Excalibur Food Dehydrator- a robust and effective food drier

The Excalibur Food Dehydrator is a good choice if you are into food drying. From my years of experience with drying, the Excalibur is much better than my old round dehydrators of various brands. They all had failed fan motors that could not be replaced. The Excalibur Dehydrator has a massive dehydrating capacity and provides fast and more even drying. My Excalibur has had a long service life and is still working as though it were new.

Background

Over many years I have used a food dehydrator to prepare backpacking meals and scrogin (trail mix) for bushwalking and backcountry skiing. I also used the dehydration process to preserve homegrown fruits that arrive in such abundance, depending on the season.

Solar food dehydrator

I started with solar food dehydrators. However, in my not so hot climate, the process was just too slow. This meant that, despite my best efforts and the fine mesh vapour venting, insects like vinegar flies would find my drying food and try to raise their family in it before it was dry. “I am trying to avoid the word maggots!” Tiny ants were another problem and water bowls under each leg were required to thwart them.

I still have the solar drier and use it to provide free heat for drying and curing my many inedible creations such as things made with liquid silicone rubber and my DIY refractory mixes.

Round electric food dehydrator

Next, I used multiple ubiquitous round food dehydrators with multiple trays stacked over or under a heater/fan unit. I worked them hard and eventually their fan motors failed and the motors could not be readily replaced. One dehydrator even started to melt! I am not one for wasting resources. “Some unkind friends even call me a tightarse instead of ‘environmentally responsible.” So I gave the redundant trays and mats to friends in my walking club.

Excalibur Food Dehydrator- value for money

Moneywise and waste-wise, it made no sense to purchase three more round dehydrators. One big quality Excalibur Food Dehydrator would be much better, particularly if it could have parts such as the fan motor replaced if ever needed.

“There is a little irony in this common experience; that if a product is built with parts replacement in mind, then the parts are of such quality that they never need replacement anyway! My Dad’s old Vanguard car had innovative replaceable ‘wet sleeve’ cylinder liners in the motor to avoid the need for re-boring, as cars of those days often needed. The liner metal was just so good that the liners never needed replacement, but the rest of the car just wore out around the cylinders.”

Me

The Excalibur Food Dehydrator looked as though it fitted my criteria. “I ummmed-&-arrred between the Five and Nine tray models. In the end, I settled on Nine and have had no regrets. “While I prepare this post I have been preparing a large batch of Satsuma Plum fruit leather that will use 8/9 trays to dry a batch.” I must admit that at first I was shocked by its drying capacity, but rapidly learnt to make full use of it. The speed of drying makes the product better and it should be more healthy because it shortens the time in which bacteria can grow.

Batch size

A scaled-up big batch of food is almost as easy as a little batch to prepare. Most product once dried and packed effectively will last forever. With some fruits, this can carry forward produce from a good season to poor ones. Also, for dehydrated backpacking meals, large batches of meals can be made and saved for future use as preserved individual meal portions. There then is no excuse for having to have the same meal twice on a trip. My post on DIY backpacking meals has packing suggestions on how this long term packing can safely be done.

I can have about 3-4 serve portions loaded on to each of the nine trays. However, if I only have fewer meal portions to be dried, then they can be spread very thinly over the nine trays and they will dry very very quickly. So the large drier capacity is not wasted or particularly inefficient.

Teflon or silicone rubber mats

I have a Teflon drying mat for each of my nine trays (as shown in the photos above and below). I have used them for many years. They or an equivalent are indispensable for drying DIY backpacking meals or fruit preparations that have significant free water content. The mat will slow the drying process a little, but this is more than offset by not having to soak, scrub and pick food particles out of the mesh. Even better, the mat can be removed, partway through the drying, without any mess and the drying can be finished quickly on the open mesh (method described below).

The Excalibur Teflon mats work well. However, the alternative silicone rubber mats may be better as my beloved and much used Teflon mats are starting to show signs of wear. The silicone ones should be just as good if not better. I expect that their flexibility and stretch will make them peel better and wash more easily without any risk of damage. They may pick up stains from highly coloured foods, but this will only be a cosmetic issue. If you read my posts you will find that I am a great fan of silicone rubber and make lots of wacky things with it.

Food dehydrator mats form shallow dams

The stiff Excalibur tray with the mesh mat and the Teflon mat on top can be loaded up with fresh, hot and wet meals to be dried. They temporarily sag a little with the load and probably the heat from the food contributes to this. Fortunately, this forms a shallow dam that prevents the juices from spilling. “It becomes a tray.” I expect that the silicone rubber mats will behave the same way.

Tricky mat peeling to speed drying

When the meal is dried or even partly dried, the food on the Teflon or rubber mat can be flipped onto the mesh mat. Then the thin mat can be carefully peeledback over itself and off the slab of food. This exposes the more moist under-side. The meal slab (or fruit leather etc) then can be returned to the dehydrator on only the mesh. This now will more rapidly and economically dehydrate the food from both sides of the slab.

Here is another video of the sticky leather being cut up into blocks easily:

Evenness and speed of drying

My old round dehydrators dried the trays very unevenly. The ones closest to the heater would be dry while the ones furthest away would be quite wet. “Sometimes they looked wetter than when they stared.” Frequent swapping of the order of the trays was necessary to counter this problem. “Slow drying is not the healthiest drying.”

By contrast, the Excalibur Food Dehydrator dries quickly and relatively evenly. The top and bottom trays are noticeably slower to dry, and the backs of the trays (closest to the fan and heater) are quicker to dry than the fronts of the trays. These are relatively minor problems as the top and bottom trays can be swapped into the middle and all trays can be systematically reversed, front to back. Overall, the Excalibur Food Dehydrator is a robust and wonderful dehydrator.

A great process timer

I nearly forgot to mention the wonderful process timer that keeps the Excalibur Food Dehydrator running for up to 26h. It is not electronically flashy. It is a state-of-the-ark, Noah’s Ark that is, simple and troublefree spring-wound technology.

“Nevertheless, it works like clockwork and is so easy to use that it can be set while I am half asleep. Just wonderful.”

Me

Temperature setting?

All sorts of dehydrator temperature settings are suggested for various things to be dried. However, I find that one setting is good for both fruit and meal drying. That is the highest setting of 68C. From a physics/science point-of-view the highest temperature will give the fastest and most hygienic result. Furthermore, I have checked the food temperature when the thermostat is set at 68C and the food surface only reaches about 50C. This happens because of the massive evaporative cooling effect of all the food that is being dried.

I nearly forgot the obligatory ode, so her it is just in time:

In the dehydrator class you could rise to the top,
All those trays with wet food loaded on top, 
Neither you nor load be too thick, to make your food dry quick,
So, wind the thermostat dial round to the top stop.

Strategic drying pauses

Above, I have extolled the virtues of the timer and ‘flat-out’ drying and flipping of slabs of food to speed drying. I thought that it would be good to share with you how I use strategic drying pauses to make the drying more efficient.

Blowing hot air over a surface with little moisture content is a waste of energy. On the other hand, allowing a pause in the drying to allow the core moisture to migrate to the surface where it can be evaporated will be more energy efficient.

As an example, I may set the timer to run overnight and turn itself off at 6:00 am when my peak power rate kicks in. The external surface of the food will be dry enough to safely withstand a pause in drying to allow inner moisture to migrate outwards. Then 6h later when my solar power is at full power I could dry for another 3h then pause again until bedtime when night rate power is available again to finish the drying. This is much more efficient than continuous running the drier to get the same result. “I hope this makes sense.”

Lastly, my post preparing backpacking dehydrated meals suggest some healthy meal ingredients that can speed the drying process and also speed the rehydration at camp.

Tim