Solar Dehydrator #12

[sok8888]

Just wondering if the solar heat would melt the paint which releases poison into the food.

[wizardangel]

I use needle point mesh grid plastic sheets on top of the factory grid to place foods on in my regular dehydrator unit ...this allows many small berries to dehydrate easy and those sticky type foods that are hard to remove off screen easier off the mesh plastic as it is fleixable and food releases when bending the sheet..Easy Cleaning these mesh sheets can be sanitized -- I hate peeling off stuff and still leaving tidbits on my screens,,plastic mesh solved this issue wonderfully ,try it out

[originaLkomatoast]

I wished I had a lot large enough for a garden. My small lot is surrounded by trees and doesn't get enough full sun.

[tekknorat]

AWE-SOME.

[fdeldredge]

Seems the food on the top rack would dry out much quicker than on the bottom. Has that been your experience?

Thanks

[raintogreen]

We've never had any issue with ants, wasps though are persistent little buggers. I am not sure how hot it gets inside because I've never taken the temp, I know it doesn't get hot enough to cook bread like a solar oven would.

[rs6stringman]

@raintogreen

What about ants? did you have trouble with ants? I know the screen wil keep out other bugs but ants seem to find their way into almost anything. and how hot does it get inside?

[centervilletn]

spring is here and ive put my garden in ...so naturally ive been thinking about inexpensive alternative to canning and freezing..I think solar dehydration seems to be the best alternative...good post...i like your design

[TheBookflutterby]

Does the food stick to the paper at all? Would regular brown paper work so that I could compost it after?

[raintogreen]

@TheBookflutterby I use compostable parchment paper, I think just regular brown paper would probably stick horribly. The food doesn't stick to the parchment paper so it makes clean up much easier.

[rs6stringman]

@raintogreen

What about ants? did you have trouble with ants? I know the screen wil keep out other bugs but ants seem to find their way into almost anything. and how hot does it get inside?

[TheBookflutterby]

Would this work if you made in longer? My DH scrounged a couple all glass doors and was thinking of building one that length. Would it work with this type of plan? It would be shorter but longer.

[raintogreen]

@TheBookflutterby I am sure any size would work.

[Cloudwatcher1111]

Wondering how well this works. You might try some food grade screening from Dryit.com

[raintogreen]

@Cloudwatcher1111 Thanks! We might do that if we rebuild it, for now parchment paper over the screen works for us.

[FascistNation]

I would think cutting a equivalent sized screened hole in the bottom would speed up the dehydration.

[raintogreen]

@FascistNation Their is a whole in the bottom, I don't think it would work with out that because it wouldn't get adequate air flow. I probably forgot to show it in the video, but I promise it's there.

[fadeddenims501]

I liked the video and the dehydrator. Where would I find the actual plans for this? 

[raintogreen]

@fadeddenims501 Thank you. You can find the plans that we used at our blog... oxrayfarm(dot)com When you get to the main page, just click on "Dehydrator" in the "Categories" section. That should show you all the posts and plans for building the dehydrator.

[tanamico]

Ahh, thanks. Good to know. Video really helps understand how to put it together. Great job, you two!

[tanamico]

What kind of screen are you using? I understand regular window screen should not be touching food.. right?

[raintogreen]

@tanamico We picked the sturdiest metal screen we could find, I am not sure what it was called. As far as the touching food, I haven't heard that it shouldn't. But I use either parchment or wax paper to place the food directly on. The screens are a bitch to clean and the parchment made life so much easier.

[zutroidyo]

very nicely done :)



[boubabibou13]

good job

good vid

[lslavychecker]

Veliko vseh vrst sadja,zacimb,cajev,banabe in gobic lahko posusimo v tej susilnici.......

[davenchristyfran]

You could install some hinges and hydraulic arms on the plexi glass cover to make it raise very easily.

[777LMA]

Wonderful! Hope my son will make this for me!!!

[jolicoq]

Great work, was wondering if i could use one like this for drying mangos? do u actually "extract" the seed inside the fruit before putting it inside the dehydrator?

thanks for ur time and sweet vid !

[raintogreen]

@jolicoq I imagine you could dehydrate any fruit. For fruit with a large seed in it like mangoes, peaches, or cherries we usually take the seed out and slice the fruit thin. In the cherries case just in half works fine. As for small seeded fruit like strawberries, and raspberries I found making fruit leather worked best.

[ratedEG]

beautiful raised beds

[gymsim]

Very nice dehydrator box. How has it worked so far and have you considered (or needed) a fan to evacuate moisture from the chamber?

[raintogreen]

Thanks. Because of the angle and two air vents one top one bottom air moves through there perfectly! I think if you put a fan inside it would move the air too much and the box wouldn't heat up properly. We have since dried peaches which are mostly water and they dried great.

[SassafrasHomestead]

I tried to dehydrate strawberries on the screen in the electric dehydrator. It also stuck. Haven't tried the wax paper yet.