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**Strat50** · April 7, 2016, 09:06 AM

I have used an Excaliber for years. They are great. I don't often make jerky, but I use it for dehydrating peppers, tomatoes, etc., from the garden. I can dehydrate 20 pounds of onions in about a day. I make powder from this stuff for seasoning, and many other things.

Excaliber also makes a smaller model with only 5 trays instead of 10. We bought one for our daughter who loves it and uses it a great deal too. I don't recommend the round type dehydrators, although they do work; just not as well as the Excaliber.

Getting back to jerky, it makes superb jerky. I mean real good any-texture-you-like jerky.

**oldsteve** · April 7, 2016, 09:43 AM

I have the Nesco American Harvest model FD-80 dehydrator. I too considered the Excalibur but I knew that making jerky was basically all I was going to use it for. I ordered (2) extra trays for the FD-80 when I purchased it, but still haven't had a need to use them. There is a lot of room on the four trays that come with it. One big plus over my old dehydrator is the amount of air this one moves. Things get done much sooner. I occasionally dry garlic and onions, but the main use is jerky making. The old dehydrator (also American Harvest) was (8) years old when I gave it away.

**Kevinfilm** · April 7, 2016, 10:26 AM

I have the Excaliber and love it. Besides making jerky I also use it for herbs and spices I put into rubs. Here in Jersey our tomatoes have a different flavor to them. So when they come into season I will spend several weeks drying them to make tomato power. It gives my rubs a different flavor profile.

**BackyardBob** · April 7, 2016, 10:46 AM

I have a older Excaliber 9 tray that I paid about $300 - $350 for about 6 or 7 years ago. I have made LOTS of jerky on this and I love it!
Have only used it for jerky.

**johnec00** · April 7, 2016, 04:39 PM

I've had a Nesco model FD-61 for several years. It works OK I guess, I don't have anything to compare it to. Mostly used for fruits and vegetables, but the occasional jerky too. But, beware, a while back the thermal fuse blew for no apparent reason, and I had to replace it. Not a cost issue (10 for $6 on amazon), but it required application of significant foul language to put it back together. I'm not saying this is a feature of the design, but just passing along my experience. If I had it to do over, I'd probably do something else like follow Meathead's recommendation.

**ribeyeguy** · April 7, 2016, 06:01 PM

Here's why dehydrators are worth their weight in gold. They also dehydrate flowers which can be extremely handy after a fight with the wife. Toss in some mixed flowers that you find wherever and when they're done give them to your wife and tell her that she should make a shadowbox or something out of them. She'll love you for thinking of her and if she does get creative with them she'll be occupied for weeks!

Hell just 2 years ago after a particularly nasty fight with my wife I dehydrated some flowers, stems and all, then sprayed them with a clear varnish so they'd last pretty much forever. Believe me, after giving them to her I was like a God. For at least two weeks I could do no wrong in her eyes. Of course things eventually returned to normal but it was quite possibly the best two weeks of my married life so yeah, a dehydrator is definitely a must have.

Sorry that I can't recommend any brands, ours is just a cheap round plastic thing from Sears that we bought many years ago. It now rarely comes out of basement storage except for when in her eyes I pull a major screw up.