I have to admit that I have never owned another dehydrator before this one, but I did extensive research on which ones to buy for various reasons. I purchased my dehydrator mainly because I was planning on making garland with dried fruit, and christmas ornaments with dried fruits and wanted something that would do what I needed.(obviously) I read other reviews on dehydrators and some were really noisy, got the counters really hot, didn't dry the food in the time shown in the instruction booklet and so on. What I found was this
1)the thicker the fruit was cut, the longer it would obviously take to dry. They say to cut the fruit in slices 1/4in thick, which is kinda hard to do sometimes. Plus unless you use a ruler every day, you forget how small a 1/4in and 1/2 in is. So most of my fruit came out 1/2 in thick slices,a nd turned out fine.
2) the "juicier" the fruit the longer it took. Examples include oranges, grape fruit, star fruit, lemons and limes opposed to apples, and pears. Apples and pears dry much quicker and easier than the other jucier fruits. What I would do is place the juicy fruits on the top rack and the apples and pears on the bottom to give them a closer exposure and it seemed to balance out the drying times.
3) This dehydrator is VERY quiet, my dishwasher is louder. It is a low humm and that is on the highest setting. I would dehydrate all of my fruit on the highest setting so it would get done faster, and I didn't plan eating it, but I did sometimes and it was delishious!
I love the square design, it makes it easier to hold more fruit, and I also bought 2 extra trays and with all 6 trays I can slice my fruit relatively thin and get about 5 apples, 3 pears, 3 or 4 oranges and some smaller fruits on the trays to dry, and I have a lot of dried fruit when it's done. It also has a dial for temperature settings for people who are worried about that. We haven't done the Jerky yet, but we will, and when we do that, I'll add to this one. Although it can get warm, I would trust it on my counter tops, and I don't have stone counters, just the regular kind. I placed it on a wood cutting board just incase from reading other reviews, but it doesn't get bad at all.
I would highly reccomend this product to anyone who is looking for a good, quiet, roomy dehydrator. I think it would fit most anyones needs.
