Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Although I have a huge dehydrator that I bought from Cabella's, I haven't used it much because I never had enough to dehydrate to justify the cost of the electricity to run it. I recently got into growing my own herbs, and they became so prolific, I couldn't use them fast enough. I found this dehydrator, and decided, judging on the reviews, that it would be perfect for smaller jobs. My first project was to dehydrate basil leaves since my basil, which I grow indoors under lights, was exceeding its bounds. Since there has been some concern about the running noise of this dehydrator, I am initially including a video that you can hear the noise level. Personally, I don't think it is more than a hair dryer, but you don't have to listen to a hair dryer for 12 hours or more. Since I have a number of macaws, I am not sensitive to noise, but I have to admit that the constant noise did get to me after a while. It isn't unbearable and is much less than the larger dehydrator we have, but I may find a place for it that I don't have to hear it for so many hours. Even so, I believe this dehydrator will do the job for the smaller portions I want to dehydrate. I like that this dehydrator can be set up for one or more trays as needed, and that it has temperature and time controls. When the time set is done, it will automatically shut off. If you want to check food before the done time, you can press the off button to check the food and then press the on button to continue the dehydrating process where it left off. UPDATE 09/30/18: The more I use this dehydrator, the more I love it. I am growing so many herbs indoors that I can't possibly use them all before they get overgrown and the taste goes bad. This is particularly true of basil and parsley. With this dehydrator, I can easily dehydrate what I can't use and freeze them for later. Using this method, the herbs are still so much better than the jarred herbs you can buy in the store. I still plan to try the fruit leathers, and will update this review when I do. UPDATE 10/16/18: Tonight, I decided to try making the fruit roll ups in this dehydrator. It was so incredibly easy. We have a variety of different fruits that we buy when they are on sale and then freeze them. I have been using them to make smoothies, but I now have a new use for them. As I try more foods in this dehydrator, I will update this review and also add pictures. If you find this review helpful, please click on the helpful button. Tonight, I chose strawberries and bananas because the flavors go well together and both have enough pectin in them. I added an equal amount of each to the large cup of my Ninja food processor, and put the cup in the microwave to thaw the fruit. As the fruit was thawed, I added more of each until I had about 12 ounces.When using frozen fruit, you shouldn't add additional water, and since there is a lot of water in most fruits, most of it should be poured out to speed up the dehydrating process. Once the fruit was pureed, I poured it into the fruit roll tray and spread it evenly in the tray. I did use a spray oil in the tray as suggested, but next time I will use less or try skipping it. The instruction book says it will take 4-7 hours to dehydrate a fruit roll, and mine took about 6 hours, I did flip it in the middle to dry the underside more quickly. It smelled so good, I could hardly wait to try it. OH my, this is so yummy, I now have a new healthy snack for my family. The next time I plan to make 6 of them in different flavors. I have added a pictured of this fruit roll in the dehydrator,and one of what the fruit rolls looked like after I cut them. I must confess I ate a couple of them before I took the picture. My suggestions for fruit rolls is to use no more than 1 1/2 cups of pureed fruit, and make sure it is spread on the fruit roll tray as evenly as possible.