Reading through this buying guide for the ideal food dehydrator will help you know what to look out for when shopping for this extremely valuable tool for every prepper, but first…

Why Are Dehydrators So Valuable?

Be it a new or seasoned prepper; you’re most likely familiar with the suggestion to have a personal survival garden & buy supplies in bulk whenever necessary and possible. If you haven’t, well, this is a wake-up call.

Both approaches are excellent, given that they save you a lot of money. Should you be successful with both methods, you will have access to various healthy foods (even in seasons when they aren’t meant to be available). 

However, what do you do when you have problems with storage, say you have a bountiful harvest, or get your hands on a game that you can’t keep for long? 

Well, what you do is get a dehydrator!

Food dehydrators help to preserve foods healthily since no chemical or sugar is added, thereby supporting a healthy diet. You may find yourself having to de-moisture meat, fruits & veggies more often to avoid depreciation of nutrients or total spoilage, and it will do you great good to have your dehydrator at hand then.

You can buy your dehydrator for as low as $50 and as high as $400, depending on its quality.

Buying Good for the Ideal Food Dehydrator — Factors to Consider

Here are factors to look at as you choose out of the several options available to you on the market.

• Size: When making your choice, choose the size of your dehydrator according to your needs. Look at the number of racks and select one between 0–9 if your needs are little. On the other hand, if you have a large family or sizable farm, a higher rack count model may be more ideal.

• Power: Select a dehydrator with at least 500 watts of power to ease usage and ensure effectiveness.

• Heating: As the moisture from dehydrated food drips from top to bottom, avoid a model with its heating engine at the bottom. There are plenty of dehydrators with the heaters located at the top or by the back wall.

• Temperature: Settle for a dehydrator that you can adjust its temperature by a considerable level. This way, you have the chance to dry various types of foods at the ideal temperature for them.

• Timer: A timer is a bonus (not a necessity) in most dehydrators. While it will make things easier, it shouldn’t be a very essential criterion when deciding. 

How to Use a Food Dehydrator Correctly

Using your dehydrator is an easy thing to do, and it will come with a guide anyway. Adjusting temperatures and every other operation is usually shown in these guides. 

To use, all you have to do is slice the food you’re dehydrating in thin & even slices and spread across the racks. Put on the machine, adjust the temperature and wait for some time (you may have to use a manual timer if your machine doesn’t have one). With time, you’ll know the appropriate thickness for all food items. Note that soft foods, for example, fruits, will cook much faster than meat and other dense foods.

Food dehydrators work by cooking your food over a tireless, low heat over time. When you put an item in the dehydrator, it will shrink after some time, with the moisture totally dried out.

Finalizing the Buying Guide for the Ideal Food Dehydrator

From this buying guide for the ideal food dehydrator, you can see that the considerations are quite straightforward. Throw in the fact that the machine can be acquired at affordable prices, and you see there’s no reason not to buy one ASAP. Dehydrated foods will be crucial during a catastrophe.