Nesco FD-75PR 700-Watt Food Dehydrator
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Nesco FD-75PR 700-Watt Food Dehydrator
Customer Review: Awesome Food Dehydrator
Summary: 5 Stars
We purchased this dehydrator specifically to make chicken (and other meat) jerky for our dogs, as we have already lost one dog due to feeding the jerky that is made in China. Also I feel much better knowing what is going into their jerky treats, which is meat only, no preservatives. We make a batch about every 2 weeks, and the dogs absolutely love it!! And the best thing is knowing there is no melamine in it! We have sliced chicken breast, wild turkey, venison, and pork, into about 1/4 inch strips, then place it in the dehydrator, and turn it on. Start it around 10 am, and the jerky is done in about 8 hours, depending on temperature and humidity. We have also used for drying fruit, and making fruit leather. Awesome, and the dogs also love the banana chips, and apple slices. Very nice product, and it works great! Much better than the ronco one we had years ago, and less expensive. Please, if your dog loves jerky like mine, don't buy the stuff in the stores(about 95% of them are made in china), buy this instead, and it will pay for itself in a very short time, and you know what you are giving your dog is safe. Also recommend buying a recipe book, does come with a few recipes, but I like to try different things.Customer Review: Great Product for the Price
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this dehydrator about a month ago and have used it twice. I upgraded from my parents big brown Ronco food dehydrator and what a difference! The RONCO used take over 24 hours to dry jerky. This machine takes about 5 hours. The fan built into the top of the machine circulates the air so there is no need to switch trays from top to bottom like the RONCO. The fan does make noise but it's pretty quite. I could still watch tv even with the Nesco running. The temperature settings on the lid make for fool proof dehydrating. I do recommend the the mesh tray liners. I made jerky using the two tray liners that came with the machine and then just put the rest of the meat on the trays. The liners make for easy cleanup and prevent the meat from sticking. I would also recommend purchasing extra trays. THe machine comes with 5 but I had to do two batches because all the meat did not fit in one go around (about 3 lbs of beef). I gave a friend some jerky and her and her husband enjoyed it so much that they purchased this Nesco also and started making their own jerky. I am so pleased with this dehydrator. I researched many dehydrators before purchasing this one and this one is a GREAT product for a great price.Customer Review: What? No power switch?
Summary: 4 Stars
As others have said, this machine suffers from a lack of not only a timer, but the simple addition of a power switch. Odd that something which requires careful timing, would not have a built in timer.
Otherwise it functions well. Directions are a bit vague, so everything we have dried has been an adventure. For instance, it took us about 2 1/2 days to dry grapes into raisins. Good raisins. But I can only imagine that by the time you add the power costs, boxed raisins would have been a lot cheaper.
The Nesco American Harvest FD-75PR 700-Watt Food Dehydrator is wonderful for making beef jerky. We use their Nesco homemade beef jerky spices, variety pack, and mix the flavors to our taste. Haven't tried ground beef jerky. We slice ours. And the directions for doing that are again a bit vague, but it's not difficult, and the results are fantastic.
Clean up isn't bad. If you can't fit the trays into the top rack of your dishwasher, washing by hand is a bit of a chore, and after a batch of jerky, requires a good soak in the sink. But overall, since we purchased it primarily for making jerky, we are pleased with this item.
Customer Review: Actual power usage information
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading the great recipes on [...], I decided I had to have a dehydrator. Several hours of research lead me to the Nesco FD-75. My only hesitation was the 700 watt power rating. That is a lot of electricity over a 24 hour period. Oh well, my food will not dry itself so I placed my order. I figured almost 250 5 star rating couldn't be wrong.
The dehydrator arrived safe and whole in about a week and I removed it from the package. I washed everything in warm soapy water and plugged it in. First thing I made was "Cornbark" from the backpackingchef website. 16 oz. of creamed corn on one fruit rollup tray took about 16 hours to dry. Next time I will spread it over two trays, lesson learned. Next mushrooms, I sliced them thin and they dried in about 10 hours.
Then it occurred to me to plug the dehydrator into my Kill-a-watt and check actual power usage. To my surprise over the next 24 hour period it used 4.28 kw of electricity. That averages 178.33 watts per hour. Much better than the 700 watts I thought it would be. Total cost to run the FD-75, about $0.41 per day. Well worth the cost savings of buy prepackaged camping/hiking food.
Customer Review: Great Product
Summary: 5 Stars
I do a lot of backpacking and I was in the market for a dehydrator to make copious amounts of jerky for the trips. After reading about some brands that had a price tag well into the hundreds I deemed my ownership of a dehydrator a lost cause. That was until I found this bad boy (bad as in good). First of all, its super affordable, I was amazed at the price. Secondly, it works great! Very quiet and has a large capacity.
There are obviously a couple things that I would improve, but I would never expect a product that works this well for this price to be perfect. The trays are a bit difficult to clean, you need to get a brush, problem solved. I am not sure if this is even possible to improve but it takes some practice to know when your jerky is done. It says in the manual "firm but not brittle" that is just not enough info for me. Regardless, even with a few pieces under-dried, this has kept me well fed on my backpacking trips and in the office. Tinker with some marinades and buy brisket if you want to dehydrate beef! I have also tried round and flank steak but brisket holds the marinade the best and is the most flavorful! Enjoy!