Top 3 Dehydrators Comparison

Article by  Chef Austin 

 

 

Dehydrating food is a lost art. If you've never made your own crisp banana chips or teriyaki jerky at home, you're missing out. When you use a dehydrator, you slowly remove moisture from food which concentrates the natural flavor of the food while at the same time keeping the nutritional value because of the low-heat drying method. Once the food is dried, it can become shelf stable for months. A dehydrator is a low-cost investment for your kitchen that can actually save you money. You can make your own jerky, banana chips, sun-dried tomatoes, vegetable soup mixes, and more at home with a dehydrator instead of buying them from the store. Not only can you fill your pantry with tons of dried goods, these can be tastier and you will know exactly what ingredients are going into your food. 

Not all dehydrators are created equally. At Everything Kitchens, we tested our top 4 models of dehydrators in different size and price ranges. We want you to choose the right machine for your needs. To do this, we tested multiple recipes and foods in each dehydrator so you can find which unit will be the best addition to your kitchen.

 

Our Testing Phase

We tested a little bit of everything you could make 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 tested 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 determine 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 evenly dry your food at a proper and consistent temperature range. This will produce the most optimal tasting and shelf-stable dehydrated food. 

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Everything to consider when choosing a food dehydrator.

• Maximum Capacity -  How much and how often are you going to be dehydrating? Consider a smaller unit like Nesco American Harvest if you only dehydrate small amounts of food or a few days out of the year, or a larger unit like the LEM 10 Stainless Steel if you need to dehydrate large food harvest on a regular basis
• Proper Temperature - Does your dehydrator maintain a consistent temperature while running? Does it run hotter than the temperature you set it to? We'll let you know how accurate our top dehydrators are when it comes to temperature  
• Shelves VS Stacks - There are two main styles of dehydrators, top-fan systems which have stacking trays and rear-fan systems which have shelves. Removable shelves hold more and make it easy to check for doneness while stacking trays hold less but do not need to be rotated and can dehydrate more evenly
• Digital Timers & Other Features - Some dehydrators come with built-in timers and other features to make the dehydrating process easier

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Nesco American Harvest Dehydrator

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Quick Specs: 500W | 5 Round Plastic Tray Stack (expandable to 12) | Top-down Fan System

Best For: Smaller batches and for people using their dehydrators a few times a year. You'll still get excellent quality results when you turn the heat down slightly. 

Pros:

• Compact Size - Smaller size makes it easy to store and doesn't take up too much counter space when in use
• Fast & Efficient - The Nesco's heating system and design quickly finish your dehydrating projects  
• Drys Evenly - All the food we made was dried evenly, the bottom tray dried just a little slower, but the Nesco has an effective heat & air flow 
  

Cons:

• Cooks hotter than temperature dial indicated - Nesco made sometimes too dry and roasted-tasting food because of the hotter temperatures 

Chef Austin's Test Results:

The fastest drying unit we tested turned out to be the Nesco American Harvest Dehydrator. In all of our tests, from banana chips to jerky, the Nesco did the job faster than the competition. It won the race for a few reasons: a smaller surface area, more efficient airflow system, and higher than advertised temperatures.

The Nesco was the smallest of all the units we tested. If you're only going to be using your dehydrator for smaller batches or maybe you only break out the dehydrator once a season, the compact Nesco will be a good fit for you. Compact size means the heating element has less space to continually keep warm. The heat produced doesn't have to travel very far, so that warmth is not lost like on larger units with a larger area to maintain.

The airflow system specially designed by Nesco is called the Converge-a-Flow method of air circulation - the top-mounted fan moves air vertically and horizontally across each tray. The air flow is well regulated and efficiently maintained, no matter how many trays are being used, up to the dehydrator's maximum 12 trays. There's no need for rotating trays with this effective method - also no increase in drying time when you add more trays.

Nesco's top fan and heating system disassembled. 

To make sure our dehydrators were keeping proper temperature, we used a digital thermometer to gauge how well each unit was heating. The Nesco was set to 125ºF on the temperature gauge - we saw temperatures maintained a constant 130ºF in the bottom of the unit. I can only imagine it was an even higher temperature at the top of the unit by the heating element and fan. 

The higher temperature gave all of the foods we tested a crisper outside and a slight cooked, oven-roasted taste versus a traditional dried taste. The pineapple and jerky were defiantly more chewy and drier than the other units' after cooking for the same amount of time. This issue can be fixed by lowering the temperature on the gauge - you will just have to remember to cook slightly lower than what is labeled on the Nesco.   

 

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LEM Food Dehydrator - 5 Tray

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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 workloads 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 6ºF
• Great Design for Airflow - Heat-trapping door allowed for trays to be removed without loss of drying efficiency
• Chef Austin's Top Pick - the LEM created the best tasting and texture dehydrated foods when compared to our other models

Cons:

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

  

Chef Austin's Test Results: 
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 - equating to around 7.5 sq ft of space to dehydrate on - not too much where you'll have empty trays and not too few either. It's right in the middle in capacity when comparing to our other three units.

The LEM 5 Dehydrator has a side fan heating system, pictured above. 

The LEM 5 Dehydrator is a side-mounted fan unit which blows warm air over the five shelves evenly. Like all side-mount fan models, we found the food farthest away from the fan dried the slowest, so it's recommended to rotate your trays. Thankfully, the square trays offer 4 rotation options versus 2 options available on standard rectangular models for even drying. 

The plastic trays don't cause too much sticking. Some smaller foods may sink through the holes.

The only real complaint we had was 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.

Above is the user interface for the LEM 5. Simple on/off switch, timer, and temperature control.

The LEM 5 is simple to use - what you see is what you get. Just set your hours and temperature and press start. You don't even have to get the manual out to figure out how to dehydrate because LEM slapped a drying guide on the front of the unit. Convenient!

To make sure our dehydrators were keeping proper temperature, we used a digital thermometer to gauge how well each unit was heating. Out of all the larger dehydrators, this LEM 5 did the best at maintaining proper temperature. It only fluctuated around 6ºF and would barely drop (1ºF) below the designated temperature.

The door makes a snug fit so heat does not escape while dehydrating. 

Because of the tight-fitting door which covers the trays, the internal temperature was pretty consistent. My favorite feature of the LEM 5 is the closed-door which created a better air-flow system to dry out the food. I think this along with the other well-engineered parts helped this model make the best tasting food. 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 as low as the crunchier food from the Nesco. The LEM 5 made what I consider the ideal dehydrated food taste and texture. 

 

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LEM Big Bite Dehydrator 10 Tray

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Quick Specs: 770W | 10 Chrome-Plated 16 ¼" x 14 1/2" Trays | Rear-Fan System

Best For: Dehydrating large quantities on a regular basis and for large batches of jerky. The stainless steel is going to last a lot longer than plastic. If you're going to be making dehydrated snacks every week or two, invest in the LEM 10 Big Bite all-metal dehydrator. 

Pros:

• Largest Capacity - the LEM Digital 10 has the most surface area of all the dehydrators we tested so it will fit the most food at once 
• Customizable Presets - Make the same recipe all the time? Make a 1-button preset to set the time and temperature with the push of one button
• Chrome Plated Trays - Small ¼" square holes make it easy to lay even the smallest banana chips without falling through the racks and lasts much longer than plastic counterparts
• Quiet - the LEM Big Bite was the quietest dehydrator out of all the models we tested

Cons:

• Small grates can be harder to clean with stickier foods like jerky
• It's more difficult to remove food from metal trays compared to plastic trays; LEM sell parchment paper specially cut for the metal 

Chef Austin's Test Results:

Out of all the dehydrators tested, the huge chrome plated trays give the LEM 10 Big Bite the LARGEST amount of space to dehydrate. The huge space and all-metal design are what sets the LEM Big Bite apart from the others. The heating chamber is made from smooth and shiny stainless steel.

The metal door will lock in place with magnets so you can easily check the progress of your food and to rotate trays with minimal heat loss. 

The door is mounted on a track to slide on and off vertically. The real killer feature of the door is the patent-pending magnet locking mechanism that not only makes a tight seal for good air circulation but also allows you to magnetically lock it at any height to check for doneness of each rack with minimal heat loss. 

If you're making the same recipe on a regular basis, you can speed up the process by setting one of the 3 customizable preset temperatures for one button cooking. The Interface is all digital, simple to understand, easy to and set up. 

Create your own pre-set dehydrating programs for convenient cooking. 

To make sure our dehydrators were keeping proper temperature, we used a digital thermometer to gauge how well each unit was heating. The LEM 10 did well at keeping temperature. When set to 125ºF within a 5 minute period, we saw the temperature fluctuate between 117ºF and 125ºF, so an 8ºF variance, which isn't bad all; we did not feel that this variance affected our finished results.

The pineapple, mushrooms, bananas, and jerky all came out tasting great from the LEM Big Bite. The food was low in moisture and did not have a cooked, oven-roasted taste. The LEM 10 did take longer than the smaller LEM 5, but the machine is warming a larger area so, naturally, it is going to take longer to finish drying.

The very small grid helps prevent food from falling through holes while dehydrating. 

The chrome plated racks are going to last longer than plastic ones, but food likes to stick to the metal a lot more than compared to the plastic counterparts. LEM does sell specially cut parchment paper to prevent this issue. I am a big believer in cooking with parchment, it definitely makes cleanup easier.

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After making perfectly chewy jerky and not-to-dry dried pineapple, mushrooms, and banana chips, I have to say the LEM 5 Tray Dehydrator is my top pick. The LEM 5 held pretty consistent temperatures and has the sealing door which creates maximum airflow for even drying. The unit is deceptively small while packing in five huge 15" x 15" trays for smaller and larger batches of food. From all of our testing, the LEM 5 made the best-tasting food - nothing was over-dried or had an oven-roasted taste. The jerky was dried, but not powdery dry; the dried pineapple still had some chew and wasn't crunchy. This model consistently gave us good results and that's what's most important to me and makes the LEM 5 Dehydrator my top pick. 

  

About the Author:  Chef Austin Merath is Everything Kitchen's Culinary Wizard, Kitchen-Gadget Reviewer, and New-Product Tester. He studied under chefs in College of the Ozarks' Culinary Program. It's his job to make sure you choose the kitchen tools that are right for you by testing the best we have to offer. When not cooking, Austin is tinkering with computers or exploring the Ozarks with his wife Amy. Click here for his full bio.