Several Important Features Of The Electric Food Dehydrator
Electric Food Dehydrators come in all kinds of sizes and shapes ranging widely both in quality and price.
A compact, cheap food dehydrator that costs between $30 and $40 will probably have the heat source located in the bottom of the appliance and it could take up to 3 days to dry certain types of foods.
This might be just fine for the occasional use and it will be ideal for keeping your kids interested for a few hours.
If on the other hand you are trying to find a more substantive and reliable system to preserve foods either for snacks, camping, backpacking or survival situations then you really must count on paying more for a better model.
A good rule of thumb is to - "Buy the Best for the Least"
What you will be searching for is a food dehydrator that provides fast, even and nutritious drying of food.
Here is a list of the benefits and features that the more expensive, top of the range, electric food dehydrators offer you.
Top mounted fan so that liquids do not drip in to the heater chamber.
1000 watts of electrical power giving you a quicker drying time for greater amounts of food.
Air flow structure which forces heated air down the outside pressurized chamber, then horizontally over each individual rack for fast, even and nutritious drying.
Absolutely no need for rack rotation.
Variable thermostat given that different food items need specific temperature settings.
Opaque exterior that blocks light to retain more of the foods vitamins and nutrients throughout the drying process.
Expandable to satisfy your needs. You might to begin with buy a four tray system and then find that you could use more drying space. By having an expandable system it is easy to add more trays, for example 20 trays giving you 20 square feet of drying room.
The question you need to think about is, which of these features can I manage without whilst still delivering fast, even and nutritious food.
My personal short list of essentials for an electric food dehydrator is as follows: top mounted fan, opaque exterior, horizontal air flow, expanding tray system, adjustable drying pressures and also I would opt for a moderately fast drying system.