I will 100% second the Cabela's commercial grade dehydrators. I own the smaller of the two, I believe it's listed as the 80L. I run 20lbs of jerky at a time in that thing, which is about all I can personally handle in a day. I have run it pretty hard over the last 5 years with no issues at all.
I do all ground jerky blasted from a gun for uniform drying and flavoring (so much easier than whole muscle), I thaw out 20lbs of meat the day before. Mix up 4 - 5lb batches - each a different flavor/seasoning then let them dehydrate. Normally takes like 5-7 hours of drying. Between prep, drying, cooling and vacpacking it takes about all day but I end up with 20lbs of jerky out of it.
Excalibur has been amazing for my family. We have a cylindrical sunbeam too, it works but very inconsistent. I always have to move trays and item to keep the sunbeam from leaving some stuff wet and others rock hard.
Ditto on the cabelas. Mine is going on 10 years old now. I had to block off the 80% of the upper vents on the back with sheet magnet otherwise it would not hold a temp above 100F. The new ones are designed different to correct this issue. Last weekend I cured 26# of sliced beef jerky (top round) on my smoker and then dehydrated. Works as good today as it did 10 years ago; albeit modified slightly
I have nothing but good things to say about my Excalibur. It is basically just a toaster with a fan, so I'm sure there's a lot of good products out there.
Excaliburs are made in Sacramento. It's awesome that it's made in America, but I'm concerned that it's going to rob me.
Another Excalibur here too. We went to it from some little bitty 3 shelf deal. The excalibur is a set it and forget it dehydrator, very uniform. Seems like a quality product.
Coming from the other end of the spectrum, I went with a Cabela’s consumer grade one for my first. My model has been replaced but it was about $70. It suits me as I am only doing 10-15 pounds of jerky a year and some other random stuff. I haven’t felt the need to upgrade yet but it has its limitations.
I generally believe in the buy once and cry once philosophy but this has been a good starting point for me as I build up my meat processing equipment.
Excalibur 4 tray that I have is going on 16 years and still operates like new. Works great! I done everything from burger, to fruit leather, to stews and chili in it. Simple to operate and clean.
I have used the Sportsmans Warehouse Open Country model with eight trays for the last five years. I put 40-50 pounds of fruit through it each year. I'll probably get the same style again when this one dies.
I got the cheap 6-tray Cabelas for jerky. It handles about 5# of meat without any problems. I'll probably spring for the commercial version when it needs to be replaced.