NESCO Gardenmaster Food Dehydrator - Preserve Fruits and Vegetables for Delicious Snacks and Meals

Carbor UndiumCarbor Undium: Me gusto mucho lo facil del control de temperatura y tiempo, es muy intuitivo y sencillo. Los materiales son muy resistentes y ligeros a la vez. Se limpian facilmente.
Lo unico que no esperaba, aunque no es un problema, fue su tamaño, es voluminoso y grande. Desarmado se puede almacenar en cualquier lugar.

Mexico on Oct 11, 2023

Marty: Have yet to use it as I have another exact same. Old one will be used for onions celery and other aromatics. Then this new one for all other stuff.

United States on Oct 09, 2023

Horse Slave: Started using the unit almost right away, which was fortunate because it stopped working after 5 days. Kudos to the company as it was replaced quickly with a new power head. Note- i had never used a dehydrator before, so was wondering about the long dry times that were needed on the first one- as it was many hours beyond what i read as ‘typical’. Seems its low performance was an indication that it was defective. The new powerhead drys much faster. Very pleased. Lost some stars for the trouble.

United States on Sep 01, 2023

D. HauserD. Hauser: Have had the no digital one for many years, where all the electrics are in the base. Workhorse, but had to open up and clean out bits occasionally that well down into the fan. Was getting noisier over time, and when I saw this newer version with all the electrics on top, figured it was time the old one.

Really nice that all the 15.5" trays from my old one fit with the new one, as I had 8 trays and screens. They can be a bit pricey accessories, so nice they all are still usable.

Each of the new trays had flashing around several of the locking lugs on the tray bottoms. If even one of the lugs has that casting error, the tray won't be able to rotate and lock onto the tray below it. Picture I've attached was of a typical one. A few were worse, but about half of all of them on each tray needed attn.

Had the same locking lugs on the old model, but those old trays were cast more precisely, with no flashing overflow. So,,,, took some time to clean off the lug flashing with a deburring tool I had around. Viola... Now all of the trays lock together as they should, with full interchangeability between the old and new versions.

Going to dry tomatoes today. Already...

United States on Jul 28, 2023

Maritimer: I had a Nesco FD-79 dehydrator which worked reliably for years until it was trashed after a house fire.
The first time I used this much larger dehydrator with 12 trays of vegetables loaded, it quit working before the set time and would not respond to any input.
I was so impressed by the size of this unit and the durability of its predecessor I ordered a replacement.
I shall revisit this rating if its reliability does not match my expectations.
Update Aug 02 2022: This replaced unit has worked perfectly so far. I shall update if there is any change.

Canada on Jun 28, 2022

JasonK: I bought this, as a little more expensive unit to make beef jerky. The main selling points for me were that it is 1000Watts (A lot of others are only 600) and it had a timer to auto turn off.

I make jerky marinaded overnight with real smoked paprika (strong from Spain), hot paprkia (HOT from hungary), garlic powder, onion powder, soy sauce, pineapple juice to tenderize. Top round steaks only because no fat. If I take it to work, it's gone in a minute.

Comes with a good guide and I could see it being perfect if you have a garden with lots of herbs.

Cleanup is pretty easy, I just take the trays, put them on their ends in a sink of soapy water and rotate them, wash the bottom and done. It is a little more expensive that others but my friend with a cheaper one says jerky takes 10-12 hours at least. Mine is thin, 1/8 inch or so but completely perfect after 4 hours.

Canada on Jul 30, 2019

Amazon Customer: My wife had been saying she wanted a dehydrator. She said it a lot. I finally got her one for her birthday (hey, she asked, so no judgement because I got her an appliance). She LOVES it. She is drying stuff all the time. It works well. The pictures don't really do it justice. It is quite large and takes up a lot of counter space. She's drying vegetables and fruit and is using it pretty much every day. No issues with the unit itself.

Because the diameter of the trays is so large, it is hard to clean as our kitchen sink is not that big. If you have a large sink or you can put these in a dishwasher, cleaning should be easy. Hand washing in a small sink, not so much.

One complaint about the included accessories, however, is that the fruit leather tray is warped and won't lie flat. This means you can't fill it properly. If you put in a normal amount of puree, the unbalanced nature of the tray will cause it to overflow and make a mess. It was warped when it arrived and has not leveled out with use.

Overall, this is an excellent product. I was hesitant to spend so much on our first dehydrator, but I think it was a good value for the money. It can hold a lot, it is...

Canada on Dec 08, 2018

Shane Griffin: Received the Nesco1040 a few weeks ago with the primary objective of making beef jerky. I went with the 1040 for the digital controls over the dial on cheaper units. Right from the start, I would recommend this to anyone looking at purchasing a Nesco dehydrator. Setting the temperature and time to run are very nice features together. For the two batches of jerky I have made, I set the time to run for 3.5 hours. This let allowed me to leave and do other things without worrying about being late to shut it off. The first run I was back with 3 min to go. The jerky turned out fantastic. The second time I was about 30 minutes late. The machine was shut down and the jerky was really good. It seemed a little dryer than the first batch. This might be due to the jerky sitting in the machine which although shut down, still held onto the heat as it slowly dissipated. After a few test runs, I'm going to add the additional 16 trays for the maximum 20. For the first two batches of jerky I made, using the Nesco, my price per pound was $3.40. Comparing that to a few hundred grams for $7-10 locally, the machine will pay for itself in short order. Not to mention I know all the ingredients that make...

Canada on Jan 31, 2017

Mike from Jersey: I got this dehydrator three days ago and it's been used everyday since. I've never made any type of jerky before and the stock Nesco flavor is just okay using lean ground beef but making jerky from muscle meat and making your own sauce mix from recipes online this thing really shines.

The first day we over did the spices and man that stuff was killer hot and the second day we backed off with some of the HOT spices which was good but not as good as the hot stuff is. Today we did some pineapple chunks which was far better than the dried sugary retail products.

On the control panel there are only four buttons start/stop, increment UP, increment DOWN, time/temp and the L.E.D. display. Once it's plugged in there is continuous power to the unit until it's unplugged meaning the LED's remain lit. first press of the time temp button lets you set the temp, the second press of time/temp lets you set the cycle time in 30 minute increments using the UP/DOWN buttons.

Once you set your temp and duration you then just press start and wait for it to time out and turn off the heating mechanism. It is a well made product that won't require watching (but I wouldn't leave home...

United States on Jul 31, 2014