Is my dehydrator broken?

Vegan Goddess

I read somewhere that you can "warm up" foods by putting it in the dehydrator for a half hour.

Well, I just got my dehydrator off Ebay and it's been working great. Then, today I put a clay plate full of dehydrated raw chili and some raw cornbread I made yesterday for about 40 minutes. It came out COLD!

I checked and sure enough, the temperature read 115 degrees. Did I do something wrong or did I burn my dehydrator out?

Feeling worried about my D : (

Fee

Had the food you had put in come out the fridge or somewhere quite cold? I have found that if I want to warm something whih has been in the fridge it takes quite a while to get warm. Did the plate get warm at all? I tend to use a fairly thin shallow bowl which warms quite nicely. Stirring the food regularly might help too. Im sure you havent broken the dehydrator. ALso what type is it? Ive found my new one (Edwin (its and excalibur)) is much better at warming things than my previous one (which didnt even have a name) was.

Hope this is of some help

Fee

Vegan Goddess

Thank you so much for your thoughts. Actually, yes the food had been in the refrigerator. I hope that it isn't broken. To be quite honest, though, I think it is broken because when I put it at the highest temperature (140 degrees) it still feels like there is cool air, not warm, inside. Isn't it supposed to be warm?

Vegan Goddess

oh and the plate was not warm at all. it was a steel bowl.

freepam

It sounds like the heating element went on the blink. You can replace them yourself, I think. I had one a long time ago. Go to the excalibur site and ask there.

Vegan Goddess

I checked the website and they have a bunch of replacement parts. I'm not sure which one is the heating element, but I'm going to have an appointment by phone with an Excalibur tech guy next week so maybe he can explain what to do.

Thanks so much for the suggestion!