The Best Food Dehydrator | Reviews by Wirecutter

Dehydrators are deceptively simple machines, involving little more than a low-wattage heating element, a fan, and open racks that let air flow throughout. But some models perform much better than others (and price isn’t necessarily an indicator of performance). To find the best dehydrator, we considered these factors:

Even drying: The best dehydrators are ones that evenly dry food without requiring you to rotate or rearrange the trays much, if at all. We found that the best results came from round vertical-flow dehydrators with the motor at the base.

This makes sense because heat rises, and a bottom-mounted motor pushes hot air where it naturally wants to go (up, it wants to go up). Top-mounted dehydrators struggle to push heated air down to the lower trays and require more attention and rotation.

In general, horizontal-flow dehydrators dry unevenly and require you to rotate the trays throughout the process. Jeff Wilker, engineering and QA manager at The Metal Ware Corporation (Nesco’s parent company), told us that the hard right-angled corners on these box-shaped models don’t promote even airflow. The result: dead spots of stagnant air, usually in the corners. The best horizontal-flow dehydrators have bigger fans that move more air, but those still don’t dry food as evenly as a round vertical-flow model with a base-mounted motor.

Size and capacity: It takes a lot of time to prep and then dry your own food, and the results shrink to just a fraction of the weight you started with. We prefer dehydrators that strike a good balance of bulk and drying volume, with trays that maximize usable drying space.

Accessories: Extra pieces like fine-mesh mats and fruit-roll trays are handy accessories for your dehydrator. Fine-mesh mats keep small items like herbs from falling through the trays as they dry. Some companies include these accessories with the dehydrator, while others charge extra.

Cleanup: The most common dehydrator trays are made from plastic and can be a bear to wash because they have lots of nooks and crannies to clean. Generally, plastic trays aren’t safe to run through the dishwasher, because the excess heat can warp them. If you have a spacious sink, a good soak in hot soapy water followed with a dish brush will do the trick.

If you require dishwasher-safe trays, your choices are limited to horizontal-flow dehydrators with stainless steel racks either included or offered for extra cost.

Automatic shutoff: We found that dehydrating times varied by batch, so this feature is useful only if you have a lot of experience dehydrating or will be away from the machine for a very long time. Otherwise, if the machine cuts off before the food is adequately dried, you run the risk of mold growth or spoilage.

Temperature settings: We found that most dehydrators have six to seven temperature settings, ranging from 90 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit, which is enough flexibility to dry most foods. Meat and fish require the highest temperature setting on your dehydrator, which is usually around 160 degrees.

Dehydrators with digital control panels and dual-stage capabilities (the option to start at a higher temperature for an hour to speed up the drying process) look modern and sound useful, but we found that neither of these things are worth the extra cost that comes with them.

Some digital dehydrators let you set the temperature to the exact degree, but that kind of precision isn’t necessary for successful and even drying.

Noise: All dehydrators use a fan, so if you’re sensitive to the sound of a room fan on high speed droning on for hours on end, consider the noise factor. Running the dehydrator in your garage or laundry room with the door closed is an easy fix. But folks with limited square footage might not have that option.

You can opt for a quieter dehydrator (The Samson Silent models we recommend are pretty quiet), or you can put yours in the location farthest from your bedroom door and dehydrate at night.

How we tested

For the first round of testing, we peeled, cored, and thinly sliced apples because they’re super easy to dehydrate. From looking at the drying patterns and the browning of the apple slices, we got strong visual evidence of how thoroughly each model circulated air around the trays. Poor-performing dehydrators yielded dreadfully inconsistent results, with pale, half-dried fruit and brittle, dark-brown slices sitting side by side on the same tray.

After we eliminated the models that failed the apple test, we made beef jerky in the remaining contenders. We sliced 20 pounds of eye of round into thin strips by hand and then marinated it in a simple spiced salt mixture, using Michael Ruhlman’s recipe as a guide.

Since most dehydrators are made from plastic — a porous material — we dried onions and garlic to see if the trays or walls of the unit retained smells. After a six-hour drying cycle (give or take an hour), we washed the trays with hot soapy water and wiped down the dehydrators with a mild vinegar solution. We’re happy to report that none of the models retained any off odors after cleaning.

We made fruit leather as our final test for one last look at how consistently the models dried across each tray. Fruit leather is best made in a dehydrator that dries evenly because the entire sheet of puree must be fully dry before you can peel it away from the plastic (whereas with something like apples, you can remove pieces as they dry if the machine is uneven).