# Excalibur or a knock off? And with or without timer?



## Kristinemomof3 (Sep 17, 2012)

If you were on a tight budget, what would you get?


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## danielsumner (Jul 18, 2009)

Excalibur with timer, if you don't you will regret it later. Well ok, you could do without timer, but most diffidently the Excalibur.


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## northergardener (Dec 12, 2007)

My old dehydrator did not have a timer, the new one does. While I still check the rate of drying periodically, I don't worry about letting it run all night, as I can have it turn off when I want it to. Is it absolutely necessary to have a timer? No, but it sure is nice.


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## Laura Zone 5 (Jan 13, 2010)

Excalibur w/ timer
Have one.....don't know what I would do without it.


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## countryfied2011 (Jul 5, 2011)

I contemplated for year trying to decide if I wanted to invest in a dehydrator and looked at all types. When I made the decision I bought the whole package...Excalibur with 9 trays and timer. At first I thought about the 5 tray because I didnt think I could fill 9, now I wish they had a 12 tray one...lol Same with the timer, so glad I bought the timer, like another poster stated I can go to bed and not worry about it. Believe me you dont want to get up at 2 am to check your stuff. 

IMHO Excalibur is worth the investment! I love my dehydrator


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

For $10 you can buy a timer and plug the dehydrator into it.


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

Other companies, such as Cabela's, offer a dehydrator that, if you look closely, is an Excaliber under a different name. 

For example - My Sears 21 quart pressure canner was made by Presto.


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## Wildfire_Jewel (Nov 5, 2006)

yes, but does it carry the same warrenty and service? I am asking for a dehydrator for Christmas so this would be something good to pass along. Thanks


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

I don't "get" why you would use a timer on a dehydrator. I just take a few seconds and check that stuff is done. If I were going to be away from the house for a while I wouldn't be drying food. 

I've seen this questions asked many times and it seems everyone says get a timer. I can't see why....


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## cjean (May 1, 2007)

I have the Excalibur without the timer. If the food isn't dry enough by the time I go to bed, I just turn it off, and restart it in the morning. But, I only do fruits and veggies in it, not meat, which would be a different story.


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## countryfied2011 (Jul 5, 2011)

I do meat in mine and I also may not start it until right before I go to bed. When I worked nights I would start it before I went to work and it would be done when I got home. The timer is also a matter of convenience...I don't have to spend time checking to see if it is done.....set if for the hrs I want it to dry and forget about it.


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## Packedready (Mar 29, 2011)

Just because it has a timer doesn't mean when it goes off the product is done.


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## countryfied2011 (Jul 5, 2011)

> Just because it has a timer doesn't mean when it goes off the product is done.


I am sure there are those that don't realize that, and just because the timer finishes on a pressure canner doesnt mean they all sealed. Common Sense prevails :happy2:

Whether someone gets a timer or not...it is a matter of preference--i dont think there is really a "right or wrong" answer. TEHO


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## mrs whodunit (Feb 3, 2012)

I know2 differant people with the excalabers and they dont use the timer as the time really doesn't match what they are drying. One really needs to check by touching /seeing.


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## Karen (Apr 17, 2002)

I also have an Excalibur with timer. Can't even begin to tell you how thankful I am for choosing an Excalibur! The quality, even heating, size, and not having to rotate trays is the best thing about it. 

The timer, although not a necessity, is a great convenience. Yes, you can just check it yourself, BUT it allows you to dehydrate when away from home or go to bed and not have to get up to check your food. Could I live without it, probably; but given a choice every time I use it, I'm thrilled to have that luxury and worth every penny of price!

It does all depend on what you dry. Generally you can't over-dry most fruits and vegetables so if that's all your using it for a timer might not be worth the extra cost when every penny counts. But for anything else, it's a precious thing to have and a lot easier, quicker, and convenient than setting a plug-timer.

Remember the timer isn't going to tell you if something is done; you do have check yourself for that. What it does do is prevent you from over-drying a product. You can always turn it back on; but you can't turn it off if your not there. The timer simply 'frees' you from having to babysit it when your getting close to your product being done.

One word of advice I'd give you is that it's a necessity to buy the biggest one, if you can afford to. I went back and forth over the size vs. the price. Surely the smaller on would fit the bill, it seemed like at the time. So happy I ended up getting the biggest one. You'll be amazed how much space just a little dab of something takes up. It's a true blessing to have the big one. Plus you can use it to rise bread, make yogurt, etc.


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## Lamar (Oct 13, 2011)

Is there any difference in having one with a door vs not? The ones without have been popular a long time.


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## wannabechef (Nov 20, 2012)

Get the Excalibur IMHO...we buy enough China crap as it is...support the small company. I have the 9 tray and its been very good.


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## HoofPick (Jan 16, 2012)

When I bought my first dehydrator in September and asked myself the same thing. I ended up with the 9 tray excalibur with timer and love it. It came with the 10 year warranty and I figured buy once, cry once. I'll probably have it forever too.


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## wannabechef (Nov 20, 2012)

The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of a low price is forgotten.


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## Tirzah (May 19, 2006)

I contemplated this too. My honey recently bought me this dehydrator:

Amazon.com: LEM Products 10 Tray Food Dehydrator with Digital Timer: Sports & Outdoors

I LOVE it! It works wonderful! I have already used it several times and have not been disappointed.


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

Kristinemomof3 said:


> If you were on a tight budget, what would you get?


If I were on a really tight budget, I would use the oven to dry things. 
Otherwise I would just get a $40 from WM. I honestly cannot see spending a fortune for something unless you dry industrial amounts of food every year. You can do the same thing with the $40, and if it goes bad in a year then buy another one. In fact, you could buy 5-6 of the cheap ones for the price of one of the brand names.
There is no way I would take money from bills or from groceries or whatever just to buy the biggest and best when something else works just fine.


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## Calico Katie (Sep 12, 2003)

I was glad to see this thread because I've had dehydrators on the brain lately. I'm going to make a real push to start dehydrating vegetables and fruits this year. I have a cheapy dehydrator I got at a garage sale that appears to work - the fan comes on when it's plugged in and I don't think the seller had ever used it. This will get me started but I know I'll have to upgrade soon.

I keep hearing people comment on how loud the Excaliber is. Can someone tell me just how loud? They have a refurbished 9 tray for $199. I would imagine it would be as good as any of their new ones. That's still a bit high for me and I've been looking at a square Nesco on sale through Amazon for about $70. That's about the price range I can comfortably handle right now. If I really can't find anything else I'm happy with, maybe in late spring I could get the refurb.

There are a couple of models on Amazon that are made like the Excalibers, fan blowing from the back so you don't have to switch the trays and so on. When I started reading the reviews on one of those the posters drifted into a verbal war about various plastic emissions. I don't know anything about that. Should I worry about it?

While reading the Nesco reviews, I saw a good tip from one poster. Instead of buying the high priced clean screens, he went to Michael's and bought sheets of plastic embroidery mesh for 33 cents each. He needed two sheets for each tray and cut them to fit the trays and butted the two edges together. He just puts them in his dishwasher when he washed the trays and said they work great.


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## wannabechef (Nov 20, 2012)

Its loud, loud enough that you dont want it in the same room you are in if you are trying to watch TV or hold a conversation...of course loud to me may not be loud to you.

It about the same loudness as our dishwasher.

As far as the embroidery mesh, what comes with the Ex looks just like that...not sure if it is or not.


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## GrannyG (Mar 26, 2005)

I have the one from Cabellas....it has been a workhorse...do not need a timer.....I really like it.....


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## PD-Riverman (May 24, 2007)

I know some of you do not care for the 40 some dollar one(snack master) from Walmarts, but if you did not have a dehydrator and found a snack master at a deal you would use it I am sure. I have picked up several like new, some still with their boxes for usually $3 each---have paid $5 for one. I think I got 6 of them. No I have never had all of them going at the same time, but I use the trays out some of them to give me 6 to 8 trays in the 2 main ones we use.

Now my question, if you had 6 snack masters----would you get rid of them to get a excalibur? Is it that much better? What would it do that these will not do? thanks


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## Calico Katie (Sep 12, 2003)

I like the Snackmasters because the fan is on top. According to the reviews I've been reading, you don't have to rotate the trays in those. I do have one older, round dehydrator I got at a garage sale last year. I think it's an American Harvest and it didn't look like the people had used it more than a couple of times, if that. I paid $3 and was thrilled. I'd love to find more bargains like that but I don't see something like that very often.


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## Catalpa (Dec 18, 2011)

I have one of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-STX-DEH...all_Kitchen_Appliances_US&hash=item589242f9ba

I've had it for about four years now and I love it. (It was less at that time too, don't think I paid over $100.) I use it a LOT, and it's never given me any problems. Mine doesn't have a timer, and honestly I've never found a need for one. If I'm doing something heavier, like jerky, I do rotate the trays about half way through, but it's not necessary for the fruits and veggies. I use parchment paper for leathers, or smaller stuff like corn and blueberries. It's loud, but not excessively so, kind of like one of those little portable electric heaters.

I like the idea of buying American, spending big once on something that's going to last, and I do that when I can; but sometimes you don't need the Cadillac when the Chevy will do. For the price of one 9-tray Excalibur I have a 10-tray dehydrator and two Mirro Pressure canners, all of which have served me well and certainly seem to have done the job just as well as an Excalibur and All American might have.


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## NicoleC (Nov 7, 2008)

I'm late to the party but I'll just chime in: Excalibur, no timer. And get the 9 tray if you can.

The cheap dehydrators in Wally World, etc. always burned my food on the bottom and didn't dry on the top; I have to rotate food constantly. I see these in thrift stores all the time, so if you want to experiment with a cheaper one before committing you can probably pick one up for $5-10 or on Freecycle.


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## Kristinemomof3 (Sep 17, 2012)

I just ordered one today. I borrowed an Excalibur from a friend all summer, so I knew that I wanted one.


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## mpennington (Dec 15, 2012)

I purchased an excalibur two years ago when our pear trees decided to be extremely prolific. I first purchased an 8 tray Nesco Garden Master at a really good price on Amazon. Realized right away that I needed more trays to keep up with the harvest. I had decided to purchase another 8 tray since cost of buying additional trays, mesh sheets and fruit leather trays was exhorbitant. Luckily, I realized that cost of both garden masters would exceed cost of the excalibur which I had really wanted, but couldn't bring myself to purchase.

I ordered the 9 tray Excalibur with timer from Excalibur online with free shipping, 10 year warranty, free cookbooks, discounted price and price break on paraflex sheets.

Ran the Excalibur and Nesco side by side for two weeks, 24 hours a day. Excalibur was quieter than Nesco and much quieter than Wally World product which had to be operated outside since it was so noisy. I ran my Excalibur in the utility room next to the kitchen and couldn't hear in the kitchen. The Excalibur held in 5 trays what the Nesco held in 8 trays and dried about 25% quicker. Plus it was so much easier for me to just slide out trays on the Excalibur, rather than lifting all the Nesco trays to check product and this was just with 8 trays. I'm short - I don't think I could have handled the 16 tray Nesco. It was 1,000 watts and could dry up to 30 trays. The Excalibur is only 600 watts so is less expensive to operate. The Nesco worked better when trays were rotated

I returned the Nesco which had arrived with two cracked trays to Amazon and kept the Excalibur which has trays that could be run over by a mac truck and still be intact. 

I loved the Nesco fruit leather trays and have ordered enough to use on 8 Excalibur trays. They hold 3 cups of puree each and have a 1/4" depth that makes them easier for me to use than the paraflex Excalibur sheets. 

I enjoyed the convenience of the timer, but have found myself not using it as much as time goes by. During the glut of pears, it was nice not to have to get up during night to check progress on pears - which I had to with the Nesco. However, I read a solution in Phyllis Hobson's "Making & Using Dried Foods." She suggested turning temperature down to 95 when ready for bed, then turning up in the morning to continue drying. This is method I use now and works better for me. It's so humid here, that product will begin to rehydrate if left sitting for long. The timer lets me know how long product has left.

The Nesco was an excellent machine and worked well, but I really enjoy just sliding out the Excalibur trays and having option of removing a tray to increase size of what is being processed. Plus I make yogurt and can decrystalize honey as well. I'm all for buying American and both these companies are long time American Companies. I had a really difficult time healthwise resulting from Chinese sheetrock a few years back and avoid Chinese product if at all possible.

I use mine daily and it has paid for itself many times over in the last two years.

There is another thread about where to purchase an Excalibur. I just ordered one for $100 off.


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

Kristinemomof3 said:


> If you were on a tight budget, what would you get?


I'd go cheap. Anything that works is better than nothing.


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