Specialty Appliance Reviews

I bought these trays for my nesco Snackmaster FD-60. Even though it says these fit the FD-50, they fit mine as well. My dehydrator is the one with the motor on top. These trays are the exact same ones that came with my machine. Buy 2 to get the free shipping!

I had four trays and bought four more. 4 is a no brainer because of the free shipping. Now I have 8 trays and can make 5-6 pounds of deer burger into jerky at one time! Get the jerky kit with the caulk gun thing. It is great! Ground burger ends up as jerky quickly and easily.

Even for the not-so-serious dehydrator users (like me) the 4 trays the FD-50 comes with are not enough. The extra trays allow me to dry a whole batch of food at one time instead of stringing the operation out over several days. These trays are identical to the trays that come with the FD-50 dehydrator in every way (size, color, quality, etc).

I have an American Harvest dehydrator that is 15 years old. Some of the best money I've ever spent! After this amount of time, I just can't see buying a new one. Mine works great! Do yourself a favor and make the investment. You really won't regret it.

Our first batch of jerky took 3 hours. We cut the strips a bit thicker the next time and it took a few minutes more. This thing cranks. Sturdy and full featured.
A little noisey, but not bad. The only downside is the heating element/fan should be on top. Less mess. I expect that with this powerful of a unit, that would be to much heat not rising efficiently.
Make sure everything is cut evenly.

I have owned this dehydrator for about 15 years now without a single problem - and I use mine a lot! I make camping food, jerky, fruit leather, raisins (out of grapes), dried bananas, dried herbs and spices, and many other treats. Buy whatever is on sale at the time and dry it for storage. My kids like the dried bananas and fruit leather more than candy. I have used other dehydrators that only have the heating element (not the heating element AND fan like the FD-1010) and have never been even close to satisfied compared to the 1010 because drying time is so much longer on units without a fan. By brother has a unit without a fan and it is so much time and work to dry food that he decided to just not use it after a couple times. (He borrows mine now to make his jerky.) Also, with other units that don't have the design of the FD-1010 one tray of fruit leather blocks hot air from reaching all the other trays (because the trays must be lined to keep the puree from flowing through). With this unit I have done as many as 18 trays of leather and had no problems. I would highly recommend this to anyone who likes to make homemade treats of any kind!

I have one of these and I love it. If you like crepes, this one makes them perfectly with no cooking skills required. It is pretty much impossible to mess up, because it turns on when you dip it in batter and off when the crepe is ready. All you have to do is watch for the red light - then you let the crepe slide off onto a plate and dip a new one...

This gadget is amazing because it is so easy to make great tasting crepes! They turn out thin and cook up quickly. You can make a whole bunch of crepes in just minutes! And the crepe maker is easy to wipe clean. What an amazing gadget! This is an inexpensive but wonderful gift for almost anyone for almost any occasion.

I bought my first Maxim Crepe maker in 1988- I am still using it. I have made literally 1000's of perfect crepes. Maxim's crepe maker makes perfect, professional looking and tasting crepes in seconds. The recipe book included gives lots of ideas for creative and SUCCESSFUL crepes. It is a perfect addition to any kitchen. I have used it to make breakfast, brunch, dinner and dessert dishes. It is one of the most convenient and versatile kitchen appliances I own. I love it. I am now buying a second one for my catering business.

This is a pack of two screens that are supposed to be identical to the one that came with the dehydrator.

It seemed to me they were a little bit heavier weight than the orginal but thats a good thing.

The main reason I got them was for easier cleanup. I like to dehydrate jerky made from a jerky gun. When I would squirt the jerky straight onto the trays it would tend to swell into the grills of the tray. This made it harder to remove and made cleanup a real mess. So I ended up squriting onto wax paper and moving them to the trays.

With these screens in place I can squirt right onto the screen/tray and it doesn't stick hard or create a mess. What little mess it creates is much easier to cleanup since it is on the surface and not in between the grids. For cleanup I leave the screen on the tray and use a nylong scrub brush. Works better than sponge or pad.

Of course you can also use these to dry smaller items that might fall through. But thats not my big concern right now. I'm happy to have less mess.

The only drawback I see is that they are overpriced. [money amount]for [money amount] worth of plastic. Also to make sure you cover all of your trays you have to buy 2 packs.

This was a great addition to the dehydrator! I have been making jerky and using these the marinade doesn't mess up the dehydrator as much. Clean up is much easier and I don't have to worry about the smaller pieces of meat. It is also nice to just throw into the dishwasher to clean. Worth getting extra to use for all applications of the dehydrator!

No directions for use, and of course, you can purchase a book for recipes.

Got the FD35 for Christmas last year and am very happy with it. It consistantly dries things in about half of the time listed in "The Dehydrator Cookbook". Clean up is great; usually I just wipe the trays off, but when they need it everything except the heater/fan unit itself goes in the dishwasher.

My recommendations:
- Get the FD35, put it a few rooms away from the main living area as it is a little bit noisy.
- Get extra trays from Nesco's web site. The trays Amazon carries (at this time) are for the FD50 and _DO NOT_ work on the 35.
- Get the fruit leather trays and the clean screens
- Skip the cook books. Ive found online info and recipes much more useful than what is in the cookbooks.
- Experiment. Ive found that tiny marshmellows are great, but Ive never seen it in the cookbooks or online stuff.

I do have one problem that will not be an issue for most people.
The unit generates a lot of electomagnetic interference which causes a problem for my remote control extender. The remote control extender is a pyrimid-shaped device that allows me to use a remote in one room to control a device in another room. The dehydrator causes so much interference that it essentially "jams" the extender making it unusable. Ive moved the dehydrator several rooms away without any improvement. Now I dont get to watch satellite from the bedroom when the dehydrator is running....Oh Well.

I needed an easier way to make beef jerky, got this due to the fact that it has the heater/fan on top and is cheap. It works great, DOES NOT have variable temps. but cooks jerky perfectly. GREAT VALUE and I HIGHLY suggest. One more thing, if you want to make jerky from ground meat dont even waste the 15$ for a jerky gun, I just use meat, season it, and press between wax paper and cut it

I was partially convinced to buy this unit on the basis of its multiple five-star reviews. After using it a few times, it's pretty clear to me that while an egg cooker is a five star appliance, this is far from a five star egg cooker. It suffers from a number of fairly serious design flaws, one of which thankfully promises to render it useless in a few months.
To begin with, it doesn't have an on/off switch- you turn it on by plugging it in, and turn it off by unplugging it. As long as it's plugged in, the heating element is on. This is awkward, irritating, and potentially dangerous. Its construction is primarily plastic. The instructions say that it should be washed by hand or on the top shelf of the dishwasher. This is because this type of construction is strongly prone to warping. If I liked the unit, this would be a drawback. Fortunately, I don't, and sooner or later this will give me the excuse I need to buy a superior machine. I purchased the machine specifically for making "poached" (actually steamed) eggs, and the heavy plastic of the poaching tray guarantees uneven cooking- if you let the eggs cook until the whites set, the yolks are hard all the way through. If you wait until only the top half of the yolk is cooked, there is still a reservoir of runny white at the bottom. Phooey! When you're shopping for an egg cooker, make sure the poaching tray is thin metal with a non-stick coating. That's what I'm gonna do next time... The method used for measuring cooking time is highly inaccurate, and requires a great deal of experimentation. When I first used the gadget, I had to add additional water three times, and finally ate the eggs in a disgusting semi-liquid state out of impatience. And finally, the chirping noise that is emitted when the eggs are supposedly done is really irritating.
(...) Stay away!

I absolutely love her. She is the best egg cooker in the house. Please do not let the few negative reviews deter you from buying her. I hate to make poached eggs but with henrietta its a whiz. If you use her right and treat her right she will last forever. I have had mine for almost 10 years and she has never failed me. We use her at least once a week.

I just don't know why this cooker has only a three and one half star rating. We use it all the time. It was given to us as a gift and everyone who visits wants one. I have sent many as gifts and now find that it is OUT OF STOCK. How can that be? Is it because people think it is a GADGET? NOT SO! It is a very usable, healthy, and useful item.

PLEASE locate more! We need them for gifts.

The item that I purchased was so poorly packaged that it arrived with several pieces missing. I requested a refund, but have not heard back from the seller for several days. The item is unusable, and now I have a lengthy process to try to recoup my losses. I will never buy an item this way again.

This is the first grinder I have ever bought. I wanted it to grind up chicken backs so I could make my own dog food. I feed BARF. It works well for that. Just don't over load it & listen to the motor, so it doesn't get over worked. I use the larger diameter holes, which makes grinding easier and it goes faster. You do have to cut up the backs into smaller pieces before putting them in the grinder. I use the sauage maker which comes with it to put the dog food in sauage links. If I make more then 8lb of links with the larger hole grinder at a time I have to remember to clean out the sauage maker, before the 2nd batch or the larger bones will get stuck in the sauage maker.

I bought this grinder many years ago when it was made by Villaware. I make cat food for my numerous cats (I'm a breeder) and it has held up to grinding hundreds of pounds of chicken or rabbit meat with bone. I recommend this grinder to anyone thinking of making their own cat or dog food...