To Find the 2 Best Dehydrators, We Made Loads of Fruit Leather, Beef Jerky and Dried Apples

Dehydrators are a fairly niche product for the average home cook. However, dehydrating your own food is a way to preserve seasonal ingredients—and maybe save a little money. Big sale on berries at your local store? Dehydrate them and you're left with a great cereal or oatmeal mix-in for months. A fan of camping or backpacking? Make your own freeze-dried food that, likely, will taste far better than what's at the store. Bumper crop of vegetables in your summer garden? Well, those tomatoes are just begging to be dehydrated.

In fact, dehydrator sales increased upwards of $273 billion between 2010 and 2019. This means, consequentially, there are a lot of dehydrators on the market. To find the best one, we rigorously tested 12 of the top-rated models.

The Winners, at a Glance 

The Best Food Dehydrator

Excalibur 3926TCDB 9-Tray Electric Food Dehydrator

$300 at Amazon $280 at Home Depot

This large-capacity model from Excalibur is second to none. It performed incredibly well in all of our tests, and while its large size did make it difficult to move around, its trays were dishwasher-safe and easy to clean. 

The Best Splurge Food Dehydrator

Brod & Taylor Sahara Folding Food Dehydrator

$395 at Amazon

The Sahara Dehydrator is pricey, but it has a large capacity and dries food evenly and efficiently. It folded down for compact storage and featured glass doors that allowed you to check on food without having to open the unit.

What Is a Food Dehydrator?

Dehydrators function by blowing warm, continuous air over the surface of food, evaporating moisture, and drying it out. Every dehydrator employs a fan and a heating element to control the airflow and temperature. However, some dehydrators have fans located at the base below the trays, creating vertical airflow. Other dehydrators have fans on their back walls, creating horizontal airflow. Models with vertical airflow have holes in the center of their trays, which, in theory, allows the air to pass more readily from the base of the machine to the trays above. A dehydrator is, as the name suggests, a machine that helps you remove moisture from food. This is a great way to preserve past-its-prime produce (for example, tomatoes can be dried to make homemade "sundried" tomatoes) and make snacks like beef jerky, fruit leather, and chips.

The Criteria: What to Look for in a Food Dehydrator

Firstly, a good dehydrator must dry food efficiently and evenly. In our testing, we found models with horizontal airflow to be more effective than those with vertical airflow, as the former allows all of the dehydrator's trays to receive equal heat exposure. With vertical airflow, the trays at the bottom of the dehydrator inevitably get more air exposure than the trays at the top. Some other product differences to consider: The machine should meet and hold temperature accurately, have a sizable capacity, and come with a good manufacturer’s warranty (our hope for any electrical appliance). In order to be used in a home on an even semi-consistent basis, the dehydrator has to be relatively quiet and shouldn’t require a ton of supervision, like having to routinely shuffle trays to achieve even drying. Ideally, a dehydrator should also have trays that are dishwasher-safe for easy clean-up. 

The Testing

Before testing any food, we first set out to unpack and analyze each machine. We double-checked all specs, including the product's dimensions and weight and the number of trays included. We looked at things like the machine's wattage and examined its control panel.

Test 1: Apple Rings 

For the first test, we peeled, cored, and sliced over 20 pounds of Granny Smith apples and soaked them in a solution made with ascorbic acid (to prevent the apples from darkening). Each apple was sliced to 1/4-inch thickness using a mandoline and dried at 140°F for a minimum of 5 hours, at which point we checked on their progress. Before drying, we measured in grams the total amount of apple slices each machine could accommodate without crowding.

The best dehydrators were able to hold more than two pounds of apple rings (although the Excalibur accommodated a whopping five pounds) and were able to dry the apples adequately and evenly in five to six hours producing slices that were nearly indistinguishable from tray-to-tray. Conversely, a lower-performing model from Dash held just a pound of apple slices, and after 5 hours, produced apples that were completely dried at the bottom but totally raw on the top trays. We continued to let the apples dehydrate for seven more hours (for a total of 12 hours), which is what the manufacturer recommended. However, after 12 hours, the apple slices on the top trays were dried, while those on the bottom were too brittle.

Test 2: Beef Jerky 

For the second test, we prepared 17 pounds of flank steak according to Alton Brown’s recipe for homemade jerky and weighed in grams how much each machine could accommodate without crowding. As with the apple test, capacity varied widely from machine to machine and the best machines, at a minimum, could accommodate 1300 grams or about 2.8 pounds of beef slices (the Excalibur came out on top capacity-wise, again, at about 6.5 pounds). The smallest models were able to hold just 700 to 900 grams or 1.5 to 1.98 pounds of beef.

After three hours, we began checking the jerky every hour until it finished dehydrating. Overall, the models with horizontal air flow dried much more efficiently and evenly. The models with vertical airflow, for the most part, took longer and their bottom trays dried faster. Shuffling these models' trays periodically did help, but it felt inconvenient compared to the horizontal airflow models that didn't require shuffling. When it came to the Dash Dehydrator (a vertical airflow model), the beef on the upper trays had barely begun to cook even after three hours, which was possibly hazardous. The only vertical airflow models that were successful had larger holes in the center of their trays—limiting capacity, but allowing more air through—and/or more powerful, higher-wattage motors.

Test 3: Fruit Leather

For the final test, we made fruit leather. We followed the guidance from The National Center for Home Food Preservation, which involved pureeing strawberries with lemon juice. We determined how much puree each tray could hold (up to 1/8-inch thickness), weighing it in grams, and began drying at 140°F. We let the machines dehydrate for five hours before checking on their progress and then monitored every hour for doneness. We were only able to conduct each test with units that included trays for fruit leather drying or had some that were easily obtainable (puree would just fall through the slots or grid pattern of a normal tray).

One of our favorite models, the Samson, had non-stick sheets (sold separately) that fit perfectly in each rack. Because the Samson utilized these sheets as opposed to trays, like the other models we tested, the results were a bit different. With the plastic trays, the fruit puree could be filled to exactly 1/8-inch thickness and spread evenly to the sides. When fruit puree was added to the Samson’s non-stick sheets which have no “sides," it spread out thinner, to about 1/16-inch. However, this proved to be helpful: the Samson's fruit leather dried the quickest and most uniformly of any of the dehydrators. It was also easier to remove the fruit leathers from these non-stick sheets, as we were able to peel them off in one large piece.

For the other dehydrators, this was by far the hardest test. Many of the otherwise solid-performing models struggled with fruit leather, producing leather that cracked, had large patches of undried puree, or were not dried at all toward the center. Since the fruit leather fully covered each rack from edge to edge, it clearly showed the airflow patterns. Once again, the vertical airflow models struggled and produced unevenly dried fruit leather from tray to tray. When it came to removing the fruit leather, most of the dehydrators also had issues: the leather clung to their trays and we had to peel it off in strips.

Observations on Ease of Use

When it came to user interface and functionality, we analyzed every aspect of each machine. First, for regular home use, the dehydrator must not be too big and therefore too cumbersome to store and move. (We particularly liked that the Sahara dehydrator folded down flat for easy storage.) The machine must also be reasonably quiet. Some of the dehydrators we tested were so loud you had to almost shout when speaking near one...and we’re just not fans of persistently loud humming for hours on end. Next, we assessed how easy the trays were to clean. Those with dishwasher-safe trays came out on top. Some machines (like the NESCO) had trays that were not dishwasher-safe and were too big to fit fully in a regular kitchen sink, making them a pain to scrub.

Lastly, we looked at how intuitive the dehydrators were to use and how easy it was to move trays around. The best machines had controls that were easy to operate without consulting the manual. Also, we thought that machines that had automatic shutoffs were key. That way, you could set the machine before work or bed and not worry about your food over-drying.

What Food You Can and Can't Dehydrate

While we're all for experimenting, there are some do's and don'ts when it comes to dehydrating. Here is a (not totally comprehensive but still thorough) list to get you started:

Dehydrate It!

• Fruit
• Vegetables
• Lean meats
• Herbs
• Fish
• Mushrooms

Don't Dehydrate It!

• Fats (like butter; I mean, how would that even work?)
• Dairy (there's a risk of food poisoning)
• Avocados and other naturally fatty produce
• Eggs (there's a risk of food poisoning)
• Fatty meats (think pork shoulder)

Our Top Food Dehydrators

The Best Food Dehydrator

Excalibur 3926TCDB 9-Tray Electric Food Dehydrator

$300 at Amazon $280 at Home Depot

What we liked: When it came to sheer capacity, none of the other models compared to the Excalibur. This dehydrator could dry five pounds of apples or six-and-a-half pounds of beef jerky at once—that's pounds more than any other model. It dried evenly and efficiently and, because of its horizontal airflow, didn't call for reshuffling the trays. It was easy to clean, thanks to its dishwasher-safe trays, had an automatic shut-off, and was quiet when on. The Excalibur also comes with a whopping 10-year warranty. 

What we didn’t like: This dehydrator is heavy, weighing almost 18 pounds. If you have a sizable work area and lots of storage space and want to dehydrate large batches of food, then this may be the right model for you. Because the company didn't sell fruit leather trays or inserts, we didn't make fruit leather with this model (however there are some off-branded non-stick sheets on Amazon that claim to be compatible with the task). It's also quite expensive.

Key Specs

• Number of trays included: 9
• Temperature range: 105°F to 165°F
• Dimensions: 18 x 17 x 10 inches
• Weight: 18 lbs
• Watts: 600

The Best Splurge Food Dehydrator

Brod & Taylor Sahara Folding Food Dehydrator

$395 at Amazon

What we liked: While this dehydrator was expensive, it came with a lot of bells and whistles. It dried evenly and had the second-largest capacity of any dehydrator we tested. We liked its clear glass doors that allowed you to check on food without having to open them. Its trays were also dishwasher-safe and it was quiet when running, but its best feature was that it can fold down to just 3 3/4-inch high when not in use for easy storage. And while we found storage and set-up to be intuitive, this model also comes with a quick set-up guide filled with handy pictures that were easy to follow.

What we didn’t like: Again, this model comes with a hefty price tag (and weight). It was a bit slower than some of the other top dehydrators and didn't come with fruit leather drying trays (however, standard-sized silicone baking mats fit its trays). Also, this unit only comes with a 1-year warranty (or three years if you register it). 

Key Specs

• Number of trays included: 7
• Temperature range: 86°F to 165° F
• Dimensions: 24.75 x 15.6 x 7.2 inches
• Weight: 25 lbs
• Watts: 750
  

The Competition

• Samson Silent Dehydrator: The whisper-quiet Samson "Silent" Dehydrator did well in all our tests and fit a fair amount of food, but was still small enough that it didn't take up too much storage space. It was our winner, but unfortunately has been discontinued.
• Presto Dehydro Square Dehydrator 06304: This was our budget pick, but it's been discontinued.
• NESCO Gardenmaster Pro Dehydrator: While this dehydrator is a favorite of many review sites, during our home kitchen testing, it just couldn’t compete. And its bulky size did not equate to a large capacity. When drying something simple (like the apple rings), this unit did well. However, during the fruit leather test, it became apparent how uneven its vertical airflow actually was—producing trays of poorly dehydrated fruit leather. Its large plastic trays also didn't fit into an average home sink and weren't entirely dishwasher-safe (the manual said they could be washed on the top rack of the dishwasher, but had to be removed before the drying cycle), making clean-up a chore.
• Hamilton Beach Food Dehydrator: This little dehydrator was definitely space-saving, but ultimately the drying was too uneven from top to bottom for us to recommend it.
• Dash SmartStore Dehydrator: This dehydrator was just too small. The capacity was minuscule and its small fan was not powerful enough to dry its upper trays in any of our tests in an acceptable amount of time. 
• L’Equip FilterPro Food Dehydrator: This model dried unevenly and had trays that were difficult to clean and not dishwasher-safe. 
• Magic Mill Food Dehydrator Machine: While the Magic Mill performed admirably during testing, it was more expensive than our overall pick and still had issues producing consistent fruit leather. 
• COSORI Food Dehydrator Machine: The COSORI model was slow to heat and had trouble maintaining a consistent temperature throughout the cycle. 
• Tribest Sedona Express Digital Food Dehydrator: Extremely slow to heat up, this machine had issues with temperature accuracy. It also has a very high price tag (higher than the Excaliber or Brod & Taylor). 
• Elite Gourmet Food Dehydrator: This model had trouble reaching and maintaining the correct temperature and produced sub-par fruit leather.

FAQs

Can I dehydrate foods in an air fryer?

Depending on the model and whether its temperature setting goes low enough, you could dehydrate in an air fryer. However, an air fryer has a relatively small capacity. So, if you're looking to dehydrate a substantial amount of food, we recommend investing in a dehydrator.

Can dehydrator trays be cleaned in the dishwasher?

As no two dehydrators are completely the same, the ability to be washed in a dishwasher varies from model to model.  Many of the models we tested do feature dishwasher-safe trays (including our favorites). We recommend checking your dehydrator’s manual before putting any parts in the dishwasher—just to be safe.

Do all dehydrators have BPA-free trays?

Depending on the dehydrator you choose, the trays may be made of stainless steel or plastic. If you're concerned about BPA, we recommend choosing a dehydrator with metal trays, double checking the dehydrator's product listing, or reaching out to the manufacturer to ask if the trays are BPA-free.

Do I need a food dehydrator?

If you're into preserving food, or just like fruit leather and jerky a lot, then a dehydrator could make for a nice addition to your kitchen equipment collection. They are also useful for mitigating food waste since you can use them to dehydrate food scraps (like carrot peels and leek tops), which you can blitz into powders for flavoring all manner of dishes (soups, dips, spice rubs).

What is the best food dehydrator?

We had a few top picks when it came to food dehydrators, with factors like size and price making a difference. Our overall top pick was the Samson "Silent" Dehydrator, which made uniformly dry apple slices and has nonstick trays which made food removal easy. We also liked the Presto Dehydro Square Dehydrator as a budget-friendly pick, and finally, two splurge-worthy dehydrators: Excalibur 9-Tray Electric Food Dehydrator and Brod & Taylor Sahara Folding Food Dehydrator, both of which performed well.

What foods you can dehydrate?

Yes, dehydrators can make fruit snacks and jerky, but there's also a whole lot more than can be used for. For example, one chef we spoke to uses a dehydrator to desiccate vegetable scraps (like leek tops or mushroom stems), which he then pulverizes to make flavored powder—add a pinch of onion flavor to salad dressing, or give soups a hit of umami with mushroom dust. While there isn't a whole lot you can't dehydrate, there are things that don't lend themselves as readily, like fatty foods such as avocados or butter (which...will just melt), and things that need extra care and precautions, like eggs or cheese.

What are a food dehydrator's benefits?

Food dehydrators not only make yummy snacks (like fruit leather or dried apple rings), but they are also a great way to mitigate food waste. For example, if you have some sad, slightly shriveling apples, slice 'em into rounds and turn them into a crunchy snack. A food dehydrator also makes cooking fun, since you can experiment (with food safety in mind, as always!) with making flavored powders to use in salad dressings, cake frosting, etc, etc.

Why We're the Experts

• Taylor Murray is a chef and recipe tester and has worked in fine dining. She's tested and written many equipment reviews for Serious Eats, including toasters, food dehydrators, and vacuum sealers.
• Our original testing went through 20 pounds of granny smith apples, 17 pounds of flank steak, and countless strawberries to test eight different machines. Since that review was published in 2022, we also tested four new models from Magic Mill, COSORI, Tribest, and Elite Gourmet, though none of them performed well enough to unseat our winners.