Dehydrator for beginner

[misskit]

Does anyone have a good food dehydrator and success with this method of food preservation?

I am interested in dehydrating fruit for myself and meats for my dog. I’ve been experimenting in my oven but seems the convection oven temperature does not go low enough to use for dehydrating. It gets plenty dry but also quickly overcooked.

Since it is just me and a very small dog, I am not looking for a dehydrator the size of a refrigerator. Something small and compact would suit my needs. I don’t know anything about what kind of specs make for a good food dehydrator.

What is a good model available in Thailand?

[Lantern]

Remember hot air rises. Shouldn't be too hard to knock one up yourself, if you're a bit handy. Checkout you tube.

[PAG]

There appear to be loads of options from Lazada/Shopee, though of course you're not really dealing with an actual supplier. This could be of interest though, from Big C (I'm assuming that you have a Big C shop local to you), and they are the seller rather than a third party:

คอมโปร เตาอบผลไม้ รุ่น CP-V59 - Big C Online

[misskit]

^^ Ha! I’ve become too lazy for that project, though it is a good one.

^Yes, there is a Big C here. That dehydrator is on Shopee for 1030 baht sold by a shop with the same name as the brand on the appliance. Still says one year warranty from manufacturer in China.

[Topper]

my oven goes low enough to dehydrate meat (65C), I might give it a try...I know that's doesn't help ya Misskit.

[Mendip]

This may be of some limited use Misskit, although to be honest I only tried it the once and lost interest.

The Dehydrating Thread

[Troy]

We have two dehydrators that we use for drying mushrooms. They were both bought in Germany but I think you can buy them here as well.
We first went with a small rectangular one from WMF. It was good but we needed something bigger because of the amount of mushrooms we were drying. The second, bigger one is round with 4 or 5 trays but you can buy more. I think it is eother Tefal or Moulinex, both are good brands.
We ended up using both last year. Mushrooms take a long time but dry really well and allows my wife to bring lots back to Thailand for family to enjoy.
Much, much better than trying to use an oven.

[misskit]

Tefal doesn’t seem to have a dehydrator for sale in Thailand.

Is there a difference between plastic racks and metal racks? (Besides the obvious.) Does wattage make a difference?

[Troy]

Both of ours have plastic trays and I don't have a problem with them. Drying needs to be slow and low heat so don't thik wattage is much of a consideration either.
Size and quantity to dry is the most important thing. I prefer the big circular one because you have more flexibility. We also bought a vacuum sealer to ensure no moisture after drying.

[misskit]

^Thanks. The vacuum sealer is a good idea. I was thinking of jars and those little sachets of silicon.

[misskit]

Dehydrator and vacuum sealer arrived yesterday. Fruit and veggie drying looks fairly straightforward. Meat dehydration dodgier.

Hope to give it a go today after I have been to the market.