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LEM 5 Tray Food Dehydrator

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Quick Specs: 500W | 5 Large 15” x 15” Removable Trays = 7.5 sq ft dehydrating area | Rear-Fan System

Best For: Medium duty work loads with perfect results. The performance of the LEM 5 gives you professional quality taste and texture when dehydrating everything from banana chips to jerky. 

Pros: 

• Maintains Temperature - Kept consistent temperatures in testing, only fluctuated around 6F
• Great Design for Airflow - Heat trapping door is a tight fit and allows for great airflow for minimal loss of drying efficiency
• Chef Austin's Top Pick - the LEM creates ideal tasting and texture dehydrated foods

Cons:

• Holes in the tray can be too large for smaller or fragile foods such as stick-style jerky and small cut fruits and vegetables
• This is a large piece of equipment, make sure you have a space to store it when you're done dehydrating.  

Our Testing Phase

Jerky in a dehydrator at home is so much tastier than the expensive bagged stuff.

We tested a little bit of everything you might be making in a dehydrator. Pineapples - for a high moisture fruit, Bananas - for a medium moisture fruit, Mushrooms - for a low moisture vegetable, sliced beef jerky and stick style jerky- for a raw meat. In each of these foods, we were testing for moisture content, texture, and taste.

We took samples of each of these foods at different time intervals to monitor the moisture content and texture. After doing this we were able to figure out the fastest dehydrators and which ones dried the food most evenly. You can see all of the models we tested in our Top Dehydrator Review.

A good dehydrator should be able to evenly dry your food at a proper and consistent temperature range. This will produce the optimal tasting and shelf-stable dehydrated food. 

Design & Construction

The LEM 5 is deceptively small. The unit is short in size, but packs in 5 perfect square trays measuring 15" x 15", equating to around 7.5 sq ft of space to dehydrate on. I feel like the LEM 5 isn't too large to where you'll have empty trays and not to few either to where you'll need to do multiple sessions for medium size loads.

The trays are perfect 15" x 15" squares and are constructed from a BPA-free plastic. The holes in the trays can prove troublesome to smaller cuts of fruits and veggies as they may fall through the holes. To solve this issue, you can dehydrate on parchment paper, which can also make cleanup easier too.

This is a side-mounted fan unit which blows warm air over the five shelves evenly. Like all side-mount fan models, we saw that the food furthest away from the fan was dried the slowest, so rotating your trays is recommended. Thankfully, the square trays offer 4 rotation options versus 2 options available on standard rectangular models for even drying. 

The LEM 5 makes a tight seal with their door creating good air flow and heat retention.

Because of the tight fitting door that covers, it keeps the heat in the dehydrator. We recorded that the internal temperature stayed pretty consistent, only fluctuating 6° F. The closed door also creates a better air-flow system to better dry out the food you're dehydrating. 

The user interface is simple to use with a single control dial for temperature and a digital timer that will turn off the dehydrator after it's finished. The LEM 5 timer can be set up to 30 hours. Timers are especially helpful if you're running your dehydrator over night or during your workday - when the timer goes off, so does the heating element and the fan, even if you're not there. The auto shut off will prevent your food from becoming too dry.

LEM's dehydrator user interface is simple to understand and control. The drying guide is also handy to have right on the machine itself.

Test Drive

Loading and setup: We had an easy time loading the five trays with our test food. The square size trays are great because you don't have to guess which way they go in. You don't have to play that game like you do with your cell phone charger of flipping it back and forth until you get it to go in the right way. 

Dehydrating: All of the food that came out of the LEM 5 came easily off of the trays and werer dehydrated evenly. The only real complaint we had was that the square tray's ventilation holes can be too large for smaller or fragile foods such as stick-style jerky. When using our jerky gun, the ground beef jerky would sink into the larger holes on the trays.

Temperature: To make sure our dehydrator was keeping proper temperature, we used a digital thermometer to gauge how well the unit was heating. Out of all the larger dehydrators, this LEM 5 did the best at maintaining proper temperature. It only fluctuated around 6°F and would barley drop 1°F below the designated temperature. The sealing door helps keep the temperature steady and assists in a good airflow system. 

Taste Test

 

Chef Austin taste-testing dehydrated pineapple at different hours of drying. 

The LEM 5 made the best tasting dehydrated food I've tasted in a long time. The pineapple, mushrooms, banana chips, and jerky were all properly dehydrated and did not have a "cooked" taste to it. The moisture content was low, but not too low to where it became too dry and chewy. The LEM 5 made what I consider the ideal dehydrated food taste and texture. The overall design with the tight-fitting door and proper temperature regulation really shows with the finished results of the food.

 

The LEM 5 Tray Dehydrator is the trinity of efficiency, size, and price. LEM impressed me with every aspect of their dehydrator. The unit is short in size, but packs in 5 large 15" x 15" trays, which is a good amount of space, not too much to where you'll have empty trays and not to few either. It also made the best tasting and best textured food out of all the dehydrators I've ever used. Because of this, I can recommend the LEM 5 Tray Food Dehydrator to anyone interested in investing in an amazing dehydrator. If you need space for more food, check out the LEM 10 Tray model.