Has anyone ever made their own food dehydrator?
scottan...@austin.rr.com
tackled this task, and willing to share your plans, ideas,
suggestions? Any feedback appreciated.
Gary S.
(scottan...@austin.rr.com) wrote:
>I have an idea to make my own mega food dehydrator. Has anyone ever
>tackled this task, and willing to share your plans, ideas,
>suggestions? Any feedback appreciated.
>
Besides good temperature control, an issue with many dehydrators is
the evenness of drying throughout. It gets to be a pain if one part is
overdried while another is still damp.
Consistency from one run to the next would be good as well, so you
would not have to watch quite as carefully.
Some basic instrumentation would be useful, time, temperature at
multiple points, maybe a humidity sensor at the exhaust.
Easy to clean is a big plus.
Happy trails,
Gary (net.yogi.bear)
------------------------------------------------
at the 51st percentile of ursine intelligence
Gary D. Schwartz, Needham, MA, USA
Please reply to: garyDOTschwartzATpoboxDOTcom
zxcvbob
I have built two.
The first one was made with a wooden box (pine 1x10's, I think) about
14x22" with a thin plywood or masonite bottom, and wooden trays on top.
Inside the box I had about four 100 or 150W light bulbs for heat, a
dimmer to adjust the heat, and a computer fan that drew air in through a
hole in the side and over the light bulbs. The trays stacked on top,
and the air flow was adjusted with a masonite lid on top of the top
tray. This dehydrator worked very well and my parents used it for about
20 years until my brother bought an Excalibur dehydrator.
The second dehydrator was built basicly the same as the first. I built
it about 5 years ago, and it didn't work at all. I eventually threw it
away. I have no idea what the difference was between the 2.
Best regards,
Bob