Cabelas 10 tray dehydrator

[rustyN]

Anyone used one? Seems to get good reviews: Cabela's Online Store - Quality Hunting, Fishing, Camping and Outdoor Gear

I have a cheap dehydrator that takes forever right now and am looking to upgrade. Figured for $109 it's probably a good deal, but debating whether or not saving up for the "commerical" grade 80L one.

Anyone have any other recommendations?

 

[TroyCA]

I have the 6 tray - essentially the same model but smaller and I love it. Now I’ve only had for 6 months but i find it works great. No complaints. I have done jerky, fruits, veggies, chilli for backpacking meals. Going to try a few more things soon. Great deal for that price.


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[rbljack]

Yep..I bought one over the weekend and did a full 10 trays of apples in it to test it out. It works better than my old one which was round with 5 trays and took a long time also. After filling all 10 trays with apples, I ran it overnight for 14 hours to get the apples pretty dry. The fan is noticeable when running, but is not excessively loud. You can easily talk over it, or run it overnight without it keeping anyone awake.

Keep this in mind; shrinkage sucks...LOL. If you are short on space, it works well, and I think will do well when I make jerky. If you have the room, Id opt for the Commercial Grade 12 tray unit which is 80liter I think at 299.00. It will provide a much larger return for each full cycle it runs. I really don't know how cost effective dehydrating food is when you add up the electric cost and heater running for 14 hours. BUT with that said... for us anyways.....the Smell of spice and jerky in the fall is PRICELESS! So for 109, I don't think we did too bad. If you have other questions that I haven't answered, throw them my way and I will do what I can to provide an answer.


One thing I really didnt think about is this; you cant just put this up against a wall or under your kitchen cabinets and run it that way. Directions say it needs space on all 4 sides, and the back. Not sure if this is a deal breaker or not, but I read in the directions that the trays are NOT dishwasher safe, so that is kind of a bummer too. Its too early for me to give any kind of detailed review, but hope this info helps.

 

[rustyN]

I'm not crunched for space, so size wouldn't be an issue. Just looking for something better than the 6 tray circle one that I have. It will pretty much only be used for jerky- a couple deer per year, and whatever else I shoot. My dad has a lot of ground bison and elk that he said I can have to make jerky as well (guessing over 100lbs) so I think I'll save a little longer and go for the commercial one.

 

[rbljack]

yeah if I had the room, that's the option I would go with. I went back to cabelas today with a 20 dollar off coupon, so I picked up a Slicer too. For those who will be drying apples, pears or other fruits with a core....get ya an apple corer. When combined with the slicer it made short work of 10 trays of Pears. I picked the tips up from a you tuber I'm following: tree line pursuits. He went into detail for his method of drying fruits for backcountry tips in one video, and a second for dehydrating meals.

I did apples last time (sliced by hand) and this time I did pears. From start to finish including clean up, it took under an hour to core, slice, load the 10 trays, and clean up. So now its just a waiting game for the next 12 hours or so. I will probably do another batch tomorrow. Still have pears and apples in the fridge!

 

[bruno59]

I have this exact same model for about a year and half has worked amazing dried lots of jerky deer,antelope,elk and the clean up is quick. I do around 5 to 6lbs at a time on about 7 or 8 trays and only takes about 6 1/2 hours it comes out so good my friends say I should sell it nah I just eat it all

 

[diyguy]

I have done a large amount of goose (snow and Canada) jerky in this dehydrator and it is awesome. I am starting to do research to dehydrate my own meals and I am hoping it does well for that.

 

[nrh6.7]

If anyone is still looking at this unit, I got a flyer in the mail yesterday that this is on sale for $99 till the 12th or so. Flyer also had a 10% off coupon attached, which could be used as well.

 

[hflier]

I really like mine. Works great.