Excalibur 3900B 9-Tray Electric Food Dehydrator with Adjustable Thermostat

I have wanted an Excalibur food dehydrator for years and I’m so very happy with it. It does a fantastic job drying everything I have put in it and in less time than my old stacking dehydrator. Absolutely worth the price.

I've used several dehydrators over the past 35 years, including a home-built unit, and this Excaliber unit is by far the best I've ever used, although it has one annoying feature (see below). It is a true no-nonsense, workhorse design that gets the job done. You remove the side cover—which hangs from the top edge—slide out the trays, load them up with food, slide them back in, replace the cover, and set the thermostat. The internal fan moves air efficiently through the unit at the same rate, regardless of thermostat setting (i.e., fan speed does not vary).The sideways air flow design is a MUCH improved approach over vertical flow designs for the simple reason that moist air exits sideways from each separate tray, rather than transferring moist air from one tray vertically to the next, and the next, etc., which takes longer because it is not efficient. Thus, the Excaliber is a workhorse that can dry more food faster while using less energy. Using this unit, you can dry at least two to three times more food than the smaller, vertically stacked, round designs sold in stores. (I've bought and used a number of these cheaper units over the years, and none of them worked particularly well. My last one melted itself!)The basic unit does not feature a built-in timer, which is not a problem. We usually set our dehydrator up at night, right before we go to bed, and turn it off in the morning when we get up, which is typically about how long it takes to dry a load of food. We have also plugged it into a standard, wall-type timer such as are used for lamps, and that works just as well. In fact, a standard wall timer is actually better since you can set up a schedule of on-off drying periods of varying duration.It is helpful to rotate trays 180 degrees midway through each drying cycle to get the most even drying. This helps with thicker-sliced food, whereas thin-sliced food will dry fairly evenly without rotation. Thick-sliced food toward the rear of each tray will generally dry faster than food toward the front.The ONLY annoyance of this unit is that it is loud. The ample fan, which is mounted to the center of a sheet metal rear panel, sets up a resonance with the panel, sort of like the way a National steel guitar uses its metal back as a resonator. While the fan is running—which is continuously whenever the thermostat is turned up from the "Off" position—the Excaliber emits a loud, resonate hum. If you locate the Excaliber in a separate area of your home, in a garage or laundry space, for example, it won't be any bother at all. But if you live in a small apartment and have to sleep next to it, this might be a bother. Hopefully, future designs will employ dampening washers on the rear sheet metal panel and/or a spring tensioner to absorb vibration from the fan motor.Overall, all things being equal, this is the best dehydrator I've ever owned. And because it works so well, I actually find myself drying more food than ever. I would recommend this Excaliber unit to anyone who wants a reliable, no-nonsense design that gets it done.

This is a great dehydrator for drying food, making yogurt, and anything else where you need a controlled temperature. I've been using it for several years now. You can read all the other reviews for the pros and cons. I'd like to address the one main headache --- cleaning the trays and liners.The problem -- they are too large to soak in a sink. And it's hard to find a plastic container that's large enough -- one that isn't huge, with high sides, and expensive. I looked everywhere.My tip is to go to Home Depot and head for the area where they have bagged cement products. You will very likely find a black plastic tub that is intended for mixing mortar. The tub I found was just the right width so that the trays sit right in the bottom. And it's only 6" tall, so it's very easy to work with it, sitting on the counter next to the sink. When you can fully soak the trays and liners, cleaning becomes much easier.It's perfect for the job, and that's all I use it for. Best of all, it's cheap!In fact, if you go to HomeDepot.com and search for "mortar tub", you will hopefully find "Medium Mixing Tub". That's it, and it currently shows a cost of $6.29. If you buy this dehydrator, go to HD and buy this tub. You'll be glad you did.I hope that helps some of you... :-)

I'd never seen another item that had so many total reviews with such a high percent of 4 and 5 stars. It seemed the reviewers with lower ratings were getting those occasional lemons from the manufacturer. I'm a brand new dehydrater, did tons of research, looked at cheaper models in the stores, talked to friends with cheaper models/brands, don't have lots of $ to spend, and am 100% happy I pulled the trigger on this purchase. I dehydrated some spaghetti with meat sauce (already cooked and mixed up -- about 14 pounds?) for a group of 9 campers and the Excalibur did the job in 9-10 hours. Only took about 5 hours for the initial test batch I did with 1-1/2 servings. Can't wait to do veggies, fruits, jerky, and herbs. ... And neither can the wife who pays the bills and wasn't as happy as I was with the purchase. A huge selling point to me was the number of reviewers who'd previously owned other dehydrators and wished they'd bought this one first.As far as noise level, it's all relative I guess. It's no louder than an oscillating fan, for example. It's quieter than some room air conditioners, any vacuum cleaner, kids fighting, me yelling at the kids fighting, the fireworks outside, and the doorbell.This one lacks a timer but you can save money by buying a heavy duty timer at many local stores if you think you can just turn it on and let it time out unattended. I prefer to check the trays every couple of hours, rotate if necessary, and then NOT let it set once the contents are dehydrated so they don't begin rehydrating with the ambient air humidity.The Amazon description I read did NOT state that the Excalibut handbook, Preserve It Naturally, was included so I wasted money ordering a used book. In fact, the book DID come with the unit from this shipper.If you read all the reviews, you should not be suprised by anything when you open and use this 9 tray Excalibur. Be sure you look at the measurements and note whether you have the space/place to use it. Maybe the only negative would be that there are a couple hard to reach places in the very bottom when you go to clean it out. A vacuum cleaner would probably negate that factor. The dehydrator cord is only 48" long and wasn't long enough to safely plug in the wall when placed upon our table but wouldn't be a problem if we could fit in on our counter. I bought the generic non-stick dehydrator sheets and am pleased with the results (reviewed later) as compared to buying the expensive ones. You could also buy the round plastic tray liners that fit other manufacturers (and actually have lips/gutters around the sides) and simply place them on the Ex's racks if you wanted some that were dishwasher cleanable but might lose some square feet drying capacity.