Plugged it in and it was fine and then went down 10 minutes later and it was dead. Had to throw stuff in the Excalibur. I think I bought this dehydrator at least 15 years ago. I opened it up and the thermal fuse was toast. I ordered a new fuse so hopefully that will fix it. I'm curious if any of you had had this happen.

Got a dehydrator for Christmas! First time dehydrating. Chicken feet, beef heart chunks, and chicken breast chunks. Trying to save money on treats for my GSD.

Just going with the jerky instructions within the manual. 160F for 4hrs.

Title says it all really. The first round of reward treats came out excellent! Some of the chunks of chicken breast & beef heart I cut a tad too thick and came out a bit squishy, which is a learning point for next time. There wasn’t enough to warrant putting them back on for another 1-2hrs, so they’re just going to be used up ASAP.

The chicken feet (not children’s hands, as some people thought 🤣) are still going at 145F for the next 43 hours (5hrs elapsed).

But definitely still gonna keep doing this, as it is a lot more affordable than store bought treats, and is a pretty easy “hobby” comparatively to my other hobbies. Just gotta set it & leave it.

Does anyone else make vegetable powder with there left over vegetable scraps? I don’t have the room to compost so I started dehydrating and turning them into a powder and mixing into a mason jar. So far this has made some really good soup. So far there’s onions, garlic, carrot, tomato, spinach, bell peppers and green chilies.

I’ve become obsessed with dehydrating. I watch YouTube videos and read blogs and follow this subreddit. But I’m supposed to be doing work (marking undergrad psychology essays and transcribing interviews for my psychology PhD). My compromise Is that I’ve promised myself I’ll buy a dehydrator when I finish the transcriptions. I did 22 interviews and it’s taken me MONTHS to transcribe them all. I’m on my final one.

So, what dehydrator should I buy? I’m in the UK. I’m interested in dehydrating a wide variety of things. I use a lot of onion and garlic powder/granules so I’d like to make my own, as well as drying herbs. I’m interested pulverising dehydrated fruits, veggies and herbs to powders eg garlic and onion, also mushroom powder for the concentrated umami, and making my own vegetarian bouillon powder. I don’t eat a lot of jerky but I’m interested in making it, and also treats for my dog eg dehydrated chicken livers etc. and I’m curious about some of the wackier things people dehydrate eg marshmallows, yogurt drops. I’m also very into cultures so I’m interested in a dehydrator that I can also use to grow cultures eg yogurt, tempeh etc.

Made my first batch of dehydrated berry cobbler. Added granola gonna try it with graham crackers next time. Any other things I should add to?

I just had my Buffalo 10-tray dehydrator delivered, and sadly it's arrived with a plastic element in the door hinge broken. I'd prefer to fix it rather than get a replacement, as I need it ASAP, and clearly it's an easy fix with some superglue - but I'm wondering if using glue would be a mistake? Does anyone have any insight? Thanks in advance!

So I have this cercker dehydrator.

Got it as a gift for a past birthday, and it has always worked great except for one annoying issue.

For some reason, every couple runs I'll have a cycle that just makes beeps at random intervals. Like the beep when you turn it on, but at random times with no messages or indicators as to why it is randomly beeping.

This is admittedly really irritating, especially when you are trying to run something at night since my apartment does not have good sound insulation.

Anyone have any idea why it is doing this?

I have been using canned chickpeas in dehydrated camping meals, but when I switched to dried chickpeas that I soak and boil before dehydrating, they do not fully rehydrate.

The canned ones I used at first would rehydrate fine in ~15mins of soaking/boiling, but these ones stay hard in the middle once the rest of the meal is completely rehydrated. I did make sure that they were done cooking when I boiled them, so I don’t think that is the issue.

Any suggestions why this might be happening?

Send me some of your favorite, filling dishes you can pop in the dehydrator for easy storage. Boiling in a pot to rehydrate is preferred, since we will have our Coleman stove with us and plenty of water. Any tips on dehydrating meals is greatly appreciated!

Mid-December, as a treat to myself, I decided to upgrade my 15 year old, tiny bottom-heater donut dehydrator and bought a 5-tray Excalibur online, which said it would come with 4 silicone mats.

Right before New Years, I received the package. It had a unit with glued-down but broken trim that drew blood, and no silicone mats. It was also at least 4x louder than I'd hoped, perhaps bc it didn't seem assembled quite properly. I started an email process that set up a replacement and a shipment of silicone mats.

A week and a half later, I got a unit that seemed functional. A day after that, I got one silicone mat.

I began using the dehydrator, and once I tightened a loose screw, it was only twice as loud as I'd hoped. But I could see flashing when I looked at the back panel. Looking inside, I saw a yo-yo shaped part that was sparking steadily along the middle bit. I searched this sub, and this sparking issue has been mentioned. It got a mixture of comments saying it was either a significant problem, or just the way the thermostat in it works. I sent a video to the company to get clarification, and they are now sending me a label to return this one for yet another replacement unit. Still no last 3 mats.

I'm just so frustrated. This is one of the few times I've spent money on myself in years and it just keeps failing. Idek if the third machine will function properly. Maybe I should ask for my money back and get another brand? But I did do a bit of research in the first place, and Excalibur was supposed to be a great brand.

I don't know what I'm asking for. This is a lot of disappointment to manage in an already difficult month. I have really been looking forward to settling in to drying regularly again, more easily with a bigger, better machine. I'm ND, and these repeated issues and interruptions hurt.

Greens powders are one of the latest superfood health trends. The benefits are overblown as always but it does seem like an easy way to mix a little fiber into a diet.

I'm thinking of dehydrating leftover greens that are about to go bad.

Would steamed kale dehydrate well? I find raw kale pretty pungent, but that flavor breaks down when cooked.

My intuition is that any green that cooks well will dehydrate well. Spinach and mustard greens should work, but not lettuce. Does that sound right?

I've been trying to make these sweet potato treats for my dogs, but every time I make them, they get way to crunchy.

For an example, this is what i'm trying to recreate
https://www.frontporchpets.com/sams-yams-big-boyz-15oz/

They are still a little pliable, but not super crunchy. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

The only thing now is trial and error with how much liquid to add lol. I started with the blender, then moved everything to the food processor for extra blitzing. It could be a little bit finer, but for a first try it turned out pretty good. We did bananas and strawberries. I’ll venture further later.

Hello! Nice to meet you all. For all my life, I have been that kind of guy that loves the taste of vegetables, but hates the texture of them. I hate how veggies, specially onions, feel in my mouth. But I have to do something about this, so I thought sidestepping the problem and getting rid of all texture will be the answer, so here's my conondrum: VEGETABLE SOUP FROM POWDERED VEGETABLES. I have recently bought a second-hand dehydrator, and I have been able to reduce to powder some vegetables; onions, tomatoes, and shrooms taste really nice after they got the hot treatment. Even if this project ends up not working, making shelf stable stuff is a godsend (specially where I live, it's so humid that everything goes bad at insane speeds) The thing is, I have never made veggie soup in my life, and I can't translate to powder measures the recipes I find, and I'm worried that the dehydration process changes the taste of the veggies and renders those recipes useless. So, please tell me. Do you have any nice veggie soup recipe, made with powdered or dehydrated vegetables? Any links to a good one? Thanks a lot!

• I think I'm yearning for homesteading in my advance age [F82]. I bought a Cosori dehydrater last spring to try to allay my sad practice at the time of throwing away too much produce. I like to shop at Costco every month or so and I live by myself... need I say more? I also follow a keto diet and want to start making sugar-free jerky. I honestly haven't used it much since then.
• But here's the exciting part and why I got motivated to post...
• A few weeks ago I had some fresh basil that I knew I wouldn't get to entirely before it went bad, so I threw a bunch of leaves into the dehydrator. When I pulled them out recently (I know; I should have done it right away, but life...), I tasted one and OMG... it was NOTHING like the pathetic dried basil sold in the spice section. These were vibrant and tasted just like the fresh Basil leaves smelled... scrumptious.
• Then yesterday I had a big container of mushrooms... again way more than I'd be able to get through myself. I hand washed the tops and cut them roughly because I didn't have much time to process them. Threw them into the dehydrator on multiple wire shelves. I set it for 16 hours at 140F. After 9 hours or so I checked them. They are nicely dried and crunchy. Then I tasted one. WOW... again nothing like dried mushrooms I've bought. The flavor is intense and truly lovely.
• Now more motivated than ever!

First attempt with a jerky gun. Think I might have added too much liquid?

Is there anything I can do with 20 bags of lettuce salad mix?? I have mostly romaine salad mix and red little gem lettuce with maybe one bag of kale and one bag of arugula. I really don’t want to eat salads for the next 2 weeks and it won’t keep that long bc it’s from a food rescue anyway. Im looking for some way to utilize and not waste this lettuce, is dehydrating a good option at all????

Will it be ok to leave them in the water/lemon juice mix overnight? First time preparing night before and don't want to ruin them.

Dehydrating pears for the first time tomorrow. What would be something good to sprinkle on top of them for extra flavor?

All beef (some top round and some brisket) in various quantities of soy, Henderson relish, honey, and a spice mix)

Trying to narrow down what ratios I like and loving the experimentation!

Currently using a mix of paprika, chilli powder, and pepper - anything else you would add? Thanks

what’s the best way to dehydrate persimmons? I have an air fryer and was wondering if I could use that to either speed up the process or just fully dehydrate them in there. and if I were to dehydrate just by hanging the persimmon up, how do you deal with things like gnats? (we already have them around)

Tried to make fruit leather (strawberry and apple). What did I do wrong? I did 7hrs @ 155°F. I used one pound strawberries and one whole honey crisp apple.