This Old House Reviews Team

A dehydrator preserves foods, such as fruits and vegetables, by removing their moisture and preventing the growth of harmful microbes. Dehydrating food also decreases its size, allowing you to easily store large quantities in a single bag or container. To help you select the machine that’s right for you, the This Old House Reviews Team searched for the best dehydrators on Amazon. Here are our top picks.

 

Buyer’s Guide

When you’re buying a dehydrator, it’s important to know how each model’s unique features and specifications affect its performance. Here are five factors to consider before making a purchase.

 

Size

Dehydrators typically have between five and 10 trays, though some models can expand to hold up to 12. The size of each tray is closely related to the dimensions of the dehydrator—the larger the dimensions of the dehydrator, the larger the trays.

 

Power

The amount of power a dehydrator has is measured in watts. Most dehydrators deliver between 400 and 600 watts of power. If you want to dry a large quantity of food at a high temperature, look for a model with a high wattage.

 

Safety Features

Some common safety features in dehydrators include overheating protection and automatic shut-off. Overheat protection turns the appliance off if it reaches an unsafe temperature. Automatic shut-off works with a digital or analog timer to turn off the dehydrator after a preset time.

 

Temperature

Most dehydrators operate with an adjustable thermostat, though some models use preset temperatures. Owning a dehydrator with several temperature settings lets you dry various types of food. Most dehydrators dry in temperatures between 95 and 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

Heating Technique

Dehydrators typically use a horizontal or vertical heating method. A horizontal heating method pushes air from the back of the machine to the front for more uniform heating. However, these models are usually more expensive than their vertical-heating counterparts. 

Vertical-heating dehydrators push heat from the top of the machine to the bottom, or vice versa. Although these dehydrators are more affordable, they’re usually smaller and more inconsistent.

 

The Best and Worst Dehydrated Foods

A dehydrator can be a useful appliance for packing hiking, backpacking, and camping snacks. However, some foods work better dehydrated than others. Here’s a look at the best and worst foods to dehydrate: 

 

The Best Foods To Dehydrate

When you’re examining if you should dehydrate a food item to bring with you on a trip, focus on fruits, vegetables, legumes, starches, low-fat meats, and seafood. 

 

The Worst Foods To Dehydrate

Avoid dehydrating foods that are high in fat because they won’t lose all of their moisture. This includes avocados, peanut butter, olives, dairy products, eggs, and condiments. 

 

 

FAQs

• What can you use a dehydrator for?

Dehydrators allow you to prepare a variety of foods, including:

• • Beef jerky
  • Dog treats
  • Potpourri
  • Dried fruit 

• Are dehydrated foods healthy?

Since dehydrated foods are usually free from added sugars and preservatives, they’re a great source of vitamins and minerals. However, the dehydration process can destroy some of the food’s nutritional value.

• Is it safe to dehydrate raw meat?

No. While dehydration is good for removing the harmful bacteria that cause food to spoil, the heat isn’t intense enough to kill diseases that thrive in raw meat. Be sure to cook any meat to its proper internal temperature using a meat thermometer before drying it.

 

Why Trust The This Old House Reviews Team

This Old House has empowered homeowners for more than four decades with top-notch home improvement content in the form of television programs, print media, and digital content on its website and social media platforms. The This Old House Reviews Team focuses on creating in-depth product and service review content to help inform your purchasing decision for just about any item or resource that you might need for your home. The This Old House Reviews Team has written over 1,000 reviews on products in the home space, from cordless drills to kitchen trash cans, lawn mowers, and dining room decorations. 

We recommend products in each review using an intensive research process, spending hours combing through the best available models on Amazon. For a product to make our list of top picks, it must hold a solid sales record on Amazon, have consistently positive customer reviews, and offer unique features, among other factors. After narrowing down our list of recommendations, we conduct additional research and sometimes in-person testing to ensure that the products meet our standards. Once we conclude the research phase, we craft a well-rounded, user-friendly article that includes our recommended products and additional information to help homeowners like you make the right purchase.

 

 

The This Old House Reviews Team provides overviews of select products that are top-selling on Amazon and/or popular in consumer searches. Our team evaluates the products based on industry research, consumer reviews, pricing data, hands-on testing in select cases, and other objective criteria unique to a given product line. Unless otherwise noted, these product reviews are intended to help inform buying decisions for DIY or other non-pro users only. Editor’s picks are made by members of the This Old House Reviews Team.