Best dehydrator?

**my4littlebuffaloes** · 01-14-2009, 03:14 PM

Last summer I dabbled in dehydrating foods in my oven. I really want to get more into that as a way of preserving foods. I want to get a dehydrator. I don't need the most expensive, but I want one that dries fairly quickly and doesn't use a ton of energy. Anyone have one they love?

**vigilant20** · 01-14-2009, 03:40 PM

I have a nesco snackmaster, which I think is really good. I got it at walmart relatively inexpensively, and it has a thermostat (which was important to me because I was trying to go raw)

**staciah** · 01-14-2009, 04:17 PM

I have the same one as vigilant20. Get the one with the Thermostat. Works great but I did notice my elec bill went up quit a bit this summer when I was drying veg everyday.

**LastDragonfly** · 01-14-2009, 04:25 PM

i have that one too. I loved it! My electric bill went up $3 the month I used mine. I did however wait till we were all going to bed to turn on so it was the only appliance running.

now when i ran my stove for canning for 3 weeks straight my electric bill did go up about $25 but I had my electric stove on ALOT for long time segments.

**Domestic Gal** · 01-14-2009, 06:06 PM

DH got me a Good4You dehydrator for Christmas. This is a fairly new product so not a lot of reviews on it yet.
I have never had one before. I used it for a first week and made lots of stuff with it. (I was off that week so had time)
I made fruit leather. Dried apples, pineapple, grape, bananas, and broccoli.
Everything turned out great.
Will be using it lots this summer.
Do not know how much electricity it used either. But it does have a thermostat.

**mzpepper** · 01-14-2009, 06:15 PM

I have the Nesco Gardenmaster. I really like it because it has a thermostat and large trays. It even has the plastic tray to make fruit leather. I dried lots of herbs and veggies this past summer. Even made my own onion and garlic powder. I don't know how much electricity it uses but I didn't have a noticable difference in my electric bill.

I don't know how much it costs because it came in a box that I got at an auction. I was bidding on something else and it just happened to be in the box that I got. It was brand new in a sealed box, never used. I really scored a deal that time.