Soo, we just got a rebate check/gift card from Costco for close to $200.

I am dying to buy a dehydrator and wondering if you guys (who know some about dehydrators) think that this is a good one to buy:

[www.costco.com]

Thanks so much all!!

Mindy

don't know anything about this one, but it looks good. I have an exkalibur. You would want a temperature seeting (which this one has) and timer. With all the trays you could make for a whole week. Mine sounds like a truck running outside, so it is hard to get used to the noise at night. Have not used it in a long time.

I've heard good things about that dehydrator. Also looks like a good price.

I have only tried the sedona dehydrator so I don't have a basis for comparison, but I will say that I love it. I have noticed things close to the door don't get dehydrated as much, so I've made a habit of leaving about 2-3 inches clear on the tray where the door is. I suppose I could just rotate the tray when I flip things though. Seems like more hassle though. I'm not positive but I think the excalibur is shaped more like a rectangle, where this is shaped more like a cube, so the excalibur might have less of an issue in this respect, but like I said I don't actually know. I can only theorize.

The Sedona seems to have more ventilation for condensation to escape. When the door opens the fan stops theoretically conserving heat by not blowing it all out the door. The main advantage to buying the sedona is the timer which I don't personlly find very useful when you have multiple kinds of items in the machine that need to be taken out at different times. Other than that Sedona's heating element stays more stable whereas Excalibur's heating element fluctuates more supposedly.

The led temperature display and automatic heating control is a nice touch on the sedona, but the thermometer is likely not that accurate anyways (but still more accurate than the excalibur) as john kohler shows in his video. This is probably the most significant functional difference. An excalibur you set to an analog temperature, if the ambient temperature changes, the excalibur does not adjust for that.

You can see through the glass window. But quite frankly I open the door anyways to check on things. And you will need to open the door to flip thingsā€¦ I find it a minor annoyance to clean the floor of the unit because the hinge of the door is at the bottom, so you can't just sweep things out of the dehydrator.

So I would say the bells and whistles on the sedona really are not neccesary at all, but they are there. All comparisons aside, it's a nice dehydrator and that price makes it look even better. Without the deal though I'd consider buying a bare bones excalibur with a temperature regulator. On the other hand the sedona gives you everything you need out of the box and looks nice while doing it.

Ah, too late to edit. I just remembered something critical. The biggest reason why you might not want to buy the Sedona is if you plan to dehydrate meat regularly. The Excalibur and other brands would be better for that. The reason is the Sedona heating element does not go as hot as the Excaliburs can even though the ratings both say they can go to 155 F. I've not done a test so I can't verify this, but this is what I recall hearing. Do your research if this is important to you.

If you only plan on doing veggies and doing the raw thing or smaller/thinner amounts of meat, the sedona is better suited for the lower temperatures. From what I understand 105 F

85-155 Fahrenheit for the Sedona
95-155 Fahrenheit for the Excalibur

Anyways I just came across this useful webpage on discountjuicers.com with dehydrator information. I'm shocked I didn't know all this already. I learned the thing about fermenting the hard way just today. I dehydrated pineapple at 105 Fahrenheit all the way a few days ago, it's definitely somewhat fermented, even if it is still delicious. No wonder I was feeling yucky today. Well now I know! And you can avoid making my mistake .

Thanks for all of the info Adam!

Will only be dehydrating vegan things.

Really appreciate all of the time you took to give me all of the info.!!

Mindy

My pleasure

Why take water out of the food?

Well, for one thing, I am in transition and would really like to make some homemade crackers.

Would also like to grow several kakai pumpkin vines so that I can then use the meat to juice and use the seeds for eating and storing as this would both save me money and ensure that they are truly raw.

Those are just a couple of eg.

Mindy

Hooray!!

We just ordered it yesterday!

Can't wait to get it and start using it.

I guess the price, for the model we bought, is usually $379 and they currently have it for $80 off, so for $299. Still VERY expensive in my opinion, but we then got a rebate check from Costco for $150, soooo, for a $379 dehydrator, we paid $149. NOT bad! This was my big purchase after having gotten our tax refund back.

It is the Tribest Sedona. They say it will includes:

Features:

9 Silicone Sheets
3 BPA/Teflon Free Drying Sheets
Recipe Book
Built-in Timer up to 99 hours
Clear Glass Door
Digital Display

Just thought I'd share my good news!

Mindy