Hamilton Beach Digital Food Dehydrator for Fruit, Jerky, Vegetables & More

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!

For the price compared to other, no complaints. It does what it's meant to. Not too noisy, and easy to use. Great if your not sure if dehydrating is something you'll do enough to invest in the fancy ones.

This is my first food dehydrator, and buying on the low end of the price spectrum, I wasn't sure what to expect. My first attempt at drying food was with bananas. As the manual stated, I cut them into 1/4" slices and loaded them onto the bottom, middle, and top trays (there are 5 all together), leaving the 2nd and 4th trays empty. I was a little surprised by the noise level when it came on. I had to double the volume on my TV set in my living room to hear it over the dehydrator in the kitchen (next room over, with just a half wall in between. It didn't take too long up to the temperature of 135 where I set it. There was a little bit of a chemical smell when it turned on, but I'm assuming that's because it was brand new and hadn't been used before. The smell only lasted for less than a minute. After running the dehydrator for 10 hours, the bananas were for the most part, dehydrated. They weren't like banana chips that you find in the store, but rather sticky and a little gummy, and incredibly delicious. While they were significantly dried out, they weren't completely dry. My relative room humidity is somewhere around 45%, so maybe they would have dried more if I were in a less humid environment. The bananas on the top rack were the most dry; so if you are drying for a long period of time, it might be smart to rotate the order of the racks (though the top rack must always be on top). The banana sliced closer to the center also seemed to dry more than the ones that were far to the outsides and in the corner. In addition to the standard drying racks, the dehydrator also comes with racks for small fruits and one for fruit rollups. Overall, I'm happy with the purchase and look forward to my next use.

I've been researching dehydrators for a while now, and finally went with this one, due (mainly) to (1) The adjustable temperature (not all dehydrators have this, and I wanted the option of changing it), (2) the fact that it is square (space optimization) (3) and the price point was great. So far I am incredibly pleased! I have made apple chips, banana chips, and even my own 'green powder' from dehydrated salad greens..and I've only had it a few weeks. As far as noise goes, I have to say when I first turned it on I was INCREDIBLY disappointed...it was SO LOUD I had to turn it off. It whined and made a grating high-pitched noise that was impossible to ignore. I was even in the middle of looking up how to return it when I decided to give it one more try. I'm not sure what exactly changed or what I did differently but I haven't had any more trouble with that noise since then. It is not whisper silent but it isn't loud either. It is somewhat equivalent to a box fan, in my opinion. My only complaint with the entire thing (other than the random, unexplained initial noise) is that mine came with no directions...which is really a minor thing as you can print them off from the Hamilton Beach website ([...]). So for an overview... -Has adjustable temperature -Has timer that automatically turns off when finished (so I can start things before I go to bed and not have to worry about them over-drying ) -Comes with the fruit leather tray (I have yet to try it out) -Comes with herb drying tray (works great for the salad greens!) -Square shape makes it easier to store -Not unpleasantly loud (think a little bit louder than a box fan) -Lid is clear so you can check the progress of your food I also have not had to rotate the trays with anything I have made yet, so that is a bonus. SO, so far so good! I'm very pleased with this purchase. I would definitely recommend as a starter dehydrator.

This Dehydrator is so easy to use, easy to clean and drying time. Everything tastes great and is so much more healthy. The size is just right. Would definitely recommend this product.

As soon as I opened I sliced an apple, I had apple chips 6 hrs later. So far I used for apples, peaches, strawberries and chicken. The fan it is loud and the drying takes long time, it is better to leave it working overnight.

I bought this to make dog treats. I was disgusted with the warnings about buying them, so I really paid attention to the ingredients. I then spent some guilt ridden hours over what we had been feeding our babies. A downside of making treats without preservatives is that they can get moldy. Add in humid Florida weather, then make room in your freezer. Hence, the dehydrator. I spent weeks comparing makes & models, going back & forth. From other reviewers I knew that I wanted a timer, the right fan placement, and not too noisy. Price of course, for what I was going to use it for. This fit the bill. I started just drying the dog treats after baking them but then I got cocky and decided to make jerky. OK so the 1st batch was disgraceful and inedible. Hint: you are warned to not make the meat too thick. Well the opposite is true- don't make it too thin, either! I had the butcher slice some meat for me, but I also found thin slices of sirloin that I simply had to cut in half with scissors. Perfect. I partially froze a chicken breast to slice it, and that was easy. Flank steak is wonderful. I even sliced a beef heart and wrapped it with sweet potato strips that I steamed for a few minutes to soften. While I've made some mistakes, they were all mine, the unit performed great. I never have to move items around because one section is drying faster. Keep everything the same size, or at least the same size on each tray where you can pause the unit to remove a tray and keep the rest going. I have 6 months at this and I couldn't be happier. That includes 3 dogs (one diabetic ) one daughter and one very happy jerky loving son-in-law. Not to mention the money I've saved and why I bought it in the first place. If offered a store bought treat or a homemade one, they immediately go for homemade. Smart dogs!

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).