How to Make a Solar Food Dehydrater From Beer Cans

How to Make a Solar Food Dehydrater From Beer Cans
This is how I constructed my Solar Food Dehydrater out of soda and beer cans, scrap and recycled wood, using a solar furnace design.



http://www.container-gardening-for-food.com




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[TheKorman4]

Greetings from southeast Texas, USA

I really enjoyed watching this video. I make a lot of deer & beef jerky. My dehydrator is small for the amount of jerky i make, so i'm constantly having to refill the trays and start over again with the next batch. I was wondering if you have ever made any jerky with yours and how long it takes to do it? I would love to make one like yours, if it is worth it.

[rickvanman]

@TheKorman4 Afraid I've never made jerkey in it yet. In the UK, since making this video I haven't had more than about 2 clear days of sunshine at any one time whilst I've been dehydrating stuff, so it's difficult to offer an accurate assessment, however if you live in constant sunshine, I reckon this design might work-out OK for jerkey - if not it'll certainly be good for most other things.

[goonluv]

Great vid and nice job you made there

[rickvanman]

@goonluv thanks :o)

[aussiegirlonamission]

Greetings from Western Australia. Great vid thanks heaps. Could you use a piece of black perspex instead of painting the cans?

[rickvanman]

@aussiegirlonamission I don't know - give it a try and see :ol)

[MrRiszla]

I would recommend a serious look at the cabinet type food dryer because its not as cheap to build in time and effort as you may think.

[MrRiszla]

I did a few calculations and overall I think the whole thing is overengineered. My beer can heating surface is about 1m2 which pumps about 0.8kWh of solar energy into the tray rack when angled correctly. However this is about the same as the cabinet type drier design, plus with the cabinet tray design you don't get any of the black paint volatiles contaminating your food and giving you cancer.

[MrRiszla]

I followed ricks plans, but it was a lot of work. I found with the beer cans getting a tin opener was good enough on top, and then use a serrated knife and pliers to open up the bottom. The drill press and core bit was too messy and slow, and it takes only seconds with a can opener.

Another good idea to keep costs down is to use cutout clear 2L plastic bottles over the cans, instead of DIY store bought plastic.

[turuanu]

Great video, but I just don't get spray paint. It's apparent in the video that you waste a ton of it in the wind

[HypatiaHyperion]

@aussiegirlonamission other plans I've seen show just painting the inside of a large cardboard box black and putting clear perspex on the front. Not sure how black perspex would work but as Rickvanman says why not give it a go!

With the amount of sun we get here in Western Australia methinks you wont need the cans for the extra heat they're supposed to create.

[ipodfreak752]

this is what happens when en engineer gets bored... trust me my dad does stuff like this all the time

[CrowsNest2012]

Fantastic video. Very clear instructions, expandable capacity. All in all the best I've seen.

[ShotgunAndAShovel]

This is the one I am building this year. I got everything for free! Even the glass. Gotta love recycling!!! I am so excited. We have a huuuuge garden and it will really help me put away so much food for us and the livestock. I want to build more than one so I can dry tons all at once.