Excalibur Dehydrator

[berrymarymac]

I purchased an American Snack dehydrator a few weeks ago and is not working as well as I had hoped. My food does not turn out and needs WAY too much time, with not so happy results. So I am in the market of the excalibur dehydrator and hopefully will be able to return my new dehydrator. Does anyone know of a place that sells them relatively cheap? I am also the only person who eats raw, well my sister is following me. And I am planning on taking it to college with me. So would the 4 or 5 be best for me?

[Sleek98]

Check out craigslist or other similar sites, I found one very cheaply there. 4 or 5 should be fine for one person, depending on all you want to use it for. I know there is a raw site that sells them cheaper, I'll have to find it.

[juliebove]

I don't have an Excalibur. I wanted one, but they are expensive and from everything I read here, I would need more than a 4 or 5 tray even for just myself. Space is a concern as well. They appear to be rather large. So I wasn't sure this would work for me, but it seemed I did need a dehydrator.

I got the kind you got for my birthday. I have no experience with a dehydrator so I don't know if it works properly or not. It does seem to take a lot longer to dehydrate things than the times stated in various recipes. However, there are several others on this board who live in this area and they say it does take longer due to our moist air.

So far, everything I've made in the dehydrator has gone straight in the trash. I don't know if dehydrated foods just are not for me or if I did something wrong. I started with raisins simply because I know what the finished product should look and taste like. Those seem to have worked, but my daughter prefers the kind that you buy in the store. And I do not like raisins so nobody would eat these.

Hopefully somebody else will answer this. Could it be that the Excalibur is really that much better? Or are we just expecting too much from the dehydrator? I was thinking of this the other day.

I remember something a coworker said some years ago. Microwave ovens were a fairly new thing. Apparently they've been around since the 50's or 60's...can't remember which, but they were not a common item in most homes until the 70's or 80's.

When all we had were our stoves/ovens we got used to cooking something for a certain length of time. Then all of a sudden we had this device...this microwave that could give us near instant food! My coworker said one day as she was waiting for her soup to heat, she became impatient. She said she was silently cursing the microwave because even though it was fast, it wasn't fast enough. Near instant wasn't good enough. She wanted it to be totally instant!

Could it be that we are expecting something like this with the dehydrators? Yes, we know that they will be slower than a regular oven because they are using a lower temp. But could it be that we simply want them to be done faster? Something to ponder...

[rawpriestess]

Hi, Alissa sells excaliburs, they have a minimum that you can sell them for, if you are an affiliate or a dealer, occasionally, you will find on ebay, but they have no warrantee that way, they are just about the same price as the ones on Alissa's site, you can try freecycle, or you can try to get used to yours, excalibur will not dry it any quicker, it just gives you alot more space, and no need to turn the trays.

[Revvell]

I can't answer your question about wanting things to be done faster. That would be up to you.

For me, I mostly dehydrate early in the a.m. and then overnight if necessary depending on what I want to do. Raisins? You started w/ grapes then? Not sure how you did that. I would do something less juicy perhaps such as bannas and strawberries thinly sliced. Seems grapes would take about a week or so. *shrugs* I don't know. I've never even considered doing them.

As far as 4 or 5 tray ~ there are many pros and cons here AND many threads from people who are using the Excalibur as well as others. You might wish to do a search on them.

Keywords would be: Excalibur; dehydrator and American Harvest.

Here are a few:

http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16650&highlight=Excalibur
http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16009&highlight=Excalibur
http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15535&highlight=Excalibur
http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15052&highlight=Excalibur

Personally, "since" I can afford it, I always purchase top-of-the-line ~ which doesn't always mean best yet ~ usually. I've had my 9-tray for years and I love it. IF you've got the funds AND the space for one, it would behoove you to get a 9-tray. Being that you, mrandal, will be in a dorm (yes?) and possibly sharing, you don't want something that needs to run 24-hours, so, IF you are going to dehydrate, you'll want to do everything at once ~ say burgers and fruit leathers and just fruit.

Revvell

[juliebove]

I can't answer your question about wanting things to be done faster. That would be up to you.

For me, I mostly dehydrate early in the a.m. and then overnight if necessary depending on what I want to do. Raisins? You started w/ grapes then? Not sure how you did that. I would do something less juicy perhaps such as bannas and strawberries thinly sliced. Seems grapes would take about a week or so. *shrugs* I don't know. I've never even considered doing them.

As far as 4 or 5 tray ~ there are many pros and cons here AND many threads from people who are using the Excalibur as well as others. You might wish to do a search on them.

Keywords would be: Excalibur; dehydrator and American Harvest.

Here are a few:

http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16650&highlight=Excalibur
http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16009&highlight=Excalibur
http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15535&highlight=Excalibur
http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15052&highlight=Excalibur

Personally, "since" I can afford it, I always purchase top-of-the-line ~ which doesn't always mean best yet ~ usually. I've had my 9-tray for years and I love it. IF you've got the funds AND the space for one, it would behoove you to get a 9-tray. Being that you, mrandal, will be in a dorm (yes?) and possibly sharing, you don't want something that needs to run 24-hours, so, IF you are going to dehydrate, you'll want to do everything at once ~ say burgers and fruit leathers and just fruit.

Revvell

The only reason I did the raisins is because I know what the finished product should look and taste like. As a kid, I made raisins in the sun using the same kind of grapes. They did come out like I thought they should. They did take about 24 hours to do. Not sure if this is a good amout of time or not. I know it did take several days to dry them in the sun even in the Wichita heat. I also should add that mine would not technically have been raw since I put them in boiling water for 60 seconds. The book that came with the dehydrator indicated that this would cause tiny breaks in the skin and thus make them dehydrate faster. The raisins were merely a test for me to see how the dehydrator worked. So throwing them away when nobody wanted them was no problem.

I didn't do bananas because my daughter has a severe banana allergy. Plus, I don't eat bananas. And from what I've read here, the bananas done in the dehyrator would not have the same texture as those you buy in the store. So this test wouldn't have worked for me. Not sure about the strawberries either. So far, we haven't had enough in the garden to bother with dehydrating them. I also have no clue what a dehydrated strawberry should look like or what I would do with them. I saw a recipe in Juliano's book called "Swirled Bubblegum" that uses strawberries in the dehydrator but it didn't sound very good to me. And no offense to him, but so far all of his recipes I have tried have not tasted at all good to me.

[Revvell]

Oooop! Shets me mouf and exits, stage left.


Revvell

[berrymarymac]

Well, I'm not wanting it to do faster...I want it to I dunno...not take twice as long as expected. Plus it gets stuck and forget about trying to use parchment paper. My leathers don't true out...I dry them extra and they are still a bit runny. It's just the thing isn't working good. And juliebove, I have had very little luck with edible food as well. Fruit leather is the only thing that has turned out and onion thingys. I don't think it's getting hot enough for that set temp.

I can afford it, but the thing is...I don't really want to spend that much for a dehydrator. I mean, 200 bucks is a lot and I can buy a lot more things with that.

[metta13]

I got a 4 shelf Excalibur last month and love it! I use it primarily for myself and find that there is more than enough room for my needs. So far I've used only 2 shelves at once. I really did not plan to dehydrate lots (preferring to eat mostly fruits and veggies au la natural)....but got it so I could make flax crackers and veggie burgers once a week. I also had great success with a potluck dish where I tossed onion, mushrooms and yellow peppers lightly in olive oil with crushed garlic, and dehydrated for about 2-3 hours....it bought out the flavours beautifully and the onions were sweet.

Anyhow, the 4 shelf model takes up very little room (a big deciding factor for me). I got it for $104 on sale at www.2-life.com. Got it in 2 days (wow!)

The other thing I'm getting into is sprouting....it doesn't take up much room and is super fun. My salad at lunch with fresh sprouts was just bursting with aliveness! I have the Sproutmaster (bought years ago and used rarely until now....I found out that a key to sprouting is to make sure your seeds are good/ fresh).

metta