Dare To Compare Dehydrators - Excalibur vs Nesco and More Part 1

I have commented a few times on my preference of dehydrators. Here is a link to a post about that. Today, I am actually going to do the comparison and tell you why I like the dehydrators I do and give detailed explanations why. I have never gotten anything from any of the companies and have never advertised for or contacted any of the dehydrator companies about my feelings in any way. This is MY opinion after years of using many types of dehydrators.

I did a video of this for youtube. You can watch it to get details on this as well.

My sister has had an Excalibur dehydrator for years. I passed one up years ago because I thought the door was broken as it didn't stay on well. 

My sister then told me that the door doesn't "Stay" on, it has a little magnet that holds the door on but if you brush past it, it will fall off.

So, I purchased another for her a few years later. She swears by it. As you know if you read my blog, I have dehydrated for 25 plus years. In that time, I have used many dehydrators. 

Vitamix is one of my favorite but it is a bottom mount and even though I haven't had to replace the heating element or fuses, it has been cleaned out many times due to juices dripping onto the element and at times, it makes the fan sticky. I LOVE the trays as they are softer plastic and nothing sticks as much as on the harder plastic trays. 

Excalibur has the silicon mesh trays which is good as things don't stick but they don't have much support under them which leads to them cracking once they get old or breaking if you place something heavy on them if they get brittle or if you drop them. 

You can't add trays on the Excalibur. You only get what you get depending on the model you purchase. And, if you dehydrate something like Kale, you have to take out every other tray as they are so close together that you can't use them with tall items so you have even less trays in that case. 

It runs HOT and blows lots of hot air. It made my house hot. The top and side of the unit (as the element is on the one side) get hot. I was afraid to have anything near it for fear of fire. I do get this way with all dehydrator but since the Nesco element is top mount, nothing on the counter gets really hot. 

Because the element is on the side, it dries more close to the element then at the opposite side so you have to turn and also rotate the trays to get an even dry. 

The top or bottom mounted units blow up the center and has holes on the sides so the dry is more uniform on the trays. 

You can add up to 20 trays on the Nesco but the company warns to not use less than four at a time. 

Both units have fans and timers along with temp settings. The timer on the Nesco goes both ways, as you can see how long it has been drying or you can set it to go off when you want. The Excalibur has several units as does Nesco with many options for timers and not all units do have timers. The timer on this model of Excalibur is quite noisy making loud clicking as it counted down.
 
Nesco's most expensive unit they just came out with is a square unit is just over $200 but most are $150 or less. They have smaller units like the one on the right of my video for $50. You do have to purchase trays but can find used ones online or just add as you need them. 

Excalibur dryers are MUCH more expensive in general but you can get a four tray (remember you can't add trays) for $150 at Lowes but most of their units are well over $200 more like $300 and over $400 for ten trays. You can purchase three of the Nesco or just buy one with lots of trays and it is still lots cheaper than the Excalibur.

To be continued....