Buying an oven who can act as a dehydrator

[rainbowgirl]

I heard before (pss pss...., lol), that you can buy an oven that can dehydrate......like a convection one or something?

I have like no idea about anything oven-wise, but maybe just maybe could buy a new one.....

How does this stuff work and what am I looking for.....

RaWnbowgirl

[RowanC]

It'd be a lot cheaper just to purchase an Excalibur dehydrator from Alissa.
I love mine!

[Dakini]

I researched that very thing when I first started going raw. My electric convection oven has a "proofing" setting when works great for dehydrating but when you look at energy consumption, it doesn't look so great anymore.

The electric oven is an energy hog, using in the range of 5000 watts, while a dehydrator uses more like 500. When you look at how long you might want to dehydrate something, 12 hours, 24 hours, the price you're paying for the energy starts going up. Here in California, the more energy you use, the higher the rate becomes.

[DavidZaneMason]

Or you can use the 'low-tech' method. Pick up 4 of those cheap paper AC filters....lay your food in the slats......bungee the whole works to an inexpensive box fan.......and blow-dry your items for 24 - 48 hours. Cool temperatures all the way! Picked that up on Good Eats.....

-David Z. Mason

[maui_butterfly]

Or you can use the 'low-tech' method. Pick up 4 of those cheap paper AC filters....lay your food in the slats......bungee the whole works to an inexpensive box fan.......and blow-dry your items for 24 - 48 hours. Cool temperatures all the way! Picked that up on Good Eats.....

-David Z. Mason

that is hysterical. i love it. does it really work????

[rainbowgirl]

Lots of good info.

Trust me, I have ALL the dehydrator links. I think I posted a ton of diy links here before, you can search it.

I live overseas, no dehydrators are available here. DH may bring one back from the states, but honestly a dehydrator (170-200 usd one), is worth a lot more than my stove here(worth about 120 us dollars). It may make more sense to look at a new stove.


I live on the sea, very very wet. I need to have a dehydrator that can hack it. It gets very humid. In the summer (when we had a yard), I did the natural thing and just put the food in the yard to dehydrate.

But it's winter now. I would need a dehydrator that has more than a light bulb and a fan or even more than insulation(we don't heat here and have ceramic, it gets cold in the winter).

I figured since the worth of my stove is about the same as when I bought it used, I might look into selling it and moving up.

I will definitely look into the energy usage of the oven. HOw would that be different than the energy usage of a dehydrator?


Any other hints?


BTW,

[rainbowgirl]

saw the answer to my own question!

MAN, that's a lot of energy usage difference?

All stoves like that?

RaWnbowgirl

Hmmmmm......How big is the box on a 5 tray dehydrator.....maybe dh CAN bring it back from NYC with him?

[Dakini]

Rainbowgirl, you say that a new oven will run you $120 overseas? Is that an electric convection oven that has a "keep warm" or "proofing" feature? I think the fan (convection) feature is important in a dehydrator and full size convection ovens aren't cheap here in the US, usually upwards of $1000.

[lily]

I suppose it depends on your circumstances. How much room you have, how serious you are about the raw way of life, whether you ever have to cook food for other people...

Personally I've got a fairly small kitchen and although I've been raw for 3 years, I've managed without a dehydrator. I use my fan oven, on its lowest setting, and keep a thermometer in it to check the temperature. This works perfectly for making things -- but I'm a bit appalled to read above about how much energy it's taking.

lily

[deegarry]

Home made dehydrator
http://www.k-clements.fsnet.co.uk/dehydrator.html

[rainbowgirl]

OK, good. That is way too expensive.

No, I have a regular old stove. Nothing fancy. Got a light!

OK, back on the dehydrator mode.

Off the fancy stove mode.

Good thing I got counter space, loL!

RaWnbowgirl

[tiggerbounce]

Home made dehydrator
http://www.k-clements.fsnet.co.uk/dehydrator.html


ooooh, thanks for that! I thought I needed a thermostat to control the heat, but this looks do-able and fun to do! (grabs hammer and saw and heads for garage..........!)

[raweater]

My countertop convection oven has a dehydrate mode but it's hard coded at 140*F so anything dehydrated that way is also cooked. You'd need to make absolutely sure you can set it to 100*F in the dehydrate mode, and even test it with a thermometer.

>"The electric oven is an energy hog, using in the range of 5000 watts, while a dehydrator uses more like 500."

Those ratings are the maximum those appliances than consume. If they are both dehydrating, they'd be using an average of 50-150 watts, if the oven gave it's 5000 watts at once it would probably set the house on fire, 5000 is just the maximum it can possibly consume (that's probably with the 4 burners on full power and the oven on broil). Dehydrating in an oven won't take much more pwoer than dehydrating in a dehydrator if the temperature is the same in both, it may in fact use less energy since an oven is better insulated.