Dehydrator machine

[Slatterna]

Are these worth it?

I'm thinking of buying one for Brexit prepping and also just to have a reserve of different foods to hand for lean periods.

Are they easy to use (I'm clumsy and burn pizza)? Do they use a lot of electricity? I've read they can take over a day to dry stuff out.

My dad (leaver) said I should save my money, right enough he thinks it "will all be fine"...

As many chuckle about on here , I love mine. Today, I am dehydrating a raspberry leather and some watermelon. Both were on offer at Aldi. My dd loves fruit leathers so these will get eaten by the end of next week. Watermelon is a surprise success following an experiment a few months ago. Kind of like melon wine gums.
I got mine for about £30 on Amazon. It was marked down in price - probably to lure me .
I grow a bit of veg myself but couldn't possibly use or freeze it all. This means I have a big jar of home grown kale and another of spinach to add to soups.
I also keep my eye open for fresh looking fruit on offer that I know I can do pretty quickly.

Vonshef/vonchef I forget, absolutely brilliant for £30ish quid. I'm no prepper but saw this on the active threads. I like dried fruit but don't like how much it costs for stupid little pots in the shops. I choose to ignore how much electricity it might use during an 8 hour dry! The only negative with it is the fan is quite noisy.

As for electricity costs, my little machine that shows how much lecky I am using is on "green " - telly and some lights on as well.
Easy to use? Once you get the hang of it, yes. Getting everything chopped small is a bit time consuming. Sometimes you have to give it about 10 mins soak in a bowl of water with citric acid in it - also cheap from Amazon.
I wouldn't say it was a necessary thing if you aren't a general prepper.

I have & use a dehydrator regularly, but before you think about buying one I would recommend you think about what you think you are going to dehydrate & what you will actually do with the dehydrated stuff once you have successfully dehydrated it.
It's a bit like marmite; some people love it, some hate it.

As an example, there is no point having kilos of dehydrated onions you never use.
As a test, you might want to buy some Whitworths dehydrated onions, which you can pick up for 50p a packet in most supermarkets, follow the rehydrating instructions & see what you think of them.
Or buy a small packet of dehydrated mixed veg from Amazon/health food shops & try those - more expensive option to try if you want.

For me, the absolutely best thing about them is making things like fruit leathers - but if you don't like/eat them, there is no point.
They are economical to run but ONLY if you are going to eat the food.

If you actually have the funds, the best ones are the ones with a fan at the back of the machine but these cost over £100.

The cheaper ones with the fan in the bottom of the machine still do the job just fine, if a little slower - & how long it takes will always depend on the humidity in your house, thickness of item, how 'wet' the item is in the first place etc...

I did 3 aubergines in the week. Sliced into rounds these only take a few hours and it makes putting a mousakka together really quick. Mushrooms also very fast to dry. Really wet stuff on the other hand can easily take a whole day and night.

I like to dehydrate stuff from the kitchen garden and the benefit is they shrink down to almost nothing and that makes storage very easy. Stuff like spinach crumbles very easily into other dishes and the dc don’t even realise it’s there.

Pineapple is my favourite. I have three to do today. I’ll probably then eat that over the course of the week sat at my desk.

I don’t do meat. I’m still waiting to see whether Bellini dies when she tries her turkey mince.

I checked it recently @cloudtree .Still vacuum sealed . Still looking.... well , like it did when I showed you all before.
As with my recent and highly successful wonderbag experiment, I see it as cutting a swathe through the dense forest of curiosity so you don't have to.

I know this thread is about dehydrating and not vacuum sealing but has anyone tried vacuum sealing whole apples. Shop bought ones don't seem to last long and I'm wondering whether it would extend the life by much?

Obviously I have an opinion . I've never tried this. I have made loads of apple butter this year and water bath canned it. I also have a couple of"veg box " things in the garage which is those sturdy low rise ones that I took from a market used for transporting veg. I have various things in that wrapped in paper. Including a squash from summer that is only now looking like I need to use it. No apples though but I might try it. And the vacuum sealer idea.

I love mine - this week I've been on tomatoes which I've then been dunking in a jar of olive oil. I've been making jars of essentially "soup ingredients" and this weekend I'm going to experiment with mince. It's supposed to keep for 3 months in a jar with no special protection, but I will probably stick it in the freezer anyway.

I always seem to end up with a surplus of Kiwis so have been drying those and the kids love it so I can just fling a few slices in their school snack bags.

I go through phases of using mine ( which I got for a couple of pounds at a school fete!) As prev.poster says, melon is the best. Also kale with a bit of Chinese spice on.

Again, not a Brexit essential but behold my fab raspberry fruit leather and dehydrated melon. Which my fussy eater dd has already had a go at.

@bellinisurge they do look fabulous :-)

@royalton
That is sort of a how long is a piece of string question.
It depends on how well you dried it & how well you stored it (humidity, light & temperature change how well it stores).
I know people who have eaten food they dehydrated 5 years before, however general rule is to expect 1-2 years if properly stored in a cool, dark, dry location but check every couple of months or so.
If showing signs of rehydrating, dehydrate again.
If moisture absorbers need replacing or recharging, do so.
I've never overstocked enough to find out what it's like past a couple of years but it has all been fine up to 2 years for me.
More cautious people tend to say 1 year.

Thanks so much for all the advice! Those raspberry and melon fruit leathers look good!

I guess I'd be a bit nervous that I hadn't done it properly and it would go off. I'm a bit cack handed haha. But intrigued at this possibility of keeping foods for over a year (if I don't get to it first haha) and it doesn't have to be just for Brexit.

I'll wait a little longer and see what happens before making a decision. But this is very helpful - thanks again :)

@Slatterna , I am also cack handed.

Today, more raspberries because they were on offer at Aldi and my dd has already demolished what I made last time!

I thought the result was a bit tart for my DD's taste and more to add to puds. What do you expect with out of season raspberries from furrin shores. Turns out my dd still loves them and I have had to hide the jar of them away. Who knew?

@bellinisurge

Every time I see your name I think "Eddie from Friends" - the dehydrating maniac. In a nice way, obviously.

I know . I do too.

i have a basic circular one which has a fan on top with trays underneath. i also think i paid about £30.

i like making banana chips which are so much yummier than commercial chips. They don't go as crispy as shop bought and instead retain a more leather texture. They are amazing on porridge with a drizzle of honey.

I'm going to try kiwi as a result of a previous poster mentioning it.

We don't really eat snacks as such so i don't think fruit leathers would work for us.

tomatoes however.....hmmmm...... sounds delicious.

More weekend adventures in dehydrating - dh picked up some wonky strawberries in Aldi when he was doing the weekly shop. Whizzed up with the bananas we hadn't eaten plus a teaspoon of local honey and currently on the dehydrator tone a fruit leather.
Dd is demolishing the raspberry fruit leather I made recently.
I'd prefer to do this with locally grown fruit in season but, hey .

I have an excalibur dehydrator that I use fairly regularly as I grow my own.

I like to dehydrate aubergine slices for use in vegetable stock, courgette dehydrated is incredibly moreish.
Pinterest is really good for finding decent dehydrator recipes.

Ooooo an excalibur. Very jealous.