Dehydrator Question?

**dolfinonmi** · 06-10-2009, 06:59 PM

We have been discussing whether or not to try dehydrating. I am concerned about the amounts of time and electricity it takes up. We have found a small one that works in the microwave. I think the size of it would be ok for us to start out with. What are your feelings on the use in the microwave compared to electric? Any answers would be greatly appreciated. TIA!

**Grainlady** · 06-10-2009, 07:24 PM

I have a Watt A Meter and I'll check the actual numbers for you tomorrow. I'm going to be making crispy pecans starting tomorrow after I soak the pecans overnight.

I have a 500 watt American Harvest (readily available at Wal-Mart, ACE, and True Value, etc.) and have years and years of use out of this machine. I also have additional trays, fruit-roll sheets, Clean-A-Screen sheets, and a jerky maker (using ground meat).

Here's a link to some information that may be helpful:
http://www.discountjuicers.com/dehydratorcompare.html

One place you save is when you dehydrate food that might normally be wasted. So you can't get that produce used up in your refrigerator, just dehydrate it. I make all kinds of fruit-roll-ups with discounted fruit. I just bought a container of mushrooms on the discounted produce area at the store and I used what I could fresh, and dehydrated the rest.

I no longer do home canning because of the cost of processing is getting high, but I do a lot of dehydrating and dehydrofreezing (a combination of partially dehydrating food and then freezing it).

I just picked my first zucchini yesterday, so it won't be long until I dehydrate seemingly "tons" of them. We use dehydrated zucchini instead of potato chips. During apple season at the end of summer, I run the dehydrator almost non-stop for many weeks. Free apples, as well as other fruits I get free-for-the-picking makes "cheap eats" for all the applesauce we can stomach, fruit desserts, and snacking.

**thefrug** · 06-10-2009, 07:55 PM

I checked my electric bill from one month to the next. It costs me .60 a day to run my Nesco

**old_lady_in_the_shoe** · 06-10-2009, 10:23 PM

I am a huge fan of dehydration, love it. It makes me feel good about the foods, because I can take advantage of cheap produce or an over abundance of garden good and dehydrate it and it will last for years.

I also like the fact that when you dehydrate, you do not "heat" the food to much so it doesn't take away from the nutrition of the food.

Now in my opinion, the microwave would cost me more than electric. My microwave is pretty heavy duty though. My electric dehydrator is pretty effective and efficient so I would think that the electric would be better.

To make sure that it is better, I try to never run my dehydrator any way but full. If I have something to dry, and it only takes a few racks, then I do my best to add something else to fill it.

Also, not all dehydrators are equal, The ones with the small fans it then really move the air around and you don't get those "hot spots" and this helps to get all the stuff on and off at the same time. You might want to get one like this if you plan to do large amounts of foods at one time.

If you have the stuff to use the microwave, I would say to go for it and if you really like it then you could change later. I don't like to buy a bunch of new and expensive stuff to "get started", because I may not like it later, so I alwasy try the new stuff with something I have or can borrow to determine if I want to continue or learn more.

Good luck!

**jas** · 06-11-2009, 07:53 AM

I would think the mircowave would make dehydrating way more expensive. I have a excalibur and the cost to run is almost nothing. You certainly don't need to have that brand of course. I love dehydrating!!

**Grainlady** · 06-11-2009, 09:48 AM

After 3-hours of dehydrating there hasn't been enough electricty used to even register a per hour rate, but .04 cents per 24-hour day is registered.

I agree with everyone that a microwave will use more energy than a dehydrator because it's a higher-watt use appliance to begin with. My Sharp is 850 watts while the dehydrator is 500 watts. If you know your kW hour rate for electricity, you can quickly figure how much each machine will cost per hour.

I also would be concerned with the inability to control temperature and air flow in a microwave. Too much heat will cause "hard casing", where the food cooks rather than dries. Hard casing is where the outside of the food dries first and you get a hard skin on the outside. The inside moisture can't expell through this hard skin and the resulting dehydrated food will mold quickly in storage, and you need to throw out any food with mold on it. Toss the whole container of food because the mold spores have contaminated the entire container - not just the visible mold. This is why I store dehydrated foods in small canning jars, rather than in large batches.

I suspect most dehydrators have a much larger capacity than a microwave would, so you can save money there by doing more foods at once, in a good quality dehydrator.

The important thing to remember about dehydrating is to increase air flow, NOT temperature, to speed up dehydrating. You are dispelling moisture, not cooking the food.

Not all foods dry properly at the same temperature, that's why it's important to use a dehydrator that has a variable temperature control. This is especially true if you are dehydrating meat/jerky. Even with the correct dehydrator temperature, meat MUST be heated to 160°F to kill bacteria one of two ways:

1. If the meat is marinated, heat the meat in the marinade to 160°F prior to drying.

2. Heat the dried jerky in the oven at 275°F for 10 minutes after the dehydration process.

I do both methods to increase food safety of dehydrated meats. I not only make jerky, but I also dehydrate 1/4 to 1/2-inch cubes of cooked lean meats (poultry, beef, ham). I keep dehydrated meats in the freezer in FoodSaver bags for longer storage time.

For more general information:
National Center for Home Food Preservation - Drying
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/dry.html