I agree with John (but for a different reason). Excalibur screwed up big time on their 3900 model "upgrade".

My next dehydrator will not be the 3948 model, though, either. I've got another 4 years on my old 3900 model's warrantee so hopefully Excalibur will get their r&d and aesthetics act together and offer something way less funky and tacky crappy by then or I won't be the only one who takes my business to another dehydrator manufacturer. Look at the thing, just look at it. What do you think?

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I have an excalibur 9 tray and I have no complaints, except that it's quite small and the trays are too close to each other. My friend has a Sausage Maker (name brand) stainless steel dehydrator and the spacing of the trays is more reasonable, especially since I dehydrate big fat figs (when the trees are overloaded) and herbs, however, it breaks down sometimes, which is terribly annoying.

After having dealt with fixing the big stainless steel dehydrator, I determined to buy a two part dehydrator next time: the stainless steel tray compartment is one piece and the fan machinery is a second component and when it breaks down, the smaller fan section can be easily mailed for fixing. Since I haven't bought one yet, I don't want to provide a link.

> After having dealt with fixing the big stainless
> steel dehydrator, I determined to buy a two part
> dehydrator next time: the stainless steel tray
> compartment is one piece and the fan machinery is
> a second component and when it breaks down, the
> smaller fan section can be easily mailed for
> fixing. Since I haven't bought one yet, I don't
> want to provide a link.

I'm hoping that by the time my 3900 is used up someone will have invented an after market raw food compliant dehydrator which can efficiently utilize all that unused space in conventional ovens. Or, better yet, how about conventional ovens which can be accessorized into use as raw food dehydrators?

The overall direction (and prices) the dehydrator manufacturers have bumbled into as of late are just ridiculous. Regular kitchen appliance manufacturers could do a way better, and less expensive, job of it, IMO. Hopefully home dehydrating will become popular enough for kitchen appliance makers to get to work on the problem soon.

Why not just eat the food raw and fresh with all of its organic water?

From the book I'm always recommending for people who dehydrate foods, "Preserve It Naturally", here's a tiny bit of what is written for dehydrating figs - quarter them and spread one layer thick on the drying trays with skin side down.

SueZ:
here's a tiny bit of what is written for dehydrating figs - quarter them and spread one layer thick on the drying trays with skin side down.

Tai
I do that when I make chocolate covered figs. I cut them in half and dry them juicy-side up. If you don't cover them with something, then the juicy part will really dry up. The art of drying figs is to retain a nice chewiness. Drying them whole is superior. A fully dried fig is miserably hard and must be hydrated to eat. Anyway, when I dry figs whole in the excalibur, I just remove every other tray.

Raw P: when some food is so is abundant, the clear option is to dry it, otherwise it would spoil. Figs have that latex and people have a maximum tolerance level to eat so many a day. The rest should be dried.

Tai, if I lived where you do I would rig up some "no see em" screening and dehydrate on cloth sheets on the roof.