I got a new toy - I made a dehydrator.
“What the hell is this?” you ask. Ooooh, this is a thing!
To put it in Russian and understandable language, this is an ordinary dryer. These are freely sold on the Internet and in hardware stores.
How it works - air is forced from the room into the drying chamber, which then comes out of a special hole, taking with it particles of liquid from the product.
They mainly dry fruits, berries, mushrooms, thin slices of meat and even fish.
The most widely known device in Russia is the Sukhovey - many families have one. But what I came up with is a truly universal thing!
Let me tell you right away, the idea is not mine! I have capable LJ friends)) King of sausages and cheesecakes. I remembered the idea, and then for some reason I kept stumbling that something needed to be dried, but there was nothing.
No, before I calmly used the oven for these purposes - turned on convection without temperature. Or if you wanted to quickly - confection, minimum temperature and the door ajar.
Now, hehe, I’m whining again - I don’t have an oven (temporarily, temporarily, for six months already and I don’t know when it will appear). So it’s really necessary to make a drying box.
The second magical kick in favor of the dehydrator happened from the Hare - I periodically, and everything would have been fine, but the picnic and gardening season had begun - there were regular guests in the house and a refrigerator always filled with pots and bowls. I simply don’t have the ability to dedicate an entire shelf to jerky.
That's it, guys, I assembled the dehydrator! On the knee, with pink tools and female hands right in the middle of the living room)))
The hare performed feats with the fence and did not give me a normal screwdriver - he needed it himself, so he helped me only at the very end.

What's wrong:

• plastic container or box with lid
• threaded rod on M6 or M8
• nuts and washers matching the diameter of the rod
• ventilation grille
• forced exhaust fan

All this stuff cost me a little more than a thousand rubles: 516 rubles for a huge box on wheels and 700 rubles for components (4 kg of nails for a suddenly fallen fence). Forced exhaust can be found cheaper, and you won’t need as many nuts.

Our forced exhaust is located below - we mark the place. The ventilation grille is located as far away from the hood as possible - ideally on the lid of the box, but my lid was uneven, so the place for the grille will be on the wall opposite the hood at the top. We also mark the place for the hole. (if anyone is interested, I drew this with a special pencil for glass, but you can use a marker or scratch it with something sharp).

We cut holes for the hood and ventilation grille. In fact, the easiest way to do this is with a special circular saw - the largest diameter is 10 cm, which is exactly what all built-in hoods and grilles have this size. BUT! The screwdriver was busy, and I was too shy to take the drill. I thought about using a jigsaw - I was afraid that the plastic might crack. I took a longer, more labor-intensive, but precise and careful route. Using an ordinary hand drill and a thin drill, I made a circle of holes around the perimeter (I placed a piece of rubber under the bottom so as not to spoil the floor, and a piece of paper so that the boundaries could be seen better).
And then I used an ordinary kitchen knife to cut the bridges between the holes. If you heat the knife with a lighter, things will be much more fun.
We insert the ventilation grille into place, we also install the hood, it also has special holes for fasteners. (Yes, there are men’s hands in the frame - the Hare came to look at the process, give out valuable advice and mock the pink pliers.)

We stick masking tape on the side of the box along the top and make markings for the holes for the rod. We drill (yeah, it’s much faster with an electric screwdriver).

All that remains is to cut the threaded rod to the required length. The shortest rod in the store is a meter. I would have just cut it in half, but the Hare suggested not leaving the long ends sticking out. While I was thinking about going to my neighbor’s auto repair shop and asking for help with the grinder (thanks, of course), the Hare sawed everything off with a hacksaw.

All that remains is to insert the rods into the prepared holes and secure them with nuts and washers. As an option, instead of regular nuts, you can screw on wing nuts - this will make it easier to remove the rods if you have to dry something bulky.

That's it, drying box - the dehydrator is ready!

How many of you love dried meat? You've probably encountered the problem of how to make it at home in an apartment. Today we will solve your problem and tell you how to assemble a dryer for meat and food products with your own hands. In it you can dry fish, fruits, mushrooms, socks, and various other useful items.

To begin with, we will purchase a box with a lid, an M8 threaded rod, an exhaust grille, nuts, washers and a fan.

We glue tape along the top of our box and make markings for the holes.

We drill holes with a diameter of 9mm.

We cut the rod into 5 parts and install it in the holes. We fasten with nuts and washers.

We try on the grille for the hood in the far corner of the lid.

And we hit her.

But we replace the fan from the old computer with a fan for forced exhaust. It was possible from a computer, but the power is too low and I don’t really want to mess with the power supply.

Cut a hole for the fan and drill holes for the fasteners.

We attach the fan.

And at the end we get this design.

You can dry whatever you want in it. Need heating? Add a reptile warming mat to the design. You feel hot? Freeze water in plastic bottles, stuff the drawer with them, and you'll have air conditioning for the night. Dry mushrooms - replace the rods with removable racks.

It turned out to be a very useful pot. In terms of time, assembly took a couple of hours. In terms of money it came out to 1300 rubles, but it could be cheaper.

A meat dryer is a great opportunity to prepare a delicious snack, which can then be used as a snack or as an addition to main courses. Dried chicken pieces (often called jerks) are convenient to take with you on a hike or fishing - their shelf life is quite long. In the Made in Dream online store you can buy a meat dryer in Moscow with delivery or pickup.

Meat dehydrator: choosing the best option

When choosing a meat dryer, you need to pay attention to several important characteristics.

1. Temperature errors

Meat products must be dried and cured at a temperature of at least 70°C. In addition, it should not change or deviate from the specified one, so when choosing a dehydrator, pay special attention to this characteristic.

It is best to purchase a dehydrator with horizontal air flow, as it provides even heating. You can be very disappointed in vertical round dryers, because often the temperature of the upper and lower trays can differ by almost 2 times. Especially if the product is cheap. That is why an electric dryer with horizontal airflow is an ideal option.

2. Timer

Drying meat requires a fairly long period of time. As a rule, it ranges from 4 to 12 hours. This is a very useful function, because you can leave to do household chores at any time, and the dehydrator will turn off itself when cooking is complete.

3. Drying uniformity

Square horizontal dehydrators offer the most uniform drying among competitors. This rate allows ingredients to dry at the same rate. The thing is that the fan is located at the back, so the flow of warm air goes along all the trays and dries them evenly. In round dehydrators, as is known, the flow goes from bottom to top, and the upper trays have a higher temperature than the lower ones. The raw materials dry faster, but the products from the bottom do not keep up with the top ones, so there can be no question of any uniformity.

4. Nets included

Typically, people dry small pieces of meat or chicken (2-5 cm long or 1-3 cm thick). It’s no wonder that such small pieces can fall through the mesh, so the kit includes special meshes for small products.

Option for cooking meat in a dryer (jerky)

Add any spices.
To taste: pepper, salt, sauce
Tabasco, liquid smoke.

Putting the meat in the dryer
for 5-8 hours at 70°C
until ready.

Summer is coming to an end, you have collected a harvest of berries, fruits, vegetables, herbs, mushrooms and all this needs to be somehow prepared for the winter.

And not in the old-fashioned way, but with the help of modern devices. Therefore, if you want to have the most delicious and healthy dried fruits all year round, then you cannot do without an electric dryer.

With its help, you will provide yourself with healthy vitamins from the dacha for the entire 12 months.

In the article we will consider the most affordable and popular brands of vertical dehydrators; do not confuse them with horizontal dehydrators.

They have different designs and hot air supply technologies.

In vertical dehydrators, air is pumped from below, and in horizontal dehydrators, air is pumped from the back wall in a horizontal direction.

Their airflow is more uniform, but such devices already belong to a more expensive category.

How to choose the best dryer from the huge variety? Let's define 5 factors or rules that you should focus on before going to the store.

Metal or plastic

First of all, they are divided according to the material of manufacture. Metal models are several times more expensive than their plastic counterparts.

And they perform the same function. Is it worth spending the extra money?

Sometimes it is much easier to buy ready-made dried fruits in winter than to wait until such an expensive unit pays for itself.

Plastic dryers are very light and transportable. There are really compact models.

Would you like to dry fruits right at your dacha? They simply took it apart, wrapped it in a bag and transported it without any problems, even on public transport.

But with a metal one, without your own car, it’s unlikely to be possible. And it will take up a lot of space at home.

In addition, during operation, the metal sometimes heats up to such temperatures that you can actually get burned on its walls. They may come with special silicone gloves for removing trays.

It is also very important that the plastic is transparent.

And you can control the entire drying process in real time, without removing the lid.

Odor and food grade plastic

The basic rule for any household appliances is that if you come across devices that smell bad of some kind of plastic or chemical, avoid them immediately. Do not believe sales consultants who assure you that everything will disappear after the first hours of work.

All high-quality electric dryers should be made of food-grade plastic. It does not contain any toxic substances that poison the body.

Check the quality of the plastic by the corresponding icons on its body.

If they are, you can safely use the dryer without worrying about harm to your health.

Almost all models spread around themselves abundant odors of the products that are dried inside. It would seem, what's wrong with that?

But the fact is that if you have a gas boiler and there is a special sensor in the kitchen, do not be surprised when it suddenly starts to work for unknown reasons.

Some odors from your dryer could be to blame.

Therefore, if the boiler heats water, you will have to turn it off completely in order to prepare some marshmallows or dried fruits.

Number of tiers and trays

Of course, it is very convenient to lay out food in different tiers when drying. And it would seem that the more there are, the better.

But everything is not so simple. Each electric dryer has a certain power.

For example, there are models 250W-350W-500W-1000W. So, if the power of your model is 350W, then for high-quality work it should have a maximum of 4 to 5 pallets.

The store can sell it to you in a large number of trays. But what happens when such a “Tower of Babel” works?

The fan itself with the heating element is located at the bottom. As a result, it turns out that those fruits that are closer to them become overdried. They require much less drying time than those located on the upper tiers.

Thus, by increasing the pallets, you will of course increase productivity, but you will spoil the vegetables themselves. The first row will be too dry, and the last row will not even be ready for use.

For normal operation, you will have to juggle pallets every hour.

Therefore, remember that the ideal average option is 4-5 pieces for direct-flow models with a power of 350W.

Slightly more expensive models have a slightly different air supply. They are separating streams. The air is uniformly accelerated not directly through the cells in the trays, but along the edges of the walls through technological holes.

Due to this, it is possible to increase the number of tiers from 15 pieces for domestic manufacturers and up to 30 pieces for foreign ones. True, if you read the instructions carefully, then at this height only herbs or flowers will dry well.

Some people generally believe that it is better to dry them naturally. But firstly, this will take you several days, not several hours. And secondly, with natural shrinkage there will definitely be curious and uninvited guests.

For heavier products, the engine power for such a tower will still not be enough.

In addition, with low power up to 500W, such dryers are good for cooking only marshmallows. Everything else with this method of accelerating air requires much more time.

Here you will already need 1000W models. With this power, 15 pallets can be loaded with one and a half buckets of cherries, apples, plums or about 7 liters of marshmallow at a time.

Such drying will take up to 24 hours of continuous operation of the device. Here are summary tables of drying hours for fruits and vegetables on a medium power dryer:

A standard set of five grids fits only half a bucket. One tray requires 3-4 full apples. This is so that you understand the real volumes.

Not only the quantity, but also the quality of pallets matters.

Keep in mind - the thinner the plates, the easier it is for dried fruits, vegetables and other products to peel off.

To prevent small berries from falling out through large holes, purchase models whose trays have a finely perforated mesh.

These dryers are more versatile. Or look at the package in advance. Some types have special small meshes available.

These meshes can also be used simply as spacers, so that the main plastic is less contaminated by sticky fruits and berries. They are much easier to clean than curly plastic cells.

Pay attention to the height of the pallet. The higher they are, the larger the pieces of dried fruit can be placed. In some models they are even adjustable.

In this case, still assemble the machine with five pallets.

Just two of them (make them top) will remain empty. This affects airflow and proper air circulation.

Also, do not try to install the electric dryer on the floor. It should only be placed on a clean surface of a table or kitchen unit.

They take in air through the bottom. And if you install it on a dirty floor, then all the dust and debris will end up inside it. You can say goodbye to the harvest.

Engine power and location

Electric dryers come in different capacities. What does this power depend on, and which one should you choose?

If you use a unit with direct-flow bottom air supply through mesh trays only for drying fruits, berries and vegetables, and in small quantities, then choose options up to 350W.

More powerful models are needed to work with slightly different volumes and different foods. For example, for drying fish or marinated meat.

In this case, it will take less time and the food will be of better quality. When your choice is on models with side air distribution, then the options from 500W to 1000W are more versatile.

Never forget what this unit is. In most cases, this is a plastic case in which a motor with a fan is built in, creating air flows.

Warm air here is generated by heating element, and its design can be different. If the model is standard, then the case usually contains one fan and one heating element.

Juice always drips from the juicy berries as you work. Therefore, the motor in good dryers should be located on some kind of hill or hill so that you don’t get the following:

If it is slightly elevated, then it will not be so afraid of the streams flowing down from the berries and fruits. However, it still depends on the amount of moisture.

For example, the bottom tray may overflow. Or you will initially place the dryer on an uneven base, in which case the liquid will definitely fall on the heating element. In the well-known Ezidri models, there is protection against this.

When the bowl is overfilled, all excess will go out through the technological hole in the bottom. The maximum that threatens you here is a wet spot on the table.

Another point that is worth paying special attention to: do not load pastille puree or other berries or fruits directly onto the tray already in the unit.

This will protect you from accidentally spilling liquid into the central hole where the air comes from and where the engine is located.

Therefore, first you fill the tray on the table, and only then, when it’s already filled, load it into the machine.

There are also models with an overhead engine. They definitely won’t short out anything and won’t leak onto the working mechanisms.

However, such species are quite rare, and they already “bite” in price.

Additional functions

Each dryer, depending on its cost, has additional control functions. Very often, when choosing kitchen appliances, many experts argue that additional functions are not particularly important here.

And if you don’t want to overpay, then you shouldn’t look at fancy and smart models.

But with dryers it’s a completely different situation. Here, additional costs will not only save money in the future, but also make the products more tasty.

Here are the features you can't do without:

At temperatures between 45 and 60 degrees, food enzymes are destroyed. Moreover, the gradation differs for different products. If you “overcook” it, then the whole idea of ​​proper nutrition goes away.

And with the thermostat you can set the desired heating temperature in order to preserve all the beneficial substances in the products to the maximum.

With it, you don’t have to constantly run to the kitchen and check the operation of the device. We set the set time based on the previously prepared products, and calmly went about other things.

Without a timer, you can sometimes really ruin plastic baking trays on pallets. They will simply melt or burst.

If you do not have this function, then use a timer socket and plug the unit’s plug through it.

• cooling

Due to this, global overdrying will not occur. When this function is turned on, the heating element is turned off and the injection of warm air stops.

Cool air begins to blow, and thus dried fruits and berries are brought to the desired condition.

Also note that models with temperature control cannot immediately turn off the power. First, the regulator is set to zero and cooling of the hot heating element begins.

Only when the air starts to come out cool can you turn off the power completely. Otherwise, you will either burn the heating element or melt the bottom pan.

It would be good if there was no fire.

The best brands of electric dryers

What models of electric dryers are the best and what do housewives recommend based on their experience with them?

In our market, the most popular and good quality brands are Ezidri and Walter. In order for the unit to cope with the drying process overnight, and not have to run it all day, choose 1000W models - Ezidri FD1000 and Walter 1000 Lux.

What is their difference? The first brand is a foreign manufacturer, the second is a Russian one.

• pallet height

Isidri's height is small, VolTer's is larger. As mentioned above, higher height is always preferable.

However, the maximum number of pallets for Ezidri can be increased to 30, while for Walter it can only be increased to 15.

• noisiness

Here you will hardly hear the difference. None of them can be called too loud. The noise reaches 45 dB, which is about a little louder than the operation of a refrigerator.

• price

But here the difference is almost three times. Our manufacturer wins, it is cheaper. And the quality is almost as good.

I finally assembled a chamber for curing/drying delicious meat and sausage products. A kind of result of love between a hedgehog and a grass snake.

The task was to strictly maintain the temperature and humidity in the chamber where sausages and other balyks are dried/cured for a long time. Although meat in our Geyrops is a thousand times safer and more tested, botulism and other mold do not sleep and are trying to sneak in on Aeroflot flights.

He was taken:
Outdated refrigerator
Temperature control device STC 1000 (Amazon 20 euros)
Humidity control device DHC 100+ (Amazon 50 euros)
Humidifier Orbegozo – Ultrasonico (Amazon 40 euros)
Exhaust fan for toilet (Amazon 20 euros)
A couple of boxes for wiring and sockets for a couple of euros in a construction store
And everything seems to be

The temperature device is adjusted to the desired temperature range in any increment (for example: from 12 to 18C) and will keep it in the chamber. If it falls less than necessary, it will turn on the heating element (mat, lamp for reptiles, etc.) In my case, it is not necessary, in the harshest winter the garage never drops below +10C.

If the temperature rises, the refrigerator will turn on.

The humidity control device works on the same principle: it turns the humidifier on and off, i.e. it keeps the desired humidity level in the chamber.

The devices are the size of a pack of cigarettes. I cut them into the electrical boxes, screwed the sockets into the back, everything about everything - an hour of work.

I tested it for 4 weeks on sausage drying, installing the chamber with several third-party temperature/humidity meters, everything worked like their native Chinese - for days, without noise and dust.
The sausages dangling in the photo lost 45% of their weight in 19 days and were destroyed orally. Everyone is alive, and even slightly well-fed.

Well, my hands were itching to break something... I cut two 10 cm holes from the walls of the refrigerator. He inserted an exhaust fan into one, and put a beautiful fly net into the other.

In the absence of a product for complex drying, the chamber can be used as a dryer. (aesthetically - dehydration).

An air flow of 97 liters per minute dried 6 chickens after wet salting for smoking in 45 minutes. dried a piece of beef tenderloin (sunjuk) in 2 days.