NESCO® FD-80 Food Dehydrator, 700 Watts, Square, 4 Trays

I've had a 2 round Nesco dehydrators for many years, one with a thermostat and one without. The description of this square model wasn't joking when it said this model holds 40% more than a round one. I had my local meat market slice a 4 lb. bottom end round roast (very lean & perfect for jerky). I marinated it overnight in the fridge and put it on at 10am the next morning. I'm used to my old round ones taking 12 to 14 hours. But after reading other reviews about how fast this one is, I decided to time it closely. By 3pm it was finished! Five hours instead of 12! WOW! I'm not easily impressed. This dehydrator impressed me. It is WELL worth the price and if you like making your own jerky or drying fruit or whatever you can use it for, you will love this machine! I think you'll be impressed, too.

I am loving this Dehydrator so far. I have had it for a week now and it has been going almost every day. I have done Venison jerky, beef jerky, grape tomatoes, starfruit, bananas, papaya, and apples are next. LOVE IT!! works great and fast. you will not be disappointed. now to get more trays,

Love my new dehydrator. I have had it for about a week and have made apple, pineapple, banana slice along with two types of jerky, strips and ground and everything has come out great. With the ability to control the temperature from 95 to 160 degrees you get to control the proper curing time for products to prevent food poisoning. With the top mounted heat and fan you get even heat through all four trays. If after several hours of drying jerky you were to take the trays out and put them side by side, you would not be able to tell top from bottom. You do not have to rotate the trays but some time I do, so to tell them apart I took a magic marker and put little dots on the trays so I could tell and not ruin their appearance. One trick they tell you in the book is to use a squirt of cooking spray on the trays to prevent any sticking and it is right on. I made beef jerky from meat that I ground and a jerky press and forgot to spray one of the trays that I used and I knew immediately which tray did not get the spray. It wasn't bad but it was easy to tell.

Great dehydrator, better than I thought it would have been. Im very impressed. Bought it mainly for jerky, and it works great. Jerky is done in less than 10 hours. I like that it has temp settings, the only downfall is there's no on off switch. It has to be unplugged to be turned off. It's very quiet and cleans up easy. I would definitely recommend this dehydrator.

Too funny that I just got this email to rate the dehydrator and I had just removed a batch of ground beef jerky! Glad I tried this machine. Seems to work well. My only complaint is like everyone else's ... too bad no one thought to incorporate a simple thing like an OFF button. hmmm. no matter. I connected it to a power strip bar with button to turn On/Off. Problem solved. On first batch of ground beef jerky, I used 2-1/2 trays and time was approx. 3 hrs. 2nd. batch was meat strips which time was closer to 6+ hrs. to process. Both types of jerky were good. I am soon to experiment with fruits and will anticipate that the results will be likewise good! Additionally, bought a jerky gun from Walmart and as of one attempt, must admit I'm not quite the expert yet in pushing the meat onto the trays in a nice smooth piece. I ended up picking up imperfect pieces and hand flattening them. The dehydrator didn't know the difference and did its job. Buy one. Walmart's price was superior as always from comparisons I made on Nextag and Bizrate and for certain, the Nesco website. I'm not certain that the square machine has more space than the original round ones, but I'm pleased with it, however, don't be expecting some strong, heavy type of plastic because it isn't, but the trays do appear to be sturdier than first glance.

We have had it a little over a week or so and have be using it every day for about 20 hours a day to process our apples and it has been working great. we bought two extra trays so there is 6 trays in it each time and no rotating of the tray is needed. It takes about 10 hours to do 6 trays of apples. We really like it much better than our old RONCO one we had. Can't speak on durability for we have only had it a liitle over a week, but I think it will keep working fine over the long run.

This is a great dehydrator for the beginner -- not too expensive, and easy to use. It has no timer, which means that the user has to watch the clock and keep checking the food to see if it is ready. Also, some units will shut off after a set time, but this one does not. Otherwise, it is quiet, easy to clean, and has multiple temperature settings that are suitable for herbs, fruit, jerky and fruit leather. We have been having a great time -- and have enjoyed dried apples, cherries, strawberries and peaches. Terrific for the summer harvest season!

Only used it once so far, with wonderful results. Used granny smith apples, red delicious apples and marinated sirloin tip for beef jerky. Did them all at the same time, with absolutely no blending of smells, meaning the apples tasted like apples! Everything got eaten in 2 days! Can't wait to do a whole 4 trays of beef jerky!

I had a hard plastic dehydrator from the 1970s. It fell and broke so I needed a new one. I primarily dry herbs. Not finding any locally, I looked online and was delighted to see the Nesco at 4+ stars available from WalMart. The majority of reviews raved about jerky. I figured it must work for everything. First I did fresh figs - took twice as long as they said, but good results. Next I tried basil, as I'd be doing herbs the most. Preparation of the leaves was a lot fussier than my old dehydrator, but I followed directions and set at 95 degrees F. It said 24 hours (much longer than I was accustomed to, but the temp was lower). After 24 hours, my basil was merely wilted, as if I'd left it out on the counter. I flipped the order of the trays (you're not supposed to have to) and raised the temp 40 degrees. Another 24 hours, only half the lot was dried. I picked off the driest and let it go another 12 hours. That's 60 hours. And I STILL had to finish it off in my oven to get it crisp enough to jar. I returned the Nesco unit to the store, which at least was convenient.

I was extremely excited to get my new dehydrator. Unfortunately, once I had it full of fruit and vegetables, it worked for one hour then quit! All of the reviews that I read were good. I must have gotten a lemon. I'm going to return it and try again.