Recommendations for a dehydrator

[Steppone]

Going to try my hand at making some jerky this year and wondering what everyone's opinion is for a good dehydrator. Trying to stay away from plastic. I have my eye on the LEM big bite and the Meat! 10 tray. The meat is a little more expensive which I'm okay with if it's worth it but obviously don't want to throw extra cash at something for no reason.

 

[JoeB]

I use an old old round cheap dehydrator that I'm looking to replace so tagging in for info

 

[Sccritterkiller]

Excalibur Classic 9 tray...Made in the USA...going on 6 yrs with mine.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

Excalibur Classic 9 tray...Made in the USA...going on 6 yrs with mine.

This. Dries better and more evenly than the vertical round tray ones.

 

[Sccritterkiller]

Get a couple extra trays..its great for drying brass after wet tumble if you reload.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

I have the excalibur 9 tray and am very unimpressed. terrible customer service, and the thing trips off all the time. after a bunch of monkeying around, i think i figured out that it was tripping because of moisture pooling up in the bottom of the fan area. i drilled some holes to help it drain, which helped, but has not completely fixed the problem.

 

[sodaksooner]

My wife got me a cheap amazon one for xmas. Seems to work fine. I honestly haven't even looked at the brand. Prior to that just used drying racks and a tray from Cabelas in the oven.

 

[limpet]

I’ve had the older version of the Lem big bite for probably 7-8 years now and it’s still going strong. It gets used a couple times a month for dried fruit, jerky, etc. one trick is to rotate the trays part way in to keep the drying even.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Funny. I've had the American Harvest Snackmaster (round) for 33 years now. My wife got it as a shower gift before our wedding. We use it probably 25 times a year to dry fruit, veggies and make jerky. I too use it to dry my cases, but I got separate trays for them. Still going strong. Only thing I don't like is it is round. Bye a square one whichever you choose.

 

[persianrug]

A used Excalibur 9 tray has been good for twice monthly use. Helps with baking too (soften butter, rise breads). They're generally available for $100-150 on Craigslist/marketplace.

 

[Darren_8167]

Have the 16 tray from LEM. I really like it. Tons of room. Easy cleanup. Two fans move a lot of air. Heats up to 178 degrees. The Meateater podcast just had a promo code for 25% off on the LEM website. I believe it retails for $320. I would highly recommend.

 

[HairyScandinavian]

I like that Big Bite a lot.

I've used a bunch of round stuff, never going back to those as none of them worked to my satisfaction. I've got a big square LEM that does really well so no need to replace it but if I ever did I'll get the Big Bite.

 

[bigunit]

Another vote for Excalibur. Just pulled out 10lbs or peppered elk jerky. Took about 9 hrs to totally dehydrate it.