Hamilton Beach Digital Food Dehydrator for Fruit and Jerky, Vegetables and More, 5 Trays, Adjustable Temperature, 48 Hour Timer + Auto Shutoff, Grey (32100A)

After using this dandy dehydrator for the first 3 days after receiving it, I couldn't be more pleased. In the past I used an Excalibur. It's size and design were a slight inconvenience to work with which prompted me to let my daughter have it. She began turning out dehydrated nuts ( better nutritional value if soaked in brine and dehydrated) that were delicious. Made me want a dehydrator again, but it wouldn't be right to ask for it back. Hence, the search began. After searching off and on for over a month, the decision was made to purchase this HB dehydrator. The decision was based on Reviews ( very very grateful for Review capability on Amazon), the size, technology features, and price. The pecans, almonds, & walnuts dehydrated perfectly. The peanuts, even after 14 hours, still had some unknown amount of less than crispy nuts. I concluded it was because of the peanuts themselves. As the machine is operated in a dark corner on the hearth there was no concern for exposure to light. The clear lid was more of an advantage than not in being able to check at-a-glance on the process. Clean up was a breeze. The noise level was obvious, but not disturbing. It was much like another reviewer described as less than a window fan. There are only 2 suggestions I wish Hamilton Beach would consider. The manual that came with the dehydrator was sufficient, but wish they would have included a recipe for Nuts. And as the tray's grill is fairly large allowing pieces of nuts to fall through, more mesh screens would certainly be worth the extra expense. So far, it doesn't appear they can be purchased on Amazon. I will go to HB's site for possibly buying more. And perhaps I will go to Michael's like one reviewer did, and buy some thin plastic sheeting that was reported to work very well. But since it's not likely PBA free, I would have to pause on doing that. IMHO, Hamilton Beach has designers that turn out functional well-made products that seem to take into consideration the users. I have purchased many HB products and cannot remember one that was unsatisfactory. I'm an HB fan as Hamilton Beach Has It (for me).

I have been having a blast with this thing. It works so well! The night it arrived we went out and bought a bunch of fruit and just filled the whole thing up. Set it up overnight, and had dehydrated fruit for breakfast (and yes, our stomachs hated us for it, but it was SO GOOD). The next trial was spices. I do a lot of gardening, and had a massive Oregano bush out back on the patio, so I harvested the whole thing and filled it all up. This was the one "Ehhh" area of the machine. It did a wonderful job dehydrating my oregano, don't get me wrong! But it only comes with ONE fine mesh tray, which I mean, is okay, I can put it at the bottom. But that "fine mesh" isn't very fine. A lot of the dehydrated oregano leaves fell down into the machine. It wasn't a huge deal, not even enough to take off a star, but I DO recommend getting some actual fine mesh if you ever plan to do your own spices. The machine is great though. It's super lightweight yet feels durable, it's compact, and it's reasonably quiet. It's a little quieter than like, a box fan on low setting. It's also really easy to use, and comes with an excellent manual explaining how to dehydrate different foods, what temperatures to use, and how long, even with a list of different fruits and veg! Really all you do is set the temp, set a time, and leave it. Anyone can use this thing. It's great!

It's a nice design, and fits more food than most of this size. I love the digital temperature control and the timer is amazing (self-shut off, it's excellent!). I've made tangerine segments , tangerine peels, and ginger root, all for use in tea. I purchased this for drying herbs as well , but our growing season has just started, so I haven't tried herbs yet. I can tell you the tangerine peels took 5 hours, the ginger root took 7 hours, and the tangerine segments took almost an entire day (23 hours). I like the dehydrator quite a lot, but I took a star of because I do wish it was less noisy. The sound it makes is equivalent to an air conditioner or a fan. After one day of this noise, it can be a bit much. I will definitely be slicing the tangerines thinner next time, so the drying time is less. The food on all 5 trays seemed to evenly dry, with the food in the middle of all the trays drying slightly faster. I did pause the machine to rotate and flip the tangerine segments. Our family will definitely be getting a lot of use from this dehydrator, I can't wait to make fruit leather with the provided tray insert. It also has a mesh insert for use with smaller foods (like rosemary or thyme). Overall very pleased with the dehydrator, the price, quality, and would purchase again. UPDATE: I wanted to update my review now that I've had more time using this dehydrator :This dehydrator is amazing and so worth the price! Chicken and meat can take anywhere from 4 hours and up, depending on the thickness. 1/4 inch thick slices took almost 6 hours for me (I made chicken jerky for my dog). I found the easiest way to slice it that thin, was to freeze it, then use a mandolin slicer. I allowed it to thaw in fridge before putting it in the dehydrator. The directions state that all meats for jerky can be no more than 1/4 inch thick, and should be checked at 4 hours and every 30 minutes after. I mostly do fruit in mine. Strawberries are super quick, a mere 4-6 hours depending on thickness, where as citrus slices have taken anywhere from 24-28 hours. It's an excellent dehydrator for the price. I literally ran it for 4 days straight when I first received it, and every week after that, and it's still running perfect. I love it! My family loves having fruit to flavor their tea and water. The dried fruit is perfect in trail mixes and nut mixes (especially pineapple, kiwi and cranberries). My husband loves the beef jerky, and my dog the chicken jerky. Everyone loves something made in this dehydrator! We've gotten a ton of use out of it already!

I got tired of spending $45 each month for two bags of dehydrated Sweet Potatoe doggie treats and now make my own! This item fits 4 large sweet potatoes. I use a mandolin to slice into1/4 inch slices and load them into the dehydrator at 130°F for 12hrs and they come out perfect! My dogs love them! The only complaint is the machine is rather loud! Sounds like a hair dryer running for 12hrs!

Perfect dehydrator. Evenly dries fruit, from the top tray to the bottom with no need to rotate. Very easy to clean, the trays are very durable and food does not stick to them. I love the temp and timer feature. It comes with a recipe guide telling what temp and time to set for certain standard items, which was helpful--no guesswork. It doesn't take up much counter space but fits quite a bit of sliced food per tray. I can dry about 5-6 apples at a time. With all trays full, it takes 10 hours at 135 degrees to dry apples and they end up with incredible flavor! I have never had a silent/quiet dehydrator so the sound of this one was expected - it is equivalent to a fan set on low. I actually prefer the soft fan sound so that I can hear when it stops running/completes a cycle so I can start the next batch. It's also very handy that it auto shuts off after the time is complete, b/c I can start new batches at any time of day and let it run overnight.

I searched for quite a while trying to find the best "bang for the buck" dehydrator. I'll be using this primarily to make jerky and potentially experiment with fruits. I thought for the price this was a nice unit that had a digital readout with built in timer. The idea is so I don't have to plan my day around the dehydrator. I'll pay a few bucks extra for that luxury. But I will point out that the digital readout isn't easy to read, you need to be eye-level and look directly at it. So if it's on a counter (where it normally should be at) then you'll find yourself bending over a little to see the time left. The timer will shift to minutes when it's under an hour. Otherwise it just shows the hours left. I've done two batches so far of jerky and both have come out great. Approximately 2lbs of top round thinly sliced will fill all trays. If you have a butcher, have them slice it on the 3 or 4 setting at the store. That way each piece has the same thickness. It'll take 4 hours at 160F to dry them out. I also haven't needed to rotate the trays during drying. Cleaning the trays can sometimes be a chore with all the little slits, but overall I'm pleased with the product and there isn't really anything negative that would deduct stars. If you're looking for a fairly compact and well made dehydrator you probably don't need to look any further. EDIT 8/10/2016 I'm really loving this dehydrator. I will add that it might take more than 4 hours to fully dehydrate beef jerky. I've had to let it go up to 6 hours depending on the thickness. I'm having a blast with this unit, I just hope that it lasts a long time!

Did not write a review on this for months as I wanted to use the heck out of it before I did a review. The "Fat Wyoming Norwegian" gives it very high marks for sure. I dehydrate all my jerky in this during the winter months. It is easy to clean if you stack up the trays and spray a little cooking oil on them before loading. I like the clear lid and the digital timer and temperature controls. I have never been to Hamilton Beach before (ha) but this Hamilton Beach was a winner for me and lets you get your jerky just like you like it. It comes with two fruit mesh trays that fits into the other trays (I use them for the tiny bits of jerky that are always present and try to fall through the regular trays). Sure, we all wish our dehydrator's had more square inches to place our perfections on but this one is fine and does not have a huge footprint. Glad I chose this one as there are many, many to choose from. All I know, it that this one works for me.

This came very well packaged with plenty of protection. I've used it once so far. I experimented by drying the last of our homegrown raspberries that were in the freezer. So, the process probably took longer than it would've since they started frozen. I cut out parchment paper to fit the trays and am really glad I did; that raspberry juice would have dripped everywhere. The dried raspberries were easy to peel off the paper but would've been a mess to peel off the plastic trays. As far as the machine; I like the controls - they're easy to operate. Yes, it's loud; I've never used a dehydrator that isn't. It was as loud as the exhaust fan in our bathroom. Easy cleanup. Really, if you want a basic food dehydrator, I'd recommend this one. Hamilton Beach remains a good name in appliances. I'm still using the HB blender we got for our wedding THIRTY EIGHT years ago.