Ultimate guide to choosing a dehydrator

37 Comments / dehydrating, In the Kitchen / By

Last Updated on November 16, 2024 by Michelle

It’s not easy choosing a dehydrator. I’ve been there… it’s a big investment and you want to choose well.
Here are a few questions I realized I should answer about each dehydrator before making my choice.
Hopefully answering these questions will help you find the perfect dehydrator for your family.

Choosing a Dehydrator

Here are the questions you should ask with choosing a dehydrator:
How loud is the dehydrator when it’s running?
If you’ll have it running in an area of the house where you’re also living life, many models will be quite disruptive to other activities. I keep mine in the heart of my kitchen/living room area while it’s running and I love it that it’s super quiet and not at all distracting.
How much food can I dehydrate at once?
My current dehydrator is my third. The first was a round plastic one that I could never get consistently good results with (or fit much food in, with the center circle and the nature of the round shape and only 4 trays). My second one worked well enough, and I loved the stainless steel trays (so much nicer than the flimsy plastic ones I started with) but my whole unit only had four very small trays. My current unit came with 11 stainless steel trays and a whole lot of wonderful room for drying a lot of food at once.
Does it have a small footprint?
My dehydrator takes up permanent residence on my kitchen counter for a month or more in during harvest season. I had to make sure it wouldn’t be too big, yet I wanted a lot of drying space inside. I chose my unit because it’s the smallest footprint I’ve seen with such a large internal capacity.
Is it heavy?
My unit is unbelievably lightweight, making it zero effort to bring it in and out of the kitchen when I want to use it.
Are the trays plastic or stainless steel?
I knew I wanted the later.
Energy efficiency? 
You should be able to google unit’s efficiency and compare the models you’re considering. Since the unit itself is the only investment you need to make–ever–when dehydrating food (no jars or pressure canners or special lids necessary), it seems wise to invest a little more upfront to lower the cost per each batch of food you will make over the decade or two ahead.
Does air filter need to be replaced?
Another thing I loved about my unit that I chose–after much deliberation–is that the filter is reusable. Just remove and wash when needed.
Does air blow from back or top?
If you can find a unit that has air moving from the back, you’ll find that to be more efficient and it also will do a better job. You will be able to turn it on and walk away, without any babysitting or moving food around while it’s drying.
Does it have a glass door?
While this is definitely not necessary, I am very glad I made a bigger investment and went for this model, with a glass door. It is so nice to just walk by the dehydrator on my counter and glance in and know how things are progressing without constantly opening it and greatly lowering its efficiency and lengthening the time to dry the food.
After working through this long list of questions, and comparing Sedona dehydrators to what I used to think was the top-of-the-line (good old Excalibur), I finally settled on this model and I could NOT be more pleased.
It’s truly, in my opinion, the Cadillac of dehydrators.

Can you add more trays to a dehydrator?

If you have a cabinet dehydrator, you have a set number of trays. If you have a stackable dehydrator, you can definitely add more trays. In fact, that’s the best feature of a stackable dehydrator, that you can add on to its capacity.
After years of using my favorite cabinet dehydrator–the best dehydrator I’ve ever used–Nutrimill asked if i’d try their stackable dehydrator.
I agreed, reluctantly…

Mainly because, from my experience, stackable dehydrators dry from the top down, but I came to find out that this dehydrator has an ingenious design, with a micro-chip temperature control heat sensor & a patented air filtration system, and it works almost as well as my top-of-the-line dehydrator, without the bells and whistles.

And I love that this dehydrator will easily grow with your needs. Each standard unit comes with four – 1″ deep trays and two – 1.25″ deep trays, for a total capacity of 7 sq. feet of drying area. But you can expand this capacity by purchasing add-on tray sets that include 2 trays per set.

What do I need to know when buying a dehydrator?

Aside from answering the above questions, and understanding a dehydrator’s air flow, heating elements, and overall size and capacity, seek out reviews and (even better) personal testimonies of friends of friends who have dehydrators. All of this information, combined, will be tremendously helpful as you choose a dehydrator.

What features should you look for in a food dehydrator?

The answer to this question varies, depending on what features are most important to you. Go through the above questions and prioritize what’s most important to you and then you’ll know what features you should look for to find the best dehydrator for your family.

What is the best first time dehydrator?

I’m asked this often. I usually assume this question is asking “what dehydrator is a good value for a decent machine that works well?” In that case I recommend, without hesitation, that you consider the Nutrimill dehydrator. It packs a powerful punch for its price range. BONUS: use code SOULYRESTED and save even more!

BUT if your question means “what dehydrator is the best investment, that offers the most power and bells and whistles, so I won’t possibly want to upgrade in a few years?” then I’d recommend going for the gold, which, in my opinion, is the Tribest dehydrator that I own.

Is a square or round dehydrator better?

I personally am not a huge fan of using a dehydrator that has a hole in the middle of every tray (aka the round dehydrators), since it reduces your drying space dramatically on every tray. But the real reason to not want this type of model is the inefficiency of it. The heating elements are located on the bottom of these stackable units and the air blows up through the center, which by nature distributes the air unevenly.

Unless you’re considering the hybrid Nutrimill dehydrator… It has a unique system that distributes air evenly across every tray. It’s not perfectly uniform, like the higher-end cabinet units (like this one), and you may still occationally want to “babysit” your food a little and change up the location of your trays in the stack, but it’s much more effective than the cheap circular, plastic units. Never waste your time or dime on those units. They will make you hate dehydrating and waste your food with poor results. At least that’s been my personal experience.

What temperature should a dehydrator be set at?

The temperature you set your dehydrator is dependent on what food you’re drying, but ideally, you want to purchase a dehydrator that can dry food in the temperature range of 95 to 160 degrees F.

After choosing a dehydrator:

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37 thoughts on “Ultimate guide to choosing a dehydrator”

  3. Cynthia Klingenberg

    Thanks for all your help. I love learning from the experiences of others! Keep up the good work.

    Reply
  4. Lisa Jennings

    Thank you for the information. Hoping to get a new dehydrator soon. Whenever or budget allows. I’m still using a cheap Nesco model that is probably 20 years old and probably was never efficient to begin with. It takes an insane amount of time to dry anything.

    Reply
    1. Michelle

      I genuinely stopped dehydrating (like for decades) because I thought it was impossible. Then I realized it was my cheapo dehydrator that was impossible. 🙂

      Reply
      1. Caroline

        That’s one of the things that really helped me in the Dehydrator Academy. Your experiences shared and all the great tips!

        Reply

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