Ivation 6 Tray Countertop Digital Food Dehydrator Drying Machine 480w with Preset Temperature Settings, Auto Shutoff Timer and Even Heat Circulation for Beef Jerky, Fruits, Vegetables & Nuts

I recommend you purchase one of the Ivation brand dehydrators. It’s sleek look will complement most any kitchen. My spouse and I originally purchased ours to dehydrate vegetables and herbs we grow in our garden and it works great for that. For spices/herbs you can put them on the highest temp setting for 4 hours then use an herb stripper on Rosemary for example and place it in a food processor, mince, and vacuum seal it them 4 oz. mason jars using a Foodsaver and a jar sealer.Later on thinking about kindness not just to myself but to all others I starting thinking about my consumption of dairy products and how I could do my best to lower it without suffering. I am a vegetarian for ethical reasons but do consume some dairy products. One of them is yogurt. Non-fat Greek yogurt makes an excellent substitute for sour cream in a dip or on a Boston style vegetarian chili. Well you can make Greek Yogurt using a Ivation dehydrator-the setting is 8 hours on 113 degrees Fahrenheit. Guess what? You can even use it as a seed starter on the lower temperature setting. Plant some seeds, and place the pots in the Ivation dehydrator on the low setting and take them out and mist them daily, keeping them moist.Why did I start making yogurt? See, I kept thinking about the cows. Do cows really like to be milked? Do cows have great living conditions? Do these dairy cows have male spouses (bulls) that they get along with or are they forced to be with other females? Were they forced to breed (raped and impregnated) just to have them produce milk? This upset me so much I decided to switch from drinking organic non-fat milk to organic soy milk. I went through a lot of soy milk containers before I realized that perhaps trees were cut down to make them. Fortunately, I found a workable solution in the form of the GJS Soy Milk Maker available on Amazon. This wonderful device not only makes soy, rice and almond milk but also makes all sorts of things, including tofu-if you get a tofu press. I have even taken fresh tomatoes and made pasta sauce in mine. It comes with just about everything you need to get started, a strainer, and two things to clean the machine with. It also has a self clean function in case you left it sit a long time. You just need to get some 64 ounce Mason jars, Organic Soy Beans from Bob’s Red Mill –available on the Bob’s Red Mill Site, and a Rocco Bormioli funnel (available on Amazon,) a Foodsaver 4980 as well as several large mouth jar sealers, (so if they are dirty and in the dishwasher you always have a clean one handy.)That’s it. You can reseal the Bob’s Red Mill bags with the Foodsaver sealer function and keep them in the refrigerator. Batch up some soy milk then vacuum seal it with the Foodsaver, but if you pour it in the jars right away it is hot enough they will vacuum seal on their own. Before I got Mason jars we were using large glass spaghetti sauce jars and the lids always popped when we opened them. The advantage of the vacuum sealer is you can vacuum seal it after each use so that the soy milk no longer has a short shelf date. It is like you just popped open a fresh box each time you pop open your jar thereby guaranteeing the freshest soy milk ever.UPDATE 12/3/18-several years after using my dehydratorI got so overwhelmed trying to keep up with my yogurt needs I had to admit I could not do it. The small batches of soymilk and the resulting amount of Greek yogurt it produced and the long hours involved were too much. I eat a lot of Greek yogurt and use it as a butter substitute, a cream sauce base, in smoothies, in cheese sauces, in cakes, soups, etc. I am a vegetarian and eat very healthy so I had to go back to purchasing Organic Greek Yogurt, though I still use my dehydrator for making many other things. I look forward to when store bought Greek Yogurt is also available from organic soybeans. I use my yogurt makers for other things also and still make my own soymilk and nut milk rather than drinking dairy. I am certain those that just have a small amount of yogurt for lunch each day or something like that may find dehydrators great for making yogurt, especially if they do not make as many homemade foods as I. THE LATEST AMAZING THING I DISCOVERED IVATION DEHYDRATORS ARE GREAT FOR: I also make fantastic and delicious homemade Mustard Green Chips in just 4 hours. I think these are tastier than kale chips. I grow my own Mustard Greens (very quick growing,) and spray them with extra virgin olive oil and rub some salt on them. Then I place them in the dehydrator for four hours on the highest temperature (158 degrees Fahrenheit.) Easy recipe.MY VEGETARIAN 'TASTES JUST LIKE MEAT JERKY RECIPE':Spray trays with canola oil. Slice one package of vegetarian Smart Dogs VERY THIN, (I slice mine in my deli slicer wearing protective gloves,) coat generously with Sweet and Sour sauce then dehydrate at 158 degrees Fahrenheit for 4-6 hours (depending on how you like the texture of your jerky. Soak the trays in a solution of citric acid and water, then scrub them quickly with a chainmail type scrubber before placing trays the dishwasher. (I found this out after having a tough time cleaning the trays after making veggie jerky. Citric acid and chainmail scrubbers work great!-Julie Sands

Bought this out of my own pocket, so this isn't a Vine review. We wanted a counter top tray type dehydrator that could provide fan driven even heat to make beef jerky and this Ivation Electric Countertop model fits the bill. 6 trays can hold 4 to 5 lbs of meat cut at about 1/8 inch thick (yes we like our beef jerky thicker than the usual blade thin variety).You always do jerky at the highest heat your dehydrator will allow to avoid bacterial growth during the curing process. The Ivation will maintain 158 degrees farenheit and at that temperature our beef jerky after a night of wallowing in my secret marinade took just under 8 hours to properly dry and come out nice and chewy. This unit will dry from 95 degrees to 158 and the fan in the back of the unit puts the air out over all six trays at an even pace. The trays are evenly spaced and they have enough height to do larger cuts of veggies and fruits.The basic unit is plastic as are the trays. Cleaning required soaking the trays overnight in the sink, but no biggie since the marinade and drippings get into all those little corners and nooks that I don't feel like scrubbing with a brush, so an overnight soak starting in hot soapy water and everthing comes right off next morning.The controls are digital and on the top front. There is a vent on the top that works well. The square trays actually allow you to place more food on the trays than the round trays like in the one I had before this. The whole unit is very light weight which works out when you have it loaded with food. It's not too heavy to lift the entire unit when full.I'm very happy with it and I think it'll last awhile, but if not, I'll come back and downgrade the rating right away.For now I heartily recommend.

The media could not be loaded. Works amazing! It was just what I was needing to help with my cookie business. Bery easy to use and works great for drying my royal icing cookies.

The media could not be loaded. Works great and has plenty of compartments for food. It's easy to clean and assemble. I had never had any experience with doing my own food dehydration but my neighbor told me about how he makes his pets snacks very easy with this. I love dehydrated mango from the store but it's expensive, glad I bought this, great investment. Super easy instructions and very few buttons to operate, anyone could use it. I bought mine to make my dog some homemade preservatives free snacks, and both he and I love it. It's quiet and not loud. I keep mine outside, of course where it won't get wet or anything, and it's durable.

I prefer the BPA free plastic shelves - they are very sturdy! The noise level is extremely quite and the fan in the back is great for circulating the air well. One drawback is the thermostat has only preset temps in the range I was looking for. Would have preferred to set the temp exactly as I wished. Overall I am very pleased with the level of dehydration vis-a-vis the cost!

I received my Ivation 9 food dehydrator a little over a week ago. I have made beef jerky and dried bananas, Both came out excellent. My jerky is the one I can make and know my times. The bananas were a first for me but was fast and easy to prep. At the end of the 10 hour dry time the bananas were definitely ready and 4 or 5 stuck to the tray. But those were finagled with a plastic spatula and came off well enough. Both times (jerky/Bananas) I put the trays into my dish washer and washed in the "delicate cycle". They came out looking like straight out of the box new! I will update at a later time but so far so happy!Update: 7/20/2021 Definitely 5 stars. I have been using this dehydrator now for well over a year and it performs spot on every time. Looks as new as when it came out of the box. Of course its a immediate clean after use for me. I can fill up all the trays with easily 6+ pounds of Top eye of round.