FD-60 Snackmaster Express Food Dehydrator for Great Jerky and Snacks, 4 Trays, 13.5" X 9.75", white and grey

I have been dehydrating copious amounts of fruit late summer into fall for the last 4 years. I have 4 dehydrators and have kept detailed notes about each. I got so much good info with the Amazon reviews when buying the dehydrators that I thought I might help someone out like I was. However, I do remember going back and forth, back and forth between two dehydrators and decided to buy one of each since I needed two anyway. Here's what I've learned through A LOT of experience. The Nsco FD-60 is BY FAR the best dehydrator of the 4. It dries the fastest, about 25-30% faster than my second best, the Nesco FD-75PR. (I'm using model numbers because one of the the most confusing things while trying to decide which to buy was the names of each. They overlap from one model to another, so my advice is to go solely by model numbers when comparing one to another.) The FD-60 is easier to handle because the actual handle on the top lid doesn't flip out like it does on the FD-75PR, makes picking up the lid a bit unwieldly. You've got to balance the lid a bit, whereas the FD-60 has a solid, well designed inverted handle that makes it super easy to lift the lid. I do a lot of lifting, putting the lid down top side down on the counter, and checking, so this is actually a really important feature. Other than the FD-60 drying faster and the lid being easier to handle, I like them both very much. Even though one dries faster than the other, it doesn't dry out the fruit any more than the other one. Both work equally well drying out the fruit very well if the temp is set properly. I go a tad hotter than the suggested temp for fruit, which they suggest 135 degrees. I go to 140 degrees and watch the fruit like a hawk, so it doesn't dry out. One thing to add about the slower FD-75PR - I've chosen this one over the FD-60 when I needed to arrange the drying time, so I'd be home or not asleep when the fruit needed tending to. It takes at least 8 hours to dry even the smallest fruit, so timing is essential, so this slower one is actually better, so I don't have to get up at 5 am, or I can load the trays at 10 pm instead of midnight. It usually takes me 8-11 hours on my faster dehydrator, and my slower dehydrator 9-13 hours to complete all the fruit. I use up to 8 trays, but I like to not go over 7. I've dried as many as 9 in one dehydrator, but that was not optimal. There was way, way, WAY too much checking and rechecking required. I've learned that 7 trays total in any of the dehydrators is where the dehydrators' sweet spots lie. None of my trays have warped, but I only dry fruit, so have never gone over 140 degrees. They clean up well even with dried-on sticky fruit juice and goo when left to soak in a sink of water. I use my dehydrators only about a month a year, but they get intense use in that month, essentially working 24 hours a day for about 4 weeks straight with the only breaks being when I'm washing then reloading the trays with more fruit, which takes about an hour. Of the four dehydrators I have, all make the same amount of noise, so noise level wouldn't play a factor if choosing between these two. My other two dehydrators are heat-from-the-bottom types, and I would not recommend them. Trays have warped when too close to the bottom heat source, so I now always use an empty tray on the bottom. They are the slowest to dry, and they tend to dry out the fruit edges on the lower trays but leave the inner part of the fruit wet, so they're not done, but the edges can fry. In order to have the fruit done properly, there is a lot of high-maintenance work involved. Maybe the higher end dehydrators with the heat source on the bottom work better. The ones I have are older and definitely not as high end, so that could be the problem. Still, logically it makes sense that the heat source from the bottom may make things too hot on the bottom and not hot enough on top. I know that heat rises, but for some reason, it's just too hot on the bottom and not hot enough on top, so I'm constantly shifting trays from one level to another to accommodate these heat-from-the-bottom dehydrators. I would enthusiastically recommend both the FD-60 and FD-75PR, but if I could only buy one, hands down, I'd buy the FD-60 because it's faster and the handle is better designed for how I use it - frequent checking, so lots of handling and having to invert the lid onto the counter as I check the fruit - super easy to pick back up without the flip-out lid.

Makes great beef jerky. Bought this as a kit which included the gun for loading the meat. Comes with everything you need to get started! Makes wide strips, narrow strips and round strips. Highly recommend this!

So easy to use, works excellant, is a discribed and a huge value at this price! I've already made 4lbs of jerky, 2lbs beef and 2lbs Turkey. Super fast making them and taste better then store bought. gave my wife some and she thought I bought it at the store, when I told her I made it in a couple of hours, (times will vary depending on your location) she was amazed. Shared some with friends and they've asked me to make them some. To start with I used their recommended seasoning which makes it easy, my next batch I'm going to try some seasoning I really like. Get one today! You wont regret it!

This review may not be fair because we have only used it once, to dry herbs. It took a good bit more time that I thought it would take based on the instruction manual. However, it did the job, which is the main thing, isn't it? To be honest, one reason we chose this dehydrator is that I inherited 4 trays from my father's dehydrator, giving us 8 trays instead of 4 (and low price was important, too). To be honest, I like the older trays better because they seem to fit together better, but the new trays get the job done, and without costing an arm and a leg. I'm not sure it is fair of me to evaluate temperature control, based on our limited experience, but I did notice that on the low temperature setting the bottom trays were not nearly as 'warm' to the touch as the top trays. But as herbs dried, we removed those trays (different herbs on different trays) and once there were only 4 trays I didn't notice a temperature difference between trays. So yes, I could recommend this dehydrator, especially if you are drying on a budget. I estimate our electric costs at about 6 cents per hour (USA).

I'm big into preserving food, especially when we have grown the food. I have many fond memories of being with my grandmother, drying or canning food that she grew in her garden. Then, we would eat from that same garden all winter. There is just something so satisfying about the whole process. So when I started my own home garden and grew WAY MORE than we could eat before it went bad, I knew it was time to bite the bullet and get a dehydrator for the things I couldn't can. I was a bit surprised at how much I can fit into this. Quite a bit as it turns out. So far I'v'e dried Strawberry chips, Apple Chips, Kale, celery, herbs, tomatoes, and fruit leather. I love it, and we use it at least once a month. It's a great way to either preserve your harvest, or to preserve food that you got a good deal on at the store. Not to mention, it's a great way of making healthy snacks! Plus, I love that it has the settings clearly marked for what you are drying (fruits, herbs, meat, etc). The trays are also surprisingly easy to clean. In fact, I love it so much i'm going to buy more trays for it so I can dry more at once!

First of all: this is not the "top of the line" cadillac-style dehydrator, like an Excalibur, and I am not rating it as such. I am rating this product for what it is... inexpensive and mid-line. To that effect, let me say... it's a Champion! I love it, it works great, I find it easy to clean, the temperature settings thus far have been consistent and produced results exactly to my expectations. I can't say a lot more than that, except... what great BANG for the BUCK! A friend who dehydrates regularly referred me to this model because it is so similar to the one she's been using for the past three years with great success. I am here to say... now that I've used my several times, I can say... Yep. It does the job and does it without breaking the bank. Go for it! Edited to say that since I posted this review, the Nesco continues to work fabulously for me; I've made kale chips numerous times as well, and just dehydrated foraged oyster mushrooms. It's been a great help in drying all my oregano, too.

This is my second FD-60 as I wore my first one out. Bought a second one after doing a lot of research and discovering that unless I wanted to go to a very expensive professional model, there really was nothing better then this on the market. Works as advertised and doesn't cost an "arm and a leg". Great for those of us who want to dry some fruit or make some jerky on the occasional basis. Best yet, I can use the trays from my old unit on my new one and really speed things up. Ran about 6 pounds of beef the other day. With 4 trays, that's two runs. With 8, that's one run, done in a hair over 6 hours. Not bad at all and mighty good jerky at that. Going to run 14 cans of sliced pineapple through tomorrow. Will be running about 8 trays of sugar/cinnamon coated sliced apples next week. All of this is chiefly for all my kids and grandkids at Christmas. They love it and it truly pleases me to do it. If you want to try making jerky and the like, this is the place to start! Only advise I'd give is to spray trays with a coat of Pamm (or equivalent) before each use. Makes them a lot easier to clean, particularly after a run of jerky. Happy Holidays!

*Update January 3, 2014: After just over a year of light usage (a batch every other week on average) the fan has stopped working. I expected this product to give at least a thousand hours of use--it did not. I do not appreciate writing/rewriting poor reviews yet sadly this has come to pass. I went from extremely happy with the product to disappointed in the design/quality control. The warranty just expiring and even them requiring the consumer to pay shipping even within warranty is disappointing. I've had computers run at this temperature, push more airflow, and last longer than this product. **Previous completely positive initial review** Best investment I've made in my quest to cook as much from scratch as possible! I bought this product and immediately upgraded to 12 trays total. I'm absolutely dependent upon this product as I use it to dehydrate about 12 lbs of tomatoes, 1 lb of basil, 1 lb of parsley, countless pounds of apples, and various other seasonable produce. I'm able to create wonderful pulverized dehydrated tomato power which I use in countless recipes to make olive oil based tomato sauces, personal pizzas, as thickening agents, to make tomatoes slightly less bitter (Some of the Vitamin C is lost during lengthy dehydration, which makes the dehydrated fruit/vegetable/herb taste less bitter; I already get probably 500%+ Vitamin C so that's not an issue for me) and countless other uses. I like to think on ways to improve this product and I wish there was some way to make this product be cleaned faster/easier, but I think it's already the easiest I've seen to clean. so this company is at the top of the game there. Side notes: If you love beauty and everything to remain the color it originally came in, the mesh screens do stain, I noticed tomatoes and even herbs will stain the mesh. It doesn't come off too easily until many soaks and washes later, but since that is inside the unit and not visible it shouldn't really bother even the most paranoid interior decorator too much! I highly and absolutely recommend this product! I am so pleased with it I might have to purchase another when my large garden starts producing enmasse this year!