I received my Excalibur Dehydrator 9 tray with timer just 2 days ago and I decided to use it today. No fan running. I don't know if t's me but I don't believe the codswollop about how each dehydrator is checked 3 times before being exported. After reading Amazon reviews (I bought mine from a different website), I feel that I have been cheated as I did spend a ridiculous amount of money on this machine and I never even got one try at it. And it's an eye sore!... whhich I was willing to overlook since it has been raved about by raw foodists experts all over the world!

This is the one I got on Linda's recommendation: Nesco FD-75PR 700-Watt Food Dehydrator So far I love it. I did wonder about the Excalibur and I did think at first about getting one, but my kitchen is small and I didn't think it would fit on my counters very well. I think I made the right choice. With mine, I also ordered an extra fruit roll-up package (it comes 2 in a package) and I also ordered a clean-a-screen package (same as above) and two more trays, taking mine up to 7 trays total. My totally for all 4 items was around 89.66. Still less than the Excalibur. This model can stack to 30 trays, of course that would never fit anywhere in my kitchen but I think I can go a couple of more :-) All in all - I've found it to be totally reliable. I haven't tried tomatoes yet. Mine are done and I'm not buying those tasteless things in the store....well....maybe I will just to see if it will dry tomatoes dry enough for powder 'cause I really want to try that. Val

Hey ajsmama, Fancy meeting up with you on the Harvest Forum ;-)) I've done pounds of pepper powder each year for the past four or five years. john__showme__usa is right, it takes more than 4-8 hours to properly dry peppers, especially for subsequent grinding into powders or flakes. In my experience, using home (non-commercial dehydrators), depending on the variety of pepper, 24 - 48 hours drying is the norm. They're dry enough when you can easily snap them. If you are planning to grind them after drying, a little trick to ensure they were properly dried is to fill your jar with powder leaving 1/4 - 1/2 inch head space. Invert jars and let rest for two days. If no condensation forms, you're good to go. FWIW, Bill

I'm with Dave on this one... I peel, chop up in the food processor to a dice, then spread the onions out on jelly sheets... then into the dehydrator at 135. I use jelly sheets so that as the onion gets smaller, none fall through to the bottom. About halfway through the process, I turn the onions over on their sheets and re-arrange the trays in their stack. What results is a slightly toasted colored minced onion. I dry my onions out in the solarium, just like I do with hot peppers- don't want to kill anyone with the aroma of those things drying, heh. Note that I use a little Nesco round dehydrator, and not an Excalibur, so the turning of the onions and re-arranging the trays might be different with the Excalibur than it is with the Nesco.