NOTE: This is NOT a paid or sponsored review. I purchased this Excalibur Food Dehydrator with my own money and this is my honest opinion about the product.
I have a fun new toy that I have been dying to open and show you. As you can see from the box here it is an Excalibur Food Dehydrator. I've had an Excalibur Dehydrator in the past and I loved it. It is literally my favorite dehydrator. Yes, I understand how geeky I am by having a favorite dehydrator. I'd be willing to bet if you are a regular reader around here you have your own favorites when it comes to food preservation equipment. Take a minute and throw your favorite in the comments below we can share in our geekiness together.
Since Rhett, the kids, and I traveled and worked around the USA for 9 years and I had sold or given away all of my food preservation equipment I have been using this year to buy, trade, and beg items from stores, friends, family members, thrift shops, and the store. The Excalibur Food Dehydrator is one item I bought new and spend cold hard cash on it.
When you first open the sturdy box your dehydrator comes in you will find a little dehydration guide laying on top. This is essentially your user guide, but it also has recipes and various tips and tricks.
The dehydrator comes packed in the box quite tight. It has some nice styrofoam corners that hold it into place. I noticed the box was labeled "Don't Drop". So, as long as the packaging, shipping, and delivery team don't mishandle your package it is sure to arrive as perfectly as mine did.
The dehydrator comes with a plastic bag covering it. Some tape is holding the dials into place. The cord on the back for the plug is wrapped with a twist tie. The front screen was also held in place.
Now, I know the Excalibur Dehydrator has the option to come with a glass door instead of the plastic cover, but I bought mine with the standard cover. The glass door may cost a little extra, but to be honest I am not sure as I didn't even look for that feature.
I bought the nine-tray dehydrator and each tray comes with its own little mesh screen. If you prefer, there is a 4-tray or 5-tray smaller version of the dehydrator.
My second package is the silicone sheets that you use for making fruit leather. I bought enough to fit on every tray because if I'm going to put in the effort to make fruit leather, we're making a dehydrator full. We will talk about these a little more down below.
One of the reasons I really love Excalibur is you can do so much with it besides just food dehydration including fruit leathers and jerky. There are some additional less common uses that the Excalibur Food Dehydrator is useful for. I love that all of the trays come out and the dehydrator box becomes a proofing box for homemade bread. You can also use it as a culture box for yogurt. Does your dehydrator do that?
Another reason I love Excalibur is that the fan is on the back of the dehydrator instead of the bottom. In my personal opinion, which may not be worth much, this allows for greater circulation evenly across all trays. I never have to rotate my trays from the top to the bottom, the bottom to the top, and whatnot for even drying.
The next reason why I love this dehydrator is the temperature goes all the way up to 165, and so often I've found that dehydrators only go to 145 which is not quite high enough for making jerky. CHECK OUT OUR JERKY VIDEOS!
