dehydrators, wish I had never heard of them

[BertieFox]

Sorry, but you are right and you need to get the Excalibur one. We bought ours about four years ago and it has ten large trays. It cost a bomb (I didn't tell the wife until afterwards!) but it has been a wonderful boon.

Not only can you dry all your surplus tomatoes, especially the cherry type, with the greatest of ease, but you can also dry apples when you have a glut or when you can pick them up at very low prices. I have enough dried apple to last the winter.

Best of all, we had a glut of peaches one year, and I reduced them to a 'slurry' having stoned and skinned them. You then pour the mixture on greaseproof paper sheets on the trays, and after a few hours have a wonderful fruit leather, which you can roll up and store. The ones we did tasted of fresh peaches all winter long.

Have you thought of looking on Ebay to see if there are any second hand ones? Probably not as once people buy them they don't give them up. But definitely get the larger type as the small ones just aren't large enough to do large batches of fruit or distribute the heat evenly enough.

[BertieFox]

rec

The difference, assuming that the fan is at the back on the rectangular ones, is that on a stacked circular one the tray nearest the heater gets hot, dry, air, whereas the trays furthest away get moist hot air. Thus the drying time, and amount of dryness, is different for the trays.

For the fan-at-the-end ones all trays have the same hot, dry air. This makes a difference if there are a lot of trays, so more suitable to doing larger quantities perhaps.

There may also have been some benefits from the max temperature of the rectangular ones when I did my research, some years ago, but memory is now hazy on that.

The large rectangular ones like Excalibur DO spread the heat more evenly and allow moisture to escape better. I would imagine that they are also more energy efficient in terms of the amount you can dry in one batch. You can also move the trays around vertically so that things slower to dry can get more heat.

[Kier]

Sorry, but you are right and you need to get the Excalibur one. We bought ours about four years ago and it has ten large trays. It cost a bomb (I didn't tell the wife until afterwards!) but it has been a wonderful boon.

Not only can you dry all your surplus tomatoes, especially the cherry type, with the greatest of ease, but you can also dry apples when you have a glut or when you can pick them up at very low prices. I have enough dried apple to last the winter.

Best of all, we had a glut of peaches one year, and I reduced them to a 'slurry' having stoned and skinned them. You then pour the mixture on greaseproof paper sheets on the trays, and after a few hours have a wonderful fruit leather, which you can roll up and store. The ones we did tasted of fresh peaches all winter long.

Have you thought of looking on Ebay to see if there are any second hand ones? Probably not as once people buy them they don't give them up. But definitely get the larger type as the small ones just aren't large enough to do large batches of fruit or distribute the heat evenly enough.

yes been on ebay but the larger ones seem to hold their money

[Kier]

The large rectangular ones like Excalibur DO spread the heat more evenly and allow moisture to escape better. I would imagine that they are also more energy efficient in terms of the amount you can dry in one batch. You can also move the trays around vertically so that things slower to dry can get more heat.

Thats what they claim and some large excalibur ones are the same watts as the smaller ones

[muddled]

Nothing to add (I've got a cheapo one) but just have say that

Kier, I like the way you think

[alldigging]

I've bid on a couple on ebay but not won one yet.
I think I need to get rid of an existing gadget before I get another one.

[Mr Bones]

I've bid on a couple on ebay but not won one yet.
I think I need to get rid of an existing gadget before I get another one.

Kitchen space is at a premium for us so ours lives in a spare bedroom. We treated ourselves to a nine tray Excalibur a few years back and find it works well, especially love filling it with "on offer" chestnut mushrooms, the flavour is intense.

[Kier]

Kitchen space is at a premium for us so ours lives in a spare bedroom. We treated ourselves to a nine tray Excalibur a few years back and find it works well, especially love filling it with "on offer" chestnut mushrooms, the flavour is intense.

I love the chestnut mushrooms on offer they always seem to come from Ireland , I'm just negotiating over a 9 tray Excalibur at this moment

[Mikey]

See now you've got me interested, I had to dry 14kg of Porcini back in the autumn and that was a right royal pain in the behind I can tell you.

[alldigging]

Kitchen space is at a premium for us so ours lives in a spare bedroom. We treated ourselves to a nine tray Excalibur a few years back and find it works well, especially love filling it with "on offer" chestnut mushrooms, the flavour is intense.

The spare bedroom has my propagator in at the moment and some of his computer stuff.

But that is almost ready to be put elsewhere and used!

[veggiechicken]

See now you've got me interested, I had to dry 14kg of Porcini back in the autumn and that was a right royal pain in the behind I can tell you.

They'll never dry out there Mikey

[Mikey]

Well OH did say the aroma while drying was a little eye watering.

[Kier]

negotiated successfully (made an offer that couldn't be refused) picking a 9 tray excalibur with timer , pick up on sunday, not much to try at the moment but will have plenty to try later or in mid season it will be up for sale again not

anyway wasn't my fault, they shouldn't have accepted my offer so what could I do, can't get a bad name on ebay can I

[penny]

I bought a round dehydrator at a car boot sale really liked it so bought a rectangular excaliber clone so if anyone in Chesterfield wants a try pm me and you can have the round one to try

[More basil]

See now you've got me interested, I had to dry 14kg of Porcini back in the autumn and that was a right royal pain in the behind I can tell you.

One memorably fab 'shroom year I did end up drying porcini in the tumble dryer. Worked a treat though the dried 'shrooms looked a little odd as the spores had come loose. Added bonus: next batch of linen in the dryer came out smelling deliciously of wild mushrooms. Sweet dreams indeed!