At any rate … don’t despair. If you have a food dehydrator (and you do have one, right?) then this is the best time to dry fruits and vegetables and get ready for the winter season.

Which food dehydrator should you get if you don’t have one? We can recommend the Excalibur food dehydrators or the Nesco dehydrators - they’re both very popular and you won’t go wrong with either.

Or, you could just browse through the larger selection below and pick something else … but don’t delay too much - winter’s coming.

A house fire Monday afternoon in Eugene’s Santa Clara area that caused an estimated $20,000 damage was caused by improper use of an electric food dehydrator, officials from the Eugene Fire & EMS Department said.

The fire at 473 Violet Lane was reported to 911 shortly after 2 p.m. Firefighters from Santa Clara RFPD and Eugene Fire & EMS arrived quickly and were able to accomplish a rapid knockdown of the fire, limiting the damage to a deck, hot tub, and exterior wall of the house, along with a neighbor’s utility trailer and fence.

Fire officials on-scene said the likely cause of the blaze was improper use of a food dehydrator of the type that heats flavored wood chips by way of an electric heating element. Fire service personnel encourage anyone working with sources of heat to be sure that they and all heat-bearing materials are either attended or are thoroughly extinguished.

Comments: food dehydrators are after all electric devices and care should be taken when using them. Keep in mind that not all food dehydrators are created equal. Some are meant for ‘recreational’ use while others are indeed meant for 24-hour use. Please see our article on Excalibur food dehydrators for top of the line products in this area.

Proudly made in the USA - the Excalibur food dehydrators are made in the USA in a family owned factory. That’s also the place where you purchase the dehydrators from - they’re only being sold direct from the factory. You won’t find them in any store and no middlemen are involved.

They’re energy efficient - the average Excalibur food dehydrator will consume less than 10 cents of electricity an hour. You can dry up lots of fruits and vegetables this way for less than a quarter.

What’s up with the square shape? - Excalibur dehydrators are more or less the only square dehydrators you’ll find on the market - are they just trying to be different or is there something to this feature? Apparently, this design has some some advantages over the round models.

• More efficient and faster - round dehydrators have a design flaw (typically) that makes the temperature inside range by more than 50 degrees between top and bottom. Excalibur square dehydrators move air differently inside, speeding up the drying process and doing it more efficiently
• More accomodating for larger items - with a flat square tray it’s easier to dry larger items as compared to a round tray
• Unique Parallexx Horizontal-Airflow Drying System

They’re rock solid - Excalibur dehydrators are meant for around the clock operation. They’re the dehydrators that professionals use when they have to dry up large quantities of fruits and vegetables during harvest season

Adjustable thermostat - not all fruits and vegetables are created equal - there are optimal temperatures at which you’ll get the best out of your drying efforts and the Excalibur dehydrator helps you get there with an adjustable thermostat

Did we mention family-owned operation? - the folks behind the Excalibur dehydrators care about quality. They’ve been manufacturing dehydrators for many years, they have experience doing that and take pride in their work. They want to make sure they maintain a good brand reputation and thus you can be sure that each Excalibur dehydrator is a quality item

Option for long extended warranty - Excalibur dehydrators usually come with a one year warranty but you can purchase an extended warranty for up to 10 years. The company would not be willing to offer that unless they were sure that they had a quality product.

They care about support - if you happen to have an Excalibur dehydrator that’s quite old - say more than 20 years - you can still call them and find out what kind of maintenance (if any) is needed. That says two things about the company and their product: they care about their customers and they have products that last the test of time.

We could go ahead probably and list other advantages of Excalibur food dehydrators but we hope this was enough to convince you that, if you’re in the market for a food dehydrator, you won’t go wrong with an Excalibur dehydrator.

As with anything that you purchase online, there are some things to watch out for. Granted, you’re not buying something super expensive but still … it’s good to know what to watch out for. Here are some typical mistakes people make when buying food dehydrators:

1. Not having a good idea of what you plan on using it for

It’s important to know what kind of foods you want to put into your dehydrator. Why? Because different foods dry in different time intervals and also usually require different amounts of energy. Thus, if you plan on using your food dehydrator with a variety of foods it might be a smart idea to possibly buy two smaller dehydrators instead of a big one. This way you’ll be able to use the dehydrators more efficiently and match their energy requirements to the type of foods you’re drying.

Try to stay away from mixing varied foods in the same batch - meat is meat and fruits are fruits … keep them separate.

2. Not paying attention to the relationship between the watts used and the number of trays

If you get a medium sized dehydrator (somewhere between 4 and 8 trays) then you’ll want the wattage to be around 500 W or so. If the wattage is much higher for that number of trays, then you risk your food getting too dry too fast. On the other hand if you buy a large food dehydrator (say, over 20 trays) then make sure you have enough wattage to dry up everything (probably 1000 W or more) - otherwise you’re food will never probably dry on time.

3. Either buying something cheap that won’t last or over doing it

As with anything in life you get what you pay for - if you go cheap and buy some no name brand you risk getting a food dehydrator that wasn’t properly tested, may not dry properly and possibly won’t last you too long. You don’t have to pay some ridiculous amounts to get a quality food dehydrator - some of the best known brands are the Nesco food dehydrator and the Excalibur food dehydrator.

At the same time, don’t go out and buy the latest and greatest if you’re not even sure a food dehydrator is for you. Stay away from extremes - a quality food dehydrator should probably cost under $100.