excalibur food dehydrator

[Bedlam]

After this unacceptable length of time, I would cancel the order and get an immediate credit on the card.

While I love my Excaliburs, it is not the only game in town and I saw on another forum that the SunFood dehydrator  is heavily discounted right now and they promise quick, free delivery.

Thanks Andie, I have gone and bought it. Been uming for a while. My son wants to make jerky so I thought we could share. Today he tells me he is off to new Zealand to live for a couple of years ( been a probably for a while,now a definetly) pleased for him but funny how it happens. I will still enjoy it.

[faffa_70]

Well .... I phoned again yesterday to be told the lady I have been talking to has gone on holidays  I asked for the manager and got the usual story that they were in a meeting. I lost my cool a little and said that their manager was always in a meeting lol and I NEEDED to speak to someone today and HAVE answers today.

She asked how I wanted to be helped and when I told her she took my details and promised to be back to me by the end of the day. Of course this has been told many time so I was thinking that was going to be the end of it until I made another phone call on Monday ... but no she phoned me back, about 4 hours later.

With the bad news that it would be at least another 4 weeks before I would get my Excalibur!!!!!!!!!! 

I promptly cancelled my order and asked for a refund and am now just waiting for the money to show in my account (hoping that that isn't going to require phone calls as well!) 

[judydawn]

Oh you poor thing Kathryn, you've had nothing but bad luck with this darn hydrator.  Obviously it just wasn't meant to be, you probably would have ended up with a dud anyway.  Better luck getting your refund and with trying to buy one elsewhere.

[obbie]

Kathryn, you put up with so much.
I hope you get your refund soon.

Robyn

[Frozzie]

i would be ringing them back monday as it doesnt take that long to refund a credit card ...it is totally unacceptable what they have done and again the nerve to tell you another month..!! id start looking elsewhere and quick as to where you can purchase one that will be deliverd quickly...poor you  

[Cuilidh]

I hope you get your refund quickly, Kathryn.  This whole thing has been such a hassle for you.  When we receive orders at work I feel terribly guilty if I don't despatch the goods on the day the order is placed - I can't imagine what state I would be in ducking and diving like those people you were dealing with.

[Bonsai]

I've been put off buying an excalibur after the awful stories here (plus the cost) - there are at least two other types of dehydrator sold on ebay that look extremely similar to the excalibur but about half the cost. I'm not sure if they're 'cheap and nasty' copies but the general setup of a dehydrator doesn't look too technical (a heater and a fan basically) so I'm tempted to try one of these instead.

Hard to find reviews of the other types which worries me a bit, but might be worth a go. Has anyone else got the sunfood or airite models of dehydrator?

[JulieO]

Bonsai, I have ordered a Sunfood, 10 drawer.   It should arrive in the next couple of days so I can report back once I've used it as to what I think.  Like you say, they aren't too technical so I'm hoping it will be okay. 

Happy with the service so far, ordered it last Thursday, they freighted it out on Friday from Qld,  (free postage) with a tracking number.  It arrived in Adelaide this morning, so shouldn't be too far off. 

[JulieO]

It has just arrived and I've got as far as unpacking it.  Hopefully I'll get some time later to wash all the drawers in readiness of using it. 

[Bedlam]

oo thats exciting, hope I get mine soon

[JulieO]

Well I've got it working at the moment. I checked on google and watched a video on youtube by a woman who uses and sells Excalibur dryers (US) and she uses the method from the book that came with the machine which says to steam sliced onions for 2 mins before starting to dry them, so this is what I did. 
As this is really an experiment to see how it works, I only used 1 thinly sliced onion today. They've been drying now for exactly 2 hours and they are nearly done I think, just have to wait until they snap into pieces then I'll know they are completely dry.

I also thinly sliced 2 cloves of garlic, both the onions and garlic is to grind into powder.

Have also sliced 3 large tomatoes, want to fully dry them, will do the semi dried ones as soon as my current lot have been used up.
They are also not too far away from being done.

My thoughts so far is of being very impressed, it's doing what it should, is not noisy and I'm glad I got the 10 tray, I think if I'd gotten a smaller one I would have been sorry. 

So far, it's got the thumbs up from me. 

[Bedlam]

Julieo,
My sun food 10 drawer arrived, must say was surprised with the size. My family think I am going into production for a business.
Like the idea of the onion powder. Just trying to find time at the moment.

[JulieO]

Bedlam, yes it looks good doesn't it.  My onion and garlic powders turned out great.  I also turned some dried toms to powder too (onions and toms milled in the TM, garlic in my spice grinder as there wasn't enough).  Haven't done anything else yet but I will soon, I'm interested to see how it copes with a full load.  

I have ordered a couple of the excalibur mesh liners and a solid liner to try out, if I'm happy with them I'll probably order another 8 mesh ones.  Also ordered from Book Dep, the Deydrator Bible, only $23 delivered.  It supposedly has everything in there we need to know as well as recipes using all the dried stuff.

I can't compare it to any others as I've never seen one in person before or know anyone who has one so I'm blind here, but from my limited use so far it seems to do what it's supposed to do, only time will tell.  

Hope you get to play with yours soon,

Julie.

[andiesenji]

One thing that is especially helpful is crisping stored cookies that have become too soft or moist.  That is, not the ones that are supposed to be soft and moist, but the ones that are intended to be crisp.  Same with crackers, pilot biscuits, etc.

I make pizelles ahead of time and it is difficult to keep them crisp, no matter how they are stored. 
An hour or so in the dehydrator will bring them back to the desired degree of crispness.

I make a lot of shallot chips to use in cooking where you want a bit of onion and a bit of garlic flavor, but not so overpowering.
The dried chips are easily ground to a fine powder in a spice grinder and dissolve almost instantly into any liquid that contains a bit of fat.
They also keep very well in a tightly sealed glass jar. 

I make melba toast in the dehydrator.  If you have a bread machine with a "Rapid-bake" cycle, you will get a denser loaf with an extremely fine crumb which is perfect for melba toast. 

[JulieO]

Your wealth of knowledge always amazes me Andi. 

The shallots you refer to are they the small brown skinned ones that are called French Shallots/Eschallots here in Oz?