using the excalibur

[5852]

I am new at using the Excaliber dehydrator. What would be the reason(s) my crackers, and veggie chips do not come out crisp. If after 18 hours of dehydrating and the recipe calls for 6 hours, I cannot figure out what would be wrong. I know it is not the thickness. Any advice is most appreciated.

[DebB]

This may sound really basic - but what temp do you have your Excalibur set on?

How thick are your crackers and veggie chips?

Is it humid where you live?

All these things really do make a difference as to how long something takes to dehydrate. It took me a bit to get the feel of dehydrating with an Excalibur.

For the crackers - are you using the Paraflex sheet? If so, did you flip the crackers and remove the sheet when they got D'd enough to do that? Things take longer on the sheets than without them..

Just tossing out ideas ~ *Ü*

[LivinItRaw]

This may sound like a silly question, but did you double check the recipe to make sure you didn't miss putting in a crucial ingredient? It happened to me once!

[5852]

My veggie chips are paper thin, my crackers are 1/16th of an inch thick. I live in Florida, but the house is not humid. The temperature for dehydrating is set at 105. I am sure all ingredients called for were added. I used the Paraflex sheets, and I did flip the crackers, however, I still kept them on the Paraflex sheets. Could that be the reason? My veggie chips were not on the Paraflex. Any other thoughts?

[Veganelle]

I would suggest putting an outdoor thermostat into the dehydrator and test it to see if it is heating up to the proper temperature.

I recently purchased a 9 tray dehydrator to replace my 5 tray dehydrator (which I gave to my mom, she's getting into raw, yay)... and I noticed that all the things I was making were taking WAY longer to dehydrate. I placed an outdoor thermostat into the bottom of the dehydrator, tested it various temperatures, and have determined that it is operating at about 30 degrees F lower than it reads on the dial.

I am now waiting to see what Excalibur is going to do about it.

[DebB]

Yes, once you flip the crackers (or bread, etc.) and peel off the Paraflex sheet, there's no need for it any longer. It's just to keep items from sticking or dripping through the plastic grid on the tray.

Things will dehydrate quicker without the Paraflex - better air circulation. Best wishes! *Ü*