Review on Excalibur Food Dehydrator 9-Tray Electric: Accurate Temperature Control for Faster, Efficient Drying (Black) by Danielle Hart

I've dreamed of one for a long time because I've heard so many good things about it. I have an old aroma dehydrator that is at least 15 years old and was tolerable but slow. And I know that I couldn't dry some products in it without problems. After drying the excess zucchini (who doesn't have them?!), which took 18 hours, I decided to pull the trigger. These dryers are not cheap. . I've gone through the economy version as well as the one with a built-in timer. I figured I could just use a pluggable timer. When the box arrived I was initially dismayed at the sheer size of this item! Now I know it's going to be big, but somehow I couldn't imagine a car as big as my big ol' microwave! I have a tiny kitchen and this dryer definitely won't fit on every counter. I put it on my small table and it took up half the property. Now I have a lot of kitchen appliances stored in the basement. A cannery, a meat grinder, an old dehydrator, etc. But Excalibur was so big and bulky that I didn't feel like carrying it up and down stairs - hey, I'm not getting any younger. installed it in the basement on top of the dryer, put the paper on the nearby washing machine and plugged it into the mains. I sliced the zucchini at the top (better lighting) and placed the slices in a bowl to bring to the bottom. I like to lightly sprinkle zucchini chips with salt, so I brought these. I used 6 medium chips and they only fit on 5 baking sheets. I set the timer to the max (14 hours) and headed upstairs to bed, figured I could scrape off the dried chips and figure out how long it would take while I was away from work. I woke up seven hours later. , and decided to check the progress and was amazed to find that EVERYTHING had dried perfectly and evenly! 7 hours (and maybe even finished in 6 hours) compared to 18 hours with my old dehydrator! So first of all, I'm VERY impressed. I love the built in thermostat and I love that the trays are nice and square and the sheer amount of space available. Last year I dried tomatoes and had to do 2 or 3 batches for 24 hours at a time. I can't wait to get these materials for this workhorse! I will have lots of peaches. I'll try my hand at leather and even use up some of the apple butter I made last fall that nobody eats much. out. I have ordered several silicone sheets from Revain; I would take Excalibur but the price was too high. I know it's an American company so they can't charge prices as low as in China, but I'm on a tight budget so I have to make ends meet. Basically I am very satisfied with this machine. He will live in the basement, but that's ok for my needs. The only thing I will miss is the wonderful smell that fills the house when I dry the basil. Maybe if I leave the basement door open. UPDATE --- If you have that annoying vibration that starts after warming up (no fan guard) I found a solution for me. Once the vibration starts, turn it over and gently loosen one or both of the nuts on the back that attach to the fan. Not much, just a little - less than a quarter turn will settle him down, but the nuts will still be tight enough to be reliable. What a relief!