Hi.. i am looking to buy a new dehydrator.. i want one with a few items included, like temperature which a person can adjust and a timer, so i am going to go with one which many people recommend: the excaliber 4 tray model.

the air flow seems good in that it is horizontal, and not from the bottem up..

so fruits or things on different levels can dry independent of other foods on different levels..so odors will not combine and make herb flavored fruit, etc.!

My question:
i have been looking at different dehydrators , but they all (except the home made ones, and maybe those also) have toxic ( or what i would consider toxic) components like plastic or teflon..

does anyone know of any dehydrators which are perhaps made of stainless steel or
something relatively of lower toxicity.?

many thanks
alice

Very good question, I have been wondering this myself. I hope someone has some info or lead on this question. I usually rely on my stove. I can get it down to 1oo degrees, but there is no air flow, so it takes longer.

I have this one:
[www.sausagemaker.com]

After seeing the Excaliber dehydrator, I'm glad I went with the Sausage Maker one, even if it cost a little more.

Any plastic will break down from the heat, off gas and become brittle over time. I want to eat the food, not the dehydrator!

Cheers,
Ian.

Thanks sodoffsocks. How long have you had your unit? How is the temp control, can you get accurate temps between 100 and 118 degrees? What do you use to line the shelves for items which will drop through the wire shelves?

Hi Daisy,

I've had a little over a year. The temp control is a bit of pain, but I've found this to be the case all dehydrators I've played with (never trust the dial, the same model can be different from dehydrator to dehydrator). I use a thermonitor to calibrate the dehydrator's temp control and make sure I'm using it in the temp range I want to use - even on my cheap used old dehydrator I was able to achieve the temps I wanted. Sausagemaker has one with a digital tempurature control which looks really nice, but I've not had a chance to try it (the D12, did I say it looks really nice!?).

Even with a digital control, you still want to measure the shelf tempurature, rather than the case or sensor temp. A thermonitor is the only way to find out for sure.

As for the wire shelves, well, it will accept 16 1/4" x 14 1/2" shelves, so you can buy other shelving designed for ovens that should fit. For example having a few drip catcher shelves, which could put in between different racks to prevent thing like tomatoes dripping on bananas. Also I've seem some flat sheet shelves I would like. Current, if I'm making fruit leather or drying small fruits like blue berries, I'm using some of the tefflex sheets from my old dehydrator, placing them on the wire shelves (the old sheets are round with a whole in the middle).

Cheers,
Ian.