Nesco Food Dehydrator
The Nesco Food Dehydrator is a simple, affordable, and well-built tool for drying foods quickly and thoroughly. Though not an every day use item for most people, when it is needed it becomes absolutely essential.
I recently went on a weekend trip hunting for morels with some friends and came back with far more than I could eat. Luckily, this dehydrator made short work of the excess. The stackable trays easily fit 60 whole small morels and many of the larger ones that had been cut in half. I fit about 2-3 pounds of mushrooms in 5 trays.
Like the previously reviewed Excalibur Food Dehydrator, the Nesco model has a temperature control, fan, and heating unit. The Nesco's heating unit is built into the top (other cheaper models heat from the bottom up) that sits on top of the stack of trays and blows air through a central column allowing for better distribution and airflow throughout. I used a temperature of 110 ˚F (or 43˚C) when drying morels, and left them to dry over night (about 8 hours). They were perfectly dried the next morning, and ready for storage in an airtight container. Any moisture left in mushrooms will lead to a ruined batch so I made sure to let them dry out for a little longer than necessary.
While I have mainly used this model for drying mushrooms, the large trays and variable temperature dial (95-160 ˚F) allows for a wide range of dried foods to be made. This particular model is also expandable to 12 trays if you need to dry a truly astonishing amount of food.
The Nesco, when compared with the Excalibur, has the benefit of being nearly $125 dollars cheaper combined with a smaller expandable footprint, a relatively quiet fan, and similarly adjustable temperature.
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Mickey
If this dehydrator has selectable temperatures, then it also has a thermostat.
Oliver Hulland
Mickey,
Thanks for that. I wrongly assumed that the excalibur was able to measure the ambient temperature and vary it's heating element in order to maintain a specific temperature, where as the Nesco is set at a certain temperature on a dial (not necessarily reflecting the actual temperature). A little bit of research reveals that they both rely on the same style of heat regulation.
-- oliver h
JC
I have experience with both styles, and the Excalibur is a superior product if you are a heavy user and tend to be drying large batches of produce at once - it has quite a bit more capacity due to the design (no center hole and square racks make a big difference) and a horizontal airflow system that dries large batches more uniformly. You can add racks to the Nesco, but it dries less efficiently, and once you add in the cost of extra racks you are approaching the same price as the Excalibur.
Having said that, the price on this has really dropped and the top-down heater/blower is a nice upgrade over the older bottom-fan models. Heck, you could almost get 3 of them for the same price as an Excalibur, although that would take up a lot of storage space and use more energy to power 3 units.
Oh, and Oliver - congrats on the big morel score! I just finished drying a batch myself.
GH
My brother has a Nesco dehydrator and bought extra racks. He's used it for years to make deer, elk and turkey jerky, along with dried apple rings and produce from his garden. It gets pretty heavy use every fall and has been very reliable.
Edward Bryant
Looks interesting but rather small. I still really like my Living Foods dehydrator; it is big and works extremely well.
http://www.dryit.com/dehydrators.html
PaulD
I don't see why heating from the bottom is seen as a negative thing; why work against physics instead of with it? (Hot air rises.)
jake3_14
I own this and make jerky and dryer beef for pemmican. It has worked well for more than a year, although I'm quite careful to make the beef strips thin enough (maybe I'll buy the jerky gun someday for convenience) to dehydrate well in about 6 hours. Given electricity rates in the Bay Area, it's not cheap to operate, but pemmican is my only "fast food," so I accept the tradeoff.
Michael McMillan
My favorite thing to do for a camping trip is to take a roast beef, cut it into 3/4 inch slices, marinate said slices in teriyaki sauce for 1/2 hour, then dry them.
You end up with pieces of beef jerky that look like Oreo Cookies, and take about an hour to eat. On a hike with a bunch of kids (where I was one of the kids at the time.) Whenever anyone started complaining about being hungry, mom would hand one of these out, knowing that she would get an hour of peace and quiet.
-Michael