FD‑80A Square Food Dehydrator for Snacks, Fruit, Beef Jerky, 4‑Tray White Electric Dehydrator with Even Heat Drying

I love this dehydrated so much this is my second one plus I’ve gotten them for my adult kids. I have a big commercial dehydrator but this is my go to. The size is very convenient, fits nicely on the counter. I use it to dehydrate vegetables and fresh herbs that I am not using fresh. No waste and I can still have that fresh flavor.

I selected this item due to solid reviews, and the fact that high-end models tend to have square trays, rather than round. Reviewers observe that the square trays hold more food. I first dried a batch of parsley, rosemary, sage and chives. The herbs dried to my satisfaction in about 26 hours, about two hours longer than specified in the manual. I next dried a batch of spiced apples and pears, dried to my satisfaction in the ten hours called for in the recipe, to a pliable texture. The motor is quiet, and the trays cleaned nicely, with no transfer of flavor from batch to batch. Bear in mind, you may need to purchase accessories to use this product as you intend. It comes with four trays, and one screen (that rests on top of a tray) to hold small items that might fall through the trays, such as herbs. If you wish to dry small herbs (like thyme and chives), you should have one screen per tray. Screens sell for about $8 for two and are reusable. You can add four trays maximum, as this unit will hold eight trays total. If you want to make fruit roll-ups, you will need reusable fruit roll-up accessories. I've already purchased extra screens for herbs, and may purchase two additional trays. Bear in mind that drying is time-consuming, so extra trays will be efficient, so long as you are drying a big batch of items that can be dried at the same temperature. In terms of capacity, with four trays, I dried six apples and two pears that were widely spaced. That produced two pint jars and one half pint jar of dried fruit. Hint for apples--don't core them. Just slice them (preferably with a mandoline) without coring them, but knock out the seeds. The center of your apples will have a star shape. Slice the pears lengthwise--they will be a beautiful, recognizable pear shape. No need to peel the skin from either. This is an affordable, quality product.

This makes great jerky! I use it at least once a week. The jerky always gets eaten way too fast. I just use a meat seasoning (a "Monterey" -type garlicky, pepper, salt and other spices) shake-on style mix that I put into a plastic bag. I throw the meat strips in, season them for as long as I can (in refrigerator) then spread them out on here and six hours later, voilà! Hubby loves the stuff. It's so much healthier than chips. More filling. I also dry fruits (too calorific for most people . . . they end up great, but almost as bad as candy since they're so sweet and you tend to eat more of them.) Also, I've dried veggies for chips (most get too thin and too brittle), and spices (these work pretty well). There's no mystery to drying stuff with this. And there's no reason to buy the more expensive models. It is relatively low cost; it works well, and the meat dries quickly and is not in contact with the plastic for very long. Plus, temps only go up to 160 degrees. I am not worried by the plastic. (All meat is wrapped in styro and plastic, anyway. There is even a plastic coating inside most butcher paper! How are you ever going to avoid it anyway?)

I bought this back in 2013 and am still using it in 2025. It's not an everyday sort of thing, but I've been using it on and off since I bought it. It works well, and has made jerkey, fruit leather and dried fruit pretty consistently. Noise level is low, just sounds like a fan in the background. It's easy to use, just lay down the trays, pick a heat setting and plug it in. My only issue is how hard it is to clean. If you make jerkey or anything that is messy, it can get stuck on the grates and it takes forever to scrub off. Sometimes I'd not use it for a while because it was such a pain to clean. But that's my only issue, really. Overall very happy with my purchase.

This thing is a "Dehydrating MACHINE!" You're saying, "Of course it's a machine...it's made of plastic, has a heating element and an electro-mechanical fan. It definitely fits the definition of machine." I'm saying, "It is a Dehydrating MACHINE!!!" I mean the Terminator of dehydration. I've had it for just over a week and have been using it daily. I started with strawberries. Other than slicing them too thin (about an 1/8") and them turning into paper after just about eight hours of drying, they turned out awesome. On to some beef jerky. I bought 4.5 lbs of top round and sliced it to about an 1/8" to a 1/4" thick. I marinated it and started it at about 6:00 pm the following night...just about 24 hours of marinating. I monitored it every hour or so and stopped it after four hours. Mind you I had six of the trays full of marinated beef. The jerky was thoroughly dried, almost too much actually. I took some to work the following day and it was consumed in no time flat. I had some leftover meet from the 4.5 lbs and threw it in the dehydrator the following night (now 48 hours of marinating). I only had one tray of meat, so I dehydrated it for one hour and forty five minutes. It was perfect! It was definitely dried, but still tender. Way better than anything I've ever bought in the store. The following day I tried bananas. They didn't go so well for the simple reason I sliced them too thick. 1/2" is way too thick for anything, but I didn't want them to turn into paper like the strawberries.They have a lot of water in them and while the outside was dehydrated, the inside was still raw. So I put them back in...for a total of 36 hours...they turned into rocks, so I threw them all out. Next time, I will slice them about an 1/8" to 1/4" and see how it goes. I currently have some more bananas and some kiwi ripening so we'll see how they go. There is no reason to pay $400 for an Excalibur. Buy two of these things and you are totally set. No rotating of the trays and cleanup is way easier than I thought it would be...just buy a nylon bristle brush and sponge with the soft side and a scouring side. Even after the meat, no soaking was needed, just a quick once over with the sponge and then the bristle brush to get the nooks and crannies. The only caveat to this model is that the trays will not fit in a standard sink. They are quite large and end up hanging over the edge by quite a bit. Therefore, if you do happen to get yourself into a messy situation that requires soaking, you will be using your bathtub. Other than that, this thing is awesome! I failed to mention the concerns over power usage are unfounded. I measured the units usage with my Kill-A-Watt P3 over three days of heavy usage (approximately 32 hours total) and it said that if I used the machine at that rate for an entire year it would cost me $13.91 at 11.4 cents per kwh...pennies for the amount of money being saved by making my own jerky.

I live in a Tiny (540 sq ft) House in farming community in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Winters can seriously hamper and/or disrupt transportation. Electricity can be off for a day or two. My son and his wife said dehydrated food takes up less space than canned or frozen food. It was their suggestion I look at dehydrators, most specifically the NESCO FD-75A Snackmaster Pro since it is not only a workhorse but comes with fruit sheets and extra screens. In fact, some of their trays are from my husband's and my NESCO dehydrator from the 1990's! Thought the screens are yellow (due to age) they're still going strong. After reading reviews I decided to purchase the NESCO FD-80A Square Shaped Food Dehydrator due to its square shape. Utilizing every bit of space is essential in a Tiny House. Though my house is on the large side for a Tiny House, space is still at a premium. When not in use my NESCO FD-80A Square Shaped Food Dehydrator sit atop my refrigerator. with other small appliances. When in use it is on the counter or kitchen table. This little dynamo worked great right out of the box! I've dehydrated apple slices from a local orchard. Tomatoes are next, as well as fruit leather made from local plums. I seriously recommend the NESCO FD-80A Square Shaped Food Dehydrator to anyone who wants an economical money and space saving impressive and effective food dehydrator.

This is a great priced item. Ive been using it continuously since I got it. I did not want to start out with a more expensive dehydrator if I didnt know I was going to use it enough. Who knows maybe it wont even be my starter dehydrator....I may not upgrade if this works for all my needs!!! I definetly had to buy more trays because I couldnt dry enough in one sitting, I have not received the extra trays to see how well it will hold 6 trays versus the 4 that it comes with. Ive currently made fruit rolls, dehydrated apples, strawberries and chicken jerky made by the strips. All came out wonderful. I will be making chicken jerky (with jerky gun) for my shepherd who is very picky when it comes to snacks. Im happy to be able to give her a snack that I know wont be recalled next time I go to the local big box pet store.......which has happened several times!!! Im currently making a batch of chicken jerky using my jerky gun and ground jerky......really looking forward to tasting this!!! We hike, camp and I cycle for miles at a time so having these items on the shelf will be very benificial to both my pocket book and not having to eat all the extra preservatives. UPDATE 4-24-13 I purchased the extra trays (2) and found that it does increase the drying time by what I found to be 1-2 hours. This is not a deal breaker for me but I was a bit disappointed and needed to schedule my going into the dehydrator time accordingly. My trays are a bit discolored from drying a batch of carrots which again is not a deal breaker but for some I know that it would really bother them. I have dehydrated about 8lbs of meat and quit a few apples and strawberries so far and they all have turned out great. I do switch the trays around and have labeled them 1-6 so I know what trays have been switched and to where. I really feel this aids with the drying as the top two trays get the most heat. All in all I'm still happy with my purchase .

Awesome dehydrator. Works great.

Pros: I've only used it for a short while but so far it works as expected and is satisfactory for my needs. I love the knob feature for selecting the temperature, much quicker and easier than digital. Cons: The plastic screens in the trays are thin and look delicate, so I clean them very gently, for fear they'll break. It would have been great if the unit had an on/off button so we didn't have to unplug the unit every time we want to check the trays, but it's not a deal breaker for me. I'd recommend this unit for small quantity dehydrating.

Horrible product. The first one dis not work and after replacement the second one worked for 30 secs before the fuse went off and there was smoke coming out.

We got end of march an ordered dehydrator brand Nesco Model FD-80. Unfortunally the transformer which has been sent was to week. It had only 250 W instead the needed 700W. This transformer would have been burned immediately. We have send it back to the adress Amazon gave us. Color Paper in Maharashtra . Three times now...after explaining in detail what we need, they seem not to understand and have sent us twice a stabilizer. Once it was already broken when it arrived. The screws were not fixed and all was a mess. Several telephoneconversations and whattsupps have been exchanged. We explained in detail what is needed to run an american product here in India where we are having 220V, the american machine runs on 110. So a transformer is needed, not a converter. It was my birthdaypresent and I am in the meanwhile totally embarassed. I really looked foreward to use my dehydrator and now it is more than 2 month standing unused in my kitchen. Please, help us and get back to us. Thank you Agnes and Bernd Theilmann

The plastic racks are a bit fragile. It wouldn't take much force to break the grate away from the frame but with a little care should be fine. We bought the silicone screens to go with it so nothing falls through and very easy to clean. I like that it is expandable to eight layers. A great unit for those new to dehydrating that won't break the bank and can grow with you as you learn and do more.

The appliance burned after 1 minute of working. Black smoke coming out of the upper panel