Excalibur 3548CDB Electric Food Dehydrator

EXCELLENT design for ease of using and for dehydrating. I love the clear door (you may not be able to see what's going on in the back of the dehydrator but you can see how the food is progressing in the front). If I didn't have a clear door, I'd be losing a lot of heat by removing the door 'just to check how things are doing' throughout the dehydrating process. This is the only dehydrator I've ever owned. I did try a friend's round dehydrator and there is just no comparison. I'm glad I went with the 9 tray Excalibur rather than a smaller version. 9 trays fills up fast and sometimes I wish I had more! Also, on some thick foods you are instructed to take out every other tray when dehydrating. I also like the timer. The white poly-screen drying inserts are great as you can gently bend them to remove and funnel the dehydrated food into bags or containers. I wish the company would include one Paraflexx sheet (for making fruit leathers) so the consumer has a top of the line item to use with a top of the line dehydrator. PS Many thanks to all the other customers who wrote their reviews on dehydrators! It's wonderful to be able to benefit from other people's experiences. It took me months to read reviews and finally decide on this model. I love it!

This is a well thought out, great, valuable product. If you work for a living, and occasionally put food in your mouth, you deserve to purchase this product. This is a great item. It stands above the crowd with: (1.) variable heat; (2.) timer; (3.) excellent tray system, easy wash up in either the sink of dish washer; (4.) includes plastic mesh tray liners! (this is a G R E A T feature). I've used it for everything from drying fruit (peaches thru watermelon) and making South African BILTONG, it makes it all appear effortless. It does all the work, I get all the credit.

This Dehydrator is the best ever !!!! it holds 7 bunches of Celery at one time cut in to 1/4 inch slices. I cant tell you how wonderful this unit is I took it right out the box turned it on and away I went . I even dehydrated watermelon in it and it came out like a jerky Excellent !!!!! I choose to get this model instead of the electronic one because this model has the dials to turn and less chance of the electronic board going out on me . it has the timer and a list of temps to use depending on what your dehydrating. my old dehydrator was one of those round tray ones that was donated to the goodwill. Spend a little extra and get a good one like this one

The dehydrator is working very well, but it is a bit noisy. The timer turns it off so it doesn't run when the food is already dry.

After a couple of months of use the timer unit stopped working. The unit still worked without it, i just had to keep track of time. After trying to contact the company by the ph # on the web site I found they were not service any longer. I just went on the replacement part's website and ordered a new timer because I didn't want to deal with a warranty process. I placed the order and they confirmed back to me via email with a picture of the timer. When it arrived a fan motor in the box (not a timer) I then had an email address I could get in touch with them. Again this turned out to be a long drawn out process , after a couple of weeks I just reordered the timer. Upon arrival I went to install it and found the bracket was bent after I straightened it and installed the timer, I went to install the knobs, they would not reach the shaft, now I know why the bracket was bent. I had to grind the spot welds and locate to the proper height and rivet it in place. All I can say is I have the ability to do this work, I know most people do not. It works properly now, I will never buy another one from them again. Very poor workmanship and Quality Control and dealing with customer service department was a real bad experience. I wish now I just returned it back to Amazon, Amazon has always been so helpful and easy to return anything for any reasson

I purchased this dehydrator for my royal icing cookie decorating hobby. When decorating using royal icing, it's not uncommon to have dark colors bleed into lighter colors. That said, a dehydrator can be used to remove excess moisture in order to avoid icing bleed. The Excalibur is the preferred dehydrator in the cookie hobby arena and is worth every penny. I also ordered the reusable tray liners to use with this and am happy with the overall results.

We've used this dehydrator to process all sorts of things, and it works well and provides relatively even dehydration across all of the shelves. It runs moderately quietly and we like the glass door so you can see what is happening inside. The only problem we've experienced, that is disappointing, is that the mechanical timer soon failed after just 1 or 2 uses, so we use it with an external timer and have ignored that feature. If we were to purchase again, I would not purchase a unit with a mechanical timer like this, or I wouldn't consider it as an important feature.

My first impressions and I will update my review after I have used this unit more. This has one fan in the back, air pushes through one direction and so rotating the trays is needed half way through. I am drying lemon balm now, all 9 trays. The Excalibur book that comes with the unit says specifically to dry at 95 degrees but this unit lowest temp is 105. This is not a good start! I have had to rotate the trays not only turning them front to back, but the bottom tray is way behind the others and the herbs have sat in a wilted state much longer than desired for a good quality and preservation of their medicinal qualities. I was excited about this product but now questioning the quality and value. I am replacing a very old dehydrator (like 1980) that had two fans, one fan not working. I think my old one worked better even though one fan did not work. It had air channels along both sides and the air flows through them. I gave it away but may borrow it back! The Excalibur is simply a fan in the back and a loose door in the front. I think for this price there should be a drip tray and some sheets for drying fruit leather. Also the location of the controls and short cord are very awkward. It makes it hard to place in my kitchen as I have overhanging cabinets and can't see the controls well. I will dry some more herbs and some fruit before I come back and update. I really want to like this and thought Excalibur was "it"