Anyone have a recommendation for a dehydrator?  We used a small circular one of my buddies yesterday to finish drying out jerky.  Seems like we could make more by putting on smoker for a few hours and then pulling off and putting in the dehydrator.  Cabela's has one on sale til Dec 13th that is $270 and has a lifetime warranty.  Wasn't looking to spend that much money, but it sure looks nice and has large capacity.

The 80-Liter Commercial Food Dehydrator?

The 80-Liter Commercial Food Dehydrator?

Yes

I have an Excalibur 9 tray.
Bought it several years ago and I like it but haven't used it in a few years because I bought it for jerky and once I started using my pellet grills for that the dehydrator just doesn't compare.
Did a good job but just lacking in taste, at least to me.

I use a dehydrator to finish my jerky all the time, after smoking it for the first half of the process and really like the flavor. I started doing it this way to speed up the time for multiple batches.
I tried it on the dehydrator first once but the smoke didn't adhere on the back half and the meat was lacking in taste as yorkdude mentioned.
I've been using an entry level Nesco with extra trays for years but just put in a Christmas request for a new Nesco with adjustable temp up to 160 that's under $70 online and has good reviews. The Excalibur sure looks top notch but was just more than I needed.

how many lbs of jerky do you usually cook

We've made jerky 3x the back half of the year anywhere from 20#-45#

Excalibur. Works far better than a cheap one from cabana or bass pro.


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I can't see paying $225 for the Excalibur when the Cabela's commercial grade unit is on sale for $269.  Still not sure if I will pull the trigger on a purchase though.  Have a few days before the sale ends.

I have had the Cabella 80l for 8 years and it is a quality unit. Yes it's big and does make a bit of noise, but the temps are spot on. I also use it for bread proofing in colder weather.

I have the 80L also probably 10-12 years it will hold about 20# of meat. and works great, it will warm a small home, mine is about 1000 sq ft, when I make jerky the heat doesn't turn on. usually 5-8 hours for me. I wish I would have bought the larger one, but have read where it doesn't work as well.

I have the 80L also probably 10-12 years it will hold about 2# of meat. and works great, it will warm a small home, mine is about 1000 sq ft, when I make jerky the heat doesn't turn on. usually 5-8 hours for me. I wish I would have bought the larger one, but have read where it doesn't work as well.

I really only holds 2# of meat?

no it will do 20, sorry I fixed my typo

I ended up not pulling the trigger on the commercial unit when it was on sale.  I didn't want to spend that much money on one right now.  I bought the 12 tray pro series model that is currently on sale for $149 today.  It should hold 10-12 pounds of beef jerky.

If you are in the market for a new over, buy one that dehydrates too, my Samsung does. Didn't even know it when I bought it, but it has a dehydrate setting

Oven, OK...I got that one much faster the I normally would have...That would be a cool feature, I would if I could use our Proof setting to dehydrate meat?