How long does it take in an Excalibur to make jerky?

[atcnick]

Got an Excalibur 9 tray dehydrator.  Im making beef jerky for the first time using eye of round roast cut 1/4" thick.  Everyone tells me its going to take better part of 8-12 hours.  Mines just under 4 hours now and it looks almost ready.  Is this about right?

Its set on 155*f

 

[rbranstner]

I did three batches of jerky last weekend and they took around 4.5-5 hours but that was ground meat out of a jerky gun. Does yours have a fan that blows in it? Mine does and it gets the jerky done really fast compared to my dads old Ronco which didn't have a fan and it would take him almost 2 days to get all of it dry when he had a full load. Give it the bend test. If you bend it the meat should crack and look dry but it won't break in half. I bet its getting close. My directions sucked on my dehydrator. It said it would take anywhere from 4-12 hours for jerky. That's a huge difference and I know there are a lot of variables (such as thickness and temp you use if you have a temp control) but come on they should be able to narrow it down a bit. Once you get your first batch done then you will have a better idea how long it will take in your machine.

 

[spicy-meat]

atcnick, I have the same one you do.  I usually set mine at 145 and it takes around 7 hours.  I was reading back on my notes for the last several batches and the shortest was 6 hours and the longest was 8.  The 8 hour session was on the drier side.