Dehydrator is ruining my food

[Wendee]

Has anyone else experianced this?
When putting together a recipie
requiring a food dehydrator,
it seems like I work so hard to
buy the food, prepare it and
then put in on the dehdyrator trays
only to find later the foods have spoiled!!

ARRGGGGGGG!!

I own an Excalibur, and I set the temp
always around 110-115, never higher.WHAT, pray tell...... am I doing wrong?

I am tired of wasting my time and moneyand food.



Wendy from the Windy City

[Revvell]

I would get another thermometer and check the setting ~ see if it's accurate. Maybe it's not reaching the correct temp.

Revvell

[Halo Aglow]

What foods are spoiling exactly? I know with bread-like recipes, some will put the temperature up to 140 for a bit and then later lower the temp back down since the inside of thick breads don't get as hot as the outer (Gabriel Cousens).

Also, have you confirmed the temperature is correct even though you are setting the dial right? My excalibur actually runs a bit hotter so I have to set the dial lower. Maybe yours is running cooler? Check with a food or candy thermometer.

I'm so sorry your food is spoiling! I hope you find a solution soon.

[CaliRaw]

The excalibur instructions for living food state to set the temperature higher for the first 2-3 hours, then turn it down to less that 120 degrees for the remaining time. That's what I do. I made potato chips a couple of days ago and the banana leather yesterday-today. No spoilage yet.

[Rubyred]

I have an Excalibur also. All of a sudden everything seemed to take longer to dehydrate. So I bought a food thermometer and put it in the dehydrator only to find it's running 10-15% degrees lower that the dial indicates. That's a lot! To double-check I put another candy thermometer in and it read the same temp. My dehydrator appears to be consistently lower than the dial indicates. That's likely the problem you're having too.

[VeggieMel]

Do you flip your foods? Also, perhaps you are making your foods too thick.

[CaliRaw]

Are you turning the temperature up higher for the first 2-3 hours?

The dial settings represent FOOD temperature. It will take a while to get the temperature up and as the moisture evaporates, the food will be cooler than the air temperature. That's why they recommend setting the temperature higher initially.

[spiralgirl]

Wendee,

I would call Excalibur and see what they say (ChefSteph is really great to talk too). Also if I'm doing a new batch of food (ie, if I haven't already got trays in there with something) I set my thermometer to 140 degrees for 2 hours and then adjust back down to 105 degrees. So far mine has been working fine and I've made many things in there.

Also check out this link on Excalibur's site about why the temp inside isn't the same as the temp outside.

http://www.excaliburdehydrator.com/enzymes_and_thermostat_control.htm