About DehydratorGuide
A site about drying food, written by two people who dry food. We buy the machines, run them in a home kitchen, read the research, and write down what we find.
What this site is for
Most pages about dehydrators are written to rank, not to answer. They tell you a machine is a great choice without saying what it is bad at, and they repeat drying times that nobody measured.
We write the page we wanted when we started: the temperature, the timing, the part that goes wrong, and the honest trade-off between two options. If a cheaper machine is the better buy for most people, that is what the page says.
Who writes it
A couple based in Portugal. One of us cooks, one of us reads manuals and takes meter readings. We started drying food because the fruit here goes from unripe to too ripe in about four days, and a lot of it was going in the bin.
Neither of us is a food scientist. Where a question touches food safety, we follow published guidance rather than our own opinion, and we say which guidance we followed.
How we research a page
Machines: manufacturer specifications and manuals first, then published owner reports, then our own use where we own the machine. We say on the page which of those a recommendation rests on. We do not claim to have tested a machine we have not used.
Food safety: USDA and FSIS guidance, the National Center for Home Food Preservation, and university extension publications. Where our experience and a safety authority disagree, the authority wins and we say so.
Numbers: temperatures and times come from extension guidance and from batches we have run. Costs are calculated from wattage ratings and stated tariffs, and we mark a figure as calculated rather than metered when that is what it is.
What we have not done yet
We have not taken our own decibel readings, so the noise pages give reported ranges and say where the figures come from. When we measure, it will be at one and three metres with the machine and load stated.
We have not metered every dehydrator in the running cost tables. Those figures are calculated from rated wattage and a duty cycle range, which is why they are given as ranges rather than single numbers.
How the site makes money
Links to shops are usually affiliate links, so we may earn a commission if you buy through one. The price you pay does not change, and the commission does not decide what we recommend. Links to research and safety guidance are never affiliate links.
We take no payment for reviews, no sponsored posts and no free machines in exchange for coverage.
Corrections
If something here is wrong, tell us at contact@dehydratorguide.com and we will fix it or explain why we disagree. Manufacturers change specifications without notice, so a page can be right in March and wrong in October.