why is this dehydrator cheaper than most with the same features?
1268055
It's because the grill is made by chrome. Some say that it doesn't rust but I believe the metal taste can get into the food with the time. If you notice the dehydrator made with stainless steel grill are more expensive.
464351
I'm not sure why they are different prices but one uses milk and one uses sugar water with the grains.
1109928
True. We bought the one at Costco for $500, and added the Dry Blender for an additional $100 (as well as the spice pack for another $20) (rounding up on all prices). Basically, our out the door price was $657 with tax. Also, since we bought during the demonstration, we received the full 7 year warranty on all items purchased that day. A much better deal than what is being reflected on Amazon, but this requires a Costco Membership, and attending one of the live demonstrations. My wife has been wanting one of these for years, and the demo convinced us to finally make the purchase for her birthday.
1953308
No you have to have a transformer! I made the mistake of thinking a simple converter would do the trick, and I blew the motor in the dehydrator within seconds! :( It really needs to be very clear on their page for international buyers to make sure they know they need a transformer! By the way, you can pick up a transformer for about $50. Mine was from WallCan in Adelaide. Hope that helps
144411
Yes, I would think so. It appears to be no different than a regular dehydrator.
14066
Buy the cheaper one, it's the same product. The difference might be that one product is aimed for the consumer market and the other at the commercial market.
314324
500 Watts for an hour is 0.5 KWh. A KWh is about 8-12 cents unless you're in CA or Hawaii. So 5 cents per hour for a normal dehydrator (some would be closer to 7). So running a dehydrator for about 10 hours would cost 50 cents or so.
2252376
By your question I can't tell what the 'cheaper one listed by you at this link' actually is...there is no link to it...just a link to Amazon. If you could let me know what that other one was I might be able to explain what differences there are. With that in mind...I bought this one because of the durability of this particular unit. I did some research and this one had a much lower failure rate and is supposed to last much longer than most of the others.
1291509
I was wondering the same thing. Obviously one difference is price, in which I'm going with the cheapest!
151880
The "cheaper" deluxe is not really cheaper. It's on sale. It's also a little lighter and has some extra control. Don't think you'll go wrong with it.
2172106
I agree with the other responses. We started dehydrating various foods years ago and have experience with a couple of the much cheaper units. The Excalibur 3900B was a huge move up. It really does dry dozens of pieces at a time. We tried apples, pears, and even experimented with summer squash and tomatoes. It is fast and works great. Organic apple chips with no additives at all - hard to beat! I didn't rank ALL of the choices either, but did quite a bit of research, too. It was well worth the purchase price for us.
2263179
The difference appears to be volume. The item listed here is one pint (smaller & lower price). The item you're comparing it to is one quart (larger & higher price).
1482597
Hi, I really don't know why apparently a newer model costs less than the older one. As I wrote in my review, this product turned out to be a useless device, it could be because of a defect, I'm not sure. Maybe I should have bought an "EDIMAX" model instead. Hope you have a better luck. Regards,Agron
2180618
I think it's saying 3x faster than other dehydrators. I don't know if that's true. Dehydrators take awhile to use. As far as the watts It's 400w, and it heats up to 156F. It's a fantastic dehydrator, works like a champ. I've made all sorts of dried fruits, and dried herbs. I actually loved it so much I bought another one for my mom for Christmas who seems to love it too. She frequently uses it to make Jerky treats for her dog. It's a good size, but isn't going to take over your kitchen counter. It's also really quiet. I let mine run all night long and did not even notice it while trying to sleep. Hope this helps!
2167581
I bought 4 extra trays and regularly use 10 with no problem. Halfway through the drying cycle, I rotate the trays (moving the top trays to the bottom) to even out the drying time, as the top trays do take a bit longer since the heat source comes from below. LOVE THIS DEHYDRATOR. (Note: My original one stopped working after 11-1/2 months and Presto shipped me a brand-new one right away. And they didn't ask me to ship them the old one, as some companies do; they simply asked me to email a photo of the old one with the cord cut off.)
403794
the FD1018P is an 8 tray variable temperature dehydrator that can expand to 30 trays, the gardenmaster is a 4 tray system and I don't believe it is expandable nor having variable temperatures. I have never used the gardenmaster myself, but I have had the FD1018P for 3 years now. Also as one other person said, element is on top for the gardenmaster, and on the bottom for the FD, however the FD doesn't have issues with the drippage as it is covered by an aluminum plate and only the central fan is open. So where some drips do hit the plate, they don't go much of anywhere and with the mesh covers you have to have seriously soggy fruits or veggies to get much drip at all.
737042
Don't know. Me up going to a dehydrator and a vacuum sealer. More food less money