Customer Reviews

Nesco/American Harvest FD-80 Square-Shaped Dehydrator

5 star:		(130)
4 star:		(50)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This dehydrator is great. I've had the unit for almost a month now. So far I've dehydrated 20 pounds of "eye of round" for jerky. The recipe I used is at Recipezaar (can't post URL), recipe number 161262 (modified a bit to suite my taste, like I added about 1 tsp of onion powder and cut the liquid smoke about 25%). In fact I just did 10 of the 20 pounds yesterday. I've also dehydrated cantaloupe, kiwi slices, strawberries, grapes (come out as plump and juicy raisins), limes, oranges (those were more of an experiment), banana slices and watermelon (now that was interesting... sweet as candy), but back to the review.

I also got two sets of the Add-a-tray (two trays per package). It dries with all 8 trays just fine. I do rotate the trays about half way through, but I'm not sure I would really have to. The instructions say that the trays are top shelf dishwasher safe, but that would limit my dishwasher to only two trays per load, so I take my top rack out of the dishwasher and stand the trays vertically in the lower rack. I can get all eight trays and the base into the dishwasher at once. I figured that my water heater is only set to 125 degrees and I dry jerky at 165, so the trays shouldn't have any problem. Just make sure that you turn off any internal water heating the dishwasher my have and make sure that you turn off heated drying (use air dry). I just wait for the washer to stop, take out the trays and shake them off. Stack them, put on the power head and run it at 125 for 30 minutes. All nice, clean and dry.

Now for the hint that Nesco doesn't want me to share :) for fruit, you really need to use the Clean Screens, but at 8 bucks for a pair, you'll spend $32.00 (plus any shipping) to get enough for all 8 trays. I went to my local craft store (you know the one owned by Michael) and bought 16 sheets of plastic embroidery mesh (7 square mesh) that were 14" X 10" (the ones you would use to make those awful square Kleenex box covers). Take two sheets per tray and cut them out yourself with kitchen shears. Put them together butted up on the long side and then cut the perimeter to fit the tray and cut out the hole (1/2 of the hole in each sheet where they are butted up) for the center and then lay the two pieces into the tray. The sheets were $0.33 each, so 16 sheets only cost $5.28 and a bit of time to cut them out. Didn't really need them for the cantaloupe, but I'd still be cleaning kiwi and bananas off the trays if I hadn't used them. I throw them into the dishwasher with the trays and just run the whole load at once. All in all, this was a great buy and I'm glad I got it.

---- UPDATE 11 January 2010 ----

So, I've spent a few more months with my dry friend... that's a pun... :-)

This unit is now $49. I bought it and am happy with it at $70. Now, there is no reason not to give it a try!

About 3 months ago, I bought the jerky squeeze gun. I got it at BiMart in Oregon for $2 more than you can get it here at Amazon (the instant gratification thing). Available here. Search for Nesco BJX-5 American Harvest Jumbo Jerky Works Kit. My daughter and I make the round "slim-jim" type jerky every couple of months (about 4 lbs of 96% lean ground beef each time). The squeeze gun is as easy as using a caulking gun. Actually even better since you really don't need to be concerned about the aesthetic appearance of the final product... I mean we're taking jerky here and you can't eat caulk. I use the Nesco spicy mix with additional black pepper, powered garlic and cayenne pepper (lot's of cayenne pepper).

We've also, since buying it, done some fruit leather. Just used a jar of store bought apple sauce with a bit of added cinnamon. Next time, I think we'll put a bit of Splenda(r) in it just to "sweeten" the final product a bit. Tip... even using processed apple sauce, we put it through the blender to completely break it down into a slurry.

My "home made" clean screens are still preforming perfectly. Hope this update helps others.

---- UPDATE 20 January 2010 ----

Whoops... I see that the price is back up to $65. Well, still a fine product regardless.

---- UPDATE 2 January 2011 -----

Well, it's been a year and not so much an update as an opportunity to say Happy New Year to you all.

Just before Christmas, the Lovely Mrs. symo, got a really good deal on some rump roast (two 7 lb pieces). It was very lean and after slicing, was easy to cut the one strand of tough sinew out. Used the Mr. Yoshida's again, but this time cut it 2 parts to 1 part water. Then put it into a sauce pan and heated to high simmer (did not let it boil). Added red chili flakes, onion powder, garlic powder and some Ow Powder (www - dot - owhot - dot - com). Let the mixture cool to room temp. I'm still working/experimenting with the final amounts of Ow. Marinaded the slices for 12 hours. Had 6 of the eight trays loaded. On two trays, I sprinkled (liberally) with fine grind black pepper. Came out fantastic.

Now a word about the Ow Powder. If you go to their website and aren't scared, then go back there again :-) This is the hot of the hot. I found this stuff in Albuquerque, at the International Firey Foods Festival. At the festival, I dipped a dry wooden coffee stirrer into the powder. Once the tears stopped, I found that I could drink 3 12-ounce bottles of Budweiser in about 2.4 minutes :-)

For 3 cups of the marinade (2 parts Mr. Y and 1 part water and all the other "stuff" mentioned above), I added 1/4 teaspoon of Ow. Next time I'll probably go with 3/8 teaspoon. This stuff starts off slow, but you will get some fire at the end. It contains a mixture of chili peppers, one of which is bhut jolokia (Indian pepper that was put on the planet by the All Mighty for some sadistic purpose, I'm sure). They also have pure ground bhut jolokia, but I think your should look into a gas mask/respirator before ordering that.

And now a word about the slices. Got a slicer for my B-day in October. One of the various brands that sell for around $69 here and elsewhere (http://www.amazon.com/Kitchen-Smart-Electric-Food-Slicer/dp/B002JKX59C/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1294017780&sr=8-14). Now this is the way to go for sliced jerky. First time I used it, I cut the slices too thin and the marinade basically dissolved the meat into mush :-) Second time, I sliced the meat somewhere around 3/16. This thickness worked very well. Really, the slicer is a great add-on if you really want to do slab jerky vs. ground jerky.

Oh, oh, oh... just remembered. Also I've taken to starting my slab jerky at the 165 degree setting for about 2 hours and then backing it down to between the 115 and 125 and letting it go until dry. This will cause you to need to rotate the trays, but the results are really worth the extra effort.

So, there you have it. Updated report and a couple of extras thrown in for free :-)

---- UPDATE 14 January 2012 -----

I'm still dehydrating with my Nesco. Daughter has moved on to her own place (yea! for her... and for mother and I). The wife and I are contemplating a move to Ecuador for our retirement. We were down there in November and after a trip to the market in the plaza (Otavalo), we saw so many FRESH fruits and vegetables (some of the fruits I didn't even know) that we're excited to take the Nesco there.

I really haven't tried much more experimenting as everything is working great, just as I've described over the last 2 1/2 years. My original "homemade" clean screens look as good as they did on the day I made them. I still love cantaloupe with pepper sprinkled on it and we're going to do another sliced jerky batch tomorrow to take with me to Ecuador on Thursday (going for language school for a month).

This will probably be my last update to the original post, but don't think I won't be sticking around, just in case I learn something new. Thank you all for your feedback and I hope this finds you all well and happy with your Nesco dehydrator.

Happy New Year (Feliz Año Nuevo) to you all and may God bless.

Years ago I had one of the round dehydrators with the drying unit on the bottom. This one is great because the drying unit is on the top. No more liquids dripping down onto the operational part of the unit. It has a plastic tray to catch the drips. I also like the square shape. I am able to get more on each tray compared to the round tray design. The plastic screens are round though. I did like the review from someone here suggesting using plastic mesh from the craft store. Wish I had seen that before I ordered my extra ones. I also like that it is quieter than the one I used to have. I have dried tomatoes, carrots and herbs so far. Jerky is next on the list.


Update: I still use this dehydrator. But I would no longer recommend it if you are going to do alot of dehydrating. I spent the extra money and bought an Excalibur and it is amazing how more efficient it is compared to the Nesco square dehydrator. While I liked having the fan element on the top away from any drips it is not as efficient as the Excalibur's fan that blows the air across the trays instead of vertically through all the trays and the wet food. The Excalibur is noisier than the Nesco.

Bottom line: If noise is a bigger issue than efficiency for you then get the Nesco. If efficiency is more important than noise and you will be dehydrating a lot then splurge for the Excalibur with the horizontal blowing air.

I have put this dehydrator 'through the paces', making jerky and drying fruit. It's done a great job with both. I've had the more common round type of dehydrator in the past, so I was interested in this square-shaped one. Much better! Food fits on the square sheets much better. The drying is very uniform, without need for moving the trays during the drying process. Great price too, with several accessories available. Very pleased with this compact, efficient dehydrator--and it's American-made too!

Overall, I'm quite satisfied with this dehydrator

pros:
- It's as quiet as a box fan set to 'low'
- It dries evenly, so the whole tray is done at the same time
- The thermostat is accurate (I tested it at 95 degrees and 135 degrees)
- It does indeed hold a good bit more than a round dehydrator

cons:
- There is no on/off switch, so you have to unplug it when not in use.

I've been using the Nesco FD-80 for about a week now. The unit comes with four trays but I also bought another two trays here at Amazon. With six trays I was able to dry four pounds of jerky at once, which I think is pretty impressive. It only took about four hours to dry completely. One thing I noticed is that I actually did have to rotate the trays while it dried. Okay I'm not sure I HAD to, but after the first three hours I could see that the tray on top was WAY drier then the tray on the bottom, so I went ahead and rotated. The jerky came out weighing two pounds. Two pounds of jerky from a $10 beef roast - I'm happy. Next I tried a bit of a "sampler". Three trays were fruit leather, one tray was 8 sliced roma tomatoes with fresh basil on top, one tray was sliced apple rings, and the last tray was half pear slices and half plum slices. It took a loooooong time at the recommended 135 degree temperature. I think some of this was just my inexperience showing. I did put a LOT of wet stuff in there. Next time I will run the fruit leather on it's own - I think that is what slowed everything else up. All the fruit came out great, the tomatoes were stunning packed in oil, and the leather... well... I'm calling a do-over on the leather. The edges ended up hard and the center was still mush after 36 hours. I'll try again soon and update. Cleanup was fairly easy, just sprayed down the racks and let them sit for a while, then sprayed again to clean. I ran the dehydrator for a half hour just to dry things off inside.

Honestly I bought this for making jerky and drying tomatoes from the garden, and it's worked great for both, so I'm happy. If I can get the hang of fruit leather, well that will just be a bonus.

I have to admit that I have never owned another dehydrator before this one, but I did extensive research on which ones to buy for various reasons. I purchased my dehydrator mainly because I was planning on making garland with dried fruit, and christmas ornaments with dried fruits and wanted something that would do what I needed.(obviously) I read other reviews on dehydrators and some were really noisy, got the counters really hot, didn't dry the food in the time shown in the instruction booklet and so on. What I found was this
1)the thicker the fruit was cut, the longer it would obviously take to dry. They say to cut the fruit in slices 1/4in thick, which is kinda hard to do sometimes. Plus unless you use a ruler every day, you forget how small a 1/4in and 1/2 in is. So most of my fruit came out 1/2 in thick slices,a nd turned out fine.
2) the "juicier" the fruit the longer it took. Examples include oranges, grape fruit, star fruit, lemons and limes opposed to apples, and pears. Apples and pears dry much quicker and easier than the other jucier fruits. What I would do is place the juicy fruits on the top rack and the apples and pears on the bottom to give them a closer exposure and it seemed to balance out the drying times.
3) This dehydrator is VERY quiet, my dishwasher is louder. It is a low humm and that is on the highest setting. I would dehydrate all of my fruit on the highest setting so it would get done faster, and I didn't plan eating it, but I did sometimes and it was delishious!

I love the square design, it makes it easier to hold more fruit, and I also bought 2 extra trays and with all 6 trays I can slice my fruit relatively thin and get about 5 apples, 3 pears, 3 or 4 oranges and some smaller fruits on the trays to dry, and I have a lot of dried fruit when it's done. It also has a dial for temperature settings for people who are worried about that. We haven't done the Jerky yet, but we will, and when we do that, I'll add to this one. Although it can get warm, I would trust it on my counter tops, and I don't have stone counters, just the regular kind. I placed it on a wood cutting board just incase from reading other reviews, but it doesn't get bad at all.

I would highly reccomend this product to anyone who is looking for a good, quiet, roomy dehydrator. I think it would fit most anyones needs.

I'm blown away by how amazing this little unit is. So happy I bought it. I'll start with the Cons since they are few:

CONS:
- No on/off switch (must be unplugged)
- No timer (solved both problems by plugging into a Christmas Light-type timer)

PROS:
- Same results every time
- Easy to clean (once you get the hang of it)
- Incld. recipe book is thorough
- Square allows MUCH more stuff on it
- Temperature is steady - tested several times and it didn't fluctuate.

TIPS for JERKY (that's all I make):
- Use beef top round, cut to 1/4 inch thick. (Usually costs about $12 and makes almost 2 pounds of jerky)
- Cut the beef into manageable pieces
- The 4 included trays will fit up to 3 pounds of trimmed beef
- Cut off all the extra fat, but leave the marbling
- I like to marinate mine for 16-24 hours before drying
- Softer jerky can be had by cutting down the drying time. I like mine firm but chewable. That equals 24 hrs of marinating and 8 hours of drying at 160 degrees for me
- Experiment with recipes. Use whiskey, beer, sauces (soy and teriyaki are great)
- Load your trays from the bottle first and use your thickest pieces on the very top tray. The top tray dries the fastest
- You're supposed to use a cure. I never do. I just store it in a dry place and consume it within a week or two.
- Once its dry, place on a paper towel and soak up the rest of the moisture.

TO CLEAN
- Take each tray and scrub with a sponge under the faucet
- Then place all trays in the dishwasher (place the fruit leather tray at the top to avoid melting
- They can be stacked laying down since they have holes in them

Hope this proves that I love this product. Enjoy - and change up your recipes! You'll save 75% over buying jerky!

I originally bought this dehydrator with the idea that I wanted to make dog jerky treats. You have no idea how expensive they are to buy on the open market! We buy these beef jerky treats and they are like $3.00 a pop.

Well, I bought a London Broil on sale for $7.00 at Whole Foods which looked really lean and used my mom's meat slicer to make paper thin cuts. Oh, you have to freeze it for an hour or so, that way the meat cuts easier.

Anyway, I cut it, layered the meat on the trays after adding a tiny bit of salt to the slices to preserve them and plugged in the machine. I started up my dehydrator at 11:30 and kept it going till 4:30 and used the jerky temperature setting. I also made sure during the last two hours to take the hydrator top off and used paper towels to wipe any oils that came out of the meats. Basically, this didn't take too long and I put the lid back on and did this two more times. They recommended that in their recipe book.

The good news! The jerky tasted great and was sorta like a roast beef jerky. My dog wouldn't leave my side and basically woofed at me as I put it all into storage bags for the freezer (with air removal too). Basically, we both enjoyed a few slices of jerky together and were in heaven. I plan on stopping at Whole Foods to buy another to make a Teriyaki version for myself since I was avoiding chemicals for the dog treats. Unfortunately, they taste good enough that I'm tempted to eat them!

I am more than happy with this machine! It's great! My mom had an older model with the fan underneath and this is way easier to clean and did a better job.

The only thing I did do was switch the order of the trays so that the bottom one was up close to the top and so on halfway through the process. It was more of a wipe the meat and put the tray to the side and then they all ended up in that order.

Next week - pineapple! I did order the mesh screens so that won't happen for a few more days. I'll post another review once I do that test. :) I was reading that pineapple was sticky so I need those first.

Oh, all those websites that recommend spraying oil on the trays - don't do it! The recipe book tells you not to do it and frankly, this machine did so well that they never really stuck. Oil would just make a mess and the 160 degree temperature would probably cause a smell. The meat was fine without anything sprayed on the trays.

Oh, if you're wondering about how quiet it is - it's VERY quiet. I was stunned compared to my mom's machine from 20 some years ago. You'll be very pleased with this product as it's worth every penny.

Monica

Monica

This thing is awesome! Did jerky first, came out great and fast. Just got some fruits and can't wait to try them out. Love the fact I don't have to turn the tables so i can get things done outside the house without worring about coming home to turn them. The unit does get very warm so I would watch out for little ones when you have it on ( I have 2 small ones). Also it's not loud at all, so it doesn't get in the way of naps. One thing I would have to say I don't like is the fact i have to unplug the unit in order to turn it off when i want to add or take things out.A little inconvient. I still love it.

I was so excited when I got this! I made my own marinade for jerky and prepped it a day ahead of time. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it is probably one of the best beef jerky's I've ever tasted. And my husband loves it too. It is so easy. I've got fruits going in it now. The fruits took a bit to prepare, but they smell sooo good. I've been taking bits and pieces out, even though they are not done, and they are delicious! I would definitely buy this for a gift or for someone else.