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I prefer the stainless steel trays because they are less likely to warp over time, but I've never tried to dehydrate cantelope. Have you had much success yet?
Last year I had an abundance of canteloupe, and wanted to try dehydrating.
The information that I found suggested thin slices, about 1/4 inch in thickness. I sliced all of my canteloupe and bathed the slices in a salt water solution(about 1/2 tbsp to 64oz. water), slipped the slices in for a short soak time. Spread the slices onto my drying trays, which were covered with paper towels ( instead of cheesecloth). The dehydrating took about 36 hrs. The slices, as expected are a bit chewy, but tasty.
This is a homemade dehydrator that uses incancdescent bulbs(4 -150 watt) with 5 trays (wooden frames with fiberglass screen lining). The temperature is controlled by using a light dimmer to control the amount of heat(have considered adding a fan but the convection of this unit seems to work well)
The dehydrator works well for everything I have tried to dehydrate, but I wouldn't use paper towels again - they stick to the food and are difficult to remove. I plan to try waxed paper and/or aluminum foil in the future.