Fighting the Harvest: Choosing a Fruit and Vegetable Dryer

The irony of fate is that many more tasty things ripen at our dachas every year than

we are able to eat. Therefore, from June to October, our citizens roll up their sleeves and indulge in the national fun - the production of blanks. Along with pickles and jams, good owners know another way to extend the shelf life of products for months and years - drying. For this, those gadgets are intended, which will now be discussed.

Content

What is it and why
HAUSLICH DH 70419
GORENJE FDK500GCW
SATURN ST-FP0114
ROTEX RD620-Y
VITEK VT-5053 W
PROFITM ESP-02
PROFITM ESP-01 E

HAUSLICH DH 70419

Reliable dryer for large harvests - up to 15 kg of fruit at a time. 8 temperature modes, power up to 600 W, 9 removable trays - for a large family and their favorite summer cottage.

Powerful and high quality

GORENJE FDK500GCW

An excellent choice for workpieces for a small family - up to 5 kg of products at a time. Works silently, reliably, will dry anything. Power up to 450 W.

Transparent

SATURN ST-FP0114

Compact, inexpensive drying for a small family, but also transparent. 2 temperature settings and 5 time settings. Power up to 500 W, you can make yogurt and marshmallow.

The same, but cheaper

ROTEX RD620-Y

Fundamentally different in design - traysdo not slide out, but are stacked on top of each other, like a pyramid, but they can be easily interchanged. Also for a small family. Will dry any fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, herbs.

Long cord

VITEK VT-5053 W

Compact and lightweight, designed for 1.5 kg of fruit at a time, easy to carry with you like a yogurt maker (yogurt does too), 5 temperature modes, so it will dry everything the same as more expensive dryers.

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Economy option

PROFITM ESP-02

Not only metal case, but also trays,why they do not crack, as sometimes happens in plastic dryers. The smell does not spread throughout the apartment either. Powerful, 5 temperature modes, roomy - for giving and a serious mood.

Patriotic. Metal!

PROFITM ESP-01 E

Also metal, but at a time it can dry up to35 kg of products - for workpieces on an industrial scale. And if you remove all the trays, it can be a heater for the room. An excellent choice for a summer residence with a large garden.

The largest and most expensive

Electric fruit dryers are convection and infrared, the latter are less common and more expensive, so let's not talk about them now.

Modern convection dryers for fruits andvegetables are a fairly simple device, the main modules of which are a heating element and a fan. This ensures the supply and circulation of warm air, similar to how fruits would dry in the open wind, but faster, since the wind inside the unit is hotter than it would be natural. And while the drying process is in progress, the products are protected by the body of the dryer from dust flying by, insects and birds, and therefore drying fruits and vegetables in such gadgets is much more hygienic than naturally in the wind. This is in case you have a question in the process of stringing cut mushrooms on a thread: why do you need these drying at all. Gardeners, gardeners and just zealous housewives have no doubt: they are needed. But how to choose from all the variety the one that will serve you and provide the family with supplies for the winter - let's figure it out.

There are actually few options here, and all are drying,presented on the market, cope with their main mission: they supply warm air to the fruits you cut. Typically, the air flow is from the bottom or from the side, depending on where the fan is located. Also in the dryer, trays are usually placed one above the other, on which you lay out all your goods. And immediately keep the life hack: in dryers with a lower air supply, less wind can reach the upper layers, and therefore from time to time the upper and lower trays should be swapped so that everything dries evenly.

Of the additional functions that canto please the user - a timer, protection against overheating, electronic control, automatic shutdown (so that one visit to the country house to lay fruit, and the next - a week later - get ready-made dried fruits that were cooked in the first couple of days, and the rest of the time they patiently waited for the owners). All this is optional - you really decide what you need and what you can do without.

What should be the capacity of a fruit and vegetable dryer?

It all depends on your appetites and prospects. If you plan to make modest workpieces for a small family, a power of 350 - 450 W is quite enough for you, such as, for example, VITEK VT-5053 W. Power above 450 W is already for large families and large-scale processing of crops - for example, if you have cottage, and there is a lot.

Is it worth overpaying for a thermostat?

In fact, the function of setting the temperature at will is not a whim. After all, different products are dried at different temperatures:

30 - 35˚C - for drying herbs and flowers for tea or crafts,
50 - 60˚C - for juicy fruits and vegetables,
60 - 70˚C - for meat, fish, nuts and cereals, rusks, noodles.

And if you choose it at 40˚C, in general you can get the result not dried, but dried.

Thus, if you are going to dry onlyapples and mushrooms - you can do it with cheaper drying without a thermostat, but if you plan to dry the fish and everything else, you need a dryer with the ability to set the temperature yourself. Here's a great example - GORENJE FDK500GCW

What else is a dryer for?

In addition to drying fruits and meat or fish in suchThe dryer makes it easy to prepare homemade yogurt. After all, the main thing in the design of the device is the heating element, as in the yogurt maker. It is enough to remove the trays from the case, and instead of them place there portioned jars of sourdough. In some dryers, the design implies special trays for making marshmallows from fruit puree with sugar - but here you really need to look at the description of a specific model.

HAUSLICH DH 70419

This is a convection dryer with a fan on the back.

Has 8 temperature modes - from 35˚C to 70˚C,power of 600 W and a capacity of 27 liters - in total, the unit can be loaded up to 15 kg of fruits or vegetables. This is not a thing for pampering, but for a good owner of a fertile summer cottage.

Includes 9 trays, height between each- about 3 cm, but this is not a constant, of course - if you need, you can use trays through one, pulling out the extra ones - then you can put uncut mushrooms or whole apricots. There is a power-on indicator and overheating protection. And there are also special functions for making marshmallow and yogurt.

The unit weighs just over 8 kg, dimensions are 45x48x38 cm, that is, it will not take up much space in the kitchen. The manufacturer promises a 12 month warranty.

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GORENJE FDK500GCW

This dryer is smaller than the previous one and is designed forthe mass of fruits (or vegetables, mushrooms, meat, fish, herbs - emphasize what you need to dry) up to 5 kg, the internal volume of the unit is 17.5 liters, only 5 trays and a power of 450 watts.

Well, first of all, it's the brand. And secondly, these are:

5 round large trays whose height can be adjusted, the minimum distance between them is 2.8 cm,
control via a keypad with display,
power indicator,
temperature regulation from 35˚C to 70˚C and overheating protection,
timer and automatic shutdown function.

It is also transparent, so if you have nothingdo it for about 10 hours, you can watch the whole process of turning the fruits into supplies with your own eyes - well, or at least look at what stage of preparation they are at. There are special non-slip feet under the body. In general, everything that is needed for a small family with average appetites is there. Making yogurt and marshmallow here is not a problem either.

Reviews here

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SATURN ST-FP0114

As transparent as the previous one - but almostone third cheaper. And 20% less productive - designed for 4 kg of raw food. It has only 2 temperature modes - either heats up by 40˚C or 70˚C, respectively, and only two types of power: 260 W and 500 W. The timer also has fixed modes - there are 4: 2, 5.10 and 15 hours.

As in the previous one, the supply of warm aircarried out from below, there is protection against overheating, a power-on indicator and an auto-shutdown. The dryer itself weighs a little more than 2 kg, its dimensions are more than modest - 30 cm in all dimensions. In general, it's cheap and cheerful, and it won't take up much space in the kitchen. The manufacturer promises a 2-year warranty, but judging by the reviews, burst trays are not considered a warranty case.

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ROTEX RD620-Y

Another drying with a democratic price, and besides, if you're lucky, you can get under the action and get the scales as a gift. Moreover, it is domestic.

5 plastic pallets 4 cm apartfriend. True, using them through one, as in previous models, in order to increase the height between them, will not work, since here the trays do not slide in, but simply stacked up in a pyramid on top of each other. But you can swap them without any problems.

Warm air supply from the bottom, available 5temperature regimes from 35˚C to 70˚C, overheating protection is also provided. The maximum power is 520 watts. Surprisingly, although the drying is plastic, it weighs just over 5 kg. That is, you can't put it on a flimsy shelf anyway. The manufacturer promises silent and reliable operation, from the pleasant little things - an extended power cord - 1.7 m - at least one extension cord in the kitchen will be less. Well, and a guarantee for a period of 1 year - perhaps you can take it. If you, of course, believe the reviews.

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VITEK VT-5053 W

Probably the most affordable of ourlist. You can easily throw it to the country house and not worry that in your absence it will be eaten there by mice. You can easily remove the trays from it and make homemade yogurt in it. You can easily take it with you when traveling on vacation, where an abundance of fruits and berries is planned - it is compact and weighs only 2 kg (in its original packaging - 0.5 kg more).

5 trays with 3.5 cm gap between them allowprocess about 1.5 kg of fruit at a time. 7 temperature settings from 40˚C to 70˚C and 250W power - that's what we have here. Warm air is supplied from below, the trays can be easily changed in places. Made in China, 1 year warranty.

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PROFITM ESP-02

A large domestic-made dryer. Due to the fact that the case is metal, it dries faster, as it raises the air temperature up to 90˚C, the minimum indicator is from 30˚C, that is, even crackers, even dried fruits will do for everything. In total, drying has 5 temperature modes. To develop the maximum temperature, high power is needed - here it is up to 820 watts. An additional bonus of the metal body is that during the drying process (which takes more than one hour) the smell of the product being dried does not spread throughout the apartment - in the case of, for example, a taranchka, you must agree, this is a significant plus.

There is an on indicator on the case, and in case of a threat of overheating, the unit turns off automatically. Drying capacity 20 l, 7 trays inside, and between them - 4 cm.

Here, too, the fan is located below, but youlabor, you can rearrange the trays in places, removing some of them and thereby increasing the distance between them if you dry large fruits entirely. But the main beauty of this model is that the trays are also made of metal. This means that there is no threat of cracks in the trays, which is often complained about in reviews by those who have purchased a dryer with plastic trays.

Since everything is metal, the weight of the unit is considerable - when going after the parcel, get ready to carry more than 6 kg.

The control of the device is mechanical, but the manufacturer gives a 2-year warranty. In general, a powerful, slightly cheaper than foreign counterparts and a reliable metal case are its main characteristics.

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PROFITM ESP-01 E

Perhaps this is the most serious device of all,presented in our list. The description says that it can be used as a thermo-pot to maintain a constant temperature (for example, for baby food), and even to heat the room - if you remove all trays. Like the aforementioned model of the same manufacturer, this miracle is made of metal. The trays are made of a frequent grid, so even small berries can be dried on them without problems. With 7 temperature settings and a maximum temperature of up to 70˚C in this dryer, in principle, you can dry absolutely everything: from fruits and vegetables and fish meat to homemade noodles, nuts, rusks, herbs. 7 trays, between which the height is 6 cm, allow you to process up to 35 kg of products in one go - this is a serious gadget for an "adult" dacha. The maximum power that this dryer can swing is 825 watts. It is equipped with a timer and auto shut-off, overheating protection, a clear display and a power-on indicator, and simply due to its power and high temperatures, it can dry your crop faster than other low-power dryer. The fan is at the bottom, there is no problem to change trays among themselves. If you find fault, then this powerful model has two drawbacks - a rather high price and a somewhat intimidating design (a bit like a crematorium for fruit). And if you do not find fault, then in front of you is a domestic-made animal machine.

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