The Nesco Food Dehydrator
The Nesco Food Dehydrator is an affordable, simple to use and well-built food dehydrator if you’re wanting to dry meat, fish, fruits or vegetables quickly and thoroughly. Although this may not be an item that most would use on a daily basis, it’s guaranteed to become an absolute essential appliance when it’s needed.
Lets say that you’ve just returned from your weekly local farmers market trip with an abundance of excellent produce, but with much more food than you’re able to consume. So fortunately, you have the Nesco food dehydrator which can quickly make easy use of the excess food, which can be dehydrated, while losing minimum nutrients.
The stackable trays will allow you to easily fit a variety of different fruits and vegetables easily. The larger pieces can be cut into smaller portions to fit the trays. Altogether, you’re able to fit around three pounds of a variety of produce such as mushrooms or berries in the five available trays.
Similar to the Excalibur Food Dehydrator, this Nesco Dehydrator is equipped with a built in temperature controller and a distribution fan. The heating unit on the Nesco is built directly on the top of the unit, where the more “affordable” models will usually heat from the bottom-up.
Since heat always rises up towards the top of the unit, and will station itself there, the built-in fan will distribute this heat through a central column which allows for better airflow circulation throughout the interior of the unit, resulting in even drying.
You can use a temperature setting of say 110°F when drying out the food, and then leave it overnight for approximately 8 hours for it to dry out. Since any moisture leakage can potentially lead to the entire batch being ruined, it’s always best to allow them to dry out a little longer than what’s necessary. The food then should be dried and dehydrated to perfection by the next morning, and ready for storing in airtight containers.
You can use the Nesco Food Dehydrator for a variety of foods such as different fruits or meats, because of its large trays and the variable temperature settings, ranging anywhere from 95°F to 160°F. This allows for the versatility of allowing you to dry out a wide range of different foods.
This model is also expandable up to 12 trays if you ever need to dry out more food at once. The Nesco Food dehydrator, when compared with others on the market, has the added benefit of being close to over $100 lower than the Excaliber for instance, while having a smaller footprint.
The Excalibur Food Dehydrator Review
You’re able to use this versatile 9 tray dehydrator for a variety of uses. You can regularly use The Excalibur Food Dehydrator once or twice a week to make dried fruit, meat or seafood jerky, vegetables, dried bread crumbs and even treats for your dog. Other uses include the re-crisping of cookies, crackers and chips. You can also thoroughly dry out damp photos as well as fresh flowers.
Overall, this is one of the most flexible of dehydrators on the market. The temperature thermostat is completely adjustable, anywhere from 85°F to 145°F, so you’re able to customize your dehydrating.
The removable trays will allow you to experiment with using different sizes, varieties and quantities of foods sorted by different temperature ranges. If you decide to group shorter temperature length items per tray, you can then just remove those trays first, and then leave the remaining items or trays for longer dehydration if you choose.
There are other units on the market which are known to heat the food unevenly while the heat source being stationed at the bottom of the unit, which requires you to manually rotate the trays around. Also, the more affordable dehydrators do not allow you control the temperature settings as well.
Along with a controllable thermostat, the Excalibur Food Dehydrator has a fan which will distribute the heat evenly. This unit also has a built-in timer, so it’ll automatically turn itself off at a desired and designated time, whether you’re there or not.
The majority of all motorized dehydrators will usually generate a bit of noise when operating, and the Excalibur is no exception. So it’s recommended that you keep the unit in your garage, or your craft or hobby room. The Excalibur Food Dehydrator is also extremely easy to clean.
So if you’re someone who doesn’t like throwing out excess food, you can put this or any dehydrator to excellent use. You can enjoy healthy snack alternates for your family, while also contributing to the process along with enjoying the rewards.
The Nesco Food Dehydrator vs The Excalibur Food Dehydrator Comparison
Both of these dehydrators, the Excalibur and the Nesco are both excellent choices. The Nesco model being a little smaller and a bit more affordable than the Excalibur model.
The Excalibur since it’s bigger and higher in price, may be a superior and more durable product. This may come in handy if you’re planning to use the dehydrator a lot or are planning to dry out large batches of food at once.
The Excalibur has more capacity for storage based primarily on the design of the unit. It has no center hole as the Nesco does, while the racks are square rather than round, which makes a huge difference in the area available.
The horizontal airflow system on the Excalibur is also capable of drying out larger batches of food much more uniformly. Although you’re able to add additional racks to the Nesco model, it tends to dry out a little less efficiently. Once you begin adding the cost of additional racks on the Nesco model, you’re then approaching close to the same price of the Excalibur.
The price of the Nesco dehydrator has also recently been reduced. The heater/blower unit placed at the top of the device is an excellent upgrade over the bottom-fan models. For the cost of purchasing one single Nesco unit, you’re able to purchase close to 3 Food Dehydrators for the same price of one Excalibur, provided you have the space for them.