Electric Food Dehydrators come in all forms of shapes and sizes varying widely in both quality and price.
A small, cheap food dehydrator that costs between $30 and $40 will have the heating source located at the bottom of the machine and it can take up to 3 days to dry certain types of foods.
This may be just fine for the occasional use and will be great for keeping the kids entertained for a few hours.
If however you are looking for a more substantial and reliable system to preserve food either for snacks, camping, backpacking or survival situations then you must expect to pay more for a better model.
My husband has a saying - "Buy the Best for the Least"
What you will be looking for is a dehydrator that delivers fast, even and nutritious drying of food.
Here is a list of the features and benefits that the more expensive, top of the range, electric food dehydrators offer.
Top mounted fan which means that liquids do not drip down in to the heater chamber.
1000 watts of power giving you a faster drying time for larger quantities of food.
Air flow system that forces heated air down the exterior pressurized chamber, and then horizontally across each individual tray for fast, even and nutritious drying.
No flavor mixing.
Drying pressures adjusting automatically to a variable number of trays.
Opaque exterior which blocks light to retain more of the foods nutrients and vitamins during the drying process.
Expandable to meet your needs. You may initially buy a four tray system but find that you could use more drying space. With an expandable system it is simple to add more trays, say 20 trays giving you 20 square feet of drying space.
The question that you need to ask yourself is, which of these features can I do without while still delivering fast, even and nutritious food.
My short list of essentials for an electric food dehydrator would be as follows: top mounted fan, opaque exterior, horizontal air flow, expandable tray system, adjustable drying pressures and I would prefer a reasonably speedy drying system.
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