Excalibur Electric Food Dehydrator Machine 4-Tray with Adjustable Thermostat, Accurate Temperature Control and Fast Drying with 4 Square Feet of Drying Space, 250-Watts, Black

I'm a placenta encapsulator and I routinely use this dehydrator. It came highly recommended and it hasn't let me down yet. Here are a few things I love about it: 1. It has a temperature control so you know exactly what temp you are using. 2. The fan is located in the back which means no need to rotate trays to ensure an even dehydration. Set it and forget it. 3. Easy to clean- the trays come completely out of the unit and the screen come completely off of the trays. I can easily wash and bleach all the parts. 4. Quality- I've used it probably 100 times now with no problems at all. I routinely run it for 10-12+ hours at a time and I've had zero problems. 5. Space- I have rarely needed to use more than two trays as each tray is nice and large, plenty of room. I will most definitely buy another Excalibur dehydrator and I always recommend it to anyone looking to purchase a high-quality dehydrator.

Been using this for a few months so far, and couldn't be happier. I love beef jerky as an everyday snack, but it can get expensive buying it at the store all the time. A coworker is big on do it yourself foods and told me how to make jerky at home and decided to give it a try. At first I was doing it in the oven, which worked decently, but he kept telling me about his Excalibur and how great it was. So I decided to throw down the money, and very happy I did. He had the 9 try version and that just seemed like way too much, which it would have been. I found this 4 tray and the price was pretty good at $100. I can do about 2 1/2 pounds at a time which is perfect. The Excalibur is so straight forward and easy to use. Theres no On/Off switch, so just plug it in and it turns on. The temperature dial even shows the type of foods you should be using at each temperature. (ex 155:meat, fish, 125:vegetables) This is good if you are not sure what to use. There is no timer, which is ok for me. I'll only do a batch on my days off anyways. Jerky takes around 6 hours, sometimes a little more. I will admit the dehydrator does feel like cheap plastic, but you dont need something thats made out of heavy duty metal to dehydrate. It is pretty light for its size. Theres not much to it besides the case, the fan inside and the trays. Each tray has a removable and flexible mesh that is easy to clean. The fan is a nice feature as some other brands do not have one. This allows for the heat to be blown across the trays evenly. Although I have noticed that the lower tray seems to dry slower then the other 3. But for that I just recommend rotating the trays about half way through. You can rotate more then once if you really want to, but I dont think you need to. Rotating once did the trick for me. You can do many types of food in a dehydrator, but I just use it to make beef jerky. I love being able to experiment with my own recipes and make it just the way I want. My friend gave me a recipe at first, and it was good, but I've been able to perfect it for me. After making a couple of batches and eating my own recipe I decided to try a bag of my favorite brand from the store, and Wow what a difference. I dont even like the taste of that brand anymore. I can never go back after making my own. I highly recommend buying an Excalibur. Depending on your needs, the 4 tray was perfect for me. Dont let the fact that its made out of plastic fool you. It is high quality and I love using it.

If your buying this when you get it and especially if you are buying used DOUBLE CHECK THE FUSE! not because the fuse is bad but because some have been put in backwards by people not knowing how to actually install them. Received mine today plugged it in no heat took it apart (I have owned one before) and the fuse was in the wrong way and had a nut between it and it's contact point! Easy remedy (there are several videos on replacing them around the Internet) take it apart remove the fuse bend it into the proper shape the CORRECT way around (the color tip should be pointing down) and if there is a nut between it and the connector for the coils remove that nut! Put everything back together and check its working via the method trouble shooting in the manual took 8 minutes to take it apart and flip it around its now almost done its first round of veggies and is working great! (I also called Amazon itself to make them aware of the upside down fuse issue so who knows if they will check other products they have but just a heads up!)

I was a little hesitant buying an "economy" dehydrator, but this works beautifully! I've been making yummy snacks for my family since the day I got it. There's also nearly no sound. If you're sitting right next to it, sure, you can hear it. But if you're more than two feet away it's silent! I'll consider upgrading to the 10-tray model if I find myself using this enough, but for now this is perfect. UPDATE: after just two weeks the unit stopped working. I actually don't know if it ever worked at all since when I wrote the review I only used the top sheet at a time. But recently I tried using multiple sheets at once (from 2 to 4) and nothing dries except for the top sheet. I've had it going for 24 hours now and only the top sheet dries. And it takes way longer for even that one sheet to dry. So disappointed.

We have had the 4 tray model for a few weeks now and we are loving it. I bought this model vs the large 5 or 9 tray models partially because of the lower price but more for the small footprint. This model takes up a little more space than a toaster oven and less space than your typical microwave. I'm not a raw foodist so I'm not trying to live off of dried fruits and vegetables or sprouted grains from this unit. This size is awesome for when you buy a bushel of your favorite fruit and want to dry a portion of them to have in your cereal for the week or whatever. If you have more heavy duty needs get a larger one. For example, right now I'm drying about 5 medium size apples and the unit is full. If you want to dry a lot more at one time make the extra investment in a larger model. This unit doesn't come with a timer but its no big deal. Set a kitchen timer or buy a power strip with a timer and you're set. The noise is similar to what you would get from a loud desk fan. If you aren't keeping it in your bedroom then you should be fine. Once you have a dehydrator you start to notice all the expensive store bought stuff that you can make at home at a fraction of the price. All-fruit fruit roll-ups, raw power bars with any combo of fruits nuts and seeds you can think of, jerky (if that's your thing), and more!

Worked great once. Wouldn’t turn on after that. I am very frustrated because we were trying to make food for a trip tomorrow. I’ve heard the company is great. If they help me I’ll update this review. Amazon has been zero help. And the silicone trays that are being recommended for this dehydrator do not fit it. So there’s that.

My daughter asked for this for Christmas (she is 9) so I got the smallest unit to test out this whole dried foods phase with her. We have already dried apples and bananas. Drying time seems so long but the apples (sprinkled with cinnamon) turned out delicious. We filled the 4 trays full and finished last night. The fruit we dried went so fast I am thinking I should have got the one with more trays. My bad! This model must have been upgraded or something over the last two years since mine has an on/off switch and in the question section people say you unplug unit to turn off. The on/off switch is clearly visible on the top right just above the temperature dial. The trays are plastic. From what I researched - the unit never gets hot enough to pose a risk of the plastic releasing chemicals. I would have preferred stainless steel trays but again this is a starter unit bought to merely experiment with dehydrating. If my family embraces this lifestyle then I will definitely get a unit that offers stainless steel trays. I was worried about the durability of the dehydrator so I purchased a warranty offered on Amazon. If I end up having to warranty the unit out I will update my review to reflect this issue. The only thing besides the small size of the unit that I notice at this time is the front door operation. It slides up and down to remove. There are narrow "lips" on each side and they fit into the grooves of the unit. The left side doesnt want to go in easy so I stand there struggling a bit to line that end up to get it into the groove. If you want a nice starter machine then go with this but if you think you will want to do more than small batches then I would find something larger. 2/23/2016 UPDATE: I am finding this unit to be too small considering it seems to take longer to dry things than indicated in the book. After going through all the hassles of slicing everything up and waiting to dry the fruits and veggies, our family of 4 goes through what was dried in less than a day. Pretty disappointing after you worked so hard to dry the stuff. My advice would be this might work for a single person with patience but if you are really wanting to be serious upgrade to a larger unit.

This dehydrator rocks. I use it to make raw foods such as crackers & crusts and to dry sprouted seeds and nuts. It has worked well for my needs, feeding 2 people. The 4-tray unit may be too small for a family doing a lot of dehydrating. This unit doesn't have a timer. That's no problem, though. I just plug it into a grounded heavy-duty appliance timer. For the raw foodist, I recommend the Excalibur's square shaped drying surface design over the the round shaped dehydrators. I haven't purchased the rather pricey ParaFlexx sheets, but they would be handy for dehydrating things like spreads, yogurt, runny things, & thin crackers. The 4-tray unit dimensions are 16 1/2"L X 13"W X 6"H (Sorry, I'm metric illiterate). All dehydrator fans are going to make noise. I do not consider the 4-tray unit to be loud.

El equipo llegó antes de la fecha programada y el embalaje muy bien. Ya quiero usarlo

Funciona muy bien, me sirve mucho para el secado rápido en la decoración de mis galletas y otros postres

My friend owns a 5 Tray Excalibur, and as I expect to dehydrate less than him I figured both price and for only myself, this was the best buy. I wasn't wrong. This is smaller than the 5 tray dehydrator, and works perfectly for the individual or recreational dehydrator. The door slides out differently than the larger models, but this doesn't impend it's function. Thus far for me I've tried many different recipes including beef jerky, fruit, pineapple core chips, leather, and bread! I love the Excalibur because it lets me do different sized tasks (I mean by actual measurement, not just volume), like bread or granola bars. I can remove unnecessary trays to compensate for additional needed room. This was not the case in other brand's round trays that I researched. Also for the budget-er who wants to try fruit roll ups: you can easily cut parchment paper or saran wrap to fit these trays. My friend also owns the official Excalibur sheets for this purpose (which work amazing!), but I haven't looked into how much they cost for these smaller 4-tray sized trays. If you're looking at buying a dehydrator, from the price for a individual to seeing how flexible and reliable this brand is, I entirely recommend Excalibur!

Me encanta, lo uso para galletas pero es buenísimo y esta de tamaño perfecto 😊

Purchased a warehouse model of the 4-tray as an upgrade to my old Salton dehydrator. It has now been running for 4 days straight. What I love: - Goes up to 165 (heat cycles, so it actually fluctuates between 170 and 160 to dry more effectively), so is safe for jerky making - It's surprisingly quiet - Trays are very easy to clean, and square shaped (easy to lay out food) - 4 tray version is compact and easy to store, even in a small apartment - I like that this door slides down into two slots, instead of just hangs in a little nook (like the bigger versions). Much more secure and doesn't accidentally fall off - It's plastic, but the plastic feels very rugged and able to withstand years of heat drying without cracking - Because Excalibur is such a popular and established brand, it is very easy to get replacement parts Don't love: - Let's be honest, it's pretty ugly. It looks like it's from the 80s, not brand new. But that's Excalibur for you. - They are ridiculously expensive for a plastic bin with a fan and heater - The 4 tray actually has smaller sized trays than other models, so make sure you know what capacity you want. It fits about 1 cup of chili per tray - You cannot add more trays I tested the warehouse deal model with a probe thermometer. The jerky setting (165) was accurate to temp. The dial setting for 130 (fruits etc) was accurate. However the inbetween dial setting for 145 (which is the temp you dehydrate most foods, cooked meats and backpacking meals) was up to 10 degrees hotter. I reached out to Amazon and was very satisfied with the solution they offered. I marked a new setting on the dial for true 145 degrees. The heat itself is very consistent once you have it on the right setting. But it would be worth testing a new machine, just to make sure you are dehydrating your food safely as expected. I would recommend this machine, as it is very reliable, easy to use, and there are a lot of safe and tested recipes available from the company.