reviewers, had 700W of power, had an internal temperature of 95-155 degrees, and was rated to use up to 20 trays. My first attempts at using the four included trays gave great results, so I bought four more trays (eight in total). Unfortunately, adding four trays greatly increased the time it takes for all the goodies to dry evenly. I then decided to spend three times as much to try the Excalibur dehydrator or buy another Nesco 1000W unit for around $102. . Since I ended up with two Nesco units for 2/3 the price of the Excalibur and the new unit was 1000 watts I settled on the Nesco Gardenmaster. This device generated an internal temperature of 90-160 degrees and was also designed for 20 trays. After learning the previous lesson, I decided to simply add two bowls to my purchase and then I was able to compare the results of the two units in terms of dehydration time and performance. So I sliced 22 pounds of sweet potatoes and placed them evenly on six trays in each of the two dehydrators, started the units, and then went to bed. Twelve hours later, I checked the results and fully expected the 1000-watt Gardenmaster to finish before the 700-watt square dehydrator. But that's not the case. None of these brought the sweet potatoes to the desired crispiness. So I added another three hours and checked the results again. Still no difference. Now I swapped out the trays in each machine to put the top trays on the bottom and the bottom trays on top, adding another three hours. Finally, after a total of eighteen hours, the treat in both cars was ready. Many factors can lead to this result: the shape of the machines, the actual power delivered by each of them, the efficiency of the airflow in the machine. square block vs round, shell wall thickness etc. All I know is I'm still happy with each of these Nesco blocks but I was expecting a better result from a block with more performance and price. $30.00 more. I think I will only use four trays in each dehydrator from now on. To think that each unit will efficiently process 20 trays of sweet potatoes in less than three days must be a pipe dream.