Nesco American Harvest 5-Tray FD-35 425-Watt Snackmaster Dehydrator

A bit noisy, but easy to clean
I chose a top-element dehydrator as it's easier to clean (no drips onto the bottom element.) This dehydrator has sturdy, slightly flexible plastic trays. It's a bit noisy; when the heat goes on there is a whine I don't like, and the fan of course is noisy too. So making dehydrated foods (takes hours) needs a separate room, maybe the cellar.

The price is right on this dehydrator, but you need sheets for making jerky and fruit leathers. They aren't included (that's the minus-a-star) but you can pick them up at kitchen supply stores.

Very Happy
Got the FD35 for Christmas last year and am very happy with it. It consistantly dries things in about half of the time listed in "The Dehydrator Cookbook". Clean up is great; usually I just wipe the trays off, but when they need it everything except the heater/fan unit itself goes in the dishwasher.

My recommendations:
- Get the FD35, put it a few rooms away from the main living area as it is a little bit noisy.
- Get extra trays from Nesco's web site. The trays Amazon carries (at this time) are for the FD50 and _DO NOT_ work on the 35.
- Get the fruit leather trays and the clean screens
- Skip the cook books. Ive found online info and recipes much more useful than what is in the cookbooks.
- Experiment. Ive found that tiny marshmellows are great, but Ive never seen it in the cookbooks or online stuff.

I do have one problem that will not be an issue for most people.
The unit generates a lot of electomagnetic interference which causes a...

Heat on the top, works just fine, but loud
There are debates if the heating element of a dehydrator should be on the top of the unit or underneath. (Heat rises, but fans blow down...hmm.)

Whatever the physics of it, the Nesco is reasonably priced, made of slightly flexible plastic that is not prone to breaking easily and makes fine dried fruits. We've tried dried apples, dried crackers of a tomato-onion-flax base and all came out wonderfully well. While there are more advanced dehydrators, this one is priced well and will make your jerky, fruit leather, preserved produce and other dried foods just fine. Recommend you get teflon sheets for making jerky--they are not included with the unit and you need donut-shaped ones. The sheets allow you to pour liquid batter onto the dehydrator and get leathers, jerkies and my favorite, dried flax crackers. I personally think they should come with the unit as it is a special shape and the sheets are an important feature, so I dinged the unit a star. Also the SAME star is dinged...

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