Food Dehydrator - 3 mistakes people make when choosing one

So you’ve decided to purchase a food dehydrator - that’s great. Food dehydrators are a good way to have some healthy snacks around the house, not to mention cheap snacks. Why pay a ton of money for a bag of dried fruits at the supermarket when you can make your own?

As with anything that you purchase online, there are some things to watch out for. Granted, you’re not buying something super expensive but still … it’s good to know what to watch out for. Here are some typical mistakes people make when buying food dehydrators:

1. Not having a good idea of what you plan on using it for

It’s important to know what kind of foods you want to put into your dehydrator. Why? Because different foods dry in different time intervals and also usually require different amounts of energy. Thus, if you plan on using your food dehydrator with a variety of foods it might be a smart idea to possibly buy two smaller dehydrators instead of a big one. This way you’ll be able to use the dehydrators more efficiently and match their energy requirements to the type of foods you’re drying.

Try to stay away from mixing varied foods in the same batch - meat is meat and fruits are fruits … keep them separate.

2. Not paying attention to the relationship between the watts used and the number of trays

If you get a medium sized dehydrator (somewhere between 4 and 8 trays) then you’ll want the wattage to be around 500 W or so. If the wattage is much higher for that number of trays, then you risk your food getting too dry too fast. On the other hand if you buy a large food dehydrator (say, over 20 trays) then make sure you have enough wattage to dry up everything (probably 1000 W or more) - otherwise you’re food will never probably dry on time.

3. Either buying something cheap that won’t last or over doing it

As with anything in life you get what you pay for - if you go cheap and buy some no name brand you risk getting a food dehydrator that wasn’t properly tested, may not dry properly and possibly won’t last you too long. You don’t have to pay some ridiculous amounts to get a quality food dehydrator - some of the best known brands are the Nesco food dehydrator and the Excalibur food dehydrator.

At the same time, don’t go out and buy the latest and greatest if you’re not even sure a food dehydrator is for you. Stay away from extremes - a quality food dehydrator should probably cost under $100.