I'm thinking of asking for one for xmas - anyone have and use them? What do you like, dislike about them. What are your favs, and what brand do you own?

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Depends on what you are using it for!

Mine seems to run nonstop from now until January - jerky time. Obviously, it's worth it for us - we eat jerky while we are hunting, and it's a lot better and cheaper for me to make it than paying for it in the store.

I have I believe the American Harvest or something like it - the round stacking ones. I don't have any complaints. The trick is to remember to rotate trays every few hours to get the best results.

I've main dried fruit on them, but it was a long time ago. I mainly use it for jerky.

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I have 2 american harvesters, yes, do remember to rotate the trays while drying, it makes the process faster. I make herbs, dried fruit snacks and zest's with mine, I am looking forward to doing some jerky in mine soon as well!
I also like it for drying veggies to just throw into soups and stews when they are not available or too expensive!!

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It is a periodic appliance in our house, sort of like the ice cream maker which we use only in the summer. The food dehydrator (the round American Harvester) is used only in the fall.

Before getting a dehydrator, I dehydrated in my oven which worked just fine. However, it does tend to tie up the oven quite a bit plus you have to deal with the odor of whatever you're dehydrating and you're heating up your house. A separate dehydrator is nice because you can put it in another room - or the garage - while it is operating.

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dh got one for his birthday, his request so he could make jerky. He was full of steam, made about 4 batches and it's been in the cupboard ever since, about 4yrs now.

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I have an Excalibur, and it goes constantly from the first tomatoes in summer through the last of the apples in October. It saves a lot of freezer space, and is less work than canning.

A few weeks ago I found a great deal on fresh mushrooms, so I bough 20 boxes and dehydrated them. I won't have to buy mushrooms for a long time. We love sun dried tomatoes, but they cost $14 a pound at the grocery store. I make my own in the dehydrator for almost nothing (just the cost of the electricity) with tomatoes from the garden. I also like to dehydrate tomatoes until they are crispy, and put them in the blender to make powder. You can later mix it with water to get paste, sauce, juice, or whatever consistency you want.

I just bought a 50# sack of potatoes at the farmers' market. I know it won't keep until we use it up, so I'm getting ready to dehydrate about half of them. Then I'll dehydrate some more apples from our tree, and possibly try some pumpkin. After that, the Excalibur gets put away for a nice long winter's rest. I have had it two years and it has paid for itself many times over.

Really I would like one to make snacks for the kids - my freezer is full of frozen veggies and fruits from the farms from the summer, and I'd like to have the option of storing even more fruit and veggies for the family. I love dried fruit and I think ds would as well. Dh doesnt hunt so we wont be doing jerky, but it might be fun to try beef,

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