NESCO FD-37 Food Dehydrator, For Snacks, Fruit, Beef Jerky,White/Clear, 4 Trays

If you have a garden or fruit trees or buy in bulk, then this Nesco food dehydrator is a must in your arsenal of kitchen must haves. We have several apple, plum, pear and peach trees and although I can and freeze as much as I'm able to, I wanted another way to preserve what we produced. I had been reading about drying foods but was a little skeptical on the quality I would have. I purchased this Nesco as it had good reviews and I haven't been sorry I did. I did have a couple of trial mishaps to start with as I cut the fruit either too thin, which left me with almost nothing after it was dried, or cut the items too thick which made them never dry to what they should have and then tended to mold. The most successful item I have tried is, of course, the apple. I found that I didn't have to peel or even core the apple, just slice it, dip it in a fruit fresh solution, pat dry and then lay on the trays. It doesn't really take long at all to dry a dryer full if one is diligent about rotating the trays from top to bottom. I found a jar of apple slices that I had dried three years ago and they were as good as the ones I was currently drying. I experimented with a light sugar water and cinnamon to dip the slices in and they were delicious. These needed to thoroughly dry! I place the dried produce in quart glass jars and either cap the jar with metal lids and rings or the white ball plastic lids and put a piece of tape with the contents and date listed. Just store on a pantry shelf. These are great to snack on, low calorie and very satisfying. I have tried peaches but find that the smaller peaches work best if they are not peeled or sliced. Just pit, halve and place the halves on the racks after dipping in fruit fresh and drying. Zucchini is also a nice item to dry, adding it to soups in the winter. I'm not too wild about strawberries but must admit I didn't give them more than one try. One is only limited to ones imagination. There are recipes for fruit leathers and dried jerky which I haven't ventured to try yet.This dryer is quite easy to operate and has a nice instruction booklet with it. There is some noise involved but as it placed it several rooms away, it didn't bother us much after we got used to the sound. The trays are easy to clean up and if there is any food stuck on, just a little soaking in hot soapy water will do the trick. I did purchase two more trays to increase my productivity with each load and they stack quite nicely. I place the whole unit, extra trays, booklet and all in a kitchen trash bag and tie to close and this keeps the dust off and makes for easy storage.

I got a new food dehydrator just after Christmas. I have to admit, I am thoroughly impressed. I had an old Ronco food dehydrator from Goodwill that I'd purchased for $5 (USD) and had learned how to make beef jerky. Now I liked it, but it was old, I had to keep swapping the trays around to ensure even drying, and so forth.Over time, of course, due to its age, it finally just broke. So I ended up getting a new food dehydrator. I am SO happy. It makes jerky like a DREAM! I don't have to swap out trays anymore, it's WAY more powerful, and dries more evenly, than my old one, works in less time, gets Warmer than my old one got and circulates air a lot better, and, just in all, I am SO happy.The first new batch of jerky has turned out delicious - a sweet bbq flavor. This year, I am SO going to be making jerky like a fiend! Not to mention tons of fruit leather - i.e. homemade fruit rollups but with absolutely no sugar added or any preservatives. Not to mention being able to dehydrate veggies for long-term use.I am a very happy camper. :-)

Well, I've never owned a food dehydrator before, so I have nothing to compare this one to, but-it's inexpensive and it WORKS! So I am quite pleased. I kept finding myself buying ridiculously expensive "cheezy" kale chips from Whole Foods (5.50 per small bag!) and figured if I started making my own it would be a hell of a better deal! I found some easy recipes online for vegan raw kale chips (I am neither a vegan NOR a raw foodist btw) and I have to say, the results were AMAZING! I have to share! So easy:In your food processor (ok not even gonna lie, I don't have a food processor, I used a hand blender, but a food processor would work much better)1 cup raw cashews soaked in water for a couple hours then drained, 1 red bell pepper, juice of 1 lemon, couple tablespoons of nutritional yeast, sea salt, pepper. Mix until smooth, adding more lemon juice if necessary. In large bowl hand toss a bunch or 2 of roughly cut kale with your sauce, making sure each leaf gets coated,or dredged, if you will (curly kale apparently works best but I used lacinto and it was fine) place in food dehydrator overnight and in the morning you will have thin, crispy, delicious, healthy kale chips! Now throw away those Doritos!As far as washing goes, it says you can place trays on upper rack of dishwasher, but I have already warped them by doing so, so I would really recommend hand washing, which shouldn't be so bad-as far as I can tell so far, they don't get very dirty. And as far as noise goes-as I have noted others have complained; it sounds like a FAN. If the sound of a fan running is enough to get you excited, then you have something else going on as far as I'm concerned!! And the only other thing I would mention is that solid trays, or "fruit roll trays" for making fruit leather are not included, so you might want to order one or two when you order the dehydrator itself.Really great buy. Recommend!

Its louder than i expected and I thought the hold togather clips came with.....didn't get any so i guess not. Works well though; especially for the price.