Excalibur 3926TW Excalibur 3926TW 9 Tray Dehydrator with Timer White, 1, White

This is a review of the Excalibur 3926TW (W for White) 9-tray dehydrator with timer, which I bought for my wife last Christmas (2013). When my wife borrowed a main-stream Nesco brand round-style dehydrator from a co-worker to "test drive" a few months ago, I started researching brands and models, because she was very excited about drying the herbs she grows in a small side garden every year, not to mention all of the fruits and veggies from our back yard. Also, both of my daughters love beef jerky (as do I), but they can't afford it in the quantity they eat it in (nor can I, for them!) - that stuff is $$$! Anyway, the Nesco would have worked fine for spices, but even though it was one of their larger models with many trays, it had way too little "total area" in which to dry decent sized batches of fruits, vegetable or jerky. So, of course, I decided on the Excalibur brand after a lot of research because (as you will certainly find, if you do the same) it is simply in a whole other league than any of the mainstream brands. Moreover, it is very competitive with (and better than most) commercial brands out there at a far less price. Speaking of price (and it is pricey), it is definitely one of those "you get what you pay for" products. High quality, solid construction and a huge amount of space for drying. I went with the white because I thought my wife would prefer it and also because for some reason it is a few dollars less than in black of the same model. Furthermore I purchased it through Amazon because it was $45 less expensive than buying it directly from the Excalibur website, so I paid about $250 (Excalibur does offer free shipping on their site, but I am a Amazon Prime member, so shipping was not a factor in the price). A very important fact to know: it is warranted (at least this model is) for a FULL 10 YEARS if you purchase it directly from Excalibur, whereas only half of that term (5 years) if you buy it from a third party like Amazon. So you will need to make the hard decision (like I did) as to whether it is worth losing a half of a decade of security against the failure of the unit in return for saving about 50 bucks. In the end, I figured that if they where willing to provide customers with 10 years worth of warranty for only $45, then they are pretty confident that most of their units will last at least that long. I would have loved to have purchased one of the stainless steel models (with stainless steel trays) or perhaps a copper models. If I had decided to do so, I would have definitely went with the longer warranty since those models cost a lot more (about twice as much for the SS w/SS trays and $150 more for the copper) and because the percentage of the total price for the "extra warranty" to be included would have been much less overall (about 10% vice 20%). Of course, you must be sure to register your purchase via their website to activate the warranty. The noise level that this unit produces is exactly what I would have expected from any dehydrator and is at the same level of the much, much smaller Nesco. Its about a loud as a fairly quiet bathroom exhaust fan - totally expected from a device that works by blowing hot air over stuff. I can see how it might be annoying if you are using it while you are in the kitchen for a long time. That reminds me of a better analogy... it is about half as quiet as our 1200w Sharp Carousel microwave oven, but microwaves are ran for relatively short periods of time. Although we could easily tolerate the noise if it were used in the kitchen (especially since we usually set it for operation overnight), we have no such concerns because we have it in our study due to the fact that it is not used frequently enough to justify a permanent place on the counter. That reminds me of another point, it is about the size if a large microwave oven. That's definitely a plus in my book, because that is why it can dehydrate such large quantities of stuff with each batch. Conversely it is pretty light in weight, so would be a good candidate for stowage between usage if you have enough space under a counter. On a quality note, the thickness of the plastic walls are about three times that of the Nesco's walls, but seem to me in rigidity and "solidness" to be about 10 times as thick! I don't know if this has to do with the quality of plastic or just because of the properties inherent due to the triple-increased thickness, but it is great. I have done several batches of jerky and am very excited... I must say, it's the best that I have ever tasted (especially when still warm!) and a lot less expensive. The crazy thing is that each batch is done in only about 4 1/2 hours, which is far less time than I would have thought it would take, especially since I have a hard time keeping the thickness of the meat slices to 3/16 of an inch... most of mine are at least 1/4 of an inch thick each (if not more), but the results are superb. Since it is of course still winter here in North Texas, we have only dried one batch of late growing oregano, also with excellent results (my wife chastised me when I crushed a dehydrated leaf cluster to give it the smell test)... apparently you are not supposed to crush the whole leaves of dried spices until you are just about to use them. Who knew?!? All of the little jars in the store are definitely "pre-crushed". Make sense though, to maximize the flavor, huh? Another reason to dry your own. In summary, I do not think that you will have any regrets whatsoever, at all, period, if you buy an Excalibur dehydrator, unless you opt for one that has no timer, because if you are like me (and can burn water while trying to cook something) it will only be a matter of time before you forget that you have something dehydrating only to find that whatever it was before has been transformed into weird looking rocks! Hope this helps, Joe Mac

My first impressions were: - Louder than expected - Heats up really fast! - Incredibly spacious - Well built I'm really happy with this. It's sort of like a zojirushi rice cooker in that, people will be blown away that you spent twice as much (or more) than you needed to for 'the same thing'. The reality is it's a pleasure to use, the results are superior, it cleans up beautifully, and it feels like it'll last for ages. They're just better products. If you care about dehydrating, invest! Likewise, if you're crazy for rice, get an awesome rice cooker. As for the noise, I don't care anymore. I'm used to dehydrators with no fan. This has a fan so it's going to sound like a fan. I've come to enjoy that aspect of it in a way. The smell of dehydrating fruit or jerky, the low hum, the added warmth in the kitchen. It's really pleasant while this thing is working. It's the sound of having good things going on at home.

I have used the unit three times...vension jerky....fruits.....more fruits and have been really happy with the results. The process has been quite simple and I expect I will get even better results as I gain more experience. Delivery and set up was just as I had hoped, easy to use, clean up simple and the results have been just great. The unit is quite large and would take up a foot and half of counter space, which might be an issue for some. I have my unit set up next to my chest freezer in the basement so it was not a problem for me. I did not find the drying sound to loud nor obnoxious. I was really happy with the drying process, I only spun the trays around once during the 8 or so hours and did not change shelf levels and had good even drying results. I believe fan location for the Excalibur really adds to a successful de-hydration and was one of the reasons I choose it. The taste of the fruit is excellent. The jerky was OK but I expect the taste will improve as I experiment with different rubs/ marinades and work out the kinks for drying time. This is my 1st experience with de-hydrating so I have no other products to compare the Excalibur unit with. The unit seems well made and so far I have no concerns that the shelves or dryer will fail me. I have been very happy so far.

OK, I have no idea what a JerkyMaster 2000 is, but it sounds awesome and if there were one, this would be it. I have put about fifty pounds of beef through this thing and continue to be amazed at the quality and reliability of the Excalibur. It abounds with solid engineering decisions some of which take awhile to see clearly and truly appreciate. Examples: Square trays so they can be turned 90 degrees and you will never have to fumble with dropping a tray you are trying to insert because you tried to put it in the wrong way. There isn't a wrong way. Front door that isn't hinged. This way there is never a problem with the door sweeping items off a counter, or the door opening the wrong way to be convenient. The use of plastic [this was a hard one for me as I try to buy heavy duty commercial gear, made of metal and designed to last forever]... plastic is cool to the touch. It is easily cleaned with water. It is lightweight [VERY important if, like me, you don't have a full-time home for your dryer... I use it on the range under the hood but between uses it lives elsewhere. Heavy metal would be a back breaker.] Fan is on the back so no goo falls onto it. Fan is big enough to really circulate air for fast, very even drying. The controls are simple, mechanical switches. If I had a nickel for every stupid LED display or membrane switch that has failed and thus killed a gizmo I bought, I could have bought this dryer with my pocket change. Bottom line: only talking about jerky, since I haven't done anything else, this is a wonderful product. It is well designed, easy to use, roomy, gets hot enough to do jerky well, and looks like it will last a long time. Expensive, but worth it. Good warranty. Get your recipe right and this thing will do the rest, time after time. Free jerky tip: get a good V-slicer [search Amazon for 'Borner'] and a Kevlar glove. Freeze an eye of round roast, then thaw in the refrigerator until it is just thawed enough that you can, with some effort, cut it into half width-wise and then cut each of these halves into half length-wise. It will not be even remotely soft. Using the safety guide [or the kevlar glove if you want to take the risk in return for better control. On your head be it.] slice the beef into perfect little frozen slices like playing cards. One Costco Angus EOR roast sliced thin will just about fill 1/2 of the shelves of this unit. Regular slices equal jerky that is predictable to marinate and dry. That makes for an enjoyable predictability. Bottom line on the Excalibur is that it is an excellent unit, well constructed and designed, which reliably produces great jerky.

I went from using a Nesco FD-75A Snackmaster (round, plastic stacking trays with heat source at the top) type dehydrator to the Excalibur and what an upgrade it was! I dehydrate large amounts of herbs, tomatoes, and other fruit from the garden every summer as well as stuff from farmer's markets and this machine made all the drying happen much quicker. The heating is much more even than my old dehydrator so I never had to rotate trays. I did find myself consistently removing some tomatoes earlier than others, but that's mostly because of uneven cutting and because I'm picky about how much I dry my tomatoes. There is also SO MUCH SPACE in this thing. Like, a ton of a space, seriously. I was wondering before I purchased this what the spacing between the shelves are and it is pretty narrow. You can bypass this issue by only using every other tray if you are drying large pieces of something. Even with only 5 of 9 trays the Excalibur still has more space than my old dehydrator. I have never tried to make jerky before, but with the stock parts I don't think it is possible. You might be able to fit a metal baking tray into the Excalibur and use that to make jerky, but all the trays are a plastic mesh. Speaking of which, that plastic mesh is super easy to clean, just give it a quick spray or soak in hot soapy water and ta da! Sound and heat output I'd say are pretty average, its a low hum and makes for a nice bonus heat source when temperatures are dropping in the fall. My cat loves to lay on top of it and nap. I was also impressed with its construction and sturdiness. the Excalibur is expensive, but you'll never need another dehydrator again.