Dehydrator Shopping

[SmokinEdge]

We have a Nesco round style dehydrator that takes forever to dry just about anything. Went shopping, wanted to buy an LEM but just didn’t like the low end plastic one and couldn’t justify 460 bucks for their 10 tray digital stainless one. So hit Amazon just looking and found this 8 tray stainless with glass door made by Denali Canning. Looks like a solid unit. I’m not sure of the temperature range but one of their videos showed 165 I believe so it goes higher than most. Should be here the 21st so we shall see.


https://www.amazon.com/BEAST-Denali...2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfYXRm&psc=1

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

I have the Nesco square one that works great. After using the MES40 with pellet dust I will never go back. The jerky is so much better dried with smoke. That may not be an option for you but if you do I would go that route. That unit you looking at looks nice.

 

[SmokinEdge]

For the smoke I just put the jerky out in my big smokehouse and finish there or use the cold smoker in there to smoke a couple hours then into the dehydrator. Mostly bought this one for ground meat jerky and fruits and veggies. I’ll post up a review when it gets here, I’m also curious about the 100 recipes that come with it, might be interesting.

 

[SmokinEdge]

It has arrived. Nice little unit.

Have some jerky in cure. See you in a couple days.

 

[JLeonard]

Impressive machine. Look forward to seeing how it works.

Jim

 

[SmokinEdge]

Impressive machine. Look forward to seeing how it works.

Jim

Smaller than I thought it would be, being named the “beast” and all but honestly it’s nice sized for home use and the initial run, dry, was good. This is almost silent noise wise, can fill it start it and go to bed no problem.

 

[SmokinEdge]

As a side, the unit looks great, all the accessories are with it except one. The operation manual that has the 100 recipes. Didn’t get that so have to call them and straighten that out.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

That looks like a nice dehydrator. I'm watching.

 

[DRKsmoking]

I'm with you for the first run and how you did with them sending you the manual and recipes

David

 

[DRKsmoking]

Just checked Amazon here and they want $265.00 free delivery,
So I will wait for your review,

It is too big to hide from Mona, lol. Have to find a good reason for her . Maybe lobster jerky

David

 

[SmokinEdge]

I'm with you for the first run and how you did with them sending you the manual and recipes

David

Found the manual and recipe book this morning! I was breaking the box down for the dumpster and found both under one of the inside flaps at the bottom of the box. They should have been inside the unit with the silicone mats and such, oh well at least I found it.

 

[SmokinEdge]

May be a deal breaker for some but all temps are preset and can’t be changed all you can do is pick one and adjust time to what you want.

So I ran it with a dial thermometer on the middle rack just to see how close it ran to set temp. I started with 149* it over shot to 160* then came back to 143* then to 151* then settled in to that cycle of 143-151*. Then I upped the temp to the 158*, over shot to 170* then back to 155 then up to 162* and stayed in that cycle. So swings 7-8* but all in all hovered real close to the preset temps. Plan was to run jerky on Saturday but since it arrived early I decided to do one rack of teriyaki and one rack of hunter’s blend all beef top and bottom round. Just a two tray test run.

Ill say this, it pretty whisper quite. Outside dimensions are 13w x 13”h x 18” L. We will see how this test run goes, set at 158* for 6 hours.

 

[pc farmer]

Hummm. You think 5 lbs of meat will fit in it? I do 5 lb batches.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Hummm. You think 5 lbs of meat will fit in it? I do 5 lb batches.

I would say it kind of depends on how thick you slice but, I sliced all this on the thicker side 1/4” or so some a wee bit thicker and some about 3/16” at any rate one tray had 11 Oz. On it and the other 15 Oz. so 8 trays I could get 7 pounds but I didn’t spread these out they are closer together with good air gap between so racks are loaded as tight as would be workable but yes looks like 5# batches would work fine.

I did two batches of 2.5# each so I have roughly a little over 3# left. I’ll see how many racks that takes in a day or two.

 

[pc farmer]

I would say it kind of depends on how thick you slice but, I sliced all this on the thicker side 1/4” or so some a wee bit thicker and some about 3/16” at any rate one tray had 11 Oz. On it and the other 15 Oz. so 8 trays I could get 7 pounds but I didn’t spread these out they are closer together with good air gap between so racks are loaded as tight as would be workable but yes looks like 5# batches would work fine.

I did two batches of 2.5# each so I have roughly a little over 3# left. I’ll see how many racks that takes in a day or two.

I slice mine between 1/4 and 5/16

 

[SmokinEdge]

I slice mine between 1/4 and 5/16

This unit will work great for 5# I’m thinking so far. Did I mention it has a light switch so you can check on progress without opening the door?

 

[DRKsmoking]

Found the manual and recipe book this morning! I was breaking the box down for the dumpster and found both under one of the inside flaps at the bottom of the box. They should have been inside the unit with the silicone mats and such, oh well at least I found it.

That is good you found them , but yes normally taped inside the machines for those items.

David

 

[SmokinEdge]

Here is a small sample of my jerky. On the left is Backwoods Teriyaki and right is Hi Mountain hunter’s blend. It took 9 hours at the 158 setting to get the cracking on the bend test. Machine automatically shuts down at the end of the timer.

So far it seems great. One note is once the machine shuts down the lights on the digital dash board flash and the only way to shut them off is to unplug. Not a huge deal for me because this will not be a permanent appliance on my counter, but if it were it is kind of a pain to have unplug after use. Cut and 1/4” I figure I can get about 7 pounds of meat in this thing. At 1/8” I’m thinking closer to 4 pounds just to give an idea of batch size.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Going to dehydrate some roasted Pueblo Chiles today to grind into a powder to mix in with some carne asada seasoning for the next batch of venison jerky tomorrow.

 

[Steve H]

I have the same one with different badging. The stainless steel racks are a god send. Just toss in the dishwasher to clean. Just did 4 pounds of jerky today. This was thin sliced. So it was packed. I've done 5 pounds at 1/4"thick. And it handled it fine. You could do maybe 6 pounds. Not sure about 7 pounds.