Dehydrator at Work

[ClissAT]

So today was D Day......D for Dehydrator!

Yesterday I cleaned all the shelves & wiped out the inside.
I moved the furniture out of my unused sunroom & set up a spare pine table with glass sheet on it. Finally the sunroom has a use because it is too hot for habitation use.
One shelf of the dehydrator has a small broken part which I contacted the seller about. I didn't want to use the unit if it had to be returned. But they have offered to give me a partial refund which was nice.

One of the important things for me is knowing just how much power it will use.
So I put it on 125 & it's been running all day. So far my daily usage is up by 4kwh.
I put some paprika capsicums in it to dry out but after 12hrs they are still quite soft.
I'm hoping it is because there isn't much in the machine.

Tonight I cleaned & cut up a bucket of green zebra tomatoes & they fitted on all 10 trays.
I purchased 8 silicon tray liners & lined the other 2 trays with baking paper (silicon paper).
I hope that works.

I put the last of the tomatoes in at 9pm & according to the instructions which are very sparse, it should take 12hrs to semi dry them. It says to cut them into 1/4inch slices & the tomatoes were a little small & needed cutting vertical through the fruit. Most fruit cut into 4 while the larger ones I sliced across the fruit like people normally cut tomatoes into slices.
These tomatoes are extremely juicy so I expect it to take maybe as much as 24hrs.

There is no way these tomatoes would go onto trays that didn't have some sort of sheet to cover up all the holes in the shelf.

 

[ClissAT]

Dehydrator has been working overnight & one glaring difference is noticeable this morning.
The machine has been full of tomatoes & running all night at 125degrees for 10.5hrs
The tomatoes on the 2 trays that were lined with pieces of silicon baking paper (glad bake) are far drier than all the other tomatoes on the silicon mats.
The paper is same temp as machine whereas the silicon mats are cold & so are the tomatoes on them. That might be a good thing in regard to the mats not getting too hot. Maybe if I was using the higher temps (veg is only dried at 125) it might not be good to use the baking paper.
But as far as drying veg & fruit, it seems the specially purchased silicon mats are doing me a dis-service.

 

[Ash]

Does it matter where the trays are in the dehydrator or do you believe it is just the material that determined the drying effectiveness. It would seem the baking paper might save you some electricity.

 

[ClissAT]

Yes Ash, I think the baking paper will save me heaps of money once I buy another roll. I used all I had to line 4 shelves. The rest had the silicon mats. However the baking paper won't last anywhere as long as the silicon mats which will last forever. Probably 3 uses will see the baking paper too dirty for re-use.
The tomatoes have been in 24hrs & about 1/4 are still not dry enough. It is using a massive amount of electricity.
As I remove the done pieces I have been able to move the remainder onto baking paper shelves which speeds up the drying process greatly.
I have now put sliced onions onto baking paper lined shelves to dry.
I have only left the shelves that are lined with paper in the cabinet as there are cold zones inside.
I also had to turn up the heat to 135 at early lunch time because the cooler zones had tomato slices that were hardly changed after 15hrs in the machine.
Big learning process.
One thing about the times stipulated in the directions is that I think there might be a difference of opinion as to what constitutes semi-dried! I like the pieces to be quite chewy. Whereas these days in the deli, semi-dried tomato is very soft & hardly changed from fresh.
When the directions gave a time of 8-10hrs I think they may have been referring to the very soft & hardly changed version of semi-dried.
I want to store them in oil but I don't want the pieces to fall apart because they went in too soft.
I have egg plant to do tomorrow along with chili.
I'm making my xmas gifts!

 

[Ash]

Good results, though I am concerned over the inefficiency of the process. I gather it doesn't matter what type of dehydrator you have - they would all use the same amount of electricity?

 

[ClissAT]

I haven't had a dehydrator before but this one has been running long enough for me to get an idea of it's power consumption.
Because I rent out my cabin I read my meter every day at 9am whether there is someone in the cabin or not.
For 6yrs I have kept an accurate graph of daily usage which the tenant is welcome to sight anytime they think I am trying to diddle them!
That gives me an accurate picture of power usage of all the equipment on my property.
This unit is using 1kw per hour at 135degrees. I think most small heaters & motors use about that much.
An electrician would be able to look at the writing on the motor or element & tell you also, but I am a bit backward when it comes to that side of electricity, but I can read a meter!
I also know that 24hrs of power is a not insignificant amount these days.
According to my electricity bill which I got yesterday 24kw works out to $6.30 including 1/5 of the daily surcharge!
That would make the contents of the dehydrator for the 24hr period worth about $50kg for power alone.
But another way of looking at it would be to think about the cost of running the freezer all year with the produce in there.
I currently have a small cabinet freezer that is still half full of mango. I always wait until I see how good the crop will be before I use too much of the frozen pulp incase it has to last 2yrs.
So that might add up to a similar value for power consumption although I do use the freezer for lots of other short term food storage as well.
So in the end I think bottling definitely works out the cheapest with just an hour of gas or electricity usage per vat of bottles, but takes up the most space. Of course not everything can be bottled.
So it's no wonder dried mango is $49kg at Kunara, the organic supermarket at Forest Glen near Nambour on Sunshine Coast. Actually it might be $69 but I can't remember. I should make sure since I plan to dry my excess mango crop for sale this year.

 

[Ash]

They would consume about the power of a microwave oven and half that of a kettle or electric cooktop, but for a lot longer time period.
But considering the cost of dried mango, it may be worth it! Plus its flavour is delightful.
Dried banana is very popular also with the kids. The idea of making fresh 'sun-dried' tomatoes is very appealing also.

 

[Mark]

Generally my tomatoes take about 12 hours to semi-dry - certainly not 24... My mango slices take up to 18 hrs - they're a bit thicker and juicer I suppose.

 

[ClissAT]

Mark how thick do you cut your mangoes? Just so I can work out how long it might take mine to dry.
In January this year I did a heap in my commercial oven turned as low as possible with the door slightly ajar & each batch took 2.5hrs on baking paper lined oven trays. I cut the first lot too thick at around 6-7ml but gradually got good at cutting them around 5ml which dried really fast.

These green zebras were really juicy & I did want them more than semi dry.
But the recommended 125degrees was certainly not doing anything & allowing 2 relatively cool zones inside the cabinet.
Whereas the 135 has done the trick with much more even heat distribution according to the feel of the shelf temp as I removed each shelf.
The silicon mats are a complete waste of $50 even if they will last forever.
Today I have dried blanched egg plant strips, more tomatoes to not quite as dry as the first lot, onion rings preblanched & capsicum strips. All in 13.5hrs only using the baking paper.
By the 4th use the tomatoes were sticking to the baking paper & I had to use a spatula to ease them off.
I had used up all my paper last night so had to keep reusing the old sheets today.
I also cut the tomatoes into normal slices horizontally rather than vertically that the first lot were cut.
Vertical cuts give more flesh & less seed because one of the cuts removes most of the seed & a lot of juice whereas horizontal slices retain seeds & juice in each slice.
Still, they dried 50% faster today.
It will certainly be interesting to see how the mangoes fair & whether I can get the drying time down to a level where I can sell the produce at my market stall & actually make some money.
That will indeed be a BIG for the machine.

 

[Mark]

I actually cut my mango slices about 10 mil/1 cm or even 1/2 inch thick because it gives them a nice pliable texture, I reckon. But it doesn't matter really, and it's personal preference whether people like them jerky or a little softer chewy.

You're probably over buying more sheets but these sheets are the ones that come with the Excalibur here on eBay and they are really excellent for allowing airflow through and quicker drying - perhaps they will also fit your dehydrator? I only use the silicon sheets when I'm making fruit leathers or dehydrating runny liquids etc for everything else I use the mesh sheets.

In regards to the costs of electricity, I suppose a cheaper method would be a solar dehydrator but the problem with dehydration in a humid climate is obvious and I'd much prefer to use my electric one - it's just so convenient and I love the fact I know exactly what is in my dehydrated food. I think it would also still be cheaper than running an oven for dehydrating purposes also.