Which nesco food dehydrator to buy

I especially love the shape. This machine is very quiet. I have used it to make some doggie treats like plain dried sweet potato and slices of banana. Now that the garden is almost finished, I am drying herbs. I had looked at lots of other brands and models before choosing this one and I know I made the best choice for my needs.

I love it! I am still learning how to use it, but it is lots of fun, and I am enjoying eating healthier because of it. So far so good, and I think I am about the only person in Korea dehydrating their own fruits and veggies.

Most people around here just buy stuff already dried. Dehydrating is how I started with my food presevation. I own the American Harvest Dehydrator and I just love it. I have expanded to the max 12 trays. I usually use at a time. I have all the add on items they offer. I have made beef jerky, dehydrated many different vegetables and fruits. I even make chicken jerky as a treat for my dog. You can do so much with it. It is a little loud, but I typically start it out in the evening and let it dehydrate overnight.

I highly recommend this brand. I have used it so much this summer that I am thinking of purchasing a second unit. Still have my orginal snackmaster. In fact I have 5 loaners. I also have a Garden master that I had 22 trays on this summer. Worked like a dream. If you are only going to buy one dehydrator, you will love the American Harvest. I worked there back in Great dehydrator. Love it. I love my FD60!

This gives me 8 trays, with the option of adding 4 more. Mine is about 20 years old and still going strong. Recommend it to anyone getting started. You can add trays, which I have done, and it will serve you well for many years. Being circular, the air flow is even. I love mine! Love it for drying my spices, Basil dries overnight. Just picked apples so going to try it for that. If good, will try veggies next. Let you all know, soon. I cleaned it up then started it up. Perfect results.

Also onions, potatoes, tomatoes and even leftover rice, all with wonderful results. Food Dehydrator Review Page: What is the best model, brand and type? Click here and see what others think. In our tests, the Nesco FDA Gardenmaster dried foods the best and fastest because of three important factors working in tandem: its airflow, its round shape, and its bottom-mounted fan. By contrast, a competing vertical-flow dehydrator with rectangular trays dried irregularly in our tests because air had to travel different distances depending on whether it was coming from a long or short side.

Even with frequent tray rotation, this variability yielded a random mishmash of food in various stages of doneness. Another reason the FDA Gardenmaster dries food more evenly is that the fan in the base sends hot air up, where it naturally flows. In those models, because the fans are working against physics to force hot air down to the lowest tray remember, heat rises , the airflow is significantly cooler and weaker in the bottom half of the unit. This is in spite of the fact that all Nesco dehydrators have the Converga-Flow design.

One interesting engineering detail about the Nesco FDA Gardenmaster is that it recycles some of the hot air through the center cone in the base. Sucking a percentage of hot air back into the base cuts down on any recovery time it would take to bring drawn-in ambient air up to temperature. Each tray has about 1 square foot of usable surface area, for a total of 8 square feet of drying capacity. Practically speaking that equals up to 5 pounds of thin beef strips or 6 pounds of apples in one go.

But if you start to outgrow those eight trays, the FDA Gardenmaster can handle up to 30 at a time. Extra trays are available on Amazon and the Nesco website , but I also frequently see them at thrift stores and yard sales.

Just understand that more trays will add to the overall dehydrating time. The Nesco FDA Gardenmaster is easy to use right out of the box but please always read the directions for any new appliance. Its seven temperature settings—95, , , , , , and degrees Fahrenheit—offer you the flexibility to dehydrate just about anything you want.

And the trays are easy to stack and fit neatly together to make a closed drying chamber. The FDA Gardenmaster also includes eight fine-mesh mats and eight fruit-roll sheets, and a one-year limited warranty. Instead, we recommend setting an alarm on your phone as a reminder to check the progress. If a dehydrator without a timer is a dealbreaker for you, take a look at our other pick, the Samson Silent 6-Tray Dehydrator. Although this may be a bit inconvenient, especially if the unit is on the floor, this is a small compromise worth making because the base-mounted motor promotes faster and more-even drying.

We found that soaking the trays in hot soapy water and then scrubbing them with a dish brush does the trick. The FDA Gardenmaster limits the size of what you dehydrate to the height of the trays, unless you want to pay extra for the Nesco Convert-A-Trays.

When making beef jerky, we found ourselves playing a weird game of meat Tetris. But we managed to fit 5 pounds of beef on eight trays, and the FDA Gardenmaster turned out perfect jerky in the least amount of time compared with all the other dehydrators we tested.

The noise output is similar to that of a medium-size room fan on high speed. We can describe it best as noticeable white noise. Of all the horizontal-flow dehydrators we tested, the Samson Silent 6-Tray Dehydrator dried foods the most evenly with the least amount of tray rotation. Unlike our top pick, the Nesco FDA Gardenmaster, the Samson has slide-in trays not stacked , and the heated air flows from the back of the unit rather than the base. The Samson Silent also has features the FDA Gardenmaster lacks, like a digital readout, a timer, and automatic shutoff.

There are two versions of this dehydrator—one with plastic racks that must be hand washed, and one with dishwasher-safe stainless steel racks. But the Silent offers a touch more versatility than the FDA Gardenmaster: You can simply remove trays from the Silent to make room for proofing bread or fermenting jars of yogurt.

If you want more wiggle room in the FDA Gardenmaster, you have to buy special convertible trays. The Samson dehydrator surpassed the other horizontal-flow dehydrators simply because it has a bigger fan, which moves more air around the trays. The difference was very noticeable when we dried apple slices and beef strips.

We rotated the trays in the Samson model only once for a consistently dehydrated batch. But the Excalibur was so spotty that we had to swap its trays around every couple of hours. The conveniently placed digital control panel at the front of the unit lets you set the temperature and drying time in minute increments up to 19 hours. For more drying capacity, the Samson Silent is also available in a nine-tray size.

It has the same footprint and tray dimensions as the six-tray model, but the extra three trays give you 50 percent more drying capacity. In our tests, the Samson nine-tray dehydrator performed on a par with its little sibling.

The Samson Silent dehydrator is true to its name. But we chose to test the Samson Silent 6-Tray because Samson is the only company to offer this digital dehydrator with fine-mesh inserts for every tray and a five-year warranty. Every time we called the company with questions, a courteous and knowledgeable human picked up the phone. People have been drying food for preservation since 12, BC.

We urge you to educate yourself on food safety and best practices to keep your homemade jerky and dried snacks from causing foodborne illnesses. The National Center for Home Food Preservation website is the best and most accessible resource for home food preservation.

Dehydrating your own food takes practice, and above all, patience. Start with something easy, like apples. Always start with fresh ingredients at the peak of their season. Cut away any bruised or brown spots from produce before loading it into the dehydrator.

And make sure meats and fish are fresh and firm. The key to even drying is consistent cuts, so practice your knife skills. And this handy apple tool made quick work of peeling, coring, and slicing the three cases of apples we dehydrated for our tests; if you have a lot of apples or pears on your hands, it's a worthy investment.

A jerky gun is a fast, foolproof way to make perfectly uniform sticks of ground-meat jerky. Your dehydrated bounty will stay fresher longer in an airtight container.

We recommend plastic zip-top bags or dry storage containers with tight-fitting lids. Have a notebook handy so you can keep a journal that details your attempts. Drying times vary from batch to batch. Moisture in the food, ambient temperature and humidity, and batch size all affect your drying times.

Keeping a reference of your successes and failures will prevent you from making the same mistake twice. Read up on home dehydrating, using info from trusted resources. First, brush up on home-preserving food safety.

The book is well-organized and offers practical advice combined with relevant food science. It was by far the most thorough and helpful resource we found.

These top-mounted dehydrators force hot air down when it naturally wants to go up , and as a result, food pieces on the lower trays dry more slowly than pieces closer to the fan, even though all of these models have the same Converga-Flow airflow design as our top pick. On each of these models, we had to rotate the trays a few times to get evenly dehydrated batches. So why would Nesco mess with a good thing? A representative told us that Nesco customers wanted easier-access controls on the top of the machine instead of the bottom, and we respect the company for responding to the feedback.

But in this case, we think overall performance trumps button placement. It was easy to remove food from the trays after the dehydrating process was finished. There was a little bit of stick to the plastic, but for the most part, food easily peeled up from the trays. Taste Test. The higher temperature gave all our foods we tested a crisper outside and a slight cooked, oven roasted taste versus a traditional dried taste. The pineapple and jerky strips were definitely more chewy and dry than what it should be.

This issue can be fixed by lowering the temperature on the gauge, you just have to remember to cook slightly lower than what is labeled on the Nesco. None of the food we dehydrated tasted bad by any means, everything from the mushrooms to the jerky was still enjoyable and shelf stable.

I was highly impressed with the quality of the Nesco American Harvest Dehydrator. The unit has a solid build and is simple to use. I like how fast the Nesco can dehydrate whatever I plop in there - the airflow system is very efficient and evenly dries the food.

Although the temperature gauge is a bit off, I was still satisfied with all the jerky and dehydrated pineapple I have in the pantry now. If you're looking for a low-investment dehydrator to use occasionally, I give the Nesco my seal of approval. He studied under chefs in College of the Ozarks' Culinary Program. It's his job to make sure you choose the kitchen tools that are right for you by testing the best we have to offer.

When not cooking, Austin is tinkering with computers or exploring the Ozarks with his wife Amy. Click here for his full bio. Taste Test The higher temperature gave all our foods we tested a crisper outside and a slight cooked, oven roasted taste versus a traditional dried taste. Featured Brands KitchenAid. Le Creuset. Bormioli Rocco. Emile Henry. Mason Cash.