A home food dehydrator comparison between stainless steel and plastic will continue with abilities of the differing units. One would think a dehydrator is a dehydrator is a dehydrator. But this is not so. Plastic electric food dehydrators come in all shapes and sizes, square, round and rectangle. While the stainless steel food dehydrators are square or an elongated square or rectangle configuration. The shape has a lot to do with the effectiveness of the unit.
Plastic round units can force warm air up from bottom or few from the top. The Nesco/American Gardenmaster dehydrator FD-1018P is an example of bottom up heated air circulation. A newer style of air circulation in dehydrators is the Nesco Snackmaster Express dehydrator in which the air is moved from the top down.
The L Equip FilterPro and the GooD4U are rectangle machines that approach the drying process each in a different way. The FilterPro still comes from the bottom and the air is filtered, while the GooD4U is a design that is used in the higher end quality units. The air flow is generated from the back of the unit not the top or bottom and then flows over the trays a in an even flow that has an excellent effect on the drying practice.
In the case of plastic versus stainless steel food dehydrators a few thoughts can be established. First, if you look at the least costly round that can be bought at the big discount stores, the results will be less than stellar. You will need to rotate the trays for an even drying and the end product will not be the best possible. However, this type of machine will do the job. The next level up to round forced air from top or bottom, the Nesco/American Gardenmaster dehydrator or Nesco Snackmaster Express dehydrator, will dry with more efficiency. The rectangle types, L Equip FilterPro and the GooD4U, will go a step up from there again. The square or rectangle trays are far more efficient with space vs. the unused area on a round tray. In this case, square or rectangles are better. The GooD4U is the best of the units of this type. The Excalibur has and still is a standard of the drying industry, but the GooD4U is knocking at the door and is just as efficient.
We will continue or look at the two types of dehydrators, plastic and stainless steel in our next article (part 4) with the capabilities of the stainless steel models.
Mary Dahlberg
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