Brand Comparison: Food Dehydrators

A Good, Better, Best Comparison of Nesco & Excalibur Dehydrators

A food dehydrator is a great addition to any kitchen, letting you preserve delicious natural foods including fruits, vegetables, and meats. Why spend money on costly products loaded with questionable ingredients, when you can enjoy your own quality snacks that are both healthful and great-tasting?

At Pleasant Hill Grain, we only carry top-of-the-line, high quality products that provide real value. Below we’ve outlined some of the best food dehydrators on the market from Nesco and Excalibur. Depending on your needs, we also carry other food dehydrators and accessories that all measure up to our quality standards. Have questions about these model or others in terms of which is best for you? Give us a call and talk to our friendly, experienced customer service staff!

Good: Nesco FD-1040 Digital Dehydrator

One product that we recommend to many customers looking to purchase their first dehydrator is the Nesco FD-1040 Digital Dehydrator. This model comes with 4 trays, each providing 1 sq. ft. of surface area to place food, but it can expand to 20 trays. Its power lets you dry food in hours (instead of days), but still provides quiet operation. The air pressure adjusts automatically to the number of trays used, and the temperature is adjustable between 95° and 160° F.

As a top-motor food dehydrator, the FD-1040 is ideal for drying wetter foods, as it prevents liquids from dripping on the motor or heater. This design also makes cleanup extra easy! The patented Converga-Flow™ design from Nesco provides fresh air equally to every tray and eliminates flavor sharing or the need for tray rotation.

Better: Nesco FD-1010 Dehydrator

The Nesco FD-1010 dehydrator is the manufacturer’s most powerful model! It comes with 4 trays, each providing 1 sq. ft. of drying area, and is expandable up to 30 trays. That means up to 30 square feet of food drying area! Similar to the FD-1040, this model lets you dry food in hours and provides uniform drying air to all trays without flavor sharing.

For this model, and the one above, food contact parts are dishwasher safe and completely BPA-free. Both come with a 52-page recipe and instruction book.

Best: Excalibur 3926TCDB 9-Tray Dehydrator

For our most avid food dehydrating customers, we recommend the Excalibur 3926TCDB 9-Tray Dehydrator. It features an exceptionally solid polycarbonate case and tray construction, and Excalibur’s patented Parallexx™ airflow system moves fresh air from the back to the front of the dehydrator so each tray receives its own supply of fresh, dry air. This exclusive Excalibur dehydrator design prevents flavor sharing and produces uniform drying without time-consuming tray rotation. The clear door lets you see inside the cabinet while your food is drying.

The Excalibur 3926TCDB comes with 9 large drying trays but can operate with any number of trays (or even no trays at all—allowing you to use it as a low-temperature oven or to dry damp boots and mittens!). The timer on this model can be set to operate your Excalibur dehydrator from one hour up to twenty six hours and will turn it off at the end of the time period that you've selected. This makes it easy to incorporate dehydrating activities around your schedule. Your Excalibur will turn itself off while you're sleeping or when you are away. The timer makes dehydrating as convenient as using a slow cooker for unattended meal preparation.

As with the other models mentioned, food contact parts of the Excalibur dehydrator are dishwasher safe. Customers will also receive the 32-page Excalibur Dehydration Guide at no additional charge. To top it off, the Excalibur 3926TCDB comes with an impressive ten year warranty.

Brand Comparison Overview

	Good	Better	Best
Brand	Nesco	Nesco	Excalibur
Model	FD-1040	FD-10108A	3926TCDB
Number of Fans	1	1	1
Trays, Standard	4	8	9
Trays, Maximum	20	30	9
Drying Area	4-20 sq. ft.	8-30 sq. ft	15 sq. ft.
Housing Material	ABS	ABS	Polycarbonate
Temperature Rang	95°-160° F	95°-150° F	105°-165° F
Watts	1000	1000	600
Amps	8.3	8.3	5
Warranty	1 year	1 year	10 years

 

Shopping with Pleasant Hill Grain

Pleasant Hill Grain provides a superior online shopping experience for home and kitchen products, including our excellent selection of food dehydrators. We’re a factory authorized dealer for every dehydrator we offer and carry a wide selection of accessories, appliances, and cook’s tools.

Have questions? Please call us at the number below—we’d love to help you select the food dehydrator that’s perfect for your needs!