Sunbeam Food Lab DT6000

meat drying notes – PLEASE PLEASE I can not stress this enough. When dehydrating chicken and most meats, ALWAYS cook thoroughly first. DO NOT use oil to cook any meat, dehydrating can not dry meat with any fat - in fact it will assist in going rancid and a whole lot of bacteria. Use a little water or dry fry the meat. Also when drying fruit and veg place in a glass… Read more ·  1

container not plastic. Dried meat is better in a material bag and hung till required for use. Tried and error - found plastic is bad and will start the white fluff (mould). Safety first always please. Now I have this down pat, my Food Lab DT6000 is getting a real work out.

This is perfect for jerky or zucchini chips – Have been using this to make keto snacks at home, saving myself a fortune on packaged snacks. Very easy to use and to clean, I prefer the design compared to the traditional circular dehydrators Show details

Awesome for my need – I bought this to make Jerky and am positively wrapped with this purchase. Tried fruit but l wasn't interested, not dehydrators fault. I used to buy cheap stuff to see if l wanted more, YES, l did. Show details

Not a good experience – I bought two of these units and the weak plastic trays keep snapping in half. If your doing fruits or jerky you'll be fine but no soft offal or dog bones. The round dehydrators are more solid with stronger plastic making them more durable. I've had to source two stainless steel things to form a tray because 6 are damaged. I did talk to sunbeam… Read more

about a replacement for one cracked/broken tray but I was treated like an idiot. You are treated like you're being an inconvenience to them.

Better design than others – Dehydrators?? A good idea if you know how to use them. Unfortunately many are round and plastic with more of a focus on vegetables , herbs , fruit or flowers but really tacky to use for meat products. I only found this design by chance and I grabbed it, My aim is to make beef jerky or Biltong . Normally you would be using a system of… Read more

screened racks and mesh for meat but this one has plastic shelves which in my opinion is its only drawback. I would rather metal shelves. It does come with mesh screens for finer items though

Still, a fan forced low wattage cooking dehydrator is what is needed and this works well enough. More practical for loading over the pancake cylindrical designs and more functional with control. You wont be eating much power over time with a 500 watt element. The unit though is not compact and would eat up some cupboard real estate in your house for storage.

Seems many electrical retail outlets dont know about them as I found this one at Myer and no where else.(WA)

Good guys and Harveys were selling the other types which are not practical designs in my opinion This design is far better.

A tiered racking system and more open area is the better version such as this one.

It does what I expected , results are as expected. and yes Im only using it for one purpose.

Only used 3 times and now it won't heat – Got this from Harvey Norman in New Zealand. First couple of times was fine although I still noticed periods where it was cold. Now the heater refuses to work altogether. Have wasted my time trying to dry fruit a few times now. This must be a faulty unit. Am returning to Harvey Norman.  Show details

Exactly what I wanted/expeted – Well priced and does beef jerky a treat. I do not bother to rotate shelves just set and forget, come back 10 hours later and have great jerky. Just put in first batch of fish Jerky and that has come up great. Only thing that would make it superb would be dish washable shelves.  Show details

Good value – Had done a brief research before buying this product. It's around $60 cheaper than other famous brands while on sale. I like the fact that it has 6 racks so I can as much as I can for each time. Had made dried fruits mainly and the noise is not bad at all. Will recommend this product to friends.  Show details

Very Happy – I researched dehydration machines in detail and was impressed with the Sunbeam due to its size and abilities. My main use is for Beef Jerky which after a couple of trials with diferent meats and flavourings I have mastered the art and the kids are more than happy. Do yourself a favour and buy one you would think be disappointed. GARY DYE Perth Western Australia  Show details ·  1

They almost got it right – the User Guide says Maximum Time Setting is 19.5 Hours It won't actually allow more than 10 Hours. Annoying to have to cool it down for 2 Hours, then start again. I bought his particular Model on the basis of the advertised settings. Is there a hardware/firmware fix for this, or do I just have a faulty Unit? Disappointing.  Show details

LOVE – Purchased from Harvey Norman who were kind enough to price Myer for me and have had mine for about a week now. So far I've made crunchy chickpeas, banana chips, kale chips and dried apples. I really love the ease of use, it's pretty quiet and fairly easy to clean. Just set the timer and temperature and go! A great way to make tasty and healthy snacks and preserve food.  Show reply