Customer Reviews

STX Dehydra DEH-004 600-Watt 10-Tray Jerky & Food Dehydrator

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had been looking at food dehydrators for 2 months, trying to make my decision, which was hard, as this one had no reviews and I count on the customer reviews to help me decide on whether or not something is a good buy. It is hard to spend this much money on something and not know what you all think about it. But... I really wanted a square one, with a rear fan, and a 10 tray one, but the Excaliber was so expensive, and the reviews were iffy in the sound area and in the temperature control area. (I actually bought this from E-Bay, (better price and freebies too) and they have reviews, but I don't know if I can count on their review system like I can Amazon's. Anyway, I took the plunge and bought this beauty, I think that the smaller size of the holes in the trays were what made the decision for me, along with the $100+ difference in the price, and the free silicone liner sheets. It is quiet, efficient, and I just love it. It came with 3 free silicone liner sheets for fruit leather that I would have had to pay extra for with the Excalibur and the Nesco, and it came with a face plate filler so that I can pull out 4 trays and make yoghurt in it if I want to.

I have dried bananas, strawberries and oranges so far with great results. I was surprised that the oranges were so good, never expected to like them, just did not want them to go bad, so I sliced them in whole circles and put them on the trays. They were crispy/chewy and sweet, and I will save the rinds and chop them in my blender to use later for recipes that call for orange zest. I made Essiene bread this last week, using sprouted wheat, raisins, and sunflower seeds. It was very fast and with the openings of the trays about 1/2 inch, I put the patties right on the trays, no liner, and it was fine, no chunks falling through. I love the separate temperature control, it is nice. So far, 2 months later, I have no complaints except my family is eating the dried fruit as fast as I have time to make it, and I was hoping to store some of it. My granddaughter has a sweet tooth, and she has her chubby little hands full of the bananas when she is here. I would have loved to put some of the dried strawberries in my Mueseli, but they disappeared before I could sneak some away. I am ready for summer to come (we are still having snow storms...) and for my garden to produce so that I can really put it to good use. I will try jerky soon, but I have no doubt that it will do the job well. I wanted to wait and write this review until I was sure it would work well for all of my needs, and I am confident to recommend this to anyone who is wanting a good dehydrator for a good price. It is bigger than the Nesco, smaller than the Excaliber, at 10 square feet of drying space, it more than meets my needs. It is just the right size for my counter, not too big, sits next to the microwave. It makes less noise by far than my dishwasher or my stove hood fan. I know it is on, but I can still think and hear what everyone is saying. The kitchen smells wonderful while it is running as well, like whatever I am drying. I expect to be able to take advantage of sales, Costco sized packages, and my garden offerings this year, without worrying about spoilage, plus save a little money, eat a little better. Not a bad life... grin...

Customer service was amazing. I received it within 3 days of ordering it, if you can believe that. I actually had a problem with the unit. It was explained to me that sometimes when the unit is drop shipped through UPS, they actually drop it, and the protective grill around the fan can get shifted. Well mine did, and it had the fan blade trapped. I turned on the unit and washed the trays off for my first use, but the fan blade was not turning and it melted. Oh man, I had the trays full of sliced bananas and no dehydrator! Bummer, plus my husband had already thrown the box away so how could I even send it back? I did not want to send it back, I just wanted it to work! I took it apart and could see where the problem was, this was a Saturday and their office was closed, so I E-mailed the company, Mercantile Station 2, asking them to send me a replacement fan blade. Within 30 minutes I had a personal phone call (again, this is Saturday and they are closed) and a promise to ship me a new fan blade the following Monday. He explained to me that about 1 in 80 customers had had this problem, (leave it to me to be the 1 in 80...) and that they were looking into their packaging to fix the problem. Meanwhile he could not have been nicer, or more accommodating, and he was very grateful that I was willing to fix the problem myself. Me too, I did not want to have to wait for an exchange, I just wanted to get it working, and it does, and I am one happy dehydrating woman! So check that your fan blade is free of impingement before you turn your unit on, which is easy, just take out the trays and you can see all the inner workings. FEEL CONFIDENT to purchase this unit and save a good $100+ over the other comparable units on the market.

9/27/11 It has been 18 months since I purchased this and I still love it. I have used it steady with no problems and I did not just forget I had it after a few uses. I took a shelf out of my cupboard and set it there to get it off of my counter, out of sight. I have made a lot of fruit leather, strawberries, bananas, apples, dried orange and grapefruit slices are divine, beef jerky, and I've even shredded carrots which was a lot of work, but it was fun to have a baggie of them to add to stews and soups. I sprout my wheat and then dry it back out to grind to flour and save a lot of money doing this. So far my favorite is dried tomatoes, so good to eat like a chip. Slice the tomatoes stem to bottom, not side to side, in 1/4 inch slices. I chop up fresh basil and salt to taste, mixed in with olive oil and dip the tomato slices in it and set them right on my trays. These retail for $20-$30 a pound in the store and are so easy to make. Love this machine. So got my money's worth out and expect it to keep working for a long time.

I thought I wanted an Excalibur but I couldn't afford one and I came across this dehydrator. After alot of thought I went ahead and got it, and it works great! My food dries evenly and easily, I can't imagine that the excalibur does anything better. It is easy to load and has lots of surface space.

Also the service is top notch! One of my trays was cracked when I recieved it and they sent me out 2 new trays right away, free of charge and with just one email. I highly recommend this deydrator if you are serious about dehydrating and want to save some money at the same time!

I bought this unit about 6 months ago, and was also hesitant to make the purchase without seeing any reviews. But, I figured for the relatively small investment I couldn't go too far wrong. It's a little tricky for me to evaluate the unit, since I've never owned a dehydrator and I have nothing to compare to. It definitely meets my expectations though. It works just fine, although it is a fairly loud. At first I had it on my counter, just outside my living room and I had to move it to another room because we couldn't hear the TV over all the racket! Now it's in a small pantry where I can close the door. This is an inconvenience, but I don't know if an Excalibur model would be any quieter. I also like the fact that it comes with 3 silicone liners, that's a big plus. When I ordered mine, it didn't come with the 4-drawer blank, which is a great idea. If I need to remove trays, I just drape some tin foil over the opening and tuck it into an empty tray, which works fine. In my opinion, there are 2 drawbacks to this unit: 1) it doesn't have a timer, which would be very handy and 2) it's not really all that attractive (if it had a nice chrome or stainless finish, I wouldn't mind keeping it on the counter even when I'm not using it. I put this one in a closet when I'm not using it). Like I said, it's a good entry-level unit.

I too looked at the more expensive rectangular models and felt this dehydrator would be as good. It doesn't have a timer and some of them do but you can put it on a lamp timer plug (same as those you use to turn on/off lights when you are out of town) to control it. The trays are easy to clean and the unit doesn't take up much counter space and is not hot to the touch. Mine arrived well packed and with the fan in tact. Have had no problems at all. A good deal! It dried foods much faster than my oven does with the help of the fan, and it's doesn't heat up the kitchen!

I think that this is a good dehydrator for the price. It is much less expensive than an Excaliber. It does a good job of drying and comes with a couple of extras that add to its value. There are two silicon sheets for making crackers or fruit leather and also a clear blank filler that is used when you want to take out 3 trays and dry something large or make yogurt, or put in dough to rise. I was confused by this accessory at first because there was no mention of it on the box or in the instructions, but I looked it up on the internet and found out what it was for.
The trays are a little light weight and are a little finicky when you insert them, but it is not a big problem.

I have been drying food for over 12 years now. I used machines like the, American Harvest, and The Oster. But one day I decided to see other options for Dehydrators on Ebay, and Amazon for a better Dehydrator for drying. I came across this one, the STX Dehydra DEH-004 600 Watt- 10 Trays Jerky and Food. I decided to write to this company and ask some questions before buying one. When they told me that they not only quarantee their products, they also will be there no matter when I might have a problem down the road. But what really made up my mind was they also take the machine out of the box plug them in, and make sure they work properly, and that there isnt any damage at all, before they mail them out to the customers. That is a company we all want to do business with these days, RIGHT? I SURE DO!!!!! So many companys just want YOUR money and the heck with CUSTOMER SERVICE. I have found they will just take YOUR money, and send a product, and leave it for the customer to find out that it doesnt work. Then it is up to us to fight them to get our money back. I just got my NEW STX DEHYDRA DEH-004 600 WATT 10 TRAY, and decided to try it out last night for the first time. I am so HAPPY I BOUGHT IT !!! The food turned out great, easy to use, and clean up was the best part, just put the trays in the dishwasher, and relax, and enjoy the," YUMMY'S YOU'VE CREATED". I am so pleased with this one that I will no longer use my old machines, and I have now just bought a second one. My father is Diebetic and really has to watch his sugar, we have found that by my drying food especially Pineapple, because it is in its NATURAL JUICES, NO SUGAR ADDED EITHER. Which helps my fathers readings stay where they need to be. I love that most of all, cuz I know that I am helping my father to live longer, he is now 85 years old and we all go camping, and fishing, and I make sure we have plenty of Dried Fruits, (PINEAPPLE) FOR THE ROAD. We are all happy to know this really is helping him , and just think how many others will find this out as well. You want a good Dehydrator for drying , then this is the one to get. They deserve 10 stars in my book. Thanks Guys for being there for my family and I. Chris from Texas

Got my stx dehydrator this afternoon, I unpacked it and plugged it in to let it run for a while. Seems to be working perfectly and it is a lot quieter than I thought it would be, after reading other reviews about there being some excess noise. I haven't tried drying anything in it yet but am looking forward to using it.Trays are very strong and easy to remove and put back in. All in all I think I got a great deal on this product.STX Dehydra DEH-004 600-Watt 10-Tray Jerky & Food Dehydrator I will repost immediately if there are any problems but I don't expect any.

The dehydrator works just like it advertised. Very happy. Dried everything from mangos to beef. I would buy it again .

Wanted excalibur but selected this one because of reviews. Fan and temp control is great and speeds up the process. Has been a great value. Purchased one for my son as well and he loves it as well.

I have been looking at several 10 trays dehydrator, and so many different brands of the same dehydrator. I have looked at reviews of each.

I wrote to one seller, nothing. Then a couple days later wrote again, still nothing. Then I wrote starting the sentence "Do you also take your time to ship as I have written twice with no answer?" Finally writes back quickly and says "We do the warranty for the first year" No explanation why it took so long to answer. It was a better deal, same unit with timer. But then I thought if I did have an issue, would I get the same slow service on my repair.

Then I looked at another seller and noticed they had a big disclaimer about shipping damage, to take pics and deal directly with courier that made delivery. I am thinking what happens when they say the seller did not package it right or what ever.

Then I thought, where would I get service after warranty period, then I read STX not only does the warranty work, but also have a repair center for out of warranty.

Now the fact he offers extras with this unit, 2 Silicon mats plus a drawer blank, I figured the little higher price is not so bad. Others offer those Teflon sheets, I think of pans I have that have Teflon flake off.

That's what I call a full service merchant, EXCELLENT!

I found that Hobby Lobby sells "Plastic Canvas 10 Mesh clear" fits the trays with no cutting needed. It keeps the smallest items from falling through. I like the clear better than the solid colors, food seems to fall off easy on them. They are cheap 99 cents. I like the 10 holes per inch the best, I bought 5, 7 and 10 holes per inch, all are OK.

Now that other company that has a 9 tray, been making the same design for decades. Has a letter whining about their had work in design being taken. What is the purpose of a patent? You apply to the government, they grant you exclusive rights for so many years, then afterwards it is public domain. What do you think generics are? Also they complain about the color code on dial, it seems to me color weather maps have been using that same color patterned for temps... I suggest that they should be developing improvements to their product line and act like a true leader is in the industry. I have a couple ideas, so for a company it shouldn't be that hard to do if they invest on research and development.

PS It looks like UPS makes its pickup mid afternoon. I will be getting it friday!