In this article I will do an in-depth Excalibur food dehydrator review. This is by far my preferred food dehydrator and perfect for hikers. I will explain why I recommend this product over all the alternatives and why it is worth the money.
To be precise I will be reviewing the Excalibur 3926TB 9-tray electric food dehydrator with temperature settings and timer. The main reasons this one beats the competition is the high quality of the product, the ease of use and the high capacity. It is created by a trusted company. Excalibur shows they are very confident in this product by giving a ten year warranty. The only downsides are rather minor inconveniences. The Excalibur 3926TB is not completely quiet while dehydrating and the controls are put at the back of the dehydrator.
Overview
Excalibur is one of the leading producers of food dehydrators in the US since 1973. They felt so comfortable with this product that it comes with a ten year warranty.
The Excalibur 3926TB is an improvement on the 3900 food dehydrator where they added a built-in 26-hour automatic cut-off timer.
This turned an already great food dehydrator into my number one recommendation. A 26 hour timer adds a lot of value. Dehydrating food can take a long time, you don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night to turn the dehydrator off. Also, you could simply forget to turn it off resulting in over-dried, ruine meat. This lead to some frustration in the past.
This product outclasses it’s competitors because of the high quality, high capacity, ease of use and some additional features. Oh, and on top of that there is the ten year warranty. Let’s take a more detailed look.
Size and capacity
The Excalibur 3926TB 9-tray electric food dehydrator comes with nine trays. There is plenty of room to dry a lot of food at the same time. Each tray is 15” x 15” resulting in a total capacity of 15 square feet. This means you can dry a ton of food.
Trays can be removed if you need more space between the racks.
The unit size of the Excalibur 3926TB are:
- height: 12.5”
- width: 17”
- height: 19”
Quality
I mentioned this before but the ten year warranty basically ensures you that this is a durable product. You can be sure that this dehydrator won’t break after a couple of dehydrated badges. This is one of the reasons why this product is worth the money. If you pay less for a dehydrator it is almost impossible to get a ten year warranty. This might mean that you have to buy one or multiple other dehydrator after couple of years. Resulting in more money spend after ten years.
One of the main benefits of using the Excalibur 3926TB is the Parallexx Horizontal Air-Flow Drying System. This system is developed by Excalibur and provides a lot of value for the users because of two reasons. First, this ensures that the meat is dehydrated in the correct way (not all other dehydrators can ensure even air flow). Second, there is no interaction needed, just put the food on the trays, set a timer and you are done.
The heater and the fan are placed at the rear. This means the air flows horizontally over the trays. Not only does this result in perfect evenly dried food, it also means you don’t have to manually flip your food.
The casing material is made of FDA-approved polycarbonate, which is optimized to handle high temperatures.
The trays are made of BPA-free polypropylene #5, which is the best plastic to use in combination with food. You can also put these trays in the dishwater.
Ease of use
Another big reason why I recommend this dehydrator is because it is so easy to use. What makes this one easier to use than the other food dehydrators? It actually dries everything evenly and correctly. You do not need to worry about anything.
A lot of dehydrators require you to check every hour, flip the meat, change the position of dried products, etc… This can be a very big deal if you do this often. Especially when you are drying food overnight.
It is a really bad feeling when you have put in work and money into the dehydrator just to have a spoiled product as a result.
This can save you a lot of time and is, therefore, another argument to justify the price.
Features
Let’s take a closer look at the Excalibur 3926TB’s additional features.
The first very important thing is a 26 hour timer. This allows you to basically dry anything and forget about it completely. What a luxury.
Another feature is the adjustable thermostat from 95◦F to 155◦F. This allows you to adjust the temperature depending on what food you are dehydrating. Setting the optimal temperature will increase the quality of the finished product.
Even if you are thinking about another food dehydrator, I would recommend putting these two features as must haves on your list. Especially the timer.
Flaws
There is no such thing as the perfect product. Sure enough, the Excalibur 3926TB does have some flaws. For me personally, these flaws are just minor inconveniences. However, I can imagine that they can be annoying for some people so I will quickly elaborate every flaw.
First, the Excalibur is considered a little bit too noisy. To be honest, there are cheaper models that make less noise, so this is a valid argument. However, I shouldn’t exaggerate, it’s not like you will have an airplane in your kitchen. It’s just that some alternatives are simply a bit less noisy. For me personally this is not a deal breaker, but I can imagine this being important for some of you.
Once again, the second flaw does not really matter that much to me, but they might matter to people who are planning on putting the Excalibur 3926TB in their cupboard. Why is this? Well, the controls of the dehydrator are placed at the back, which can cause issues in some cases.
The last “flaw” is that the non sticky drying sheets are sold separately. This means that you will have to make an additional purchase if you want to use those. This is not the worst thing in the world, but still, it’s an inconvenience. Especially when you don’t know that the original purchase does not include non sticky drying sheet and you kind of expected them to be in the box. Once again, not a big deal, you can buy them on amazon as well, Non-Stick Drying Sheet.
Should you buy the Excalibur 3926TB
In my opinion there are only two reasons why you should not buy the Excalibur 3926TB: you will barely use it or you just don’t have the money at the moment.
It might seem like an expensive item to buy, but in the long run it will save you money. As mentioned before, if money really is an issue consider buying a more budget friendly dehydrator. However, if you can afford it, the Excalibur 3926TB is the one to go with.
The ten year warranty puts the price in a perspective as well. Buying a food dehydrator that is half the price could save you a couple bucks today. However, what if that product breaks after a couple of years? Sometimes buying a more expensive higher quality item is more budget friendly in the long run.
What about the competition
Before crowning the Excalibur 3926TB as my personal favourite, I have obviously done my research. When doing this research I came across a lot of decent food dehydrators. Don’t get me wrong, the Excalibur 3926TB is by far my overall winner, but in certain scenarios this might not be the best fit for you. So let’s take a look at the competition.
If I would have to recommend another food dehydrator, it would probably be the Nesco FD-1040 Gardenmaster Food Dehydrator. The quality is remarkably lower, but so is the price. If money is an issue, this could be your best alternative.
The gardenmaster has the two most important features on board, the timer and the adjustable thermostat.
The base model does not have a huge capacity, but it is expandable to 20 trays. Therefore, this is perfect for people who just want to experiment a little bit and are not sure if they will use the dehydrator a lot.
I see no reason why I would recommend any other food dehydrator because I would personally only consider buying either the Excalibur 3926TB or the Nesco FD-1040 Gardenmaster if I was on a tight budget.
Do you really need a food dehydrator
Some of you might not be entirely sure yet whether or not they really need a food dehydrator in the first place. Well, there are a lot of benefits from having one. First, it allows you to bring a lot of food from home when you are hiking from multiple days. Additionally this food will last a long time because it is dehydrated.
If you are thinking about trying to dry food without a dehydrator. I am here to tell you, don’t do it. There are so many things that can go wrong, and if your food is not completely dehydrated, it will spoil. If it spoils, you wasted a lot of money on nothing.
I have tried making beef jerky without a dehydrator myself. I did a lot of research and had thought I would give it a shot. It failed miserably and I had to throw most of it away. I try to tell myself that I made that mistake so that you don’t have to (it gives me some peace of mind).
If you want dehydrated food there are only two options. Buy a food dehydrator or buy dehydrated food. Buying the food dehydrator will save you a lot of money in the long run. Also, it will almost always be the healthier option. Additionally you can start experimenting with making your own optimal hiking snacks.
Conclusion
In this review I tried to cover every important aspect for a potential buyer. The capacity is definitely sufficient for the average person. The quality is outstanding, and the Excalibur proves it by providing a ten year warranty.
The extreme ease of use is probably one of the biggest benefits of this food dehydrator. Mainly the fact that the meat dries evenly and you really don’t have to check the dehydrator every hour.
The Excalibur 3926TB also has all the must have additional features. It comes with a built-in 26 hours timer and an adjustable thermostat.
This food dehydrator is not perfect and has some flaws. However, these flaws are more like minor inconveniences and are highly outweighed by the many advantages that come with this product.
The product might be a little bit more pricey than some alternatives, but it is well worth the money if you look at the bigger picture. The only valid budget model would be the Nesco FD-1040 Gardenmaster, which might be a better fit for some of you.
I hope this review provided the information you were looking for. If you are thinking about buying the Excalibur food dehydrator, you can buy/check the price on amazon by clicking here.
If you are looking to buy any other food dehydrator, make sure to check the capacity, quality, ease of use and the additional features (timer and adjustable thermostat). I have obviously not tried out every food dehydrator in the world, but I have done a lot of research before concluding this would be my personal recommendation. I recommend that you do the same.
If you have experience (good or bad) with the Excalibur 3926TB, please feel free to share these with us. Also, if you would recommend any other food dehydrator over this one, I’m interested in knowing which one that would be.