Excalibur Dehydrator 4500 / 4900

Dehydrator caught on fire after only 6 uses – 5 tray Excalibur Dehydrator caught on fire after only 6 uses. Product is just out of warranty but is in like new condition. Only used 6 times and the 26 hour timer component caught on fire internally. This could have been catastrophic and burnt our house to the ground if I wasn’t present when the fire started. I contacted the Australian agents for… Read more

Excalibur Dehydrators to raise my concerns and ask for help to fix the problem but also to bring awareness to the potential danger this product poses. The response I received from excaliburdehydrator.com.au was rather poor and did not acknowledge my concerns whatsoever. Please see response below…

“Hello ……,

Thank you for the information. We are so sorry for having this issue. We completely understand your concern. We want to help you. But as much as we want to, unfortunately, we can't at the moment, we are truly sorry, as we don't have a technician available right now to help us.

We strongly suggest you consult a technician near your area, or you can bring your machine to the nearest appliance center to check what is causing the issue and be able to fix it for you.

Again, we are so sorry ……..

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us.

Kind Regards, [Name Removed]

Kindest Regards [Name Removed] Team Excalibur Dehydrators www.excaliburdehydrator.com.au”

A wondeful addition to my kitchen – Great service from Echolife and Zesty by Nature, Instructions were very easy to understand. Food dehydrated well and within specified times. Very happy with my appliance. I was able to dry tomatoes, carrots,apples, made tomato powder. Our local doctor has one and she loves hers. I researched dehydrators for some time and took notice of my doctor's recommendation. I would certainly deal with these companies again  Show details ·  1

Poor quality – I was looking for to prolonging my fruits through dehydration. However, the product arrive cracked due to poor packaging. The cardboard was in perfect shape. No reason to suspect deliver service. The unit upon start up vibrates loudly. I would not recommend the product. Definitely not worth spending about $200.  Show details

Totally efficient – Excellent unit. A bit costly but worth the extra dollars. Made in USA. Not a peice of junk. Others not a patch. Easy to master. Good instructions. Quick and consistent results. I dont use any chemicals or preservatives. Many who have seen the results are amazed and some have purchased the same model and are delighted also. I do fruit herbs and… Read more

veges in the main. Pot pouri petals in a couple of hours. I dont do meat so cannot comment. Totally recommend this unit.

Love it – Years ago I bought a round one from a well known shop. It wasn't expensive. The trays stacked on top of each other. You had to keep unstacking and rotating them. Fruit leather was on the top. I never managed to make fruit leather. Once you start chopping and slicing things up you would be surprised how much room you need! The dehydrator had… Read more

not a lot of room to do much of anything. The heat and air came from the bottom up the centre. Poor and inconsistent results. You couldn't just leave it and let it do its job. I gave up and gave it away.

About 2 years ago I started juicing with a slow press juicer (Hurom), it doesn't create as much pulp as a masticating or centrifugal juicer but it does still leave pulp. All that wasted pulp! Wanting to use as much pulp as possible I decided to make crackers and raw foods. Because of my previous poor experience with a dehydrator, I researched dehydrators for months. I learned that it is the way that the air moves and the way that the temperature behaves inside the dehydrator that makes the difference. Based on research and a multitude of reviews I bought the 5 tray Excalibur and 5 paraflex sheets. Love it!!!! Not once have I been disappointed. I have made; raw foods, snacks, crackers, biltong/Jerky, celery salt, veggie and fruit powders, fruit leathers, potato and sweet potato chips, chocolate bites and macaroons, the list goes on and on.... I just love it. It does what it says it does and dries evenly. I put it on and walk away (mostly depending on what I am making).

I like that you can slide the trays in and out. They can be handled as they are plastic. No stacking and restacking. It has a timer. It has a good temperature range and a colour coded guide for fruit/veg/herbs and meat on the dial showing both Celsius and Fahrenheit. You can leave some or all of your trays out and use the space to raise bread or dry bulky things It is also really easy to clean (bonus).

It is BIG though, probably as big as a microwave. Worried about the size I bought a 5 tray. The 5 tray has great capacity and is good for a small family, but I recommend that you give yourself more flexibility and buy the 9 tray, it is the same width and depth of the 5 tray, just higher. You can put 7kg of meat in a 5 tray and 12kg of meat in a 9 tray. That is a big difference.

At some stage you will want to make things that might be runny mixtures or say fruit leathers or crackers, or you are drying tiny things that might fall through the thin drying mesh, you will need to use some sort of sheet for those things, so you are probably going to buy paraflex sheets or similar. They mostly don't come with the machine so buy these upfront if you can.

I rate this a clear 5 star. Performance- it does what it says it does and it does it well. Slide in and removable trays. Capacity. Temperature control. Easy to use and really easy to clean. Nothing.

Love this machine - huge, great airflow and quiet – Everyone thought I was crazy spending so much on this dehydrator when I still had a very workable Sunbeam which I did think was excellent. However, I liked the sound of the excalibur because of the timer, and it stated that you didn't need to rotate the trays (as I did have to do with my trusty Sunbeam). Wow this lives up to all of those… Read more

points, plus it is SO much easier to clean - plus it doesn't stain if using it for beef jerky. I got the largest Excalibur with 9 trays+timer and it holds A LOT which is fantastic. The adjustable settings mean that you can dehydrate any fruit, meat, vegetable or herbs - even delicate ones- and the flavour is still there.

The fan is quiet and it circulates air inside so well, I've never needed to rotate trays - I just set it to go and put on the timer - and come back in the morning with beautifully dehydrated food. Love this machine - it's expensive but worth it. Square trays that hold a lot of food, the timer, airflow for consistent drying

Best dehydrator on the market – I replaced my sunbeam dehydrator with this machine after I got sick of the round hole in the middle trays, this machine is fantastic, I use it roughly 2-3 times per week. Dries much more evenly and seems to be faster as well. I recommend the timer version as this allows you to pop it on and walk away. The machine is also much quieter than the… Read more

sunbeam also, def. worth the extra money if you are a regular user. Quiet, timer, even drying, great! None