Posted: 8/16/2007 5:41:48 PM EDT
I've been using a snackmaster fd30 for a few years now, looking to upgrade. What are your experiences with dehydrators and your recommendations. I use it only for making jerky-mostly deer jerky.
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I have this one the 80liter version, spendy, but it works better than the crap walmart round style I was using. I never end up with anything burning or dehydrating unevenly like I did with the round style. |
Good God man! I had no idea you had one of those! I just use the Oven! I have trays and Racks... |
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Eh, I'm not to keen on the idea of letting the oven run overnight. And it's got really good temp control, and auto shutoff. So I can start it before bed, it can run all night and into the day, and shut off while I'm at work. Not as important for jerky as it is for fruit and veggies that take a looooong time, and usually at a lower temp. |
I can't say enough good things about Excalibur dehydrators. Like the Cabela's model, these are spendy, but they last well and the company really stands behind them. Ours is about 10 years old. When it finally does die, I'll replace it with one of the new ones with the timer.......the Cabela's models look tempting but our Excalibur has been such a workhorse that Excalibur has earned my loyalty. 
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Alot of people recommended the Excalibur to me. Everything I heard and read about it said it is a great product. Feral have you had problems with the trays getting brittle and cracking? That was pretty much my main concern with it. Bad experience w/ the plastic trays on the round dehydrators here. I imagine the Excalibur are higher quality tho. But that is what kept me from it. My coworker says the opposite tho, and wished he had bought the Excalibur as opposed to the Cabelas model mainly for the plastic trays. |
We haven't had any problems with cracking. The trays seem to have yellowed just a little bit but, then again, they've seen hundreds, if not thousands, of drying-hours. I imagine they're more brittle than when they started, but we haven't seen any chipping or breakage. We started out with one of the cheap, round stackable units and the Excalibur trays are much beefier. |
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I broke down and bought an Excalibur direct from the company. This thing is worth what they charge. I had a batch of Jerky done in 6 hours and every piece was evenly dried. No brittle pieces and uniform color. Go ahead and get the one with the timer on it and the 9 tray model. You won't be sorry. |
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I just researched dehydrators. I'll be getting the Excalibur early Sept. before bowhunting, to make jerky this year. The Excalibur is U.S. made, has a good warranty and excellent reviews parts if needed are available. I'm still waiting on information from luhr jensen on their big chief smoker, wich I hope to pick up also for sausage. A friend usually does a little jerky for me and himself, I supply the boned out venison. Last year all the relatives ate it and I only had about a pound for myself  my wife is a nice person and gave the stuff out like a charity event along with some smoked sausage.She said she will make jerky this year, we'll see. |