MoS and I have been meaning for a while to get into dehydrating our own food for backpacking (she can cook! ). I know there are OMers who already do this so we'd appreciate a steer about which particular dehydrators work well, and what features you find either useful or redundant?

We could go and buy a fairly high-spec one straight away but is it a waste? Or we could go cheap and cheerful at first but will we outgrow a simple one and end up buying again? Do folk use built-in timers? Are variable heat settings handy? Does a particular shape or depth of tray work particularly well? 

So what works for other folk who already do this? Any pointers gratefully received.....

before leaping in i would experiment a lot with different foods using the oven to dry stuff which would give you indication of what you could expect. then move to something that makes the process easier. that would then give you something to compare a cheap dryer to.

I've got a Tchibo one.

> Do folk use built-in timers?

It doesn't have one.  But I could rig up something with a plug timer. 

> Are variable heat settings handy?

It doesn't have them... I don't seem to miss them.

<daytime bump>

Thanks for the responses so far - it seems that cheap and simple is winning.

Anyone else out there with any experience of these please? 

Mine is a "Ezidry Snack Maker", which I understand is a New Zealand brand.  If you google (UK only) "ezidri" you'll find a few for sale.  The UK distributer's site contains a fair amount of the information you want, much of which applies to dryers in general and not just Ezidri's. 

Dried clicky

The Tchibo dehydrator seems to be available once a year, and they couldn't (wouldn't) say when it would next be for sale, so I bought one from Westfalia (sorry, the url is long, so google it) for £25.99.

It has 5 trays, one heat setting and no timer. Seems to do the job ... good for drying off mounds of fruit bought at the end of the day in the market !

My pal with one sent me this report, hope it's of use:

 "bought mine through ebay from i cannot remember who - juicers r us or something like that, but it is an L'Equip 528 model  6 tray job, each tray about 25cm by 40+.

I do not use it a whole lot - you need to be in the house to have it on I think, partly because I switch most things off when I go out and i do  not spend long periods in the house, but with veg i do get away with part drying and finishing off later that day, and partly because to reduce the amount of time spent drying, i feel you need to keep swapping the trays around, the bottom tray dries much earlier than the one above and so on.  So you end up developping your own system depending on what you are drying.  I think that creating meat or fruit leathers would take a lot of time, because you have to spread it on a plastic sheet which the air cannot actually get through, and i have not had the confidence to dry a precooked meal.  The fruit leathers i made were delicious, and like having biscuits in the house, did not last long enough till a trip outside.  They were a bit messy and fiddly.  I mostly use it to either dry garden produce or to prepare a few vegetables for leightweight or long time tours where taking stuff out of the freezer is not going to be an option.  My favourite is dried tomatos which i keep in a jar next to the cooker to add to lots of meals.  Dried strawberries are a must, french beens are prolific in garden so they get done too, carrots, celery, onions.
 
Mark and christine dry loads of plums and i agree it does them nicely, saves making too much jam."

 HTH, Pete.

I also have a L'Equip 528 model and use it a lot, mainly to either dry herbs, veg and fruit grown on our allotement or fruit/veg bought cheap, nearing sell by dare or as Judy A says, at the end of day at the market. It is big and expensive at £129, so you need to make sure you'll get some use out of it. It is good though, and dried coconut, banana's,cherries, grapes or whatever make a great trail snacks & brilliant in porridge on cold camping days. Dried veg works a treat in home made soups & curries.  We've also dehydrated chilli con carne for camping and that was good too. Bought it from:

http://www.ukjuicers.com/dehydrators/LEquipDehydratorGrey.htm

Hope that helps.<a target="_blank"></a>