Cabela's commercial dehydrator

[Automan21k]

I just ordered the 80L Cabela's commercial dehydrator online today, so I guess it is a bit late to ask, but I will anyway.... Does anyone have one and is it really worth the $350 price?


I went with it because I am tired of every dehydrator I look at being made of plastic. I wanted something that I could turn on without the constant worry that I was about to burn my house down.

[staylo]

I do not have one, but my neighbor bought one after having a bunch of the cheaper types you talked about and he says he wishes he'd have just spent the extra money the first time around. He loves it.

[Automan21k]

Thanks, I just breathed a sigh of relief. I was worried that the only people who ever bought it was me and the one guy on youtube who reviewed it.

I may have to do my own review for the next guy who looks for info on it.

[Brutus2006]

I've had one for 3 years now. I use it for making jerky from my ground deer meat. Love the fact I can put 15 pounds of ground in at a time. The only thing that I don't like about it, is that I have to rotate the racks top to bottom every two hours, and turn them 180 degrees at least once in the 8 to 9 hours it takes to get the jerky to the way we like. Don't know if anyone else has this problem. If I just leave them, the bottom left of the cabinets contents get overly dry, while the top racks are not even close to being done.

[Automan21k]

for the past 2 weekends I've been buying up 10lbs of smoked turkey bacon and drying that into jerky. At 160 it only takes about 4 hours and I haven't had any issues with uneven drying.
my wife has been using it to dry bananas and seasoned kale (some oil, water, sriracha, and brewers yeast). So far, it has been run from sunrise to sun set 3 days a week without issue.
I already picked up a few new things to try this weekend, including tomatoes, apples, and a pile of steak.

[CL3]

for the past 2 weekends I've been buying up 10lbs of smoked turkey bacon and drying that into jerky. At 160 it only takes about 4 hours and I haven't had any issues with uneven drying.
my wife has been using it to dry bananas and seasoned kale (some oil, water, sriracha, and brewers yeast). So far, it has been run from sunrise to sun set 3 days a week without issue.
I already picked up a few new things to try this weekend, including tomatoes, apples, and a pile of steak.

Stop. You are making me drool everywhere..........

How's the power usage on these stand-alone smokers?

I'm in the market for a new grill, and I'm going to be sure I can smoke in it.

/ now excuse me, I have to get back to dreaming about jerky and this sriracha seasoned kale you speak of...

[Automan21k]

I'll let you know if my electric bill goes up significantly. I don't have a smoker (yet) just the dehydrator, but it doesn't seem to have a noticeable increase to out power usage.

This weekend I'm going to try to make fruit leather with a spicy edge to it...maybe a bit of jalapeno jelly with mixed berries. I'm also going to try some dried cranberries.

[CL3]

Awesome. I meant to say 'dehydrator' but I must have smoke on my brain dreaming about my future smoking and eating smoked food. I'd love a dehydrator too.

[I'm armed]

The pumpkin leather recipe on this page is popular at my house. http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/dry/veg_leathers.html
It makes the whole house smell like I'm baking pumpkin pie.

I have a Nesco 700 watt dehydrator. It's plastic and we've never had any problems. We get alot of use out of it.

If you dehydrate onions, you might want to put the dehydrator in the basement or on a porch or something. (something we learned after a everyone's-eyes-are-burning-and-we're-crying-experience)

[ettorment1916]

This post got me thinking that I may need to upgrade my own dehydrator.

I'm still using the old Ronco Ron Popeil dehydrator circa 1989... I'm not joking and it was a gift from my Grandmother. It works alright but I'm always rotating the racks to get even drying. But it seems I would need to do the same with the 80L.

Are their any reasonably priced makes/models out there where you don't need to rotate the racks?